The week’s news in the ceramic art world – September 11, 2024

• Applications open for the 2025 LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize, an international award celebrating excellence in craftsmanship. The award (€50,000 for the winning prize) seeks to recognize uniquely talented artisans whose artistic vision and will to innovate set new standards for the future of craft. The shortlisted and winning works will feature in the exhibition and accompanying catalog in Madrid in Spring 2025. Applications are due October 30.

• Ever since 2015, when we stopped printing the magazine and shifted our focus to digital content, I’ve never stopped thinking about the possibility of bringing the print edition back. Of course, going digital has brought many benefits to Ceramics Now—our articles reached over 370,000 unique readers only last year. However, there’s something special about holding a publication in your hands, and as someone who loves reading books and catalogs, I’ve missed that experience. That’s why, this summer, we began working on a new recurring publication highlighting some of our best content. Here is the trial issue.

• Katherina Perlongo wrote about the 5th Officine Saffi Award: (un)Known Territories, which took place earlier this summer at Fondazione Officine Saffi in Milan, Italy. Read the full review in Ceramics Now.

• Argillà Italia 2024 took place about ten days ago in Faenza, Italy. The festival hosted a large fair along the streets of Faenza’s historic center, exhibitions in the city’s museums, and a range of demonstrations, workshops, meetings, and activities for children. Some exhibitions will be open until October or even later in the year.

• Last month, I had the pleasure of visiting the Vallauris International Biennial for Contemporary Creation and Ceramic, which is on view until September 30 at the Musée Magnelli, Musée de la Céramique. It is particularly interesting to see contemporary ceramics adjoined by an extensive collection of Picasso’s ceramics. Vallauris is also the host of dozens of ceramic studios, big and small, and several galleries.

• The Leach Pottery (St. Ives) has secured £3.49m funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to support the development of the Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall. The funding brings exciting new job opportunities to become part of this once-in-a-lifetime program. They are hiring several coordinators, a curator, and an assistant curator.

• The 51st Congress of the International Academy of Ceramics is taking place in Alcobaça and Caldas da Rainha, Portugal, between September 16-20, 2024. The Congress will focus on ceramics in the Mediterranean world, from antiquity to the present. Two days of conferences form the core of the Congress, while visits to key museums, galleries, workshops, and production facilities provide a unique context to meet leading ceramic professionals from around the world.

• International Academic Advisors offers immersive courses in Uzbek pottery to help make the country more accessible to artists and craft-curious travelers. Explore centuries-old techniques with expert instructors and discover the rich tradition of Uzbekistan pottery with immersive experiences, such as the ancient pottery workshops of Rishtan or the International Ceramics Center.

• We recently published John Roloff’s article, Expanded Ceramics / Holocene Agriculture, which explores the intersection of ceramics, ecology, and geology. Roloff reimagines ceramics as a tool for environmental exploration, using ceramic materials in agricultural practices to investigate their potential for soil enrichment and nutrient distribution. Drawing on his background in earth sciences and art, Roloff pushes the boundaries of ceramics, addressing topics like climate change, ecological challenges, species migration, and global metabolic systems.

• Several events are opening in the next few days in Europe:

The 40th International Ceramics Competition Carouge, in Carouge, Geneva, Switzerland
The 18th Parcours Céramique Carougeois, in Carouge, Geneva, Switzerland
The European Ceramic Context 2024, in Bornholm, Denmark
The 7th CAOLIN International Contemporary Ceramics Festival, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania
The 51st Congress of the International Academy of Ceramics, in Alcobaça and Caldas da Rainha, Portugal

• Congratulations to all the artists selected to participate in this year’s Gyeonggi Ceramics Biennale – GCB2024, formerly known as the Korean International Ceramic Biennale, which opened a few days ago. All 57 artists selected for the competition earned a prize. In particular, the GCB Grand Prize-winning piece (by Matt Wedel) was recognized for its remarkable expression and high technical originality. Notably, the GCB Traditional Prize was adjusted to have a single recipient (Lee Jong Min), and the GCB Special Prize was introduced as a major prize, in addition to the originally planned Excellence Prizes. The main exhibition is on view until October 20.

• What’s On View: Xanthe Somers: Invisible Hand is on view at Southern Guild, Cape Town / Luis Roldán: Slow Rotations is on view at Sculpture Space NYC, New York / Raw Beauty: Hans Vangsø & Anne Floche is on view at Lucy Lacoste Gallery, Concord / Abel Jallais: Formes sédimentaires is on view at NeC Gallery, Paris / Carlene Thompson: Maṉngu – Nest is on view at Sabbia Gallery, Sydney / Michał Puszczyński, Ingrid van Munster, and Seungho Yang are on view at Centre Céramique Contemporaine La Borne, La Borne / Valérie Hermans & Karine Benvenuti is on view at Galerie Terra Viva, Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie / Sara Flynn is on view at Erskine, Hall & Coe, London / Joon Hee Kim: The Shape of Life is on view at Craft Ontario, Toronto / Vasile Cercel: Ephemeral is on view at Galateea Contemporary Art, Bucharest / Grace Sachi Troxell is on view at Open Source Gallery, New York / Eirik Gjedrem: Wavelenght is on view at Format Oslo, Oslo / Land-Marked is on view at Gallery 57, Arundel, West Sussex / Claire Partington: Princess opens tomorrow at Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami