Hermann Grüneberg: The Ballad of the Fallen is on view at Galerie Herold, Hamburg

September 3 – October 9, 2026

In the autumn of 2021, Hermann Grüneberg (b. 1983) arrived at Galerie Herold in Hamburg’s Colonnaden carrying nothing but a suitcase filled with ceramic plates. One by one, he unpacked them across the parquet floor—and within minutes it was clear that he would be returning to Halle with an empty suitcase.

Grüneberg’s imagery speaks of love, grief, transience, and memory with poetry, quiet irony, and remarkable tenderness toward his figures. His works are understood intuitively, long before they ask to be explained.

For Grüneberg, ceramics are never merely a surface for an image. Plates, vessels, figures, and sculptures become protagonists in their own right. Form shapes the narrative: glazes flow unpredictably, lines dissolve, and surfaces retain the traces of their making. Every work is a unique, hand-built object in clay—organic rather than geometric, irregular rather than perfect, and the very opposite of porcelain’s polished precision.

With The Ballad of the Fallen, Grüneberg draws inspiration from Charlie Haden’s landmark jazz album of the same title, released in the year of the artist’s birth, 1983. As Katherina Perlongo writes in the accompanying catalogue, Grüneberg’s figures often wear crowns and evoke the iconography of saints, yet their authority has been quietly undone. His attention turns instead to “the bowed, the doubtful, and the melancholic,” whose dignity reveals itself precisely through vulnerability.

His artistic process is fundamentally additive. During walks through cities, cemeteries, and historic architecture, Grüneberg takes impressions of faces, ornaments, and architectural details. These impressions form an ever-expanding archive of moulds from which his figures are continually reassembled—fragment by fragment—creating bodies that feel simultaneously ancient and unmistakably contemporary.

On his ceramic plates, sculptural form gives way to drawing. The traditional wall plate becomes a pictorial ground for immediate, intuitive compositions: playful, humorous, and touched by a subtle sense of the uncanny. His newest series of vases further explores the dialogue between colour and form across curved ceramic surfaces.

A comprehensive exhibition catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

About the artist
Hermann Grüneberg was born in Weimar in 1983. After training as a wood sculptor, he studied Sculpture and Ceramics at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle from 2008 to 2015, where he became a Meisterschüler under Martin Neubert. Since 2015, he has taught at the university. Most recently, he created a major site-specific installation for Heroldian Art: a private interior featuring approximately 500 handmade ceramic tiles and a two-storey sculptural figure group.

Contact
herold@galerie-herold.de

Galerie Herold
Colonnaden 5
20354 Hamburg
Germany

Captions

• Installation views, Hermann Grüneberg: The Ballad of the Fallen at Galerie Herold, Hamburg, 2026
• Hermann Grüneberg, Ensemble, 2026, Ceramic. Photo by Tom Dachs
• Hermann Grüneberg, Müder Blick, 2026, Ceramic, 46 cm; Rosenkranz, 2026, Ceramic, 51 cm; Sommervase, 2026, Ceramic, 41 cm, 2026. Photo by Tom Dachs
• Hermann Grüneberg, Lohengrinn (Erste Fassung), 2023, Ceramic. Photo by Tom Dachs
• Hermann Grüneberg, Sitzende (Hand vor Brust), 2026, Ceramic, 79 x 24 x 31 cm. Photo by Tom Dachs
• Hermann Grüneberg, Stehende Figur mit Stab, 2026, Ceramic, 76 x 25 x 21 cm. Photo by Tom Dachs
• Hermann Grüneberg, Frau mit Blumen, 2026, Ceramic, 46 x 35 cm. Photo by Tom Dachs
• Hermann Grüneberg, Frau mit Maske II, 2026, Ceramic, 45 x 42 cm. Photo by Tom Dachs
• Hermann Grüneberg, Frau mit Maske, 2026, Ceramic, 64 x 42 cm. Photo by Tom Dachs
• Hermann Grüneberg, Junge mit Vase, 2026, Ceramic,41 x 25 cm. Photo by Tom Dachs
• Hermann Grüneberg, Narcissus, 2026, Ceramic, 66 x 56 cm. Photo by Tom Dachs
• Hermann Grüneberg, the clown, 2026, Ceramic, 44 x 31 cm. Photo by Tom Dachs

Raven Halfmoon: Flags of Our Mothers is on view at Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX

May 1 – October 11, 2026

Ballroom Marfa is proud to present Raven Halfmoon: Flags of Our Mothers, the first major traveling exhibition for the artist, featuring new and recent works made over the last five years.

