ceramics now

Although the number of contemporary ceramic artists is relatively small, the capacity of ceramics to encompass a broad range of concepts, techniques, and materials in comparison with other arts is surprisingly big. In this issue, as well as in our first, we present artists who work with different materials and techniques, but more importantly, each of them displays a distinct idea, a little hint of what he and his passion are made of. Through the interviews and articles we have included, we want at least a part of the artists’ ideas to be ridden, passed along, and to contribute to the advancement of contemporary ceramics.

While being creative in a field as diverse as contemporary art, it is almost impossible not to draw parallels between your work and someone else’s which was probably created in a media different from the one you use. This happens inevitably, and in my opinion, it always has a purpose – either predefined or not. Even if a parallel is found, each artistic endeavor has its own origin and, at least for the creator, a unique purpose. A new level is reached when the uniqueness of the artistic initiative is recognized and supported by an entire community.

Over the past year, Ceramics Now has become the largest online art platform dedicated to contemporary ceramics, and recently we have opened promotion to artists and galleries worldwide by application. This effort resulted from the wish to offer artists a platform to express themselves, but also from the desire to establish an accessible resource for everyone wanting to research and be inspired by contemporary ceramics. Since the launch of the first issue, we have been cited as a reference by numerous universities and colleges in the United States and Europe. This step was incredibly important for us because it has proven the value of the project and has kept us working hard. Although the current issue was published later than originally planned, what is important is that all the resources we gathered through this process have already traveled the internet in the meantime, creating a powerful community around us.

Our next goal is to become even more active in promoting contemporary ceramics on an international scale. Even though we have already organized four international exhibitions, with two being prepared for this year, all of these events so far have been held in Romania. In addition to inviting foreign artists to our beautiful country, we want to visit artists in their home countries and to organize events in as many places as possible for as many artists as possible. Key to our success will be greater financial stability and transitioning to full-time staffing of this project. It is a big step that can be possible with growing support from our readers. (An act of patronage has infinitely more value than a purchase.)

Vasi Hîrdo
Editor at Ceramics Now

vasi@ceramicsnow.org

Hello everyone and welcome to our Month in Review, a summary of the last month of activity on Ceramics Now. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to receive the latest news.
Check the Subscription offers on our Magazine shop.

This month’s featured interviews (view list):

Patricia Sannit - Artist of the month
Annie Woodford - Spotlight
Kwok-Pong Bobby Tso - Spotlight
Anti-Utopias / Sabin Borş - EXTRA!

This month’s special feature (ongoing - interviews):

Romanian Contemporary Ceramics
Eugenia Pop - In memoriam
Arina Ailincăi
Marta Jakobovits
Cristina Popescu Russu
Bogdan Teodorescu

This month’s featured exhibitions:

Ceramics Now Exhibition 3rd / Galateea Gallery, Bucharest
Francesca DiMattio / Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London
The Open West 2012 Award Winners exhibition / England
Caroline Andrin & Francois Ruegg / Puls Ceramics, Brussels
Melissa Stern: The Talking Cure / Smart Clothes, New York
Anne Tophøj and Marianne Nielsen / Copenhagen Ceramics
Cynthia Lahti exhibition / Zentrum für Keramik, Berlin
Kim Simonsson / Galerie Favardin & de Verneuil, Paris
Mark Goudy & Liza Riddle / SMAart Gallery, San Francisco
When I Woke / Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre, Wales
Three exhibitions at The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
German Op-Art Ceramics / University of Arizona Museum

This month’s featured connections:

Jannis Kounellis / Parasol unit foundation, London
Olaf Breuning: Human Nature / Pippy Houldsworth Gallery
Yin&Yang Parisienne Mix for Ceramics Now, October 2012
The reopening of Fabrica de Pensule 2012 / Cluj-Napoca
Carsten Nicolai - Unidisplay projection wall installation

This month’s news on Ceramics Now:

