Articles

Ceramics Now announces a new Call for Papers In honoring our commitment to showcasing the vibrancy and diversity of contemporary ceramics, Ceramics Now is launching a new call for papers and inviting essays, exhibition reviews, features on trends or major events, and insightful interviews for publication on our platform. Ceramics Now, a leading publication, is committed to showcasing the vibrancy...

Excerpt from the essay “The Role of Shikokai and Sodeisha in Postwar Ceramic Art Objects” by Kazuko Todate, Professor in the Faculty of Art and Design Center of Liberal Arts, Tama Art University, published on the occasion of the exhibition “Ceramic Frontiers: Sodeisha & Shikokai in Post-war Japanese Art” at Dai Ichi Arts, March 2024. During the first half of...

By Louise Rae Stewart Scambler's love for Western Australia shines through in his stunning wood-fired works in the 2023 John Stringer Prize, exhibited at the John Curtin Gallery from 3 November to 10 December 2023. The exhibition is an invitation-only non-acquisitive annual event for Western Australian contemporary artists. Scambler's win in this forum is a huge validation for ceramics within...

Ozioma Onuzulike: Dotted Lines, 2023 Essay by Ngozi-Omeje Ezema Over the years, ceramics have transcended through generations, changing styles, functions, and structures. Closer observation revealed these changes occurring in the Nsukka art school after the assimilation of Uli and Nsibidi designs. H.C. Ngumah opined that ‘with the formalization of ‘uli’ design as an artistic language of expression in the Nsukka...

By Wu Haoyu I. Personal Art Experience and Exploration In university, I encountered ceramics and decided to wholeheartedly immerse myself in the world of ceramic art, which is filled with infinite possibilities. Ceramics possess unique artistic characteristics, and a thorough exploration from material craftsmanship to forming techniques constitutes an exceedingly lengthy process. The scope of knowledge involved is extensive, yet...

By Aurelija Seilienė In the green city of Panevėžys, Lithuania, resides an expansive collection of contemporary ceramics. While the locals may not be entirely aware of the city's international ceramic symposiums, Panevėžys stands as a distinguished hub for global ceramists. Within the Baltic region, only three principal events underscore the realm of ceramic symposia: the Kohila Symposium in Estonia, the...

By Lilianne Milgrom Australia’s cities are vibrant and modern, and the country’s overwhelmingly urban population is diverse and hip. Yet this antipodal island’s geographic remoteness feels almost palpable – hence its nickname, The Land Down Under. Its vast, largely uninhabited interior feels omnipresent, host to a unique ecosystem that has forged a distinctive Australian spirit highly attuned to the natural...

By Kristina Rutar Ceramic’s very nature as a material dictates the way we handle and interact with it, namely gently, cleanly, and never too roughly. When on view in galleries and museums, an additional sense of distance is created, often through the physical barrier of a glass case, a marked-off region beyond which it is alright to stand and look,...

By Amy Gogarty For some forty years, potter, theorist, historian, and educator Paul Mathieu has been a powerful voice in ceramics discourse. Through his teaching, writing, lectures, exhibitions—and, now, YouTube videos—Mathieu has consistently challenged conventional models for thinking about craft, particularly ceramics. His travels have taken him to China, where he participated in numerous residencies; Europe, where he now lives...

By Kristina Rutar The fifth edition of the UNICUM Triennial, an international showcase of contemporary artistic techniques focusing on the medium of ceramics, was held in Ljubljana in 2023. UNICUM’s central exhibition ran from 15 May to 30 September. Alongside this internationally juried exhibition, which made its home in the atrium of the building shared by the Slovenian National Museum...

By Adil Writer It felt like we were at a ceramic conference. The who’s-who of the pottery scene in Pondicherry and Auroville were present, as were Golden Bridge Pottery students, ex-students, staff & ex-staff. (Should have taken a group photo!) Only, this was at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram cemetery in Muthialpet. We had come to bid our farewells to a...

By Victoria Anastasyadis To Sarah Pschorn (b. 1989), her solo exhibition ‘Records of Gravity’, held at Gerhard Marcks Haus in Bremen in early 2023, is not so much a look back as a look forward. Despite her years of experience working with clay, she feels she is still a novice. This is a portrait of a young sculptor and her...

In the heart of the Baltics, a remarkable event unfolds every two years, bringing together the vibrancy of contemporary ceramics. The Latvia Ceramics Biennale, a prestigious platform celebrating the legacy of ceramicist Pēteris Martinsons, is more than just a ceramics competition. Last year, I had the honor of experiencing firsthand the complexity and scope of the 4th edition of the...

Article by Sanne Flyvbjerg. It begins with a black-and-white photograph from the 1950s. Danish artist Axel Salto is standing in the old coal kiln in The Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory in Copenhagen, looking down at one of his masterpieces, The Core of Power. It is a sculpture, an object, an almost living thing made out of clay.

By Nikhil Purohit As children, we tend to imagine that the clouds are formed by the smoke belching out of the chimneys of an industrial town. A typical iconic sight of the past centuries. The urban sites are often known by what they produce- both industrially and culturally. Neha Gawand Pullarwar, a ceramicist of repute from Mumbai, India, builds her...

The International Competition at Aveiro Museum The 16th International Biennale of Artistic Ceramics, supported by Aveiro City Council and backed by a highly committed (and very female) team, opened its doors on October 28, 2023. With 565 entries received, the event is shaping up to be a great success. It’s a record for this fast-evolving Biennale, marked by an ever-stronger...

By Stephanie Henricks The Siliceous Award for Ceramic Excellence exhibition, a premier biennial event of Ceramic Arts Queensland, one of Australia's oldest arts organizations, was not just a showcase of excellence in Australian ceramics. It also highlighted the vast depth and breadth of contemporary ceramic practices. Celebrating its seventh edition this year, the 2023 Award has been the most impressive...

By Doug Navarra The first thing I thought about when I first saw works by Jennifer McCandless were active notions of persona and personality. What makes her exhibition Run Amok at A.I.R. Gallery different is this very fact—the show is concept-based—and not center-staged upon materiality. This exhibition is composed primarily of figural works, and if they are not straight-out renderings...

Celebration of Insignificance Celebration of Insignificance A Fully Filled Crystal Lattice Unstable Associations Quality of Missing Everyday Archaeology Everyday Archaeology 6% Humidity, 32 Tons Soul Lake City Objective Point of View Sugar Honey Darling Die Geschwollene Schönheit Next Ex The Whole Heaven NC 000003 VG 12565 II VG 12565 IV Eva Pelechová: Selected works, 2015-2021 Slow Down Meaning - An...