Kirsten Spuijbroek (b. 1981) is an artist based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She studied Product Design at ArtEZ Institute of the Arts, graduating with a BA in 2009, and previously attended the Hout- en Meubileringscollege in Amsterdam.

Spuijbroek’s work explores difficult and often unspoken aspects of human experience, with a particular focus on grief, loss, inner emptiness, vulnerability, and emotions that are frequently avoided because of their painful nature. Rather than softening these experiences, she gives them form through sculptures that can appear erratic, uneasy, and untamed, often using a dark and restrained visual language.

Her porcelain flower sculptures bring together fragility and permanence. Flowers become symbols of life’s transience and of the spaces created by absence and loss, while the material itself allows her to explore the tension between delicacy and resilience. Spuijbroek pushes her materials to their limits, experimenting with their behavior and possibilities. Her works do not seek to resolve the emotions they address, but instead create space for contemplation and reflection.

Spuijbroek’s work has been presented at venues and events including the International Biennale of Artistic Ceramics in Aveiro, Portugal; the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza, Italy; CODA Museum in Apeldoorn; Tropenmuseum Amsterdam; and Museum Arnhem. She has also participated in numerous exhibitions in the Netherlands and internationally and completed residencies at the European Ceramic Work Centre (EKWC) in 2017 and 2022. In 2023, she was selected for the International Competition of Contemporary Ceramic Art at MIC Faenza.

Her work is held in the collections of the GRASSI Museum of Applied Arts in Leipzig and Museum Arnhem, as well as in private collections. Spuijbroek is represented by ROOF-A Gallery in Rotterdam.

Visit Kirsten Spuijbroek’s website and Instagram page.

Featured work

Selected works, 2022-2025

After the fire and Passage, 2025

Gates stand as guardians of emotional wellbeing, marking the boundary between comfort and growth. They hold the tension of choice, the moment when one must decide whether to remain in the familiar or step into the unknown. To pass through is to face fear, to leave behind what is safe, and to embrace the possibilities that lie beyond.

In every form, the gate becomes a symbol of transition: the passage from one state to another, from certainty to uncertainty, from the known into the uncharted. It calls for courage, inviting each step forward, each crossing of the threshold, and the encounter with whatever awaits on the other side.

Persist in being, 2022

With this work, she shows a more dramatic perspective of the flower by including the flower stem. By building a construction around a fresh flower to uphold it and then gradually dripping casting clay over the flower and its construction, as if they were tears. These fresh flowers evaporate during the firing process. Hereby the residu from what was once alive is transformed into a void. A void which is always there, sustained by it’s surroundings.

This body of work is part of a series of sculptures for which she developed her technique during a residentie at the European Ceramic Workcentre (EKWC) in 2022.

The construction of this sculpture is made out of slipcased sticks and is build up with the clay still being wet. When she is finished with the construction/ the scaffolding, the fresh flowers that are pre covered in clay are put into their position. Where after the casting clay will be dripped over the entire composition, this dripping process will take several days to get the wanted feel and thickness. Glazed accents are added when the clay is dry and also act as a form of glue. The whole piece is single high fired at 1220 degrees.

Facing in, 2022

This artwork involves real flowers being coated with a layer of porcelain. After firing in the kiln, the flower completely disappears, leaving only an impression of what once existed. It’s not an exact representation, but rather a trace- an echo of what once was. This process of immersing flowers in porcelain is endlessly repeated in my studio. This work, this sculptural installation, offers a glimpse into the ongoing activity in my creative space. It shows the eternalization of my process.

My technique of transforming flowers with porcelain results in sculptures that symbolize the fragility of life, while shedding light on inner emptiness and processes of mourning. My work focuses on experiencing and visualizing loss, as well as the contemplation and reflection that follows, which are deeply intertwined with my personal journey of processing and acceptance.

Captions

• After The Fire, 2025, porcelain, steel, 200 × 35 × 35 cm. Photos: Aad Hogendoorn
• Passage Two to Seven, 2025, porcelain, 49 × 39 × 7 cm. Photo: Aad Hogendoorn
• Passage One to Five, 2025, porcelain, 49 × 39 × 7 cm. Photo: Aad Hogendoorn
• Passage Five, 2025, porcelain, 49 × 39 × 7 cm
• Passage Five, 2025, porcelain, 49 × 39 × 7 cm
• Passage One, 2025, porcelain, 49 × 39 × 7 cm
• Passage Two, 2025, porcelain, 49 × 39 × 7 cm
• Persist In Being – One, 2022, stoneware, 65 × 27 × 27 cm
• Persist In Being – Two, 2022, stoneware, 35 × 35 × 35 cm
• Persist In Being – Three, 2022, stoneware, 35 × 35 × 35 cm
• Facing In, 2022, porcelain, burned wood, silver, 14k gold, 150 × 400 × 350 cm. Photos: Thomas van Oorschot

The 2026 Tendencies exhibition is the 47th edition of a series of annual presentations that began in 1970, when Norwegian artist Erik Pløen proposed a yearly craft exhibition to Galleri F 15’s then-director, Lars Brandstrup. The exhibition is on view June 20th through October 11th at Galleri F 15 in Moss, a quick forty-minute train ride from Oslo. This year’s show is special as it features work by Pløen himself. In honor of his artistic development, it focuses on the medium of ceramics through a balance of more traditional craftsmanship with experimental techniques and concept-driven works.

The ten Nordic artists exhibiting include Anders Hald, Andrea Scholze, Ane Fabricius Christiansen, Anton Alvarez, Astrid Sleire, Christina Schou Christensen, Erik Pløen, Fanny Ollas, Nina Andrea Standerholen, and Wisam Al-Samad. Titled Kneaded. Shaped. Fired. because of the focus on ceramics, the show is curated by Maria C. Havstam who is the Head of the Art Department and Interim Director of Galleri F 15. Havstam also cites the “mad potter” George Ohr for the curatorial direction focused on the material’s ability to engage the head, heart, hand, and soul.

Knead, shape, fire, head, heart, hand, soul. There are a lot of ideas being thrown around so the theme may feel muddled. Luckily, this is the basis for an art exhibition and not an important safety announcement. The title is a misnomer as some work is a mixture of unwedged slip or free-flowing glaze, while other works are unfired clay sculptures made in-situ. That being said, the Tendencies exhibition does reflect the array of contemporary ceramic practices that have grown out of studio pottery.

Ceramics is a funny medium because it teeters between truth to material and immaculate illusion. The works of Christina Schou Christensen and Ane Fabricius Christiansen both quintessentially define the material’s paradoxes, utilizing its ability to freeze time and gravity. In the works exhibited with Galleri F 15, Ane Fabricius Christiansen casts metal directly onto the clay within the kiln. Her works appear geological, perhaps even extraterrestrial. Upon the wall is a petrified spine consisting of several layers of once molten strata. It is alchemical, drawing a parallel between the earthly remains of humanity and the awe-inspiring stalactites and stalagmites deep within untouched caves, both made of the mineral calcium.

Artist Christina Schou Christensen also uses the fluidity of ceramic materials to explore corporeality but in a playful manner. Like many artists working in relation to clay, I am very much familiar with her gloopy colors dripping and pooling out of bulbous sockets. The artist says audience responses vary from miming vomiting to expressing a desire to eat the works. There is something sickening and yet innately animal about this, like the scavenging instinct of a creature eating feces that contains undigested fats and proteins. My metaphor is fitting considering Christensen’s work incorporates reused fired clay and waste materials such as medical glass. It is poetic how the larger sculptures require internal scaffolding to mitigate tension and prevent the thick glaze or clay body from shattering, which in turn creates layered pools of glaze.The interior is externalized and a purely practical technique develops the work’s formal complexity.