Published: Guideline for sponsorships and submissions

Next month’s news:

The launch of Ceramics Now Magazine - Issue Two

For media partnerships or sponsorship please contact Vasi Hîrdo, Editor, at vasi@ceramicsnow.org
Submissions and general info: office@ceramicsnow.org

ROMANIAN CONTEMPORARY CERAMICS, October 2012: Cristina Popescu Russu

Interview by Alexandra Mureşan for Ceramics Now Magazine - Issue Two

In 1975 you graduated Ceramics at the Nicolae Grigorescu Arts Institute in Bucharest. You have been active in this domain for over 35 years, all marked by a large number of exhibitions, as well as participations to international symposiums. How was this passion for ceramics born? Have you had any masters that marked your career?

In the Music & Fine Arts Highschool in Craiova, the teachers Şopov Cole Nicos, Ion Marineanu and Vasile Buz have inspired me a love for painting as well as for molding. I fell in love with our prehistoric ceramics and from then on I knew I would dedicate myself to this domain.  
In the N. Grigorescu Arts Institute in Bucharest I had the privilege of meeting remarkable teachers: Lucia Ioan Neagu, Costel Badea. I learned something from each of them, namely to learn as much arts history as possible, to investigate, to experiment and to be creative at the same time, to not plagiarize, to know that talent had no significance without daily work, and that only the well made work, the passionate one - can lead to performance.
Being fascinated by the renaissance techniques in painting and by the technology of ceramics - like I was then, I used to work all day long in the Institute with the love and the exigency that have been taught to us by our professors.

The material that you most often work with is porcelain. What determines you to prefer it to all others? What are the artistic proprieties of porcelain that makes it more suitable for you than any other material?

In the ’70 and the ’80 there was collaboration between the arts institutes and the factories in the country that specialized in porcelain, tile, sandstone, glass and other materials. The students used to make their internship and their diploma works there, benefiting from what is vital for an artist: the specific materials and technologies. My love for porcelain was born there as a challenge. Only the ones who have knowledge in the technology of ceramics can comprehend how difficult it is to achieve performance when porcelain is the material of choice. It is a difficult material, hard to manage, because it has a memory and you have to know with precision the distortions, the contractions, the burning curves, when you want to obtain something in particular. Everything is fascinating about this material: the pure white, the translucence gained by the thinning of the fragments, its resonance when it is well burned, its preciousness. 

[…] Read the full interview in Ceramics Now - Issue Two

You are the founder of Galateea Gallery, the only gallery in Romania dedicated to promoting contemporary Romanian ceramics. What is the Gallery’s history and what are its projects?

In 1953, the Artists Union in Romania is granted the use of the space for an exposition hall. In 1955, arh. Eugen Vernescu arranges it to host painting and sculpture expositions. Twenty years later, arh. Mircea Coradino dramatically modifies its interior and façade, and the art critiques Mihai Ispir and Mihai Drişcu titled it Galateea Gallery.

Read More

ROMANIAN CONTEMPORARY CERAMICS, October 2012: Arina Ailincăi

Interview by Vasi Hîrdo for Ceramics Now Magazine - Issue Two
Translation by Anca Sânpetrean

What was your first contact with ceramics?

The first meeting with ceramic took place when I entered the university, as I decided to take the admission exam for the Ceramics Department. The reason for this option was the liberal reputation held by the Ceramics Department, mainly due to the young teachers of various formations, who were encouraging the free investigation subordinated to an “interdisciplinary” that at that time was quite attractive.

Because originally I had a sentimental inclination for Graphics - I was more familiar with expressing myself through lines and white / black tonal values. My way of perceiving the world and building volumes remained indebted to the graphic vision.

After graduation, due to my job as a designer at the porcelain factory in Cluj, I familiarized myself with the subtle expressivity of porcelain and its processing technology, practicing with this material for a long time, and ending up loving it.

