105 - An exhibition review and conversation with Miquel Barceló

Hello! Welcome to the 105th edition of Ceramics Now Weekly. This is Vasi Hirdo, the founding editor of Ceramics Now.

I hope you are doing well today 👋

Before we begin, I’d like to highlight the May 2026 issue of Ceramics Now Magazine, which features the work of Daniela Bergschneider on the cover. This issue brings together essays, interviews, and reviews that reflect on ritual, material memory, cultural inheritance, and the act of making. Ceramics Now members get instant access to the magazine. Subscribe and join our community if you haven’t already.

Let’s see what’s new.

By Bronaċ Ferran

I have come to Andalucia to visit a stunningly visual exhibition, that combines ceramic works by two of Spain’s most eminent modern and contemporary artists — Pablo Picasso and Miquel Barceló — together with a selection of pottery from the archaeological collections of the Museo de Almería and the Museo de Cádiz. It opened in Almería, a Mediterranean city, in December last year and has now moved west, to Cádiz, a historical gateway to the Atlantic Ocean. Those lucky enough to visit this exhibition encounter an assemblage of clay-based pieces in which forces of continuity between past and present are mutually enveloped. Its co-curator, Miquel López-Ramiro, Artistic Director of the Museo Picasso in Málaga, has described to me how the exhibition “approaches ceramics not as an object but as a medium that traverses time. From Neolithic pieces to Picasso and Barceló, clay emerges as a material that preserves memory, gesture, and transformation.” Indeed, unlayering past into present, and memory into a rounded contingency with that which remains unfinished, this is an edgy, raw exhibition that communicates how clay, and its working, lies at the centre of human existence.

By Heidi McKenzie

In the spring of 2020, my mother casually mentioned that my father had been involved in the Sir George Williams Affair. At the time, she was living in long-term care. It was COVID, and we were visiting on FaceTime. I had been reading some of my reflections on mine and my late father’s lived experience of race. My mother interrupted my monologue, “…of course there’s the time when your father was interviewed about his relationship with Perry over that race thing by Readers’ Digest …” My mother passed a few months later, but not before I was able to bring her my father’s photo albums and she identified a photograph of Perry Anderson with my father, emphasizing that they had been “thick as thieves” during their PhD studies in Biology at Western University in the early 1960s.

I hadn’t known about the Sir George Williams race protests of 1969. I knew about Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Junior, Smokey Carmichael, the Black Panthers… But nothing of Canada and its reckoning with anti-Black racism.

By Anne-Marie Dehon

The J base glaze from Rörstrand is made from a mix of quartz, kaolin, feldspar, chalk, and zinc oxide. This recipe is not unique. You can find those materials used in many other recipes, in different proportions. It means that it has been spread out from somewhere, transmitted, developed, created, re-created, until it has been archived underground at the former Rörstrand factory. Even in the book by W. Lindström, you can find this recipe rewritten several times, as if it needed to be recorded to continue being used.

Glaze recipes are alive when they change, when they are used, recreated and reimagined. They are alive when their colors become meaningful to someone’s creative desire. It feels strongly alive when, during the glazelab, it triggers happiness, curiosity, surprise, or disappointment. It feels alive when it cooperates or resists to fit the requirements of a given environment.

Sponsored by The Clay Studio

The Clay Studio presents American Crib: What’s Happening? by Roberto Lugo Organized as an imagined living space, American Crib: What’s Happening? presents a range of artworks that celebrate Roberto Lugo’s Puerto Rican lineage and Philadelphia upbringing. This deeply personal exhibition examines America’s socio-economic and political landscape through the lens of personal history. On view at The Clay Studio through July 5.

👌 Artists are invited to apply to THROW/BACK, the 2027 NCECA Annual Exhibition, curated by Adriana Proser and Ellen Hoobler and presented at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, from March 10 to June 6, 2027. Running alongside CHARM, the 61st NCECA conference, the exhibition explores how ceramic artists navigate continuity and change, preserving and transforming forms, materials, and cultural histories across time. Open to artists from around the world, the call welcomes applicants aged 18 and older working primarily with clay, including mixed-media and selected video works where ceramic processes remain central. The deadline to apply is June 17, 2026. NCECA members may apply free of charge, while non-members pay a $50 entry fee.

