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 fair in the contemporary ceramics sector, ceramic brussels occupies a unique place in this specialist area.
Until around 1900, clay was rather reserved for the modeling process, an intermediate stage to final sculptural works, such as bronze or stone. After that, artists slowly discovered the material’s artistic quality and expressive possibilities. The fact that a fair for contemporary ceramic art has now been established and will have its third edition in January 2026 shows that the positive response from the public is enormous. And it also illustrates that a growing number of artists are discovering the material for themselves. With 17,000 visitors over the five days, the exhibition halls were always very well-filled, attracting a broad, heterogeneous audience among ceramic enthusiasts.
The atmosphere was dialogical, permeable, witty, and hopeful. Ceramic Brussels is becoming an integral part of the ceramics sector, appealing to both professionals and those with a keen interest in ceramic art and design. It has successfully fulfilled its mission as a bridge between industry players and the wider public.
While the works of the winners of the Ceramic Brussels Art Prize 2025—specially selected for their ability to open new dimensions in contemporary ceramics, creating narratives that transcend time and disciplines—were displayed directly in the foyer, the path into the two carefully arranged halls, featuring an outer and inner circle with completely white exhibition walls, led past the works of guest of honor Elizabeth Jaeger. Her arrangements of animal figures play with ambiguity; for example, a whole armada of iridescent bugs crawls across the white walls, simultaneously arousing both disgust and fascination in the viewer. More than 60 exhibitors, including internationally renowned galleries and publishers, represented the vibrant field of actors in the ceramic art sector.
Building on its inaugural edition, the second edition of Ceramic Brussels also featured a few pieces of classical modernist ceramics, with the Parisian gallery Helene Bailly presenting works by Pablo Picasso, and Galerie Anne Sophie Duval showcasing a solo show by Vassil Ivanoff, along with a few other galleries that highlighted modern ceramics. These blended well into the fair concept and were in dialog with the contemporary works. As always, in art history, forms and decorations can only be understood and categorized in reminiscence of history. La peau de l’ours (Brussels) showed, for example, animal sculptures by Rémy Pommeret, which combine a naturalistically depicted body with Art Nouveau elements to achieve a surrealistic effect—transparent fugitives. Glazes also played a decisive creative role at the turn of the century, and the wonderful crystal glazes on Sebastian Stöhrer’s amorphous objects at the Almine Rech stand immediately caught the eye.
The depiction of animals is also a recurring motif. Lefebvre & Fils (Paris) showed works by Héloïse Piraud, which placed the animals in an abstract form in a mythological context. Sèvres, the renowned porcelain manufacturer, showed works by the artist duo Bachelot & Caron, who also work with reminiscences. Using forms from the manufactory’s repertoire, new objects are created through combinations, extensions and modern decorations. In addition to classically cast vessels, such as simple vases and plates, to which the material aesthetic attribute of delicacy can be ascribed, the viewer also encountered the raw naturalness of the material through roughly modeled organic forms. The ceramic curtains by Clémence van Lunen, presented by Galerie Polaris (Paris), exemplified this modeling technique—and thereby reminded us of the flat, pulpy paintings by Lucian Freud or Frank Auerbach—while also reflecting a growing trend: the intersection of textiles and ceramics. Helena Hafemann’s stoneware plates, connected by strings, further explored this interplay and were displayed at the Galerie Jarmuschek + Partner (Berlin) stand.
Luna-Isola Bersanetti, one of the ten winners of the Ceramic Brussels art prize, also incorporated textiles into her work, Reptilians. The ceramic parts applied to fabrics formed a second skin, while performative videos accompanied the immobile pieces, evoking the sounds of rattlesnakes and revealing their movement. Here, ceramics is understood as a dynamic medium—though overall, only a few interdisciplinary works were on display at the fair. Similarly, Camilla Hanney exposed in her works the skeleton under our skin. Her sculptural series contrast ceramics as a material of traditional arts and crafts with the demand for artistic expression. The macabre and humorous objects break with taboos surrounding femininity and sexuality. The installation of another art prize winner, Raphaël Emine, impressed with its fusion of nature and technology. By combining traditional clay modeling techniques with technologies like 3D printing, his organic forms with soft glazes led the viewer to dreamlike associations. Overall, ceramic 3D-printing had a limited presence at the fair, though an ever-growing community of designers and artists continues to explore its possibilities. While you could find a broad range of conceptual and material approaches, the topic of sustainability—an increasingly vital aspect of contemporary ceramics—was not particularly present in the discourse.
Galerie Lélia Mordoch (Paris) showed a collection of vessel objects by Miguel Chevalier, Arnaud Borde, Michel Paysant, and Jonathan Keep, which were created using 3D-printing. Also, the Peach Corner Gallery (Copenhagen), a forum for showing different approaches to clay and a diversity of ceramic expressions, presented five Scandinavian artists, including Hilda Piazzolla, whose works are searching for a personal touch in digital creation. The most obvious characteristic is the horizontal ribbed structure, which is based on the layered structure of the artifacts. All shapes and structures are a result of mathematical calculations. 3D-printing offers design possibilities that are hard to realize through manual processes: undercuts, hollow chambers, grid structures with variable intersections and the finest surface structures.