Christensen is motivated by a desire for child-like fun and humor continues as a theme within the exhibited works of Andrea Scholze and Fanny Ollas. Ollas anthropomorphizes traditional vases into confident and sassy characters with hands on their hips while Scholze’s humans and animals are vulnerable, lonely, and lifeless—in a funny way. For the opening, Scholze installed a huddled up sculpture in the driver’s seat of her own Pontiac. Is he psyching himself up to leave this party full of strangers or to drive to a meeting with his manager in which they are almost certainly not going to fire him? I remember seeing Scholze’s work at Ceramics Brussels in her solo booth with Oslo-based QB Gallery but did not know that even Scholze’s largest works are raw glazed. The holes punctuating many of her large forms help to shape the creatures in the making process and also reveal the material to viewers through the unglazed surface within.

In contrast to the rough ceramic surface of Scholze’s works, Fanny Ollas’ ceramic forms are pristine. Her vase sculptures would be almost too well-behaved if they weren’t cocking their necks at an angle as though I asked a very dumb question. The sculptures hold Wonder Woman power poses, dressed in couture designs thanks to Ollas’ background in fashion. Pink Trophy features a macramé rope outfit with a high-low skirt to show that this trophy is a glamorous yet free-spirited gal. Her sculptures have Mean Girls Regina George energy which feels aligned with contemporary culture while also recalling traditional vase forms and the crafts ethos of the original Tendencies exhibitions.

As always, many of the works must be seen in person. The work of Anders Hald, specifically the central sculpture of his series We Can Be Heroes, really holds your attention. Titled after a David Bowie song, this series was made last year during Hald’s three-month residency at Senter for keramisk kunst in Ringebu, Norway. Hald’s practice includes wall-based ceramic reliefs and cast bronze sculptures. All three sculptures in the exhibition were made through the process of carving, removing material from a solid block of clay formed around an iron core. The central sculpture is made of a dark, iron-rich clay body covered in a simple and humble white glaze but its energy is powerful. The hunched shoulder of this life-size humanoid creature, reminiscent of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring or the iconic cover of National Geographic’s 1985 issue featuring Steve McCurry’s photo Afghan Girl, contains a sense of intimacy. It feels so vulnerable and tender that I want to comfort it.

Artist Astrid Sleire’s nearby installation of works can provide this comfort through the landscape of handheld geometric sculptures. This series is made from carefully arranged stacks of slab-built forms glazed in matte greens alongside shimmery transparent to reveal slivers of the red clay beneath. Titled Omriss (Outline), it is integral to see through the individual works, for some to layer and optically become a shared unit. The body of work was made specifically in response to the word “tendencies,” to go on, and I see it as a pattern of behaviors or a rephrasing of the same sentiment. Sleire masterfully engages the viewer’s eye, which scans the horizon line she has created. I find my gaze bouncing along the jagged edges, resting in the shadows, and gaining momentum as though I am on slide.

Other works also come alive when experienced through embodied looking. If you view the works of Anton Alvarez through some documentation shots against a stark white background online, then it will seem like a designed object you can purchase at a fancy wine shop that also sells Perelló olives and tasteful bouquets of wildflowers. Big mistake. Rather than the size of a can of olives, the scale of these sculptures in Tendencies is closer to that of tree trunks.

Alvarez uses machines he developed to create clay extrusions that may be modified and assembled as they were for this exhibition. The three sculptures Alvarez made for the gallery are massive columns, two of which are too tall for me to look into. A peek inside the shorter one reveals that the sculptures are made of unfired, raw clay. The exterior of these pillars are spray painted in expressive swathes of rainbow colors that add hue without hiding the texture. I can’t help but recall the work of Katherina Grosse as I recently saw her solo exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey in London. Alvarez has spoken of his history painting graffiti and his practice reflects a continued engagement with architecture. Like pillars of the Parthenon on the Acropolis, his sculptures disguise their emotional quality through a language of utility.

While Alvarez expresses the use of color, or rather many colors, came from a spontaneous decision, artists Wisam Al-Samad and Nina Andrea Standerholen were more intentional with their choices. Al-Samad is a Norwegian artist who was born in Iraq and in the work titled Aurora of Love, he uses a color palette that draws from his Eastern background and the Northern Lights of where he now lives. The forms are inspired by Arabic words for love. Nina Standerholen also similarly draws from her background, specifically her years as a sheep shepherd. Working in Norway’s oldest national park Rondane, Standerholen uses not only natural clay and sand as materials but is also inspired by the subtle colors that reveal themselves in the park year after year. Her work grows out of a deep and personal relationship with Norway’s natural landscape. The curator’s vision of head, heart, hand, and soul is perhaps most clear through Standerholen’s practice.

I initially misunderstood this exhibition to exclusively represent Norwegian ceramicists so I was surprised to see images of Christina Schou Christensen’s prior to visiting as I thought she was Danish… which she is. Rather than specifically Norwegian artists, Tendencies foregrounds the work of ten Nordic artists. Perhaps it is only my own ignorance but I had to look into the distinction between Scandinavian and Nordic countries. Scandinavia includes the intertwined Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish countries while the Nordics include those three in addition to Finland, Iceland, Greenland, The Faroe Islands, and Åland. These other countries were not the focal point in this year’s exhibition. The curator selected the artists after consulting the Clay Museum in Denmark and the Röhsska Museum in Sweden so this could have contributed to the particular selection of artists.

Additionally, Norwegian studio pottery history is recent and the ceramic art scene is therefore arguably even younger. According to Knut Astrup Bull, the Senior Curator of Design and Decorative Arts at the National Museum, no Norwegian pottery was discovered with the Vikings. Early Norse people commonly carved vessels from horn, wood, and steatite with potteries established later than other countries. Studio craft only began in Norway between World War I and World War II with earthenware tableware. Porcelain entered the scene in the late 70s, when Japanese and non-traditional west coast American influences came into the country through foreign artists coming to teach at schools in Bergen.

It could be said that academia was the main juncture facilitating knowledge exchange and giving studio pottery artists the resources to further develop their practices. Erik Pløen also traveled as a professor to the University of Chicago and experimented with gas-fired kilns and ash glazes during this time. Upon returning to Norway, Pløen installed Norway’s first ceramic gas kiln in 1964. There is a gorgeous work, simply titled Floor vase from 1975 exhibited in this edition of Tendencies that demonstrates Pløen’s skill of marrying form and glaze.

A gargantuan floor-to-ceiling shelving unit in a secluded room of the gallery features works by Pløen from the 1950s into the 2000s. The works made later in his life have fin-like appendages that provide a sharp edge or pointed tip to counter the soft curves of the vessel. Like the work of Astrid Sleire, Pløen’s practice also has an internal rhythm and inertia. His body of work on display speaks to a period of experimentation and conversation with ceramic artists in nearby Scandinavian countries and as far as the USA.

This exhibition demonstrates how a tradition like studio pottery successfully remains alive and maintains continuous ties to the present. Rather than a literal homage to Erik Pløen and his idea for Tendencies, Galleri F 15 presents artists that represent the contemporary expression of the medium in sculpture, alongside free programming for young children. It is clear proof that public financial support for the arts and crafts sector is important for bolstering emerging and established artists outside of commercial environments, and is also conducive to supporting the longevity of longitudinal projects like Tendencies.

Unu Sohn is an artist and ceramicist based in London. She holds a master’s degree in ceramics from the Royal College of Art.

47th Tendencies: Kneaded. Shaped. Fired. is on view between June 20 and October 11, 2026, at Galleri F 15, in Moss, Norway.