For this iteration, Ballroom Marfa has commissioned the artist to develop site-responsive additions to the exhibition that will offer a fresh perspective on Halfmoon’s exploration of memory, ancestry, and form. The title of the exhibition, Flags of Our Mothers, is a tribute to the matriarchs in her life and all the Indigenous women, who over many centuries, have created and endured, keeping their stories and traditions present, active, and alive.

The opening weekend featured a series of celebratory programs, including an artist talk with Halfmoon and her long-time collaborator, sculptor Tony Marsh, joined by the exhibition’s original curators, Amy Smith-Stewart, and Rachel Adams.

Halfmoon’s practice spans torso-scaled and colossal-sized glazed stoneware sculptures, with their enormous scale and visual power opposing existing stereotypes and biases to create new monuments that honor the artist’s Caddo Nation ancestors and their traditions, including her elders from whom she learned about ceramics as a teenager. Inspired by ancient Indigenous pottery, specifically Caddo pottery traditions, the colossal Olmec stone heads in Mexico, the Moai statues on Easter Island, and the major earth mounds her Caddo ancestors erected as temples, tombs, and residences for tribal leaders and priests, Halfmoon fuses Caddo pottery traditions (a history of making mostly done by women) with more contemporary gestures—often tagging her work (a reference also to Caddo tattooing and ancient pottery motifs). Her works reference stories of the Caddo Nation, specifically her feminist lineage and the power of its complexities.

Working mainly in portraiture and hand building each work using a coil method, Halfmoon’s surfaces are expressive and show deep finger impressions and dramatic dripping glazes—a physicality that presents her as both maker and matter. Her specific palette matches both the clay bodies she selects and the glazes she fires with—reds (after the Oklahoma soil and the blood of murdered Indigenous women), blacks (referencing the natural clay native to the Red River), and buff creams. Oftentimes she stacks and repeats imagery, creating totemic forms that represent herself and her maternal ancestry while also referencing the multiplicities that exist inside all of us.

Raven Halfmoon: Flags of Our Mothers is organized by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. The exhibition is curated by Amy Smith-Stewart, Diana Bowes Chief Curator at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and Rachel Adams, Chief Curator and Director of Programming at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. Generous support for this project provided by Art Bridges.

About the Artist
Raven Halfmoon was born in 1991 in Norman, Oklahoma, where she presently lives and works. She is a member of the Caddo Nation, a federally recognized Tribal Nation headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma with a rich history of many thousands of years in the Southeastern region of the United States. Halfmoon received her BFA from the University of Arkansas, where she double majored in ceramics and cultural anthropology.

About Ballroom Marfa
Founded in 2003 by Virginia Lebermann and Fairfax Dorn, Ballroom Marfa is an internationally recognized, non-collecting contemporary art museum and performance space housed in a 1920s-era ballroom in Marfa, a rural town of fewer than 2,000 people in Far West Texas. Offering free cultural programming, Ballroom commissions new work, collaborates across disciplines, and produces exhibitions, public artworks, performances, screenings, concerts, symposia, educational programs, and publications rooted in Marfa’s borderland setting. Since its founding, Ballroom has partnered with more than 950 artists, filmmakers, and musicians to present over 60 exhibitions and more than 180 concerts and performances. Bull Room, Ballroom’s new performance venue, expands the organization’s impact by creating a dedicated, flexible space that deepens community engagement, supports more ambitious programming, and strengthens Marfa’s role as a contemporary arts destination.

Contact
info@ballroommarfa.org

Ballroom Marfa
108 E. San Antonio St.
Marfa, TX 79843
United States

Photos by Makenzie Goodman, courtesy of the artist and Ballroom Marfa

Kiyomizu Rokubei: 250 Years of Ceramic Expression from Kyoto at Dai Ichi Arts, New York

September 10-24, 2026

Dai Ichi Arts is pleased to present Kiyomizu Rokubei: 250 Years of Ceramic Expression from Kyoto, an exhibition celebrating one of Japan’s most distinguished ceramic dynasties. On the occasion of Asia Week New York, September 2026, the show brings together works from the fifth through eighth generations of the Kiyomizu Rokubei family, tracing a lineage of innovation, experimentation, and artistic renewal spanning over two centuries.

