Mezzanine Gallery

The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery is pleased to present Shifting Grounds, a solo exhibition of new ceramic work by Teddy Osei, on view August 7 through September 4, 2026. An opening reception will be held Friday, August 7, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the Mezzanine Gallery, located in the Carvel State Office Building at 820 N. French Street, Wilmington. Admission is free and open to the public.

For Shifting Grounds, Osei presents a group of ceramic vessels and sculptures that grew out of thinking about the quiet ways we change when we move between places and cultures. The work sits in the unsettled space between one version of home and another that is still forming. Osei begins with clay because it holds memory in a physical way, keeping the record of every touch while staying open to being reworked. He moves between the potter’s wheel and hand-building with slabs and coils, letting each form take on its own irregularities, then brings in rope, found objects, and old photographs that already carry their own histories. The materials do not sit together comfortably, and that friction is part of the point.

“Each vessel carries a dual pulse, rooted in my own story yet open to viewers,” Osei said, in the hope that they recognize their own journey in the work.

Osei traces his bond with clay to childhood, when he and his friends gathered it from the banks of the Odorna River in Accra, Ghana, to make toys and household objects. The markets of his early years still shape the work. He points to “the colors, thick scented spices, dust, and the humming voices of negotiation” as the rhythms that guide what he puts into a piece and what he leaves open.

Shifting Grounds marks a new chapter for Osei, a 2026 Delaware Division of the Arts Established Individual Artist Fellow. With support from the fellowship, he has been harvesting clay and found objects from the Delaware River, working the material of his adopted home into the pieces on view. “The fellowship feels like a warm welcome from Delaware,” Osei said, “a validating signal that I am exactly where I need to be.”

Teddy Osei is a Ghanaian-born ceramic artist and educator whose work explores identity, memory, and belonging across cultures. He studied ceramics at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, before coming to the United States in 2019. He earned a master’s degree in ceramics from Eastern Illinois University in 2020 and a Master of Fine Arts in visual studies from Missouri State University in 2023. A resident of New Castle, Osei serves as Assistant Professor of Ceramics and 3D Design at Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania. He was named a 2024 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Emerging Artist, and over the past decade he has presented six solo exhibitions and taken part in more than 30 group exhibitions. Learn more at teddyosei.com.

Couldn’t attend the gallery or just want to relive the experience? Check out our photo albums of each event on our Flickr account.