🏅 Emerging ceramic artists in the United States are invited to apply for the 2026 Chrysalis Award, presented by the James Renwick Alliance for Craft. Now in its 10th year, the award supports artists in the early stages of their careers who demonstrate excellence and a strong commitment to developing their practice. This year’s edition focuses on ceramics, with the recipient receiving a $5,000 unrestricted award, a one-year JRACraft membership, and the opportunity to present their work at a JRACraft event. Applications close August 23, 2026.

🎓 The Gardiner Museum presents the International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF) from May 28 to August 16 in Toronto, expanding its biennial programme from a 10-day event into a 12-week platform exploring contemporary ceramics through art, design, technology, and community. Centered on the theme “the city and the commons,” the fair brings together Canadian and international artists, including Ronald Rael, Sharif Farrag, Hadi Jamali, Jolie Ngo, Christine Howard Sandoval, and Anders Herwald Ruhwald, alongside exhibitions and workshops. Highlights include the ICAF Symposium (May 29–30), featuring keynote speaker Ronald Rael on emerging technologies and ancestral building practices, as well as panels examining ceramics, architecture, and shared space.

⏳ The Ceramics Research Centre-UK, in partnership with the Victoria and Albert Museum, invites audiences to Permanence/Impermanence: Collecting & Archiving Contemporary Clay Practices, taking place at the University of Westminster, London, from June 24–26, 2026. The three-day conference explores how ephemeral, site-specific, participatory, and live clay practices can be collected, archived, and made accessible to future audiences. Speakers include Florence Peake, Louisa Buck, Alun Graves, Phoebe Cummings, Clare Twomey, Natalie Baerselman le Gros, Tessa Peters, Nicole Seisler, Ashley Thorpe, and others. Tickets cost £25.

⭐ Australian ceramic artists have two major award deadlines coming up. The North Queensland Ceramic Awards 2026, held at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery in Townsville, invites entries for its biennial exhibition and offers a $10,000 acquisitive major prize, alongside several additional awards. Entries close July 7, 2026. In Victoria, the Clunes Ceramic Award 2026 is also open, with a $10,000 major prize. Finalists will be exhibited in Clunes from October 4 to November 1, 2026, with entries closing August 9, 2026.

🏮 Young artists worldwide are invited to apply for the 14th Shiwan Cup International Youth Ceramic Sculpture and Architectural Ceramic Art Competition, organized by the International Academy of Ceramics (IAC) and the Guangdong Shiwan Ceramics Museum. Open to applicants aged 18–45, this year’s competition responds to the theme Where Ends Begin. A total of 100 works will be shortlisted, with awards including a Grand Prize of ~$26,000 and additional prizes across several categories. Applications are free and open until August 31, 2026.

☀️ Our friends at The Kiln Rooms in London are hosting their Summer Ceramic Sale on June 5-7, bringing together over 80 local artists and designers across their Copeland Park and Bellenden Road studios. Visitors can discover handmade ceramics, meet the makers, and see where the work is created. All pieces will be for sale, directly supporting their practices, with 5% of sales donated to FiredUp4. The event is free and family- and dog-friendly.

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Discover these ceramic exhibitions that were recently featured in Ceramics Now.

A selection of ceramic exhibitions currently on view around the world.

1. Roberto Lugo: American Crib: What’s Happening? at The Clay Studio, Philadelphia

2. Maddy Inez: Nascence at Megan Mulrooney, Los Angeles

3. Architect of the Bizen Renaissance: Mori Tōgaku at Joan B Mirviss, New York

4. Ming-Miao Ko: Devenir and Monika Debus: Beyond Salt and Earth at Centre Céramique Contemporaine La Borne, La Borne

5. Jeff Shapiro: Solo at Lucy Lacoste Gallery, Concord

6. Grayson Fair: Pressure Point at Kouri + Corrao Gallery, Santa Fe

7. Colleen Carlson and Sui Park: Between at Sculpture Space NYC, New York

8. Emily Orta: Whims of Panspermia at DIMIN, New York

9. Henry Goodman Exhibition for Emerging Artists at the Art Gallery of Burlington, Ontario

10. Susie Choi: Right side wrong side at Sabbia Gallery, Sydney

11. GENSKÆR: Clara Toksvig, Thea Djurhuus, Sophia Moe at Peach Corner Gallery, Copenhagen

12. Laura Põld: Beautiful Pulsating Web at Kahan Art Space, Vienna

13. Trinidad Contreras: Solid Waves at Hannah Gallery, Barcelona

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