Based in Kyoto since the mid-Edo period, the Rokubei family has sustained its through continual ceramic reinvention across generations. As the sixth Rokubei observed, “This family has endured because each generation has worked in its own way.” Across the exhibition, visitors will encounter the remarkable individuality of four generations, from the fifth Rokubei’s synthesis of classical Japanese ceramics, Western-inspired glazes, and modern design, to the sixth generation’s richly varied decorative surfaces and refined engagement with painting, line, and nature.

The seventh Rokubei, originally trained in architecture and metal casting, introduced a radical sculptural language based on slab construction, apertures, cuts, and the expressive movement of clay during firing. His son, the current eighth-generation artist Kiyomizu Rokubei, Masahiro, extends this legacy through architecturally conceived forms that bend, warp, and shift under gravity and heat. Reflective lusters and deep black glazes further activate the surrounding space, placing his work firmly within contemporary ceramic practice. This group of works aim to reveal a tradition defined by an inherited spirit of continuous innovation.

The exhibition catalogue features a significant new essay on the ceramic dynasty by Daicho Tomohiro, Senior Curator at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto. In-print publications will be available to purchase at the gallery.

Kiyomizu Rokubei: 250 Years of Ceramic Expression from Kyoto will open at Dai Ichi Arts in New York City. Kiyomizu Rokubei (Masahiro) will travel from Kyoto for the occasion and will be present at the gallery for the opening reception on September 10. The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to experience the vitality of the Rokubei name across generations, past and present.

Contact
info@daiichiarts.com

Dai Ichi Arts Ltd.
18 East 64th Street, Suite 1F
New York, NY 10065
United States

Photos courtesy of the gallery

tierra, the fourth edition of Craft Contemporary’s Clay Biennial, is on view at Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles

May 31 – October 25, 2026

Craft Contemporary is pleased to present tierra, the fourth installment of its Clay Biennial. On view May 31 – October 25, 2026, tierra reconsiders the biennial’s scope by expanding its focus beyond ceramic and clay as a singular medium to encompass broader practices grounded in land and earth. The fourteen featured artists work with earth-based materials as something more than physical substances, treating them as carriers of history shaped by the people who have worked, lived on, and been displaced from the land. tierra asks what it means to truly know a place, and how that knowledge gets passed down through the things we make with our hands. tierra is organized by lead curator Andres Payan Estrada, with a curatorial committee formed by Frida Cano, Joel Garcia, Mercedes Dorame, and Cannupa Hanska Luger.

“There is a quiet weight to the word tierra. It settles slowly, like dust after movement, like clay in a riverbed,” said Andres Payan Estrada, lead curator of tierra. “The exhibition not only recognizes earth as material, but also how knowledge itself is carried, formed, and shared.”

“tierra is a natural expression of everything Craft Contemporary stands for,” said Frida Cano, Senior Curator at Craft Contemporary. “Our curatorial values urge us to look to the land, to ancestral knowledge, and to the people whose hands have shaped both. This exhibition brings all of that together in a way that feels especially pressing right now.”

tierra is part of The [Untold] Story of Craft, Craft Contemporary’s curatorial philosophy that prioritizes storytelling, accessibility, sustainability, and honors the natural world with a commitment to minimal waste. Rooted in lunar cycles and the Tongva calendar’s cyclical rhythms, the museum’s curatorial approach bridges past and present, linking ancestral wisdom with contemporary craft practices. The series is scheduled to feature two exhibitions annually, each dedicated to exploring a central theme tied to nature’s elements: Air, Water, Earth and Fire.

Craft Contemporary launched its clay biennial in 2018 under the title Melting Point, establishing a dedicated platform to reflect on two decades of explosive growth in ceramic art and the radical departure from functional pottery traditions toward experimental, expressive, and often deliberately imperfect sculptural forms. The series was founded on the premise that contemporary ceramics had evolved into a medium uniquely capable of recording the body’s physical gestures and the artist’s psychological state, prioritizing the raw, visceral, and the “unknowable” over technical precision. Together, the biennial editions—Melting Point (2018), The Body, The Object, The Other (2020), Wayfinding (2023), and now tierra (2026)—have shaped the event into a continuous exploration that treats “craft” as a verb.

