Key West pottery duo reunites for Coastline exhibit at JAG Gallery

Adam Russell and Kelly Lever brought Coastline back to JAG Gallery with about 15 works that translate Key West’s shoreline into a shared visual language at 1075 Duval Street. The husband-and-wife team behind Key West Pottery opened the exhibit April 8, with a free reception at the Duval Square gallery from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

The show runs through April 26 and centers on a landscape Monroe County residents know well: the meeting of land and sea, where coastlines shape daily life as much as the view. In Coastline, Russell and Lever continue that theme through pieces that explore coastal landscapes, natural elements and expressive detail, with imagery that moves through flora, fauna, depths, heights, expression and detail.

What makes the exhibit stand out is the way the couple works. Key West Pottery began in 2009 as a joint endeavor, and the studio describes its practice as a blend of traditional production pottery and fine art studio work tied to an authentic expression of modern coastal life. Their art is made side by side, so each artist’s style can collide and overlap in the finished work while still remaining distinct.

That shared process gives Coastline a familiar Key West feel. Russell and Lever have spent years building a local brand rooted in the island, and the work on view reflects the same mix of vessels, sculpture and decor that has defined their pottery practice. The chamber of commerce says the married couple travels the world together in search of inspiration, then folds those observations back into work that is still firmly grounded in the Keys.

JAG Gallery’s setting adds to that local connection. The gallery sits in Duval Square, with ample free parking via the Simonton Street entrance, and its events are free and open to all. For a city where art, tourism and neighborhood identity overlap so tightly, Coastline reads less like a detached gallery event than a portrait of two Key West artists returning to the landscape that made their work recognizable in the first place.