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Captions

• Ane Fabricius Christiansen, Tilstandsportrætter, 2024. Photo by Eivind Lauritzen, courtesy of Galleri F 15
• Christina Schou Christensen, Ooze, 2026. Photo by Eivind Lauritzen, courtesy of Galleri F 15
• Andrea Scholze, Tenker tilbake, 2026. Photo by Eivind Lauritzen, courtesy of Galleri F 15
• Fanny Ollas. Photo by Eivind Lauritzen, courtesy of Galleri F 15
• Anders Hald, We can be heroes, 2025. Photo by Eivind Lauritzen, courtesy of Galleri F 15
• Astrid Sleire, Omriss, 2026. Photo by Eivind Lauritzen, courtesy of Galleri F 15
• Anton Alvarez, 1806261800 and 1806261730, 2026. Photo by Eivind Lauritzen, courtesy of Galleri F 15
• Anton Alvarez, 1806261800, 2026. Photo by Eivind Lauritzen, courtesy of Galleri F 15
• Nina Andrea Standerholen, Det man kan se når man er nede på kne. Photo by Eivind Lauritzen, courtesy of Galleri F 15
• Wisam Al-Samad, The Road to Love, 2023, and Aurora of Love, 2025. Photo by Eivind Lauritzen, courtesy of Galleri F 15
• Erik Pløen. Photo by Eivind Lauritzen, courtesy of Galleri F 15

Heide Nonnenmacher (b. 1951, Stuttgart) is a ceramic artist based in Nattheim, Germany. She studied art at the University of Education in Schwäbisch Gmünd from 1971 to 1974 and established her own studio in 1982. Throughout her career, she has participated in multiple international residencies and exchanges, including artist residencies in Shigaraki, Japan (2003), at the Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan (2015), and in Jingdezhen-Sanbao, China (2019). She is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics (IAC).

Working primarily with porcelain, Nonnenmacher develops sculptural forms informed by structures found in nature and by the fossil landscape of the region where she lives. Her work has drawn particularly on the fossil phenomenon around Nattheim, as well as forms associated with plant and animal life and underwater organisms. She describes her process as a mixed-media technique in which absorbent materials such as cellulose, wool, sponges, and roots are used as carriers for porcelain, enabling her to construct intricate forms and fine structures.

Nonnenmacher has exhibited extensively in Germany and internationally, including at the Premio Faenza, the Korean International Ceramics Biennale, the Porcelain Biennale Meissen, the Jingdezhen International Ceramic Biennale, the Latvia Ceramics Biennale, and the International Biennial of Ceramic Art of Aveiro. Her distinctions include honorable mentions at the Korean International Ceramics Biennale in 2015 and the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale in 2016, the Hessian State Award in 2023, and the Baden-Württemberg State Award in 2014 and 2024. Her work is represented in several public collections, including the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, the Yingge Ceramics Museum, the Sanbao Museum in Jingdezhen, and the Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart.

Visit Heide Nonnenmacher’s website and Instagram page.

Featured work

Selected works, 2020-2025

Heide Nonnenmacher: Selected works, 2020-2025

My work grows out of a fascination with the natural structures that surround me and with the ancient geological history of Nattheim, where I live and work. Around 150 million years ago, this region was part of the Swabian Jurassic Sea. Its corals, sponges, radiolarians, and other marine organisms, preserved today as fossils, provide an important source for my forms. I am especially drawn to their filigree structures, repetitions, and the ways in which organic forms are preserved, transformed, and reappear in new configurations.

Porcelain allows me to translate these structures into sculptural objects. I work particularly with paper porcelain and different carrier materials, especially thin, long-fiber paper, which help me create extremely delicate forms. Pinching is also an important part of my process. I am interested in the moment when porcelain seems to lose its expected hardness: surfaces can appear soft, textile-like, or as if they are moving in water. My exploration of these structures began with the idea of reproducing the subtleties of a wasp or hornet’s nest in porcelain. From there, my work developed through the botanical forms of the Orto Botanico series and toward the underwater world of the Swabian Alb. Fractal structures and the repetition of forms found in nature remain central to works such as Homage to the Jura Sea and Radiolarians.

Since 2020, climate change has become another important part of my work. I am concerned with the effects of global warming on coral reefs, particularly coral bleaching and species extinction. Rather than approaching these questions through resignation, I think about transformation and survival: Where do the living creatures of the reef go when the water becomes warmer or rises? How might they survive, reproduce, or mutate? In translating these possibilities into ceramic form, new structures and imagined organisms emerge. Through them, I continue to explore the complexity of nature and its ongoing processes of growth, transformation, decay, and renewal.

Captions

• Attitude Matters 1, 2025, porcelain, 55–58 cm H × 13–17 cm D. Photo: Ignacio Iturrioz
• Attitude Matters 3, 2025, porcelain, glass, 55–58 cm H × 15–17 cm D. Photo: Ignacio Iturrioz
• Attitude Matters 2, 2025, porcelain, 58 cm H × 22 cm D. Photo: Ignazio Itturioz
• Attitude Matters 4, 2025, porcelain, 54 cm H × 17 cm D. Photo: Ignacio Iturrioz
• Attitude Matters 5, 2025, porcelain, 56 cm H × 18 cm D. Photo: Ignacio Iturrioz
• Attitude Matters 6, 2025, porcelain, 54 cm H × 17 cm D. Photo: Ignacio Iturrioz
• Propagation 6, 2023, porcelain, 34 × 24 × 21 cm. Photo: Ignacio Iturrioz
• Propagation 1, 2023, porcelain, 34 × 17 × 24 cm. Photo: Ignacio Iturrioz
• Propagation 2, 2023, porcelain, 28 × 16 × 19 cm. Photo: Ignacio Iturrioz
• Propagation 3, 2023, porcelain, 23 × 16 × 22 cm. Photo: Ignacio Iturrioz
• Propagation 4, 2023, porcelain, 28 × 16 × 15 cm. Photo: Ignacio Iturrioz
• Propagation 8, 2023, porcelain, 27 × 12 × 9 cm. Photo: Ignacio Iturrioz
• Fractal, 2021, porcelain, variable dimensions. Photo: Doris Leuschner
• ZeitRaum, 2020, porcelain, 55 × 56 × 57 cm. Photo: Doris Leuschner

We’re hiring! Ceramics Now is looking for a Freelance Editorial Assistant to help us publish artist profiles and introduce the work of more ceramic artists to our international readership. This is a remote freelance position for approximately 8 hours per week, with flexibility around when those hours are worked. Compensation is $15-25/hour, depending on experience and location. The role could work particularly well alongside an artistic practice, studies, or other freelance work.

There’s only one month left to submit your work for Ceramics Now Annual, our new flagship publication launching this December (when we also celebrate 16 years of Ceramics Now). Published in print and digital editions, the Annual will feature at least 20 artists selected through an international open call, with the digital edition free to read. Open to ceramic artists worldwide, the call has no fixed theme. Selected artists will receive a dedicated profile in the Annual, online and newsletter visibility, and permanent archival presence on Ceramics Now. We look forward to receiving your applications by September 15, 2026. Submission fee: $15.

The Jane Hartsook Gallery at Greenwich House Pottery is accepting exhibition proposals for its 2027–2028 season. Open to artists and curators working with ceramics as the primary medium, the call welcomes solo, group, and curatorial proposals that reflect the wide-ranging possibilities of clay across art, craft, and design. Selected exhibitions will take place between August 2027 and May 2028, with each exhibition on view for approximately six weeks. Applicants must be 21 or older and not currently enrolled in an education program. Proposals are due September 1, 2026.

Artists are invited to apply to OPEN STUDIO 2026, the second International Contemporary Ceramics Prize organized by Fondazione Cèramica Montelupo for the Cèramica Festival in Montelupo Fiorentino, Italy. The main prize is €2,000, with additional cash prizes, two artist residency awards, scholarships, special mentions, and partner prizes also available. Applications are due October 19, 2026.