Featured artists: Jackie Amézquita, Natalia Arbelaez, Syd Carpenter, Teresa Castro, Armando Guadalupe Cortés, rafa esparza, Miguel Fernández de Castro, Adebunmi Gbadebo, Karla García, Christine Howard Sandoval, Joanna Keane Lopez, Ruben Olguin, Iman Person, Jeri Redcorn

Exhibition Organization and Highlights

tierra engages the varied definitions of the Spanish word meaning earth, land, soil. Coinciding with the nation’s Semiquincentennial, tierra activates earth-based mediums to demonstrate that emotional memory is inseparable from environmental impact, that ancestral knowledge challenges colonial histories, and that care emerges alongside critique. The exhibition foregrounds the work of Latinx, Indigenous, and Black artists, including Jackie Amézquita, Natalia Arbelaez, Syd Carpenter, Teresa Castro, Armando Guadalupe Cortés, Miguel Fernández de Castro, rafa esparza, Karla Garcia, Adebunmi Gbadebo, Joanna Keane Lopez, Ruben Olguin, Iman Person, Jeri Redcorn, and Christine Howard Sandoval. The artists use clay, adobe, masa, rock, sand, dirt, and soil to create artworks that range from large-scale sculpture installation to performance to film.

tierra is organized thematically across three interconnected frameworks: emotional, familial, and cultural connections to land; geologic agents, extraction, and colonial critique; and restoration and reparation. These themes trace a continuous arc from inherited belonging to systemic harm to collective healing. The exhibition unfolds across multiple floors. The first floor is anchored by the Maker-in-Residence program, featuring Jackie Amézquita; the second floor centers lineage, ancestry, and matriarchal knowledge systems; and the third floor brings into dialogue works addressing extraction and environmental impact alongside practices of care and restoration, insisting on the entanglement between wound and repair. Specially commissioned textual contributions punctuate the galleries, operating as parallel forms of knowledge that expand tierra’s narrative devices into language, text, and storytelling. The exhibition invites viewers to move through these layers, recognizing land not only as ground beneath our bodies, but as a living record of everyone who has ever worked it, loved it, encountered it, or lost it.

The publication for tierra is conceived as a multi-part volume composed of individually printed sections that together form a single, assembled work. It includes introductions from Craft Contemporary and the Rubin Center in El Paso, TX—co-organizers of the exhibition—an essay by lead curator Andres Payan Estrada, and contributions from the curatorial committee. Additional sections present artist and contributor biographies with selected images, as well as installation images of the exhibition, capturing newly commissioned works. At the publication’s core are six commissioned text contributions, each produced as a discrete component and compiled within the larger volume. The publication’s colored edges form visible strata, evoking layers of soil and underscoring the project’s attention to accumulation, sedimentation, and the transmission of knowledge over time.

tierra coincides with Craft Contemporary’s Maker-in-Residence Jackie Amézquita (b. 1985, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala), Los Angeles–based interdisciplinary artist whose work explores the relationship between land, memory, and identity across genealogies. Her practice is channeled through the fuse of biomaterials such as earth, masa, charcoal, and rain, treating them as active carriers of ancestral knowledge.

Contact
info@craftcontemporary.org

Craft Contemporary
5814 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
United States

Captions

tierra installation views, 2026. Photos courtesy of Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles. Exhibition Installation Images: Marc Walker.

Aneta Regel was born in Silesia (largely located in southwestern Poland) in 1976, but moved with her family as an infant to Gdynia in northern Poland. The family lived in a modernist concrete tower block on the edge of the city, close to the sea and the forest. Poland was a communist country until 1989 when governmental change came and Regel was just thirteen years old at this time. From the age of 15 she attended a specialist art college and explains, “I had a need to work in three dimensions quite early on. There was a feeling of grounding myself, of grounding my world and settling down.” From 1996 to 2000, Regel studied Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Art in Gdańsk where sculpture tutor Irene Zabroka introduced her to clay as a sculptural material. It was here too that she learned to work with different materials such as wood and stone. The important thing was that she was working with natural materials. Moving to London aged twenty-five, Regel undertook further studies, graduating in Ceramics at the University of Westminster in 2003 and in Ceramics and Glass at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in 2006. Westminster’s Harrow Campus, no longer in existence, was very traditional. While not ideally suited to Regel’s interests, she says “It allowed me to just choose the ways I was interested in and wanted to learn more about certain techniques.” At the RCA she recalls things were “a bit freer, but also it gave me a platform to experiment more, especially working with Emmanuel Cooper. That was really interesting to get feedback from people who have such immense knowledge.” Working in clay and ceramics she says, “I was never interested in function. I always wanted to explore what the form does. I was always thinking of a dialogue of some sort and the process of adding different materials”. Essentially, she continued to make sculpture.

