The week’s news in the ceramic art world – October 27, 2021

⏩ Applications are open for the XV International Biennial of Ceramics of Manises 2022, which will take place in June-September 2022 in Manises, Valencia, Spain. Deadline: November 15, 2021. The biennale aims to promote the creation and innovation in the fields of artistic and design ceramics, and to promote the name of Manises as a ceramic town. Artists from all over the world are welcome to participate, both individually and collectively.

🎉 To follow up with our last newsletter, the crowdfunding campaign for the ceramic sound laboratory at the ECWC was a success! Many thanks for supporting their project. You’re awesome!

📢 On Saturday, Bisque Studios in Victoria, Australia, will bring together a panel of renowned ceramic artists, sharing their individual passions, knowledge and studio secrets in an online conversation. Participating artists: Kate Brouwer, Hilary Green, Adele Macer, Emily Brookfield, Dawn Vachon. The event is part of this years Craft Contemporary Festival, hosted by Craft Victoria. Tickets are $15/session, with a full day ticket option available for $30. All proceeds from this event will be donated.

⚪ The application deadline for the 3rd edition of Blanc de Chine International Ceramic Art Award has been extended until December 31, 2021. The ICAA is an international competition for ceramic art aiming to bring together the world’s outstanding ceramic artists, and to rethink, define and extend the dimensions and depth of ceramic art with their vision, creativity and artistic techniques. Innovative white porcelain works at the forefront of contemporary ceramic art will be awarded according to the selection and evaluation of the jury committee.

📙 The online art forum Contemporary HUM just published a piece titled Don’t Learn Anything More!, about Virginia Leonard’s ceramics. Connie Brown talks to Aotearoa artist Virginia Leonard about her process of making ceramic sculptures and the language it offers her for her experience of chronic pain. Here’s a glimpse: The body, as such, rarely offers itself up to her as a succession of soft curvatures or as a well-designed armature. Instead, its irrationality and indomitability are what impose themselves most forcefully. Clay, by contrast, constantly offers itself up to Leonard as a substance through which she can express her experience of chronic pain. Her vessels slump to the side, they leak, bulge and seem always about to topple over.

💲 Should artists be paid for a public art exhibit? This question was raised by Monika Gedrimaitė, a Lithuanian ceramicist who organised a discussion and unusual ceramic exhibition “Neighbouring objects” in Vilnius, Lithuania. In order to raise this issue in public discourse she invited her fellow ceramicists to exhibit their latest works in places such as pharmacy, bookshop, bakery etc. Next to the art pieces people find metrics and QR code which leads to a short video about this issue.

🌅 The Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics in the Netherlands opened KOREA, an exhibition that unravels the country’s rich past and ancient culture on the basis of themes such as food culture, beauty ideals and rituals. Artworks from the National Museum of Korea in Seoul are exhibited in the Netherlands for the first time, alongside works by contemporary artists Yee Sookyung, Juree Kim, and Kyung-Jin Cho.

☀ The Association of Clay and Glass Artists of California (ACGA) is pleased to announce Seismic State: California Ceramics, selected by NCECA as part of its 2022 conference in Sacramento. Applications are open only for California-based ceramic artists until November 15.

🥣 The Council of the International Academy of Ceramics recently launched the second edition of the Treasure Bowl Collection, presented under the title Appropriation by curator Ludovic Recchia. The projct features bowls created by 10 artists from around the world. Make sure to download the pdf catalog.

🙌 If you missed this year’s Frieze London (like everyone else outside the UK), check out Tessa Eastman’s Instagram posts here and here. She did a wonderful job capturing the ceramic art that was on view at the fair.

🔍 Ceramics in the Expanded Field is on view at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA / Sarah Purvey: Glimpse is on view at The New Craftsman Gallery, St Ives / Urara Tsuchiya: Throwing Caution to the Wind is on view at Galerie Lefebvre & Fils, Paris / Matter at Hand: Ten Artists in Denmark opens tomorrow at Hostler Burrows, New York / Young-Jae Lee: Vessels is on view at Galerie Karsten Greve, St. Moritz / Unholy Ghosts opens this week at JEFF MARFA, Marfa, TX