The week’s news in the ceramic art world – May 21, 2024

• Ceramic Art London 2024 brought together over ninety talented ceramists from around the world, transforming Kensington Olympia West into a vibrant hub for contemporary ceramics. This year’s fair featured a wide array of techniques and materials, from functional objects to decorative vases and abstract sculptures. Notable highlights included Yuta Segawa’s meticulously crafted miniature vases, Jin Eui Kim’s optical illusion-inducing works, and Peter Beard’s organic, sea-inspired forms. Read Emma Park’s article about the fair in Ceramics Now.

• The Gardiner Museum (Toronto) invites the public to its annual International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF), featuring more than twenty artists and galleries. Throughout this 10-day celebration of clay, visitors are invited to discover some of the most compelling recent ceramic and multimedia artworks by a diverse lineup of emerging and established artists. In conjunction with an exhibition, ICAF features a full schedule of online and in-person artist tours, talks, workshops, a performance, and more. Highlights include a virtual artist talk with celebrated Pakistani-born British sculptor Halima Cassell; a live performance that brings together Québécois artist Marie Côté’s singing bowls with breathing, music, and Hand Talk (Plains Indian Sign Language); a studio demonstration with influential artist and teacher Linda Sikora; and a tour with FASTWÜRMS, recipients of the 2023 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts for Artistic Achievement.

• We recently published an article by Soph Boobyer, Sarah Myerscough, and Lottie Hughes about ‘Earthly Bodies’, the third major ceramic exhibition at Sarah Myerscough Gallery. This new exhibition looks at sensibilities of the corporeal and topographical through a selection of works aware of a body in space: of figuration, reciprocity, and of the myriad ways movement and transcendence become archived through bodies. The show is on view at the London gallery until June 1st.

• From May 29 to July 31, Fondazione Officine Saffi presents (un)Known Territories, the exhibition showcasing the 32 finalists of the Officine Saffi Award. The exhibition is the first presented in its brand-new headquarters located at Via Niccolini 35a, Milan. Six Dutch artists are also among the finalists featured in Focus, a special section of the prize dedicated to exploring ceramic creation in a specific geographical and cultural context.

• The British Ceramics Biennial just opened the applications for AWARD 2025. Award is the British Ceramics Biennial’s headline exhibition, celebrating the vitality of contemporary ceramics practice in the UK with ten artists selected from an open submission process. Each selected artist will receive £1,000 towards the presentation of their work as a central component of the Biennial, and one winner will be announced and awarded a £10,000 cash prize during the Biennial. Applications are open for UK-based artists until September 9, 2024.

• Applications are also open for the International Competition “Ceramics in Love—Marco Polo” until June 7. The event will take place in Castellamonte, Italy, between August 24 and September 15, 2024. Several prizes will be awarded, including a € 4000 first prize and a prize for students.

• The Manises International Ceramics Film Festival is taking place between May 31 – June 2 in Manises, Valencia, Spain. The festival aims to provide a general overview of current films that address the topic of ceramics from any point of view—as a material, as an artisanal tradition or industrial and architectural production, past or present, as a form of art, an ethnographic testimony, or simply as a starting point to let the imagination soar.

• The 33rd Giroussens Contemporary Ceramics Market is taking place at the beginning of June in Giroussens, France. The fair is one of the best opportunities to discover French artists working with ceramics today.

• Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale: Masayuki Sato (Grand Prix), Kwon Jin Hee (Gold Award), Huang Jing (Silver Award), and Yulia Batyrova and Marat Mukhametov (Bronze Award). The biennale will open in October at the Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan.

• Congratulations are also in order for Andrés Anza, the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2024 winner, and Ray Chen, the First Place recipient of the Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant for 2024.• Congratulations are also in order for Andrés Anza, the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2024 winner, and Ray Chen, the First Place recipient of the Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant for 2024.

• Join the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA)’s virtual artist talk featuring artists Susannah Israel and Luke Huling. This Zoom talk will take place on Thursday, May 23rd, starting at noon (PST). You’ll hear from these two talented artists as they discuss the stories and concepts behind their dream-like portraiture pieces currently on display in the Fahrenheit 2024 exhibition.

• What’s On View: Casey Whittier: Systems of Reliance is on view at Jane Hartsook Gallery, New York / VERT[S] is on view at Centre Ceramique de Giroussens, Giroussens / TABLED and HELD are on view at Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Sydney / Pauliina Pöllänen: The Crank Index is on view at Format Oslo, Oslo / Tilmann Meyer-Faje: Where does it end? is on view at De Firma Art Center, Gouda / Yoonjee Kwak: The Patterns of Time is on view at Gerald Peters Contemporary, Santa Fe / Layered Clay is on view at Joan B Mirviss, New York / Judi Tavill: Entanglements is on view at Ivy Brown Gallery, New York / Johan Tahon: Fresh is on view at Kunstforum Solothurn, Solothurn / Interrelationship: Peers, Mentors, & Friends is on view at Red Lodge Clay Center, Red Lodge