Allyssa Dezaldivar, AKA Harbour Shelter, is an American artist of Filipino and Indigenous descent. Her practice revolves around ceramics, sculpture, performance, and research. Exploring themes of impermanence, language, and improvisation, she invites viewers into a world that is curious about routine, repetition, womanhood, duality, intimacy, and tradition. She is interested in the capacity of language and utilizes her practice as a tool to reveal a deeper understanding of herself, her lineage, and her community. Through this introspection, she produces functional wares and sculptures that seek to provide participants with everlasting moments of pleasure and reflection.
Allyssa earned her BFA in Studio Art Ceramics and Art History from the University of Arkansas’ School of Art in 2024 and has been teaching ceramics for six years. She is currently an Educator at BKLYN Clay and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY. She has exhibited in galleries, shows, and markets nationally.
Inquiries: dezaldivaral@gmail.com
Exhibitions
2025 Spring Fever, Hill Avenue, Fayetteville, AR
2024 Art Work: Artist Working at The Met, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
2024 Lush: A Group Exhibition, Midnight Gallery, Bentonville, AR
2024 Whims: A Solo Ceramic Exhibition, pH Gallery, West Fork, AR
2024 Ode: BFA Capstone Exhibition, Studio and Design Center, Fayetteville, AR
2024 Departure, Hill Avenue, Fayetteville, AR
2023 Valued: An Assembly Biennial hosted by Interform Atelier, Perridon Supply
2023 Art Lodge: Ammplify Festival, Mount Sequoyah, Fayetteville, AR
2023 Exposed: Lamp Show 2.0, 21C Museum Hotel, Bentonville, AR
2023 Decaying Vessels: A Solo Ceramics Show, pH Gallery, West Fork, AR
2023 One Foot in Front of The Other: UARK NCECA Exhibition, Cincinnati, OH
2022 Advanced Ceramic Exhibition, School of Art and Design Center, AR
2022 Rock-A-Thon: Local Artists Market, The Colored Door, Conway, AR
2022 Spoiled: Advanced Ceramics Exhibition, The Creamery, Rogers, AR
2021 Recollective Collective: A Studio Exhibition, Fayetteville, AR
2021 Ceramic Studio Exhibition, School of Art and Design Center, Fayetteville, AR
2021 Holcomb House: Music in the Trees, Holcomb House, Springdale, AR
2021 Quicktown Night Market, Crimson and Clover Grounds, Fayetteville, AR
2020 Weekend at Bernie’s, Oakland House, Fayetteville, AR
2019 Printmaking Exhibition, NWACC, Bentonville, AR
2019 Ceramic Studio Exhibition, NWACC, Bentonville, AR
Lectures and Demos
2024 Studio Demo: Ceramics with Allyssa DeZaldivar, Crystal Bridges Museum
2023 Decaying Vessels: Artist Talk, pH Gallery, West Fork, AR
2021 Through the Lens: A Panel of Women Photographers Panelist, NWACC
Awards and Honors
2024 Windgate Accelerator Grant Alternate Runner-Up, UofA, Fayetteville
2024 High Distinction and Dean’s List, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
2023 AMMPLIFY NWA Mentee, Mount Sequoyah Center, Fayetteville, AR
2023 Chancellor’s List, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
2023 UG Student Support Art Scholarship, School of Art, Fayetteville, AR
2023 Nina J. Erickson Memorial Art Scholarship, Fayetteville, AR
2023 Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, UofA, Rome, Italy
2022 Studio Art in Rome Scholarship, UofA School of Art, Fayetteville, AR
2022 Dean’s List, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
"I produce one-of-a-kind artworks that I hope can provide moments of intimacy and reflection throughout the day for the participant. This moment of a forced and intended pause can reveal itself through a carefully crafted handle, transforming a simple cup into a relic of warmth on cold mornings. Or perhaps this lull shows itself in the twisting, dripping visual texture of my activated candelabras, inviting you to turn on its wick. I find satisfaction in ensuring each step of the birthing process of a piece receives equal consideration while still allowing myself to be impulsive and follow whims; sometimes the hands can be smarter than the brain. I find joy in the repetitive processes of throwing on the wheel while also relishing in the frantic dance of spinning, splicing, staining, stretching, and transforming my materials. There is a choreography to the inevitable labor that takes place with ceramics and performance. It’s an endless exploration of separating in order to reconnect. For instance, I enjoy that clay is soft and malleable and transformative through my touch in the beginning but always dries out, hardens, and changes into an immortal rock after enduring thousands of degrees of heat. It’s this predictable yet deceitful nature of clay, metal, and textiles that keeps me suspended in a cycle of learning, growing, and sharing. Over the past eight years of truly diving deeper into my studio and educational practices, I have formed an intimate understanding of how these materials behave and respond to touch…and how that mirrors everything back into me. By limiting myself to the bounds and cycles of my materials, I feel that I have opened a world of play. I utilize play and experimentation to explore my own boundaries and trust while research and teaching helps me feel connected to the greater history of my chosen mediums. Rather than staying in the past though, I aim to stretch the past forward in order to meet us in the present. I want a wit(h)ness."
FIND SHELTER𓉔 WHERE YOU FIND YOUR PEACE.