Meet Cape Cod Ceramist Rachel Mulcahy
Artist Rachel Mulcahy with her distinctive ceramic tiles. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Rachel Mulcahy is a clay-based artist who utilizes the artform of tiles to create sensitive and complex homages to nature. Based on Cape Cod, Mulcahy earned her undergraduate degree Summa Cum Laude from Syracuse University and just completed her MFA in Ceramics at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Her contributions were a highlight of the recent UMass Dartmouth MFA show and, through June 28, 2025, Mulcahy’s work can be seen locally at the Bristol Art Museum in the exhibition Bull in the China Shop. An emerging talent in the region, Mulcahy is bringing her unique voice and laudable talents to the field of ceramics.
Mulcahy’s work is highly process oriented. She describes how the pieces come together by saying, “My process involves building up surfaces with stenciled layers, washes, and underglazes, to illustrate the lively density of the environments of wild plants. I begin with observing plants growing within my local landscape, particularly those often found along roadsides or thriving wild at the edges of human inhabitance. The next step in my process is documentation; Using my cellphone camera I will record these scenes, focusing on environments shared by a variety of species.”
Mulcahy then takes the image-making a step further and employs historical artforms to enhance her ceramics practice. She says, “I will also collect samples, such as Queen Anne's Lace—a non-native plant that grows abundantly in my area. From these samples, I create cyanotypes, a photographic process dating back to the mid-19th century. The process begins with paper coated in a photosensitive solution made from ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide. Cyanotypes serve as both a formal and conceptual influence in my work. I value the historical significance of the medium, as well as its ability to capture a high level of detail—including imperfections. This characteristic resonates with me, as I strive to emulate the authentic, unvarnished beauty of nature in my compositions. Scenes in nature often include leaves partially eaten by insects or branches broken by external forces—elements that are vital for me to notice, document, and highlight in my work.”
Mulcahy continues, “To achieve a layered and nuanced composition on the ceramic tiles, I apply these stencils in layers, building up the surface with a shift of colors to achieve the illusion of a foreground, middle ground, and background. I use watered-down underglazes sprayed atop the stencils using an airbrush machine; I appreciate the duality of the blurred line and the crisp line that this technique allows. This approach reflects the way I observed the natural environment, where certain elements stood in sharp focus and others blurred into the background, creating a rich, layered visual experience. In other pieces, I will similarly use two contrasting glazes sprayed through a stencil to create a melt of botanical imagery as seen in ‘Creeping’, my piece featured at BAM.”
Rachel Mulcahy’s ceramic tile installation Creeping is on view at Bristol Art Museum through June 28. Photo courtesy of the artist.
A thoughtful and astute technician, Mulcahy is carving out a niche for herself as an educator. She has taught wheel throwing at the New Bedford Art Museum and the Cape Cod Museum of Art as well as at UMass Dartmouth. She earned her Teaching Certificate in New York State.
Creating tiles using her technique has been an opportunity for Mulcahy to make artworks that are more expansive than those confined to the size of a wheel. In her recently completed MFA program at UMass Dartmouth, the artist had the opportunity to dive deep into a new way of making. Mulcahy says, “I began my MFA making pots thrown on the wheel, adding imagery onto the surface of plates using custom designed stencils and layering with different colored slips- I was using the plate as a canvas. Wheel throwing is where my love of pottery began and though I still enjoy the act of making pottery, I felt confined by the scale of the plate as a canvas. From here, I began making tiles that would be hung together on the wall to give myself more space to design and experiment with the translation of imagery onto a ceramic surface using stencils and carving into the clay to create larger and more dynamic pieces. My biggest takeaway from my experience doing my MFA was experimenting and pushing myself to make things on a larger scale.”
Rachel Mulcahy, Queen of the Weeds. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Bull in the China Shop, on view at Bristol Art Museum through June 28, 2025, is an ideal opportunity to experience Mulcahy’s work and to see it in context alongside her ceramist contemporaries. Exploring the remarkable and distinct qualities of Mulcahy’s artwork in this venue is a chance to see a talented artist in conversation with peers. It is also a venue in which to consider the future of ceramics, with Mulcahy as a key artist in the next generation of makers.
Asked about the show at BAM, Mulcahy is effusive. She says, “I was incredibly excited and honored when Mary Dondero asked me to put my work in her show at BAM. The show is a beautiful collection of artworks that celebrate ceramics in all mediums. She curated a diverse collection of ceramics, pottery, paintings, and multimedia sculptures, that together showcase the mediums beautifully. It is very inspiring as a recent graduate to see ceramics being celebrated and recognized as both a craft and a fine art. I hope to continue to show my work in galleries and museums who, like Mary and the team at BAM, value ceramics in the same way.”
Rachel Mulcahy, Bittersweet. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Although in the early stages of her career, Mulcachy will undoubtedly continue to see her work in a range of exciting venues in the coming years. Recent exhibitions have featured her at South County Art Association, the Griffin Museum of Photography, and the Fall River Arts and Culture Coalition, among others. From June 13 - July 12, Mulcahy will be featured in a compelling group show at Sculpture Space NYC. A gifted ceramist with a distinctive voice, Rachel Mulcahy has an exciting future in the making.
Follow Rachel’s practice on Instagram at @rachelmulcahy_studio.
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