The recent exhibition Beneath the Skin at Sarah Myerscough Gallery in London (27 June – 15 August, 2026) showed twenty works by Regel that seem to recall the fissure and fragmentation of natural materials in extreme landscapes or harsh climates. Apart from being the perfect antidote to the manmade commercial environment of central London, these works, all made in 2026, also recall the rural landscape of Regel’s hometown in northern Poland. Less than a handful of the works on show follow the artist’s interest in vertical, tree-like structures – White Rhizome, Red Pien 1 and Volcanic Totem, all made this year. With just these few exceptions, all the other works are containers titled Raining stone, each with a subtitle referencing its colour. As she explains to me in her studio, she works on groups of objects at a time so there is a particular connection between those families of objects. Regel’s material interrogation of her memories of home in these highly textured containers is double-edged. Their surface and form, their material existence, sits as a physical presence in the gallery, building on the work Regel did in the 2023 exhibition Memory Landscape. On that occasion there was less focus on the vessel or container and more on totemic forms that recalled the forests and folklore of rural Poland during Regel’s childhood. Now, in Beneath the Skin, the emphasis is on the vessel as container. The title, too, directs thoughts to beneath the surface and, in this instance, to the space contained within. The artist is clear that “they are not functional containers but still reference the idea of containment”. The question, I suppose, is what that contained space might mean.

In her essay Memory Work in 2023, the art historian Tanya Harrod observed that vessels “make special demands because they draw their strength from cupped hands, from human contact, from human scale”. However, Regel’s vessels in her most recent exhibition largely exceed the scale of human hands and as she has explained, mass and weight are just as important as form. Mass and weight might be partly judged by eye and these vessels do appear heavy, replete with discordant materials and ideas. Porcelain is mixed with stoneware clay and rocks and glazed, all in a very intuitive way. Reconciling these elements and making sense of them is as much the for the viewer as the artist to do. These are hand-made objects. They emerge from a process of accretion as Regel adds stones to clay, clay to clay and mixes fired and unfired material. This includes material she finds on her way to the studio or on her travels, alongside a library of fired and discarded pieces, not quite ready to be completed. There is a long process of drying and firing that might take months. She fires her creations multiple times, covers them in thick glaze, but all in an intuitive manner. There is a degree of unpredictability. “That it is slightly unpredictable is quite refreshing. I think perhaps that is why I choose to work with materials that are alive. That’s something that sparks my imagination”.

The work, Regel says, “becomes a monolith of layers of whatever happened” in its making. So where does that leave the viewer? The rough material presence of these large vessels enacts a bodily effect that leaves us reeling. We might think of the ideas of philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty and his phenomenology of perception. This kind of embodied consciousness makes sense with Regel’s work as we further experience the interior spaces, peering into the shadow-spaces of these objects that quickly send us descending into our own subconscious. Curator Frederic Bodet has called Regel’s forms “powerful but troublesome” and it is their rawness that impacts upon us. This perhaps connects to Regel’s love of early Netherlandish painting. She mentions Hans Memling in particular and “the rawness of emotions” encapsulated in his painting.

If art arises to articulate something that cannot be easily verbalised, then what exactly is it that these objects say? Regel’s vessels are large, heavy, roughly finished, colourful. I say this not to criticise but to indicate that they are perhaps excessive in some way or other. This sense of excess gestures to something beyond human, a kind of convulsive metamorphosis that puts their origins in doubt. We cannot quite make sense of these seemingly primordial objects and yet they are on a human scale, one that makes us respond to them as if human, even to want to embrace them. In these works, Regel seems to distill her experience of the natural world and her memories of that experience into an intensely physical form that also contains an unspoken unconscious within. This ambiguity is underlined in the gallery’s small downstairs space where a disused, blocked staircase is closed off by iron railings. Dotted around within this space are around half a dozen of Regel’s smaller vessels. Are these somehow precious, to be revered? Perhaps they hold an ancient religious or spiritual purpose? Or are they, rather, the closed off contaminated remnants of a long-past nuclear winter? It is impossible to say.

In the upstairs gallery, objects are generally grouped together upon a number of low plinths. Here the experience is more about being drawn in. Our eyes are drawn along fissures and cracks and edges that seem sharp enough to slice through skin in an instant. Rims are uneven and fractured. The glaze is animated by its runs and pours, its subtle shifts in tone and colour graduating across uneven surfaces. Thoughts run away with us across this textured terrain as its very unevenness instills a sense of unease. At points, stones burst from the clay as if being spat out and the pebbled surface texture is one that recalls the discomfort of walking barefoot on a pebbled beach, or cobbled street.

