Kristina Batiste

Kristina Batiste is a Tacoma-based ceramic artist and potter who incorporates wheel thrown and hand built techniques in functional and sculptural projects.   

Kristina became an artist later in life; prior to ceramics she worked as a writer and editor, in graphic design, and higher education. The through line of her various roles has been the distillation of information and complex ideas into accessible, memorable forms. With clay, that distillation offers a contemplative pause both in the moment of making and the ever after of using.  

Kristina is one of the artists featured in “Black American Ceramic Artists” published by Schiffer in 2022, was the subject of a feature article in Ceramics Monthly, was the subject of a segment of Hulu’s “Your Attention Please” documentary series in 2021, and is a two time recipient of the Tacoma Artist Initiative Program grant.  

She was an invited guest artist at the Northern Clay Center’s 2023 American Pottery Festival in Minneapolis, is a juror/curator of Saltstone Ceramics 2024 Mug Invitational, and regularly participates in national clay exhibits and invitationals. She has been written about in the Seattle Times, the Strategist, and the Craft Industry Alliance, co-authored an article in Studio Potter, and is the co-founder of the Tacoma Pottery Salon.  

Age and experience inform her practice, and inspirations include modernist art and architecture, literature, and nature. Like most potters, she hopes her art will become a vehicle for elevating an everyday experience into a moment of shared artistic joy.