#45 – A year in review at Ceramics Now

Ceramics Now Weekly #45 features a year in review, the week's news in the ceramics world, and new featured artists.

Dec 20, 2022

Hello! Welcome to the 45th edition of Ceramics Now Weekly. This is Vasi Hirdo, the founding editor of Ceramics Now.

I hope you are doing well today 👋 Let’s see what's new.

A year in review

2022 has been the busiest and most rewarding year for Ceramics Now. This year, I published 78 artist profiles, over 140 ceramic art projects/portfolios, and 27 articles (some written by outstanding contributors). I've also documented over 100 exhibitions featuring ceramic art - in total, over 5500 images were uploaded to our digital publication. Thousands of photos were shared on our social media pages, and over 350,000 unique visitors came to our website this year.

It's been a pleasure to publish and send 20 editions of Ceramics Now Weekly, which was short of my goal set at the beginning of the year (24), but they were editions that I'm proud of.

I would like to thank you for subscribing to Ceramics Now Weekly! This newsletter grew with over 3600 subscribers this year, reaching over 11,600. Special thanks go to the ones who have contributed and sent me emails, to the 140 subscribers who became paid members of the newsletter, and to the advertisers who keep our independent publication afloat and thriving. I believe in making Ceramics Now free and accessible to all. When you become a member of Ceramics Now Weekly, you make this possible.

I hope you enjoyed reading Ceramics Now this year and will continue to follow us in 2023. I wish you a splendid holiday season and a joyful new year! 🎉🙌

Yours,
Vasi Hirdo, founding editor of Ceramics Now

New featured artists in Ceramics Now

Sponsored by the Hayward Gallery

Strange Clay exhibition at London’s Hayward Gallery

Book now to see Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art, the five-star exhibition described as ‘a testament to this extraordinary, humble material’ (Evening Standard). The exhibition features 23 international artists working across recent decades, exploring the plasticity and the possibilities of ceramics. Until Sunday 8 January.

The week’s news in the ceramic world

🎫 There is less than a month left to apply for the European Ceramic Festival TERRALHA and the Young European Ceramic Awards. The festival is open to all international artists; participants must be present and install their shows; the participation fee is €150. The awards are, however, available only to European-based artists working with ceramics for less than ten years.

👉 Artaxis recently opened applications for their annual Artaxis Fellowship worth up to $2,425 to fund a two-week summer workshop in ceramics at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, USA. The two fellowships will cover room, board, tuition for a two-week workshop, and an extra stipend for expenses up to $500. Applicants can not be Artaxis members. Applications are due January 15, 2023.

📒 Today we published an interview with the co-founder of The Stratford Gallery. Established in 2016, The Stratford Gallery represents some of the finest contemporary Japanese ceramics. In this interview with Howard Clegg, we learned more about their activities and plans: "Nothing beats being in front of a piece of ceramic that you can hold and investigate in person. That is why we have an entire gallery floor dedicated to a permanent collection of imported works from Japan, in addition to our exhibition schedule. On this floor, we display collections of work from a superb array of makers all year round—collections I personally choose from firings and purchase directly from the artists."

📔 In November, the Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, opened Handle with Care, a fantastic exhibition that revolves around the hand and gestures – expressions of intimacy, compassion, serenity, authority, labor and celebration. I talked to curator Dr. Wendy Gers to learn more about the complexities of organizing such an awe-inspiring show: "Handle with Care includes both historical and contemporary works from across the globe. Ceramics are found in most cultures and epochs. As an art medium, it truly celebrates cultural diversity. One of the exhibition aims is to highlight that ceramics is a practice that forms a part of our collective DNA. It is possibly the most global of all art forms."

📙 Earlier this month, we published Jennifer Zwilling's essay on Kristina Riska's current show at HB381 Gallery: "Kristina Riska's sculptures are deceptively simple. From across the room, the large, undulating vessel forms beckon the viewer with familiarity. As you approach, you feel a resonance with your own body. If we think of ourselves as part of the earth, there is a real connection between our bodies and these person-sized vessels. We are drawn forward as we recognize echoes of our own form."

🎖 The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery announced that submissions for the 2023 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics are now open. This is a national award for emerging ceramic artists based in Canada. The winner will receive $10,000, and up to five finalists will have their work featured in a group exhibition at the gallery. Applications are due January 22, 2023.

🏷 Applications are open for the 34th edition of the Gmunden Pottery Market, which will take place August 25-27, 2023, in Gmunden, Austria. The participation fee is around €400. Applications are due December 31, 2022.

🎓 The School of Art & Design at Eastern Michigan University invites applications for a full-time Assistant Professor, tenure-track position starting August 2023. Applications are due January 6, 2023.

🔍 What’s On View: Galileo Chini. Ceramics between Art Nouveau and Deco is on view at MIC Faenza, Faenza / Shades of Winter is on view at Taste Contemporary, Geneva / Abraham Kritzman: Land's End is on view at Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery, London / Lena Takamori: The Shadow In My Mouth is on view at Kunstforum Solothurn, Solothurn / Valérie Hermans is on view at Pierre Marie Giraud, Brussels / Jennifer Forsberg: Mother of Pearl is on view at Halmstads Konsthall, Halmstad / Clay as Soft Power: Shigaraki Ware in Postwar America and Japan is on view at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor / Nick Ervinck: Blob Mutations and More is on view at Franzis Engels Gallery, Amsterdam