Kristen Cliffel is a ceramic sculptor living and working in Cleveland, Ohio. Her studio practice is centered around themes of domesticity and emotional relationships. She graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1990 with a BFA in Ceramics. Her work is included in many public and private collections across the country.

She has been awarded a Creative Workforce Fellowship from the Cuyahoga Partnership for Arts and Culture, has received several Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowships, and has been a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant Nominee. In 2016, Kristen was awarded the Cleveland Arts Prize for mid-career artist in the visual arts.

Kristen teaches sculpture and ceramics with school-aged children in the northeastern Ohio area and also gives workshops at universities and colleges across the country. She continues to work in her studio in Cleveland and shows widely across the country.