Sid Henderson is a ceramic artist and educator whose work takes old forms and gives them a new twist. He borrows the shapes of ancient Greek vessels and the painted decoration of Renaissance Italian majolica—periods when nudity and sexuality were shown openly. His aim is to bring homosexuality back into that visual history, which he says Christianity later erased. By using these established traditions, he gives his own imagery a kind of historical weight.
But his pieces aren’t just about the past. They’re meant to last, and he hopes future generations might see them as artifacts of our time. While his work comes from his experience as a gay man, he doesn’t let that identity define everything he does. Instead, he wants American viewers to think about why they’re comfortable with destruction (destrudo) but uncomfortable with desire (libido).
Henderson grew up gay and Catholic in Northern California. He studied at UC Davis, focusing on figurative ceramics and printmaking. The 2010s recession made things tough early on, but his figurative skills landed him two public bronze sculpture commissions. A casual chat about his tattoos got him back into clay, and he ended up teaching ceramics and running a studio. Mixing glazes and firing gas kilns gave him a deeper understanding of ceramic chemistry.
The real turning point came during the pandemic. With fewer distractions, he started making functional pottery that parodied Greek vases and slipped in gay humor. The series took off—galleries in the US and UK picked him up, and he got into Georgia State University’s MFA program in ceramics.
Right now, Henderson is working on his MFA. In summer 2026, he was accepted to two residencies to prepare for his 2027 thesis show. His work also made it into the Red Lodge Juried National VIII and the 2026 NCECA National Student Exhibition, where he took second place.
His pottery asks people to look at old art with fresh eyes, and to question their own hang-ups about sex and bodies. It’s a conversation that spans centuries, made tangible in clay.