Applications are also open for the 10th International Modern Teapot Art Biennial, taking place in Wuxi, China, from November 19–23, 2026. Works submitted through the global open call will primarily be considered for the Global Modern Teapot Art Exhibition. Selected participants receive accommodation, meals, local transport, access to official events, and a cultural visit to Yixing, the birthplace of Zisha teapot culture. Submissions close October 11, 2026.

Artists based in the UK are invited to apply for the British Ceramics Biennial Mentorship Programme 2026/27, open to early-career creatives working in clay who feel they face barriers to career progression or accessing professional networks. The free online programme will support up to seven artists from October 2026 to February 2027 through mentoring sessions, a bespoke artist film, promotion, peer networking, and support from the BCB team. Applications are due September 15, 2026.

Earthworks and Gertrude are inviting applications for a three-month ceramics residency in London. The residency offers time, studio access, and community for the development of a new body of small-scale ceramic work, alongside six months of free membership at Gertrude. The programme is free to apply to and free to participate in, with shared studio facilities and firings included, though accommodation and materials are not provided. Residency periods run from November 2026 to January 2027 and from February to April 2027. Applications are due September 21, 2026.

Artists able to work on-site in London can also apply for County Hall Pottery’s new landmark ceramic commission. The competition will select one artist to create a permanent outdoor ceramic sculpture for the historic courtyards of County Hall. Proposals should be figurative, human or animal, respond to the theme of peace, and be made primarily in ceramic. The selected artist will receive a £10,000 commission fee, four months of studio space, kiln access, materials, and technical support. Applications are due September 6, 2026.

The Taoxichuan Art Center Residency Program in Jingdezhen is accepting applications for its 2027 Migratory Bird Program. Open to all artists working with ceramics, glass materials, woodworking, painting, and other composite materials, the residency invites artists to explore Jingdezhen’s ceramic traditions and contemporary art ecosystem. Residency periods are available between February 2027 and January 2028, with a minimum duration of eight weeks. Applicants will be reviewed in three categories: Invited Artists, Half Self-funded Artists, and Self-funded Artists, with support ranging from accommodation and studio space to travel reimbursement and a creation grant. Applications close August 28, 2026. Interested applicants should contact residencyjdz@outlook.com

Book recommendation: Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America [Craft in America]. Craft in America presents a compelling and essential portrait of American culture through an extraordinary range of handmade objects. The book is a visually stunning, deeply inspiring celebration of America’s spirit through ordinary, surprising, and overlooked handcrafted objects spanning more than 250 years. Edited by Emily Zaiden, director and lead curator of the Craft in America Center, with a foreword by Carol Sauvion, the visionary behind the Peabody Award–winning PBS series Craft in America, this book is part of a sweeping national initiative marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Find the book on Bookshop .org (US) or Amazon (world).

Exhibitions

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

• Fractured Foundations: 250 Years of American History at the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, CA
• Anna Maria Maiolino: Poetic Earth at MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon
• Paolo Porelli and Mattia Vernocchi: Contemporary Ceramics from Italy at Stadtmuseum Siegburg, Siegburg
• Xanthe Somers & Yacout Hamdouch: Poetic Threads | Spotlight: James Barnor at October Gallery, London
• Anton Alvarez: The Colour of Gravity at Helsinki Contemporary, Helsinki
• Gabriel Chaile: Archaeology of Memory at Whitechapel Gallery, London

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Featured image: Urban Blue – From Bricks to Tiles at the Royal Delft Museum, Delft

We’re hiring: Freelance Editorial Assistant at Ceramics Now

Posted on August 12, 2026

Ceramics Now is looking for a Freelance Editorial Assistant to help us publish artist profiles and introduce the work of more ceramic artists to our international readership.

Artist profiles are an important part of Ceramics Now, but preparing them for publication requires a lot of careful (and sometimes repetitive) editorial and visual work. We’re looking for someone who can curate submitted materials into clear, accurate, and visually strong profiles while presenting each artist’s work in the most compelling way.

This is a remote freelance position for approximately 8 hours per week, with flexibility around when those hours are worked. Compensation is $15-25/hour, depending on experience and location. The role could work particularly well alongside an artistic practice, studies, or other freelance work.

Applications are due September 10, 2026

Main responsibilities:

• Editing and proofreading artist statements and biographies for clarity, grammar, consistency, accuracy, and readability
• Reviewing submitted images and selecting the strongest works for publication
• Arranging images in a thoughtful sequence that creates a good visual rhythm
• Matching captions with the correct images and checking that titles, dates, materials, dimensions, and photo credits are accurate and consistently formatted
• Creating Artist Profile pages and posts on our website (we use WordPress), including uploading and formatting text, images, and captions
• Curating a selection of 5-8 images from each Artist Profile for social media

We’re looking for someone who is organized, reliable, and genuinely interested in contemporary ceramics. You should have some experience with editing, arts writing, curatorial work, or a related field, and be comfortable working independently and paying close attention to detail.

We’re particularly interested in hearing from practicing artists or people with a background in ceramics or contemporary art. Being an artist is not a requirement, but familiarity with artist statements, art-world language, and the way artists present their work would be a strong advantage. A good visual eye is essential. Ultimately, this role is about understanding how images work together and how an artist’s practice can be presented thoughtfully and accurately.

We hope this role can grow over time. If things go well, there may be opportunities to take on additional projects, contribute to other areas of the publication, and become more involved with Ceramics Now.

Ceramics Now is an independent publication dedicated to contemporary ceramics. By joining us, you’ll help us expand our artist coverage and give more artists from around the world the opportunity to have their work seen, documented, and shared with a wider audience.

To apply, please email us at office@ceramicsnow.org with a short introduction about yourself, your relevant experience, and why you’re interested in working with us.

Astrid Sleire (b. 1961) is a Norwegian ceramic artist who graduated from The National College of Art and Design in Bergen in 1988. Her practice explores abstract sculptural forms that balance construction and fragility, often referencing architecture and landscape in transformation. Working in her studio in Bergen, she pursues an explorative and material-conscious approach that lends her ceramic universe a characteristic intensity. Sleire’s practice revolves around experimentation, a movement in material and form towards a precarious position and a balancing act, where the construction plays a supporting role while also making an immediate statement.

Sleire has presented pieces in invited and juried exhibitions in Norway and abroad. Her art has been purchased for a number of collections and museums, among them the City of Oslo Art Collection, the National Museum in Oslo, KODE Bergen, Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum and Keramikmuseum Westerwald in Germany. She has carried out several commissions for art in the public space and is the recipient of the 2022 Finn Erik Alsos Memorial Award. Until 2023, she held a position as Associate Professor of Ceramics at The Art Academy, University of Bergen.

Sleire is currently participating in the 47th edition of the exhibition Tendenser called Knadd. Formet. Brent, which focuses on contemporary Nordic ceramics, at Galleri F15. Jeløya, Moss. Her work is also presented in the current exhibition Respons! Norsk Keramikk 1975-2026, at Senter for keramisk kunst, Ringebu. Earlier this year (2026) she showed the solo exhibition Folded Constructions, at Gallery Peach Corner in Copenhagen.

Some other exhibitions worth mentioning are: SKOG Art Space, Oslo (with Karin Blomgren); Brev til lyset (2024), Østfold kunstsenter, Fredrikstad; Opphold (2023), FORMAT, Oslo; Falle til føye (2023), Kunstgarasjen, Bergen; Bakkekontakt (2021), RAM gallery, Oslo; Fortune Tellers (2022/2023), curated by Randi Grov Berger, Kunsthall Grenland, Porsgrunn.

Visit Astrid Sleire’s website and Instagram page.

Featured work

Selected works, 2025-2026

Folded Constructions, 2026

Astrid Sleire’s works highlight the constructed and assembled – architectural qualities. In the exhibition Folded Constructions, Astrid Sleire explores the movements of the material and how the shape can create a space for new possibilities. She aims to strike a balance between construction and expression, between the structural and the immediate.

