Articles

By Beth Williamson Julia Phillips' Inside, Before They Speak in The Curve at London's Barbican is surely as sparse as exhibitions get. It is with great economy that Phillips populates the space with objects exuding a spine-tingling strangeness that simultaneously attracts and repels the viewer. This dual effect is not surprising when you understand the deep psychoanalytic roots of the...

By Monica Monaia Come, let’s commune together.Andile Dyalvane Before clay becomes vessel, sculpture, or form, it is earth. It is the ground beneath our feet, the material from which objects have been shaped across cultures and continents. It precedes borders and disciplines, linking humanity through shared acts of making, care, and survival. In this sense, clay is not simply a...

By Sarah Rothwell Sat high above the banks of Windermere in the English Lake District, is Blackwell Arts and Crafts House, the former holiday home of the Manchester industrialist Sir Edward Holt (1849–1928). Designed by British architect and artist Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott (1865–1945) at the turn of the last century, the house was conceived during a period of renewed...

By Tana West Walking into the County Hall Pottery gallery space, you are immersed in the purple haze, which sets an otherworldly chromatic tone to the exhibition. In the middle of the gallery is a lilac-coloured grid, with the floor and walls of the same colour. This contrasts with the ceramic work, which is placed on platforms within, on and...

By Kelly Parks I've spent twenty years watching ground-nesting bees on my Montana property, observing how they select sites, assess soil conditions, and engineer their brood chambers with a precision that rivals any studio potter I know. When I learned that paleontologists recently discovered 20,000-year-old bee nests preserved inside fossilized bones in a Dominican cave—tiny clay structures with smooth, waterproofed...

By Unu Sohn Ceramic Brussels is a contemporary art fair focused on ceramics taking place in January, which held its third edition this year. I remember eyeing it with curiosity in 2025 and, eight months later, booking an apartment in May to visit the 2026 edition. It is an exciting event and the 2026 fair brings together mostly European galleries...

By Katherina Perlongo The 2026 edition of ceramic brussels came to a successful close, reaffirming its status as one of Europe’s most important platforms for contemporary ceramics. Over five days at Tour & Taxis in Brussels, the fair once again demonstrated the breadth of the medium, from object-based practices to fully articulated sculptural positions, while continuing to negotiate ceramics’ complex...

Kikuchi Biennale XI: The Present of Ceramics is a ceramic competition exhibition held at the Kikuchi Kanjitsu Memorial Tomo Museum in Tokyo from December 13, 2025 to March 22, 2026. Organized by the Kikuchi Foundation and Nikkei Inc., the biennale has been held every two years since 2004 as a juried exhibition dedicated to the promotion of ceramic art. Open...

By Chenoa Baker Across institutions in Philadelphia, Syd Carpenter’s work is currently presented through a rare, collaborative model that resists the isolating logic of the solo exhibition. Rather than positioning her practice as singular or retrospective, these concurrent exhibitions frame Carpenter’s ceramics as part of a larger conversation about land, memory, and collective care. This moment feels particularly charged in...

By Viera Kleinová If you are interested in contemporary ceramics in Slovakia, you will encounter it only rarely in a gallery context. A restrained shift toward the increased visibility of the ceramic medium has, however, been indicated by several exhibition activities that have taken place in both private and institutional spaces in recent years. A number of heterogeneous authorial modules...

By Vince Montague The late filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963) became known in cinematography for his “tatami shot”, a camera angle that places the optical lens much lower to the ground. In Western cinema, the camera is usually placed at shoulder height. Ozu’s pioneering perspective placed the camera at knee-height, the same perspective as if sitting on a floor. The viewer is...

By Benjamin Evans When I told people that I was going to Spain for a film festival devoted entirely to ceramic culture, the response typically involved the raising of eyebrows. The notion might well seem on the extreme side of “niche,” but the “CICEMA Festival Internacional de Cinema Ceràmic de Manises” is exactly what it says it is. It was...

By Aurelija Seilienė The Latvia International Ceramics Biennale is gradually becoming one of the most significant ceramics events not only in the region, but also in Europe. This is evidenced by the growing interest among artists and their desire to be part of the biennale. Its extensive programme, curatorial work, distinguished selection committee and critical reception all contribute to the...

By Katherina Perlongo With Ceramics un-limited world, the Südtiroler Künstlerbund opened the doors of its exhibition space SKB Artes in Bolzano to a vibrant exploration of clay in all its forms. On view from August 29 to November 7, 2025, the show brought together a carefully curated selection of artists whose works highlight the boundless potential of the material. Ceramics...

By Alessandra Lami At the core of Gordon Baldwin’s practice lies a tireless curiosity: among the most original voices in modern British ceramics, the artist was able to transform a traditional language into a territory of formal and poetic experimentation. After his demise in May 2025, Baldwin leaves behind a vast body of work. His practice is nourished by a...

By Lori-Ann Touchette "Tremore Essenziale" at the Alfonso Artiaco Gallery in Naples represents the Belgian artist's return to Italy after his masterful exhibition at the Villa Medici in Rome in 2020-21. A more intimate and personal vision is created at the Neapolitan gallery as opposed to the Villa Medici show that provided a retrospective of Creten's sculptural production from the...

By Beth Williamson Jupiter+ is an ambitious off-site programme run by Jupiter Artland in Scotland. The brainchild of Jupiter's co-founder, the sculptor Nicky Wilson, it aims to bring world class art out of the gallery and into high streets across Scotland. Now in its fourth year, the programme has previously run in Perth (2022), Ayr (2023) and Paisley (2024). In...

By Unu Sohn It has been a busy mid-October week in London with Frieze coinciding with neighbouring PAD, located a short 20-minute walk away from Regent's Park in Berkeley Square, and newer programming like Minor Attractions. You may be unfamiliar with this younger London-specific art fair, “Minor Attractions,” now in its third year, that aims to connect contemporary art and...

By Laura Curcio If you walk down William Street in inner-city Sydney before November 19, you will see a majestic ceramic work in the window of Australian Design Centre. Standing nearly one metre tall and aptly titled Apparition, it has a whimsical and dream-like quality, with coloured glass bubbles emerging from a white ceramic structure perched on four legs. It...

By Susannah Israel There are journeys that run like rivers, looping back, carving new paths, and gathering stories along the way. For Susannah Israel, Archie Bray has been that river. Each time she returned, the current was different: once as a young resident chasing possibility, again as a writer drawn into the narratives of others, and finally as an artist...