The vessels by Jacques Monneraud, represented by arsenic galerie (Paris), showed very impressively how stoneware and enamel could imitate cardboard and strips of tape. Absolutely surprising! And the bodies of Michel Gouéry’s standing figures, grotesquely deformed like lifeless shells, were also true eye-catchers. One of the most memorable works at the fair was shown by the Joanna Bird Gallery: Crouched (2023) by Hattori Makiko. The forms of the Japanese ceramic artist are enveloped with ribbons of porcelain, forming minute rosette-like patterns that densely cover both the exterior and interior of each vessel. “I would be happy if the audience is immediately drawn into the work before any other explanation because of the visual and tactile impact of the surface,” says Makiko—and she succeeds brilliantly.
The best solo show was awarded to another Japanese-born ceramic artist, a real shooting star: Jun Kaneko. Known for creating large-scale ceramic sculptures, the Sorry We’re Closed gallery (Brussels) displayed a range of works, from oval wall ceramics to oversized booth objects decorated with modern, graphic-geometrical motifs. Kaneko’s work exemplifies a masterful balance between material control and decorative abstraction—both technically rigorous and visually striking. Definitely eye-catching! A larger-than-life conical object was enthroned in the center of the exhibition display. In contrast, smaller objects were arranged in various compositions, either placed on pedestals or directly on the floor.
Galerie SCENE OUVERTE (Paris) created an impressive setting with the curved ceramic benches by Rino Claessens, positioned in front of a monumental architectural wall structure by Vincent Dubourg. This striking presentation earned it the Best Stand Award.
The renowned New York gallery Hostler Burrows/HB381 focused on Scandinavian ceramics, showcasing works that embodied the region’s distinct aesthetic. The display was dominated by soft, muted tones, a palette often associated with Nordic design. Among the standout pieces was Pale Calliandra (2024) by Swedish artist Eva Zethraeus, a delicate biomorphic porcelain sculpture inspired by marine life and the organic growth of organisms, blurring the line between figuration and abstraction. “My sculptures are the result of an ongoing research of form and the complicated nature of the ceramic process,” explains Zethraeus. Equally intriguing were the ceramic wall plates from Caroline Slotte’s series Tracing (2019). The Finnish artist transforms antique china by carving and sandblasting its surfaces, revealing landscape-like reliefs that feel at once familiar and unsettling. The works of Norwegian artist Helen Hausland also stood out for their distinctive technique. Her piece Beacon (2024) was created by pressing and layering bits of clay together repeatedly to form larger structures, resulting in a composition with a subtle yet dynamic movement. The gallery also displayed works by Marianne Huotari, Sigve Knutson, Sakari Kannosto, Maren Kloppmann, Marianne Nielsen, Kristina Riska, and Marit Tingleff.
Despite the fair’s broad international scope, the representation of American ceramic artists remained surprisingly limited. Given the strong presence of American ceramicists in contemporary discourse, a broader selection would have enriched the fair’s global perspective.
This year, Norwegian ceramics were a special focus of the fair, presented in collaboration with Norwegian Crafts. The presence of five Norwegian galleries (QB Gallery, RAM Galleri, Kiosken, Format, and Skog Art Space) and panel discussions with renowned experts and artists provided a comprehensive insight; around 20 artists were exhibited in total. The country has a relatively short history with this material; ceramics have only been established in the arts and crafts sector since the middle of the 20th century but have since found a strong foothold in contemporary art. “Norwegian contemporary ceramic art is often irreverent, playful, and sculptural”, explains Joakim Borda-Pedreira from RAM galleri (Oslo).
QB Gallery (Oslo) featured an appealing display of ceramics by Nellie Jonsson, whose colorful and playful works—resembling cakes, fruits, and vegetables—were and anchored here and there with teeth and hair clips. The portfolio of Format (Oslo) included well-known ceramists such as Pauliina Pöllänen – whose figurative works present the human body in fragments, utilizing the originality and expressive potential of the material – as well as Torbjørn Kvasbø and Eyvind Solli Andreassen. Ann Beate Tempelhaug’s painterly ceramic works also stood out as part of Spazio Nobile’s (Brussels) elegant display.
Ceramic Brussels 2025 brought together not only the past but, more importantly, the present of ceramics. It reaffirmed the growing role of ceramics in contemporary art, bridging historical influences with current concepts and trends. By showcasing a wide range of artistic approaches—from traditional craftsmanship to experimental forms—the fair highlighted the material’s enduring relevance and evolving possibilities.
Andrea Müller-Fincker is a German art historian and author. She holds a master’s degree in art history and philosophy from the University of Stuttgart. After working in an auction house for ten years, she now operates as a freelance expert for porcelain and ceramics as well as an art journalist. She regularly publishes articles in various art and antiques magazines and is working on her PhD thesis about the sculptor Gerhard Schliepstein (1886-1963) at the LMU Munich.
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Captions
Featured image by Geoffrey Fritsch.
Photos courtesy of ceramic brussels and the galleries.