You have participated in many competitions and international group exhibitions. What are the most important things you have learned by taking part in these events?

For me they represent a form of self-assessment and validation of my personal approach to ceramics in a context of ongoing dialogue with other colleagues. As for the residences and symposiums, they are extremely benefic cultural exchanges for the refreshening of one’s ideas. They also bring the sense of being an ambassador of one’s own culture and historical traditions who makes a personal contribution, no matter how small, to the international artistic context. These kinds of events are especially significant for Romanian artists who have suffered, as we all know, from a period of political restrictions that had made the direct contact with the cultural world outside the Communist Bloc almost impossible.

What message or feeling do you want to convey to your viewer through your works? The portraits and the imprints that constitute your work are part of the artistic approach, or they are simply the result of a process of searching?

I find it hard to give a clear answer to this question, because it implies a number factors of which an artist is not always aware. Maybe is best to say that my works are the imprint of my inner trials and tribulations. In other words, they are a way of sensitively relating to the socio-cultural climate that surrounds me.

How the viewer can “read” my work, depends on one’s cultural heritage or current state of mind, and on other many things… but the perception with its various interpretations will always remains an open question. But oh, what joy we experience when the viewer interpretation comes close to the intended meaning, proving that our discourse is not just a monolog lost in void. 

[…] Read the full interview in Ceramics Now - Issue Two

Read More

ROMANIAN CONTEMPORARY CERAMICS, October 2012: Marta Jakobovits

Interview by by Ileana Surducan and Alexandra Mureşan for Ceramics Now Magazine - Issue Two

What message or emotion do you want to convey to the observer through your works? Is your artistic undertake based on a certain idea or is it more of a searching process and experimentation?

For me, this process is never conscious, programmed or preconceived. It is more of a constant experiment that is absolutely instinctive. My only guides on this path are those primal, undefined sensations generated by touching and feeling the malleable and permissive clay.
Only afterwards I come to realize with wonder that a kind of actualization takes place - a humble identification, like a translation of some archaic, immemorial message. When I stop and ”read” the pieces that I created, and I analyze the way I created them, I marvel and realize that an actualization was already in me, that that translation was made through me.
Good or bad, this is my path; through it I try to understand, not in a rational way, but rather through sensations and feelings, some of the facts of my existence, trying at the same time to leave some signs behind, signs that have meaning only if they are perceived by others.

[…] Read the full interview in Ceramics Now - Issue Two

Many of your works are created in raku – a technique that is not the most convenient for everybody. Why did you choose this technique? What are the advantages and disadvantages that it presents?

Raku is a technique that allows one to obtain very special and organic effects, both surprising and discreet. The expressive potential of the surface is greatly enhanced and can vary according to time and to different types of materials used in the burning – crumbled paper, sawdust, grass or dry leafs. Because of the strange appearance obtained through the ulterior reductions, the objects that are born through raku seem to me to be part of an ancient world, they appear timeless.

The process of preparing the clay for the object that will be raku fired is special and equally important to me, because this offers just as many possibilities. The preparation involving different salts, oxides, engobes or glazes, in diverse combinations gives the final piece a special and unique visual individuality.
Throughout the years I tested many of these possibilities, and through numerous repetitions I tried to understand and feel the spell of prompt intervention and immediate decision. These interventions can give you the impression that you work directly with the magical proprieties of the ceramic material.

Clay is perceived by many to be a docile and easy to manipulate material, but a real ceramic artist knows its potential and limits. In your opinion, what should be the relation between an artist and the material he uses?

Clay is a material that is very open to the tactile dialog of touches, and this opening is very important to me because it creates a link to a world full of miracles and secrets. Through the material I am capable to connect with messages from ancient times. Clay seems to transport me into a different time, a different dimension. This is the reason why, whenever I find myself face to face with clay I try to reach the highest level of sincerity.

