The week’s news in the ceramic art world – October 10, 2024

We recently published the 2025 calendar of ceramic competitions, biennales, festivals, and fairs. We currently have 20 events listed, including four international competitions with open applications—more will be added soon. You can explore the open applications in this week’s news below.

Our friends at Artaxis and Ceramics Monthly have recently shared a call for donations to support artists affected by Hurricane Helene in the US. Many have lost their studios and equipment, urgently needing resources to restart their work. Please head to their pages or donate directly to CERF+, a non-profit providing craft artists with disaster and emergency relief.

Applications for the 63rd Faenza Prize – International Biennial of Contemporary Art Ceramics are open until December 17, 2024. The Faenza Prize is one of ceramic art’s most important and long-lived competitions. Since 1938, it has seen the participation of the most important contemporary Italian and foreign artists who use ceramics as an expressive material. Several prizes will be awarded, including a €25,000 prize for artists over 35 and a €5,000 prize for artists under 35.

Applications are open for the 17th edition of the International Biennale of Artistic Ceramics of Aveiro, which will take place between October 18, 2025, and January 18, 2026. Organized by the Aveiro City Council (Portugal), the Biennale awards three prizes: €13,000 for the first prize, €8,000 for the second, and €4.000 for the third prize. Artists are invited to submit their work until November 30, 2024.

Applications are open for the 2025 LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize, an international award celebrating excellence in craftsmanship. The award (€50,000 for the winning prize) seeks to recognize uniquely talented artisans whose artistic vision and will to innovate set new standards for the future of craft. Applications are due October 30.

There are a few days left to apply to Ceramic Art Andenne 2025 (Belgium). For the 17th International Contemporary Ceramics Competition, one of the exhibitions will be free (without a theme), and one will focus on the theme of “Talisman”. Five prizes will be awarded: the Ceramics Grand Prize – €2,500; the Ceramics Prize – €1,000; the Young Ceramics Prize – €500; Art Acquisition Award – €5,500; and the Public Prize – €1,000. Applications are due October 13, 2024.

Read Aleina Edwards’ review of Simone Leigh. “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 form. Now, as her first museum survey show settled into its final stop in Los Angeles, Leigh’s visual vocabulary has become a vibrant language, her sculptures nearly mythic.”

Read Millen Brown-Ewens’ essay and interview with Jeffrey Weeks, trustee of the artist’s estate, about the life, legacy, and enduring impact of Angus Suttie’s ceramics. “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 The Sunday Painter, London casts a revelatory light on the trailblazing life and art of Suttie (1946-1993).”

The Keramikkünstlerhaus Neumünster (Germany) invites artists to apply to the Ceramic Artist Exchange – Tandem 2025. Six residency grants will be offered, focusing on engaging with contemporary positions in free ceramics, fostering intercultural dialogue, and promoting exchange between artists of different generations. Artists of different generations (emerging/established artists) will be provided with studio and living space as well as equipment and basic materials for seven weeks. The scholarship is endowed with €700. Applications are due November 15, 2024.

The European Ceramic Context 2024 is on view in Bornholm, Denmark, until November 7. In two large exhibitions, the triennial aims to show new and significant works, projects and installations that provide an overview of the experimental, innovative, sustainable trends in contemporary European ceramics. Read more about the event and view a photo gallery in Ceramics Now.

The North-West Ceramics Foundation is pleased to announce its next Speakers Series on Sunday, October 20, at 2 PM PST, featuring Winnipeg artist PJ Anderson. In her talk “Unconventional Weaponizations,” Anderson will discuss the importance of traditional and intergenerational cultural ceramic learning in addition to academic learning. She will share her continued exploration and fabrication of objects that reference everyday weaponizations from a non-narrative future scape. The online presentation is free and open to all.

A-B Projects is hosting a new State of Ceramics online discussion, Power Dynamics: Traditions of Misogyny in ‘American Studio Ceramics’, with Jasmine Baetz. This conversation will explore the entrenched sexism and misogyny in mid-20th-century American studio ceramics, focusing on how these dynamics persist in today’s ceramics education and broader field. We will examine our roles as students, teachers, and leaders within these histories, and discuss how truth-telling can lead to transformation. The talk will take place on Saturday, October 19, at 11 AM PST.

The Clay Studio (Philadelphia) is hosting two Clay & Conversations online talks with artists featured in their current exhibition, The Future of Clay. Join Kristy Moreno & Jolie Ngo on a talk on Thursday, October 10, and Anne Adams & Holly Wilson on Thursday, October 17. Registration is free.

Earlier this week, we shared the story of La Meridiana International School of Ceramics, a creative hub in the heart of Tuscany where artists from around the world gather to explore the endless possibilities of clay. Founded over 40 years ago, this renowned institution continues to inspire and shape the future of ceramics. Read more about the history of La Meridiana.

Book recommendation: Vipoo Srivilasa: Positive Art Work, to be released in November. This comprehensive monograph celebrates over 25 years of Vipoo Srivilasa’s influential career in ceramics. Known for his accessible, positive, and beautiful work, Vipoo’s art reflects his life in both Australia and Thailand, using clay to tell stories and bring people together.

Registration is now open for NCECA’s 59th Annual Conference, Formation, which will take place between March 26 and 29, 2025, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Formation, the 59th annual conference theme, invites artists to dig deep into the historical and cultural significance of ceramics worldwide. Philosopher and educator John Dewey wrote, “The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.” A preliminary program guide is available on NCECA’s website.