Looking down from where we stand, it is easy to peer inside the Rain stones and experience a stillness, a moment of quiet that is entirely separate from our experience of its exterior. For Regel, “exploring the interior is as important as exploring the exterior”. Contained within, and cushioned from the world by its walls, a freefall into memories and the unconscious begins before we even know it. Much like the stones that burst through the clay, the unconscious breaks through, breaching consciousness, but only for a moment. Perhaps this is how we find space to reconnect to ourselves, what Regel, in her poem, calls our core. That, I believe, is what is so compelling about Regel’s work. It is the tension between inside and outside, material surface and depth, that creates a space, or moment, for the interplay of conscious and unconscious thought and a deeper and more meaningful experience of the work and ourselves. Regel’s own understanding in the poem beneath is perhaps the closest that words can come to the powerful experience that her works instill in us.

Aneta Regel, poem on Beneath the Skin

“Winter 2026.
It was one of the harshest winters
since my childhood in Poland this year.
We said goodbye to my mum.

It’s grounding to return to your birth place,
cast out into a remote landscape.
Quiet, monochrome, frozen, bright.

Footsteps creaked on the snow.
You could see far; the air was sharp,
every breath clean.

Even the sea was frozen, bare as bone.
I felt as if I were rediscovering life.

Everything was still, quiet and slow.
In those moments,
you return to the core of yourself.

Dry, hushed days piled up like layers.
Matter seemed to ooze from beneath,
reflecting on growth and decay.
A presence under the surface.

Beneath the skin, feelings pressed forward,
so strong they became almost physical.

Hidden, yet everywhere.”

Poem reproduced by kind permission of Aneta Regel.

Beth Williamson is an art historian and writer specialising in modern and contemporary art in Britain, with a particular interest in art education, craft, and ceramics. A former Research Fellow at Tate, she co-curated the exhibition Basic Design at Tate Britain in 2013 and has written widely on British art and pedagogy. Her essays and reviews on art, craft and ceramics have appeared in publications such as The Art Newspaper, Sculpture magazine, Studio International, and Ceramic Review.

Aneta Regel: Beneath the Skin was on view between June 27 and August 15, 2026, at Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London.

Subscribe to Ceramics Now to read similar articles, essays, reviews and critical reflections on contemporary ceramics. Subscriptions enable us to feature a wider range of voices, perspectives, and expertise within the ceramics community.

Captions

• Installation views, Aneta Regel: Beneath the Skin at Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, 2026. Photos by Gareth Hacker
• Aneta Regel, White Rhizome, 2026, Stoneware clay, porcelain, rocks and glaze, 89 H x 45 W x 38 D cm / 35 H x 17.7 W x 15 D in
• Aneta Regel, Red Pien 1, 2026, Stoneware clay, rocks and glaze, 89 H x 35 W x 21 D cm / 35 H x 13.8 W x 8.3 D in
• Aneta Regel, Volcanic totem, 2026, Porcelain, stoneware clay, glaze and rocks, 150 H x 38 W x 26 D cm / 59.1 H x 15 W x 10.2 D in
• Aneta Regel, Raining stone (yellow & white), 2026, Stoneware clay, porcelain, rocks and glaze, 41 H x 37 dia cm / 16 H x 14.6 dia in
• Aneta Regel, Raining stone (blue & white), 2026, Porcelain, glaze and rocks, 55 H x 43 W x 47 D cm / 21.7 H x 16.9 W x 18.5 D in
• Aneta Regel, Raining stone (black & white), 2026, Porcelain, stoneware clay and glaze, 25 H x 27 dia cm / 9.8 H x 10.6 dia in
• Aneta Regel, Raining stone (black & red), 2026, Porcelain, stoneware clay and glaze, 30 H x 30 W x 33 D cm / 11.8 H x 11.8 W x 12.9 D in
• Aneta Regel, Raining stone (green & black), 2026, Stoneware clay, glaze and rocks, 32 H x 50 W x 45 D cm / 12.6 H x 19.7 W x 17.7 D in
• Aneta Regel, Raining stone (red & blue), 2026, Stoneware clay, porcelain, glaze and rocks, 18 H x 27 W x 24 D cm / 8.1 H x 10.6 W x 9.4 D in

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.

Spuijbroek’s centers on 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. The applications are now closed.

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