The clay is rolled out into thin sheets and then folded and joined together into zigzag-like structures. Based on the natural colour of the clay, Sleire constructs colour shades through layers of underglaze. Colour patches and stripes move across the object, forming in a pattern that may both reveal and conceal, highlight and camouflage.

Sleire’s works balance at the tipping point between stable and unsettled – between clarity and visual disruptions that invite new interpretations.

Omriss (Outline), 2026

Through an exploratory practice, Astrid Sleire investigates the plastic potential of clay by experimenting with different ways of constructing forms. Thin slabs of clay are sculpted between her hands and joined together into constructions that exist at the tipping point between stable form and collapse. The surfaces of the sculptures are worked through the application of thin layers of glaze that are gradually built up in interaction with repeated firings. By applying the underglaze at the final stage, she achieves the matte surface characteristic of her works. The sculptures appear as poetic, wordless sentences; immediate in expression, yet also open to interpretation.

Folded Constructions – Masked and Rust, 2025

Du Verden. Prelude to something green, 2024-2025

Captions

• Folded Constructions (2025). Red fired clay, glaze, underglaze. Size: Left: 54x27x18 cm. Right: 55,5x35x23cm. Photos: Øystein Klakegg
• Folded Constructions (2025). Detail. Red fired clay, glaze, underglaze. Photos: Øystein Klakegg
• Installation photo from the exhibition Folded Constructions (2026) at Gallery Peach Corner, Copenhagen. Photos: Ole Akhøj
• Folded Constructions (2025). Red clay with blue/purple, orange, underglaze stripes. Size approx H27 cm. Photo: Bjarte Bjørkum
• Folded Constructions (2025). Red clay with blue/purple, orange, underglaze stripes. Size approx. H27 cm. Photo: Bjarte Bjørkum
• Folded Constructions (2025). Red clay with blue/purple, orange, underglaze stripes. Size approx.H27 cm. Photo: Bjarte Bjørkum
• Folded Constructions (2025). Red clay with blue/purple, orange, underglaze stripes. Size approx.H27 cm. Photo: Bjarte Bjørkum
• Omriss / Outline, (2026). Section of a series consisting of 27 pieces. Red fired clay, glaze, underglaze. Variable size, approx. H15 cm. Photos: Øystein Klakegg
• Masked Constructions (2025). Red fired clay, series consisting of 5 pieces, size all together H28xB175xD60 cm. Photos:: Øystein Klakegg
• Folded Constructions – Rust (2025). Red fired clay, consists of 3 pieces. Size approx. H26 cm. Photos: Bjarte Bjørkum
• Du verden (2024-25). Section of a series of five pieces. Black fired clay, glaze, underglaze. Variable size, highest approx. 40 cm. Photos: Øystein Klakegg
• Du verden (2024-25). One piece in a series of five pieces. Black fired clay, glaze, underglaze. Approx. H 38 cm. Photos: Helge Hansen

Ross Junior Owusu is a Ghanaian mixed-media artist working between the United States and Ghana, whose practice spans ceramics, performance, and assemblage. Rooted in contemporary craft, his work examines identity, migration, and cultural memory, focusing on how identities are carried, reshaped, reconstructed across shifting geographies and asking what is picked up, and what is left behind in our Cultural journeys.

Owusu received his MFA in Studio Art from Wayne State University in Detroit and a BA in Industrial Art (Ceramics) from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. His work draws from West African visual languages, particularly Krobo bead traditions, which he reinterprets through modular, large-scale ceramic forms that function as vessels of movement, memory, and belonging.

His work has been featured in national and international exhibitions, including the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Annual Exhibition and Multicultural Fellowship Exhibition, as well as solo and two-person exhibitions across the United States. His work has been recognized through awards and residencies including the Watershed Zenobia Award, Penland School of Craft, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts.

Alongside his studio practice, Owusu is an educator committed to material-based inquiry and culturally grounded teaching. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Art and Program Lead at Talladega College (AL), where he teaches ceramics, design, and art history, fostering interdisciplinary approaches to making and critical engagement with contemporary art practice.

Visit Ross Junior Owusu’s website and Instagram page.

Featured work

Selected works, 2025-2026

Becoming Giants (ancestral pride), 2026

Scale and repetition give Becoming Giants its sense of presence. Small modular elements are built into larger vertical structures, turning individual gestures into forms that feel monumental and connecting them to ideas of ancestry and inheritance.

The series reflects on how ancestry is carried forward and reinterpreted over time, particularly within diasporic experience. Although the structures appear strong, their stacked construction also gives them a sense of vulnerability and balance.

Journeys (We all Have Stories), 2026

Migration is explored in Journeys through movement, breakage, repair, and reconstruction. Clay records these changes, with surfaces and forms carrying traces of what has been broken, altered, or rebuilt.

The vessel functions both as an object and as a metaphor for memory, absence, and belonging. Rather than presenting home or identity as fixed, Journeys considers how they are continually reshaped through movement and experience.

Across these works, repetition, accumulation, and modular forms become ways of thinking about memory, identity, migration, and cultural inheritance. Clay records touch and change, reflecting identities that continue to develop through experience, movement, and connection.

Just dey Play (stacking up the pieces)

Play becomes a way of making and discovering in Just dey Play. The title describes an intuitive process in which forms are stacked, moved, balanced, and rearranged until new relationships emerge.

The modular pieces sit somewhere between stability and collapse, leaving room for chance and improvisation. Clay records these small adjustments and gestures, making the process of experimentation visible.

BEINGS through the same things, 2025

Shared experiences of migration, adaptation, and survival are at the center of BEINGS through the same things. Repeated forms create a sense of connection, while differences in scale, surface, and shape give each element its own character.

Inspired by repetition and pattern in African beadwork, textiles, and architecture, the series considers how people can experience similar circumstances without becoming the same. Each form remains individual while also belonging to a larger whole.

Forms |In| Formation (Modular Series I), 2025

Built through coiling and repetition, Forms |In| Formation approaches formation as an ongoing process rather than a finished state. Individual units reference Krobo bead traditions as they develop into larger sculptural arrangements.

The forms can be assembled, separated, and reconfigured, reflecting the way identity changes over time. Clay is central to this idea: it responds to touch, pressure, and time, allowing the work to remain somewhere between being formed and still becoming.

Posted on August 15, 2026

The Department of Art at Minot State University invites applications for a ceramics studio manager. The successful candidate must have current and significant experience with studio processes, materials, and technology and a commitment to maintaining an open, accessible and safe learning environment.

This is a part-time staff position in Art. The selected candidate will be responsible for supervising, maintaining, and ensuring safe use of the Ceramic studios of Minot State University.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS/MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Ensure clean and efficient operations, consistent materials and supplies, studio safety, and maintenance of studio facilities and equipment. This includes kiln firings, clay recycling, and general studio cleaning.
• Maintain and communicate all safety protocols for the ceramics studio.
• Collaborate with teaching faculty to maintain a functional studio space that provides students with a positive learning environment and order raw materials and supplies to support all courses.

SECONDARY FUNCTIONS:

• Provide technical and operational support to Ceramic Program courses and students.
• Collaborate with fellow colleagues in art to support a robust art program.
• Work within a pre-determined operating budget.
• Attend department meetings when requested.

JOB SCOPE:

This position is primarily responsible for supervising, maintaining, and ensuring safe use of the Minot State University Ceramics Studios.

SUPERVISOR RESPONSIBILITY:

Position has the option of hiring student workers to assist in the management of the ceramics studio. Student workers need regular direction and feedback on their performance, but can work independently once hired and trained.

