Articles

By Rita Mikučionytė I believe the acronym TARP, chosen by the organisers of last year’s ceramic art biennial, is a thoughtful and forward-looking decision. It reflects both the multi-layered nature of the event and the inevitable creative diversity brought by its forty-four participants. Naturally, I cannot fully address all twelve key concepts proposed by the ARKA Gallery and the Section...

By Nancy M. Servis “The point of art is not to make maps but to adventure.”Jim Ede, in Laura Freeman, Ways of Life: Jim Ede and the Kettle’s Yard Artists (London: Jonathan Cape, 2023), 240.Jim Ede The nature of collecting can be described as an impulsive urge, a planned strategy, or a cultural wayfinding. Whether by museums or individuals, collecting...

By Anne-Brit Soma Reienes and Per Ditlef Fredriksen Who or what is the source of creativity when working with clay? In this essay we reflect on the outcomes of a collaboration between a ceramic artist engaging in performative pedagogy and an archaeologist working with contemporary material knowledges. Seeking a common conceptual ground, we explore the unruly outcomes of creativity in...

By Benjamin Evans To say that the theme of “duality” is at the core of Li Hongwei’s elegant body of sculpture is, at best, an understatement. Here is a partial list of some of the binary oppositions at play in his work: Old vs. new, East vs. West, hand-made vs. industrial, delicate vs. strong, Yin vs. Yang, functional vessel vs....

By Unu Sohn The black dog of depression, peace doves, a house on fire are all symbols you can find upon visiting the exhibition Narratives In Clay at County Hall Pottery, on view from January 28 through March 9, 2025. This group show features a collection of sculptures and vases by Eun-ha Paek, Katy Stubbs, Kaye Blegvad, Isabel Greenberg, Charlie...

By Jennifer Zwilling The three solo exhibitions currently on view at The Clay Studio present work by current and recent Resident Artists. The aesthetics of the three exhibitions are quite disparate. Josephine Mette Larsen's work is precise, nearly monochromatic, and meditative. Yinsik Yoo's figural procession across a large pedestal evokes a feeling of evolution of a human being over time,...

By Katherina Perlongo In the middle of Berlin's historic city center, not far from Alexanderplatz—one of the city's most famous landmarks, tourist attractions, and transport hubs—we find Klosterruine, located at Klosterstraße 73a. The ruins of the former Franciscan monastery are one of the oldest preserved buildings in Berlin and seem to have fallen out of time. It is one of...

By Katherine Ross In Tracing Ways, artists E. Saffronia Downing and Rosemary Holliday Hall embrace a collaborative approach to materiality, exploring themes of place-making and site-specificity. Using clay, found objects, and collected traces, their installation maps the relationships between makers, matter, and the environment. This review by Katherine Ross examines how the artists reimagine material as a vessel for presence,...

By Cammi Climaco While I’ve followed Takuro Kuwata on Instagram for the past seven years, I’ve only seen his work floating by on a glowing two-inch by two-inch screen. Seeing his show Together Shiyoze! (Let’s Get Together!) at Salon 94, through February 15th, was a bit of a parasocial experience. I was confidently familiar with Kuwata’s work, so much so,...

By Andrea Müller-Fincker The second edition of the international art fair for contemporary ceramics took place at Tour&Taxis in Brussels from January 22nd to 26th, 2025. The Gare Maritime area, which represents an extraordinary combination of historic industrial architecture from the beginning of the 20th century, offered a unique exhibition experience in the heart of Europe. As the only art...

By Ann Marais The first South African Clay Awards exhibition, held at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery and Clay Museum in Durbanville, outside Cape Town, from November to December 2024, marked a significant milestone for South African ceramics. It followed the gallery's accreditation as an affiliate member of the International Academy of Ceramics (IAC). The IAC formally endorsed the exhibition with this accreditation,...

Ceramics Now announces a new Call for Papers In honoring our commitment to showing the evolving trends and concepts that shape contemporary ceramics, Ceramics Now is pleased to announce a new call for papers. We invite thought-provoking essays, comprehensive exhibition reviews, and features that address significant movements or major events in the field. We particularly encourage essays that examine current...

By Doug Navarra From the outset, I found Mai-Thu Perret's work in the exhibition titled "Underworld" at the David Kordansky Gallery in NYC to be deeply challenging, which immediately drew me to it. This challenge arises from multiple factors: the work is interdisciplinary and conceptual, departing from traditional notions of ceramics while also offering a fluidity of meaning that invites...

From September to October, Gyeonggi Province and the Korea Ceramic Foundation hosted the Gyeonggi Ceramics Biennale 2024, a 45-day event held across multiple venues throughout Gyeonggi-do focusing on Icheon, Yeoju, and Gwangju in Gyeonggi Province. The Biennale featured a diverse array of programs, including exhibitions, academic conferences, and museum concerts. A distinctive aspect of this year’s Gyeonggi Ceramics Biennale was...

By Jennifer Zwilling Clay is the future and the past. The earliest examples of fired ceramic objects are 25,000 years old; ceramics made today will endure well beyond 25,000 years into the future. Ceramics may very well exist on this planet long after biological life ends, as a fired piece of clay is among the human creations most immune to...

By Christina Rauh Oxbøll Throughout Autumn and Winter 2024/25, CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark presents 'Martin Bodilsen Kaldahl: Cuts, Stripes, and Knots – A Ceramic Retrospective'. The exhibition offers a generous view of Kaldahl's persistent exploration of the sculptural potential of ceramics over more than three decades, complemented by several new pieces made for the exhibition. These recent works...

By Emma Park This October saw ceramics exhibited at two of the leading London fairs of the year: Frieze, for contemporary art, and PAD London, for collectible design. The ceramics on display at PAD generally gave the impression of being imposing statement pieces for display in a grand entertainment space – reflecting the interests of the very well-heeled clientèle who...

By Daria Melnikova In early September 2023, basking in the cool shade of a terrace in Gojōzaka, near Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, I treated myself to a lacquer box of sake ice cream, a much-needed break after visiting the retrospective show “The Sōdeisha Group: An Era Born Out of Avant-garde Ceramics” at The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto. After...

By Millen Brown-Ewens More than thirty years after his untimely passing, Angus Suttie and his ceramics refuse categorisation. For the UK pottery establishment, his evocative and celebratory works represent humanism, boldness, and freedom, reflecting not only the nuances of his lived experience but also a vital and unique form of activism that chimes with contemporary resonance. A new retrospective at...

By Aleina Edwards As a multimedia artist predominantly focused on ceramics, Simone Leigh is very concerned with her material—its essence and associations, its myriad histories. In the past two decades, Leigh has made a name for herself by rendering figures in clay, using racially-charged images like face jugs, cowrie shells, and stylized busts to reclaim and reconstitute the Black femme...