Heide Nonnenmacher

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.