Read More

ROMANIAN CONTEMPORARY CERAMICS, October 2012: Bogdan Teodorescu

Interview by Vasi Hîrdo for Ceramics Now Magazine - Issue Two

You are a versatile visual artist who works in mediums such as painting, collage, video art, but also ceramics. In the process of creating a new work, do you allow yourself the freedom to change the medium of expression?

Versatility it’s not entirely a positive feature, at least not for an artist. To be consequent could be in many cases a better option. Up to this moment, my flexibility didn’t create a strong image of myself, but instead surrounded me with an aura of strangeness and ambiguity.

Changing the medium could be an important, valuable quality, mostly when you’re forced to work in difficult conditions. For example, if you don’t have your own kiln or the brightest and most refined porcelain, you have to improvise, for example to do installations of found or smashed objects. If you record the process on camera, you also have good chances of becoming a video artist or a performer. I don’t feel like it’s hard to transfer one idea between different types of media, but it is quite frustrating. I have always imagined myself doing heroic jobs, but I have to acknowledge my limitations and therefore pay attention to small or discreet things. From this point of view, things become even more ambiguous.

[…] Read the full interview in Ceramics Now - Issue Two

Are your creations the results of research processes or they are on-the-spot transpositions?

Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. Let’s say I like spontaneous ideas. I don’t bother that much with research. I’m always intrigued when someone titles his collection of exhibited images a project, evoking some ideas he is attached to. If you’re honest to yourself you will notice how clear everything is. Everything you do comes from a background. I will give you an example: some years ago I developed a project on an accidental idea. I asked two of my friends, a poet and a monk, to start an artistic collaboration, taking advantage of this multidisciplinary friendship. The monk opened a book and picked a word for a theme. The poet had to write something regarding this, and I had to paint or draw. Almost from nowhere, an idea appeared: smashing watermelons! Then I started the research, amazed by all coincidences I had found. This innocent image had a huge iconography and transgressed many cultures. It was like a revelation.

Bogdan Teodorescu, This is the best world from the others, 2012, Porcelain, feldspat, approx 27 x 28 cm.
View Bogdan Teodorescu’s works

Read More

Sponsorship / What is Ceramics Now?

Ceramics Now is the world leading website in contemporary ceramics, with more than 61000 visits per month and 46000 followers on Tumblr. Built as an open online art platform specialized in contemporary ceramics, Ceramics Now publishes profiles, interviews and reviews of new and world-renowned ceramic artists, and provides information on contemporary ceramic art exhibitions and events.

We are proud to have collaborated with almost 100 featured artists at 60+ interviews and with 50+ partners at over 100 exhibitions and events.

How about the magazine?

Ceramics Now Magazine is published 10 times per year in digital format, and 2 times per year in printed format. The majority of our readership consists in educated individuals aged between 27-46 years old. Almost all of them are working in the arts field (self-employed artists, galleries, academic, small companies, etc.).

Readership: USA - 37%, Europe - 25%, UK - 12%, Australia - 7%, Other - 19%.

How to sponsor Ceramics Now?

Ceramics Now website:
1. Sponsored article (exhibitions and events):
- Press release, image and image attribution, 3 links: article visible on top of the Exhibitions page for a month (2 spots available).
2. Banners - Buy Now (Use Promo Code HAPPY2YEARS to get 20% off. Limited availability.)
- 125 x 125px button banner visible on the whole website (left sidebar).
- 250 x 250px banner visible on posts and static pages (right sidebar).
3. E-Announcement / Newsletter
- 560 x 210px banner + text (title: 60 characters, description: 350 characters) + 3 links.

Ceramics Now Magazine:
Advertising opportunities for the printed and digital issues of Ceramics Now Magazine are limited to 4 pages/issue.

* We can provide invoices for every sale. For any type of requests, please contact Vasi Hirdo, Editor, at vasi@ceramicsnow.org

PS. Today we are celebrating 2 years of existence! Happy second birthday to us! Thank you so much for your support. Click here for a giveaway!