80 – An exhibition examining The Future of Clay

Ceramics Now Weekly #80 highlights articles about two ceramic art exhibitions, the week's news in the ceramics world, and new featured artists.

Hello! Welcome to the 80th edition of Ceramics Now Weekly. This is Vasi Hirdo, the founding editor of Ceramics Now.

I hope you are doing well today 👋 Before we dive in, I'd like to highlight the latest issue of Ceramics Now Magazine, featuring the powerful work of Raven Halfmoon on the cover. All magazine issues are free for Ceramics Now members. Learn more about subscriptions and join our community here if you haven't already done so.

Let's see what's new.

The Future of Clay: Many Futures, Many Pasts

By Jennifer Zwilling

“We know that ceramic objects have long been used as valued carriers of the physical life of the community, its water and food, as well as its intellectual life – its culture. The adorned surfaces captured information about what the community valued, its concepts of beauty, and the technology it possessed, indelibly transcribed onto their surfaces to be communicated eons into the future.

Thinking about ceramics from the past in relation to dynamic contemporary artists working in clay raises intriguing questions: How do contemporary artists working with clay represent our cultural moment? How will the ideas of the early 21st century be interpreted in the future? How will the use of clay to make art evolve as our culture and technology change so rapidly? These questions form the core of our exhibition (at The Clay Studio), which aims to examine the future of this ancient material.”

Cuts, Stripes and Knots. A retrospective presentation of Martin Bodilsen Kaldahl

By Christina Rauh Oxbøll

Throughout Autumn and Winter 2024/25, CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark presents 'Martin Bodilsen Kaldahl: Cuts, Stripes, and Knots – A Ceramic Retrospective'. The exhibition offers a generous view of Kaldahl's persistent exploration of the sculptural potential of ceramics over more than three decades, complemented by several new pieces made for the exhibition. These recent works demonstrate that the artist's passion for clay and urge to explore new possibilities of form remain as vital as ever.

New featured artists in Ceramics Now

The week’s news in the ceramic world

⏳ Only a few weeks remain to submit your applications for two prestigious ceramic art competitions: the XVII International Biennale of Artistic Ceramics of Aveiro in Portugal, with an application deadline of November 30, and the 63rd Faenza Prize – International Competition of Ceramic Art (Italy), with submissions closing on December 17. I highly recommend these two events. Don't miss this chance!

🔷 Blue Line Arts (California) invites artists all over the world to participate in their annual ceramics exhibition, Off Center. While they eagerly welcome submissions of all kinds—functional and non-functional pottery, sculptural works, jewelry, abstract forms, and mixed media—next year’s Off Center seeks to champion the ambitious and the avant-garde. The 2025 exhibition will be juried by Nancy Servis. Applications are due January 17, 2025. Submission fee: $35.

👉 Applications for the Frechen Ceramics Award 2025 are now open to artists living in the countries of the European Union. Organized by the Keramion Foundation - Center for Modern and Historical Ceramics, the applications are open until February 28, 2025. Several prizes, including the Frechener Keramikpreis (€3000), will be awarded.

💡 The Rothko Museum (Latvia) invites artists to apply to the 13th International CERAMIC LABORATORY Symposium. Organized between April 28 - May 16, in a close partnership with the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Ceramics, this vibrant creative forum is an open creative platform for contemporary experiments in the ceramic medium. Each year, the event attracts the world's leading ceramic artists who spend almost three weeks in a shared studio space, fully equipped for different firing techniques – from electric and wood firing to more experimental technologies. Applications are due January 31, 2025.

📍 The Australian Ceramics Open Studios 2024 event is happening this weekend, November 23-24. ACOS is an annual weekend event celebrating clay, community, and creativity. Hosted by The Australian Ceramics Association, close to 200 ceramics studios around Australia open their doors to offer a peek into their making, practical demonstrations, and the chance to take home a handmade piece.

⭐ One of the most prestigious events celebrating contemporary ceramics, the 2024 Taiwan Ceramics Biennial, opened last month at the New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan. The winning works: Grand Prix: Sato Masayuki, Gold Award: Kwon Jin-hee, Silver Award: Huang Jing, Bronze Award: Yulia Batirova and Marat Mukhametov. The exhibition is on view through April 6, 2025.

👌 Another reputable competition/exhibition, this time in Geneva, Switzerland, is closing soon. There are a few days left to view 'Festivities': The 19th International Ceramics Competition of Carouge. Congratulations to the winners: 1st Prize: Thimothée Humbert, 2nd Prize: Valdas Kurklietis, 3rd Prize: Stanislas Cornier.

🗨 Join artists Jo Pearl and Kim Norton for Clay in Conversation 9: Terra, the ninth in a series of conversations curated by artist Julia Ellen Lancaster, presenting artists working with clay and ceramics. Each conversation centers on a specific theme - acting as a lens through which the artists will present a piece of work or project. A conversation chaired by Tessa Peters and a Q&A session with the audience follows the presentations. The event will be held at Portland Hall, London, on November 28.

🗨 The North-West Ceramics Foundation is hosting its next Speakers Series on Sunday, November 24, at 1 PM PST, featuring Winnipeg artist Grace Nickel. Nickel's talk, "The Historical and Contemporary Legacy of Anabaptist Ceramics," will focus on the obscure branch of ceramics known as Haban ware or Haban faience, produced by Anabaptist potters from the mid-16th to the late-19th century in Central and Eastern Europe. The online presentation is free.

🎓 Ceramics Jobs Board:

• The University of South Dakota (Vermillion, SD) is hiring an Assistant Professor in Ceramics (Tenure Track)

• University of Florida (Gainesville, FL) is hiring an Assistant/Associate Professor of Ceramics in the Expanded Field

• SAIC - School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL) is hiring a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Ceramics

• Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL) is hiring an Assistant Professor (Ceramics)

• University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Lincoln, NE) is hiring an Assistant Professor – Ceramics/Sculpture

Exhibitions

Discover these ceramic exhibitions that were recently featured in Ceramics Now.

What's on View:'

1. Raina Lee: Cartes Postales at Stroll Garden, Los Angeles

2. Shida Kuo: Selected Work 1993-2023 at Nunu Fine Art, New York

3. The Shape of Here and Prophetic Land at Make Houser & Wirth, Somerset

4. Johannes Nagel: Cutting Edge at Florian Daguet-Bresson, Paris

5. Alain Gaudebert: Introspectives and Laure Gaudebert: Terres à Histoires at Centre Céramique Contemporaine de Giroussens, Giroussens

6. Formative Narratives: 2024 ClayHouston Members Show at The Silos at Sawyer Yards, Houston

7. Faces of Flame by Ekta Bagri at Ruup & Form, London

8. Natasja Alers and Anne Silverstrand Forest: in flux/in limbo at NQ Gallery, Antwerp

9. Nicholas Arroyave-Portela: Remnants at Vessel Gallery, London

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