Qualifications

EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE:

BA or BFA, or equivalent professional experience required. Prior ceramics experience required. The successful candidate will possess demonstrated proficiency with the following: functional and sculptural ceramics, wheel-throwing, hand-building, glazing, and electric and gas firings.

PREFFERRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, ABILITIES & BEHAVIORS:

The successful candidate will possess demonstrated proficiency with the following:

• Functional and sculptural ceramics, wheel-throwing, hand-building, glazing, slip casting, plaster mold making and electric and gas firings. Familiarity with different clays, glazes with different firing ranges – Cone 04-06, Pit Firing, Raku, Low-fire, Majolica, Midrange, and Cone 10 Hi-fire.
• Orders and tracks clay and sculpture material usage.
• Ability to use, maintain, and instruct others in the use of studio equipment, tools, and processes, troubleshoot studio equipment, and to work with MSU Facilities and exterior vendors for specialized repair, upkeep, and purchasing.
• Knowledge of and commitment to health, sustainability, and safety in studio practice and materials use.
• Communicates with students, faculty, staff and the public appropriately.
• Builds on basic learning and carries it from one situation to another.
• Demonstrates critical thinking skills in problem solving and decision-making.
• Asks questions and seeks assistance.
• Takes responsibility to eliminate the source of problems.
• Maintains proper appearance and personal conduct for the employee’s particular job.
• Uses effective communication skills taking into consideration body language, listening, paraphrasing, and questions.
• Demonstrates ability to work in a team environment.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

Ceramics studio includes hand build and wheel thrown workspaces, multiple ceramics wheels, tools, glazing area, spray hood, pug mill, clay mixer and multiple kilns. No overtime.

APPLICATIONS:

Please upload your letter of intent and most current CV.

We are seeking the best candidate for the job, and that candidate may be a person who comes from a less traditional background. We encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet every minimum qualification described or are unsure if your experience could be considered related experience.

Additional Information

Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Statement:

Minot State University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origins, disability or other protected characteristic. Women, minorities veterans, individual with disabilities, and members of other underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply. Applicants are invited to provide information regarding their gender, race and/or ethnicity, veteran’s status and disability status as part of the application process. This information will remain confidential and separate from your application.

Anton Alvarez: The Colour of Gravity is on view at Helsinki Contemporary, Helsinki

August 7-30, 2026

Helsinki Contemporary is pleased to present Swedish Chilean artist Anton Alvarez’s first solo exhibition in Finland. The Colour of Gravity presents striking ceramic sculptures that play with the human scale and challenge our perceptions of craftsmanship and the use of technology in art.

Anton Alvarez approaches artmaking through materials and processes. He designs and builds machines that he uses to create his works, combining the roles of both engineer and sculptor. In addition to ceramics, Alvarez has worked with materials such as thread and, as of late, papier mâché, creating exhibitions in which, for example, museum staff used an extruder to produce ceramic sculptures for the exhibition while it was on view. In his hands classical motifs such as the Roman pillar take a new form, appearing at the same time ancient, organic, contemporary, and out of this world. Alvarez’s works are both alluring and deceptive: although his pieces are often beautifully glazed and feature inviting textures and forms, there is also a harshness and an edge to his work.

The works in The Colour of Gravity range from large to small. The basic elements of sculpture— the sculpture itself and its base, the interplay between weight and the illusion of weightlessness, and the sculpture’s relationship to space and the human body—take centre stage. In Alvarez’s ceramic works one can sense the gravitational pull of Earth and the pressure of machinery squeezing out clay through a nozzle. The playful dialogue between the familiar and the alien, heaviness and lightness, and the mechanical and the organic makes Alvarez’s oeuvre both approachable and highly conceptual.

Anton Alvarez (b. 1980, Uppsala, Sweden) is a graduate of the Royal College of Art in London and Konstfack in Stockholm. Alvarez’s works are included in the public collections of the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, the Denver Art Museum, and the Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg, as well as in many notable private collections around the world. Alvarez’s works have been featured in numerous solo and group shows in Europe, USA and Asia since 2014. Alvarez has created several public sculptures in Sweden and has collaborated with eg. Gucci, Fendi, Acne and Issey Miyake. The artist lives and works in Stockholm.

His debut at Helsinki Contemporary was in the group exhibition Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat (2024) alongside Jussi Goman and Santeri Lehto.

Contact
info@helsinkicontemporary.com

Helsinki Contemporary
Bulevardi 10
FI-00120 Helsinki
Finland

Photos by Jussi Tiainen

Captions

• Anton Alvarez, 1602211158, 2021, glazed stoneware, 87 x 38 x 20 cm.
• Anton Alvarez, 0804261458, 2026, glazed stoneware, 131 x 44 x 44 cm.
• Anton Alvarez, 2007261001, 2026, glazed stoneware, 54 x 24 x 24 cm.
• Anton Alvarez, 0306261005, 2026, glazed stoneware, 69 x 26 x 26 cm.

Having travelled to Rotterdam Centraal on the Eurostar, it’s an easy ten-minute hop on the Intercity Sprinter to my destination of Delft. This picturesque Dutch city in South Holland, set between Rotterdam and The Hague, is known as the birthplace of Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer and the iconic Delft Blue pottery.

With a population of just over 100,000, it is significant that around 27,000 residents are students, the majority studying at the world-renowned Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). Delft’s historic, canal-lined centre felt wonderfully relaxed during my visit, partly because it coincided with the university holidays, when many students had left the city for a while, and partly because Delft was experiencing an official Red Warning heatwave, with temperatures rising to 37°C.

In the old town stands the medieval Oude Kerk (Old Church), over 800 years old and the burial place of Delft’s native son, Johannes Vermeer. The church was originally laid out as a traditional basilica, with a nave flanked by two smaller aisles. Its most recognisable feature is a 75-metre-high brick tower that leans almost two metres from the vertical. According to local lore, the foundations were built on unstable ground, and cow hides were laid beneath them in an attempt to provide stability. As work continued, builders tried to compensate for the lean with each successive layer of brickwork, but to this day only the four turrets at the top remain truly vertical.

It is here, within this astounding Gothic Protestant church, that Galerie Terra Delft staged Common Ground: A World of Ceramics, a major anniversary exhibition marking 40 years of the gallery and bringing together ceramic works from five continents. The coolness of the church was a welcome escape from the heat outside and undoubtedly encouraged visitors to linger a little longer among the artworks.

At the opposite end of the nave, a second ceramic exhibition was on view. Also curated by Simone Haak and Joke Doedens, Co-Directors of Galerie Terra Delft, The Table of 40! featured forty ceramic works by forty ceramic artists. Each piece represented one year from 1986 to 2026, together telling the story of four decades of craftsmanship, innovation and dedication to the ceramic medium.

Common Ground: A World of Ceramics, Oude Kerk, Delft

Featured artists: Li Zhen (China, Asia); Prithwiraj Mali (India, Asia); Mahala Hill (Australia, Oceania); Adeoti Afeez Azeez (Nigeria, Africa); Katherine Morling (United Kingdom, Europe); Mariëtte van der Ven (Netherlands, Europe); Eliza Au (Canada/United States, Americas); Keka Ruiz-Tagle (Chile, Americas).

In this global exhibition, eight artists from five continents ask the question: what does clay tell us about who we are, where we come from, and what we share?

Li Zhen, based in the renowned ceramics city of Jingdezhen, produces what might initially be considered relatively traditional teapots, vases, plates and bowls inspired by ceramics of the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE). By employing another Chinese tradition, that of free, hand-brushed calligraphy using metal oxides, his pieces acquire a distinctly contemporary energy, adding flow and movement to these functional forms.

