Cups purchased can be picked up or shipped after the exhibition closes on December 8th, 2025.
Ceramic, wheel thrown with hand-painted underglaze and clear glaze
3 x 6.5 inches
2025
Diana Hoover (b. 1982, Fort Knox, KY) is a ceramic artist based in Asheville, NC working under the studio name Knook Ceramics. She holds a BA in Psychology and English from the University of Kansas (2005) and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Louisiana State University (2011). After working in cancer prevention research for 15 years, Hoover began her ceramics practice in 2019. In 2024, she completed The Independent Study and Mentoring Program, a 3-year advanced studies program in ceramics at the Village Potters Clay Center in Asheville. Hoover’s work has been featured in group exhibitions at museums and galleries such as the Center for Craft, Swan Coach House Gallery, and Artspace. She has also participated in juried craft shows such as the American Craft Council’s (ACC) American Craft Made Baltimore, The Big Crafty, and Porter Flea. Hoover is a 2025 Center for Craft WNC Craft Futures Cohort Recipient and part of the ACC’s Early Career Artists Program.
Hoover creates functional pieces that explore the intersection of contemporary craft with fine art and design, often incorporating sculptural elements such as exaggerated curves and oversized handles. Influenced by the Bauhaus, minimalist art, neo-concretism, geometric abstraction, and modern quilting, Hoover’s work is wheel-thrown and hand built with a creamy white clay body and an emphasis on surface decoration. Utilizing hard-edge painting, she uses masking tape and underglaze to paint meticulous, repeated patterns and bold graphic motifs on the surfaces of each piece, which then can drastically warp and distort on the 3-dimensional forms. In Hoover’s work, there is tension between striving for “perfection” with the awareness of the limits of control and the appreciation of imperfections such as visible brush strokes and glaze bleeding. These variations reveal that each piece is unique, handmade, and an organic collaboration between the artist and kiln.
