Ceramics: Art and Perception

Short phrases generally employed to degrade women are the central thread of Elyse Pignolet’s recent art seen in Seattle, Washington, at Koplin Del Rio Gallery. Elyse Pignolet: You Should Smile More is both a taunt and a condemnation. Men’s sneeringly

Sandy Lockwood is equally articulate with and about clay – one of the rare makers whose writings about her practice are worth reading. She expresses what many of us struggle to say, or pay others to compensate for our failure to do so. Her essays acc

All things in the universe came into being when dew carried on the wind fell down from the sky and water drops gushed from the earth and flowed together based on the principle of yin and yang. Dewdrops and water drops flowed without rest both day and

On the occasion of Brian Rochefort's first institutional solo exhibition Absorption by the Sun, at Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, the artist sat down with curator Alexandra Terry to discuss his latest works and his artistic process. AT You

Serendipity. It is defined as the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. The key is by chance. It cannot be summoned. It requires sensitivity and awareness to recognize and capture the moment. A perfect example w

Annika Teder is one of the most creatively impressive Estonian ceramic artists. Her works are without exception three-dimensional figures each of which embody an emotion, thought or experience of the artist, and serve beauty and fantasy. One of the f

Simone Leigh studied ceramics with Mike Thiedeman at Earlham College, a small Quaker school in Indiana. She still uses clay as an element of many of her works, but her purview extends far beyond the usual realms of ceramics. She thinks big, both in d

I am walking along Porzellangasse in Vienna on a hot June day in 2018, looking for a particular plaque. Finally, at house number 51 I spot a simple porcelain tile with a cobalt script that declares it as the site where in 1718 the first porcelain was

Many of the artists who defined the postwar American contemporary ceramics movement were often referred to by a single name: Voulkos, Audio, Kaneko for example but only one was most commonly referred to by her first name, “Toshiko.” Rarefied air inde

In their quest to find new and exciting ways of expression working with clay, visual artists are pushing the boundaries of creativity by exploring innovative mediums, techniques and processes. This global trend also holds true in South Africa, where

I met Prue Venables when she was a student on the Harrow Pottery course in the early 1980s, when I was invited by the course director Jerome Abbo to teach one day a week. I did not teach her ceramics − I was the wrong sort of potter to be employed in

Floral motifs and plant designs have adorned the ceramic surface for millennia, providing an endless source of shapes and patterns, unthreatening and calming; connecting us to the lifeforce of a tamed nature. The earliest motifs were likely scratched

A great deal of time, thought and text have been expended either distinguishing the difference between Art and Craft or declaring the difference obsolete. The former speculation is often clumsy and not very helpful. The latter was, will and will alwa

In the noisy province of Jiading, Shanghai, lives an artist who sustains pure passion in his heart through his devotion to the creation of his beloved ceramics, whilst relishing the amalgamation of brush and fire. He works in complete isolation, away

The paintings of women in ancient China were initially created by the literati, generally referred to as Shinvtu (仕女图) – meaning paintings of beautiful women. Female figures gradually appeared in other traditional Chinese art forms, including sculptu

One of the constants in ceramics is that one or more of our favorite raw materials will go out of production, primarily for economic reasons. For example, while many feldspars are geologically present their economic value has diminished to the point

In March 2019, Janet Smith commenced the monumental task of building a mighty Anagama kiln on her rural property at Roto-O-Rangi, in the picturesque backblocks of Cambridge, Waikato, New Zealand. A large concrete pad was laid, followed by family arri