Prithwiraj Mali, born in West Bengal, grew up in an environment where socio-cultural values and the impact of natural disasters shaped his worldview. The aftermath of the Partition of India and ongoing migration flows heavily influence his work. His extraordinary piece, Home for the Homeless II, is made up of hundreds of fragile terracotta elements that together form a towering structure almost two metres high. Inspired by the beehive as a model for collaboration and migration, the work is visually arresting and compelling, demonstrating how clay can translate urgent political and social themes into poetic and powerful visual language.

Mahala Hill draws inspiration from the coastal and bush landscapes of her Australian childhood. Using a technique that involves immersing plants in clay slip before burning them away, she leaves behind irregular, fragile forms that reflect landscapes under pressure from climate change and pollution. Her work gives form to global urgency and shared responsibility while retaining a poignant connection to death and loss through her use of bone china clay.

Adeoti Afeez Azeez employs the technique of sgraffito while drawing upon the rich visual culture of the Yoruba people of West Africa, known for their bronze sculpture, masks and ceramic traditions. Working with clay sourced locally in Nigeria, the act of drawing and the medium of clay are closely connected to the material traditions of his environment. His self-portrait tableaux present clay as a carrier of identity and personal histories, demonstrating how ceramics can simultaneously preserve and communicate cultural memory.

Katherine Morling creates ceramic sculptures that she describes as “three-dimensional drawings”. Using unglazed porcelain outlined with distinctive black lines, they appear almost cartoon-like or theatrical. There is a delightful sense of imagination at play in these miniature installations; by transforming everyday objects in this way, Morling makes the familiar feel strangely unsettling and quietly enigmatic.

Mariëtte van der Ven is a Dutch sculptor who creates compelling figurative works. Her use of porcelain was inspired by its similarity to human skin and its ability to capture subtle expressions with remarkable sensitivity. One piece, titled How Dare You, depicts a young female figure leading a monkey while appearing to wade through an oil slick, with a dead horse or donkey behind her. Combining the innocent fearlessness of Pippi Longstocking with the environmental activism associated with Greta Thunberg, the work urges us to reconsider our relationship with the Earth.

Another work, Save Our Nature, is a monumental representation of the head of Jesus crowned with thorns, positioned centrally within the exhibition. In the setting of the church, it is difficult to distinguish whether we are looking at a contemporary sculpture or a religious artefact, and perhaps that ambiguity is precisely the point. The work invites us to consider how art continues to give tangible form to our deepest anxieties, hopes and beliefs.

Eliza Au, a Canadian artist based in Texas, uses digital design software to construct circular and geometric forms that resemble architectural models or mathematical weavings before casting them in plaster moulds. Combining digital precision with manual craftsmanship, Au’s work embodies the productive tension between tradition and technological innovation.

Keka Ruiz-Tagle’s practice focuses on the spiritual and cultural traditions of the Andes. She describes clay not as a passive material but as a living medium that carries ancestral knowledge and memory. In particular, she references the concept of Kamaquen, the transforming energy that gives life and makes possible the procreation of all species. Her sculptures possess the appearance of ancient relics, enhanced by earthy colours and weathered surfaces that remind us of the enduring connection between humanity, history and the earth itself.

In Common Ground, the title might literally refer to the earth, a shared material that connects people across continents and cultures. Yet it also speaks of shared ideas, shared cultural space and our shared humanity. Rather than seeking similarities for their own sake, the exhibition celebrates difference, demonstrating how diverse artistic voices can coexist without losing their individual identity.

There is also something particularly resonant about encountering contemporary ceramics within an 800-year-old church. For centuries, churches across Europe have been among the greatest patrons and custodians of art, commissioning works that sought to communicate spiritual, cultural and social values to their communities. Long before museums existed, churches were places where people gathered to encounter humanity’s finest artistic achievements. In many ways, Common Ground continues that tradition. Clay, the most ancient and democratic of materials, is used here to tell contemporary stories of migration, ecology, identity and memory beneath the soaring vaults of the Oude Kerk. I left feeling as though I had gently travelled around the globe, offered a generous glimpse into the vastly different languages spoken by the material beneath all our feet.

Delft Ceramic Market Days, Market Square, Delft

Just a short walk from the Oude Kerk stands the 15th-century Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), overlooking Delft’s lively market square where the Delft Ceramic Market Days, also organised by Galerie Terra Delft, were held.

Here, almost eighty exhibitors gathered to display their ceramic wares for visitors. Since 2022, when there was a possibility that the ceramics market might cease altogether, Galerie Terra took over the responsibility for organising the event.

Normally, the Delft Ceramic Days are held over two weekend days each year and, for many, particularly collectors, they are a regular fixture in the ceramics calendar, offering the opportunity to meet favourite ceramic artists and purchase work directly from the makers. As Simone Haak of Galerie Terra Delft explained, “We have makers applying from all over the world now, but we have to be selective to keep the standard high.”

Later, when I bumped into Simone at the market, she was making her rounds, ensuring that every stall was presented at its very best.

This year, however, the team had to make the difficult decision, on the advice of local authorities, to cancel the Saturday market because of the extreme heat. Fortunately, the market went ahead on Sunday and included demonstrations by Clay Time Studio Delft, attracting visitors of all ages eager to try throwing on the wheel.

The market square provides the perfect setting for the event, with plenty of space to wander and exhibitors keen to talk about their work. It was particularly notable that on Saturday evening Galerie Terra Delft organised a social gathering and dinner for all the exhibitors. It was evident that this offered a valuable opportunity for participants to reconnect, many of whom return to Delft year after year.

In a city internationally celebrated for its ceramic heritage, the Delft Ceramic Market Days feel less like a commercial event and more like a continuation of that centuries-old conversation between maker, material and community, a fitting complement to the international voices presented in Common Ground.

Urban Blue – From Bricks to Tiles, Royal Delft Museum, Delft

Featured artists: Ryol (Laksamana Ryo), Tja Ling Hu, Madi, Keya Tama, Claudio Limon, Speto (Paul César Silva)

Finally, on my itinerary was a visit to the Royal Delft Museum, specifically to see Urban Blue – From Bricks to Tiles, an extraordinary exhibition bringing together six international street artists who spent a two-week residency producing new work in collaboration with Royal Delft.

Before visiting the exhibition, I was treated to a fascinating tour of the working factory that sits behind the museum. Housing giant modern kilns, barrels of raw materials and hundreds of stacked plaster moulds everywhere you turn, it offers a glimpse into the remarkable craftsmanship that continues to define Royal Delft today.

The museum itself tells the story of how, with the introduction of Chinese porcelain from the Far East, everything changed. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) brought porcelain from Asia, and the Dutch elite fell in love with it at first sight. Dutch potters could not compete directly when the essential ingredient, kaolin clay, simply did not exist in Dutch soil. The answer lay not in imitation but in the reinvention and refinement of their own craft. Thinner clay bodies, brighter glazes and more refined forms brought innovation. Blue-and-white designs, inspired by Chinese porcelain, captured the popular imagination and Delft faience was born.

Later, the import of Chinese porcelain faltered between 1640 and 1670 due to political unrest in China, but demand remained high and Delft seized the opportunity. A small number of families came to dominate the faience industry and by around 1700 more than thirty specialised factories were producing millions of ceramic objects each year for export to England, France and Germany.

At court, Delftware was championed by Mary II Stuart, who displayed her collection throughout her palaces. Much like today’s social media influencers, her endorsement transformed Delft Blue into a fashionable status symbol and an important export product.

However, like most fashions, the bubble did not last forever. During the eighteenth century, cheaper ceramics flooded the market and Delft began to struggle. By around 1800, only eleven faience factories remained. One factory, De Porceleyne Fles (now Royal Delft), survived under the leadership of Joost Thooft through innovation, introducing casting clay to enable faster and more efficient production. Today, Delftware has become an international symbol of Dutch ingenuity and craftsmanship, while hand painting remains a crucial part of its identity.

Street art and Delft Blue may seem unlikely partners. One is iconic, artisanal and associated with respectable drawing rooms and historic collections; the other is often linked with activism, rebellion and, at times, illegality. Royal Delft Museum therefore posed an interesting question: how can it speak to new generations while remaining vibrant and relevant as a living heritage?

To answer this, Royal Delft joined forces with STRAAT Museum, the world’s largest museum dedicated entirely to street art and graffiti, housed in a former shipyard warehouse on Amsterdam Noord’s NDSM Wharf. STRAAT selected six internationally acclaimed street artists to participate in an artist residency at Royal Delft Museum.

Curiously, the same thing happened as it had all those years ago when Joost Thooft took the helm at De Porceleyne Fles. Immersed in the power of craftsmanship and the extraordinary skills of Delft’s makers, the artists’ response was not imitation but transformation. They observed, experimented and ultimately made Delft Blue their own.

The history of street art is long and, perhaps surprisingly, connected to many of the same driving forces that have guided craft and traditional arts for centuries. Today’s street art movement developed alongside the rebellious rise of graffiti but gradually established its own identity through artists such as Keith Haring in late-1970s New York. Haring adopted the vibrancy and immediacy of graffiti and translated it into a visual language that appealed to wider audiences. Graffiti itself became a way of taking art beyond the seemingly exclusive confines of galleries and museums and claiming public spaces as an open-air canvas.

Today, street art encompasses murals, stencils, paste-ups, poster art and a wide range of experimental practices. It is this plurality and energy that resulted in Urban Blue – From Bricks to Tiles, created by six street artists in collaboration with Royal Delft Museum.

The exhibition is presented in a large, new, climate-controlled gallery space, purpose-built for future exhibitions. Each of the six artists produced ambitious two-dimensional tile murals alongside three-dimensional ceramic works displayed on floors and plinths. The curation cleverly extends the language of street art by painting each artist’s display wall in a vibrant colour, with deliberately unfinished brushstrokes around the edges, avoiding neat boundaries and nodding to the spontaneity of hand-painted murals.

As a whole, Urban Blue – From Bricks to Tiles is an ambitious and visually striking exhibition. It is clear that each of the six artists recognised and respected the historic craft traditions presented to them at Royal Delft and embraced the opportunity to learn from them while remaining true to their own cultural roots and creative practices.

Royal Delft posed an interesting question when embarking on this project: how can a centuries-old craft speak to new generations while remaining a vibrant part of a living heritage? This exhibition answers that question convincingly. After all, Delft Blue itself was born from cultural exchange, Dutch makers responding creatively to Chinese porcelain and transforming it into something distinctly their own.

Urban Blue simply continues that story. These six street artists have not diluted the tradition; they have demonstrated that it is robust enough to evolve. Far from being preserved behind glass, Delft Blue is shown here as a living artistic language, one that remains open to reinvention, collaboration and contemporary expression. If this exhibition is anything to go by, Royal Delft’s next chapter looks every bit as compelling as its first. The exhibition is on view until November 1, 2026.

Julia Ellen Lancaster is an artist working with clay, glass, rock, ceramics and glaze across the UK. Her work draws on the specifics of a place or space, driven by a response to emotional intuition, and externalising the impression that a time, or the feeling a space and its contents, provoke. Lancaster explores locations, history and the community through materials, using a mix of clays including reclaimed and excavated wild clays, rocks and collected materials and changing their structure and make-up with extreme heat. The sculptures produced build a language of materials, acting as punctuations or conversations of the changing world we live in and an imagined future. Lancaster is an alumni of the Royal College of Art, a selected Member of the Royal Society of Sculptors, a member of the Public Statues and Sculpture Association and a member of Contemporary Glass Society.

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Photos courtesy of the author, Galerie Terra Delft, and Royal Delft Museum

Posted on August 5, 2026

The Department of Art and Visual Culture in the College of Design at Iowa State University is offering a full-time tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant Professor in Ceramics starting August 16, 2027.

Qualified candidates for this studio-based position will bring an in-depth knowledge in ceramics arts, including processes, histories, and related materials and practices. Areas of expertise will include contemporary and traditional techniques embracing sculptural, functional, and installation-based approaches to making. Special attention will be given to candidates who bring an innovative and/or community-engaged approach to ceramic art, along with a critical knowledge of related materials to their teaching and creative work. Candidates with ethical and environmentally responsible approaches to their discipline and teaching are strongly encouraged to apply. The successful candidate will contribute to teaching in the department of Art and Visual Culture and have opportunities to contribute to the interdisciplinary collegiate programs in the College of Design. The position includes working with students from a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds and abilities, including graduate students. Pedagogically adaptive and innovative approaches in teaching are expected. The position responsibilities also include scholarship and research in the area of the candidate’s expertise; undergraduate and graduate student advising; service on department, college and university committees; and maintenance of the ceramic studio and related equipment.

The Department of Art and Visual Culture is committed to sustaining a collegial, positive, and productive environment for each individual and the collective benefit of all. All faculty members are expected to exhibit and convey good citizenship within department, college, and university activities, interact collegially and maintain the highest standards of integrity and ethical behavior.

Required Minimum Qualifications:

• Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree or equivalent in ceramics or related field

Preferred Qualifications:

• Portfolio with evidence of critical approaches to ceramic-based art and craft
• Ability to work collaboratively with other disciplines and/or communities
• Demonstrated evidence of professional accomplishment, such as exhibition record, scholarship, and/or community-engaged practice
• Knowledge of contemporary and traditional practices in ceramic art and related art and design disciplines
• Experience in ethical and environmentally responsible art and design practices
• Experience maintaining a ceramics studio and related equipment
• Demonstrated ability to teach college-level introductory to advanced ceramics courses

Department/Program & College Description:

As a land grant and Research institution, Iowa State University upholds and advocates for the impact of creative activities, scholarship, and education both on-and off-campus. We embrace and value community and the people and knowledge that preceded the formation of our institution and that inform our current-day practices. The College of Design celebrates and builds on long-standing success as a comprehensive design school that embodies knowledge-sharing and innovation.

The Department of Art and Visual Culture exemplifies these qualities through the creativity and entrepreneurship of its community of makers, educators, and scholars. With an integrated and cross-disciplinary approach to teaching and collaborating, we are committed to contributing to the excellence of the academic community and to building a culturally vibrant environment. We are especially seeking candidates who uphold and promote this purpose and who apply the above qualities in their teaching and research practice.

Department of Art and Visual Culture Website: http://www.design.iastate.edu/academics/departments/art-visual-culture/

Department of Art and Visual Culture – Ceramics: http://www.design.iastate.edu/academics/departments/art-visual-culture/avc-art-studios/ceramics/

Proposed Start Date: August 16, 2027

Application Instructions:

To apply for this position, please click on “Apply” and complete the Employment Application. Please be prepared to enter or attach the following as PDF files of no more than 5 MB each:

1) Letter of Application

2) Curriculum Vitae with contact information for three professional references

3) Research and Creative Activities Statement

4) Teaching Philosophy Statement

5) Two sample course syllabi, if applicable (consolidated into a single document)

And the following portfolios should be uploaded to: http://iastate.app.box.com/s/3o3bgcna9nrwp1xgxb39gvp97sfeinns, no more than 25 MB for each portfolio.

1) Portfolio of Creative Work: 20-page PDF portfolio of creative work including title, date, media

2) Teaching Portfolio: 20-page PDF portfolio of work by your students including student name, title, date, media and course.

For full consideration, please apply by October 15, 2026.

Sarah Kyle, Professor and Chair, AVC, 146 College of Design, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-3093

If you have questions regarding this vacancy, please email Sarah Kyle, skyle@iastate.edu or call 515-294-9985. If you have questions regarding the application process, please email employment@iastate.edu or call 515-294-4800 or Toll Free: 1-877-477-7485.