108 - A city built on ceramics: Jingdezhen

Hello! Welcome to the 108th edition of Ceramics Now Weekly. This is Vasi Hirdo, the founding editor of Ceramics Now.

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There’s just over a month left to apply for the first edition of Ceramics Now Annual. We welcome applications from ceramic artists at all career stages, from emerging to established, working across all areas of ceramic practice.

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And a reminder that Aura Pottery is offering Ceramics Now readers 10% off its ceramic retreats in India when booked by the end of August.

I hope everyone is having a lovely end of summer ☀️ or winter, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere.

Let’s see what’s new.

Notes from the 52nd IAC Congress, satellite exhibitions and the 2026 Jingdezhen International Ceramic Art Biennale

By Olivia Fero

There is a street in Jingdezhen for glaze and a street for bisque, a street for tiles, a street for tools, a street for decals. Whole districts specialise the way organs specialise: underglaze painting here, porcelain flowers there. Passing through it is like moving through an exploded diagram of the ceramic process, a city organised not around commerce or governance but around making. When the keynote speaker at the 52nd Congress of the International Academy of Ceramics, Wayne Higby, Professor Emeritus and Robert C. Turner Chair of Ceramic Art at Alfred University, called Jingdezhen a city for makers, the phrase was not a slogan but a road map.

In the last week of June, the International Academy of Ceramics convened its congress, held until July 2 under the theme Inheritance and Innovation, alongside the opening of the third Jingdezhen International Ceramic Art Biennale and a constellation of satellite exhibitions. The porcelain capital, already of near mythical significance for anyone who works in clay, was for one week also the capital of the ceramic conversation, and thanks to near-instant simultaneous translation the field could argue and disagree in its own tongues rather than in weary conference English. What I saw there was a working demonstration that the anxieties currently paralysing the craft arts in Europe, Britain and America, about technology, about markets, about the survival of ceramics education itself, are not laws of nature but choices and can be prioritised differently. It was also, undeniably, a spectacle of scale and polish, and scale invites its own questions: who benefits, who gets in, and who pays?

By Julia Ellen Lancaster

Delft, the picturesque Dutch city set between Rotterdam and The Hague, is known as the birthplace of Johannes Vermeer and the iconic Delft Blue pottery. In its historic center stands the medieval Oude Kerk, an 800-year-old Gothic church whose soaring architecture provided a striking setting for contemporary ceramics.

It is here that Galerie Terra Delft staged Common Ground: A World of Ceramics, a major anniversary exhibition marking the gallery’s 40th anniversary and bringing together ceramic artists from five continents: Li Zhen, Prithwiraj Mali, Mahala Hill, Adeoti Afeez Azeez, Katherine Morling, Mariëtte van der Ven, Eliza Au, and Keka Ruiz-Tagle.

Read Julia Ellen Lancaster’s exhibition report from Delft, covering Common Ground: A World of Ceramics, the Delft Ceramic Days, and the Royal Delft Museum’s current show, Urban Blue – From Bricks to Tiles.

By Stephen F. Eisenman

I first came across Charles Bound’s work in September 2024, at Contemporary Ceramics on Great Russell Street in London, opposite the British Museum. I’d visited the gallery from time to time over the years, but after I moved to England in Spring 2024, my attendance was more frequent. Because they change exhibitions often, it’s a good place to gain perspective on the state of British studio ceramics and see the work of both new and veteran artists.

On this occasion, the gallery dedicated its back room – the gallery’s special sanctum — to Bound, who has been making wood-fired stoneware for some 45 years. The works stood apart from those by others then on display at the gallery including Clive Bowen, Sotis Filippedes, Doug Fitch, Jane Hamlyn, Walter Keeler, and Stephen Parry. Bound’s ceramics, unlike theirs, are thick-walled, dark and irregularly shaped. Though nearly all works in the exhibition were vessels of some kind — amphorae, urns, plates and bowls – many approached what I would call informe, “the formless,” to borrow the phrase of the Surrealist author, Georges Bataille. That’s what made them so compelling.

By Ashley Thorpe

Julia Ellen Lancaster has become highly regarded for creating clay sculptures that are as complex as they are intuitive. For Phantasms and Frequencies, a solo exhibition held from 18 June – 5 July 2026 at the Liminal Gallery in Margate, UK, she created a painterly series of free-standing and wall-based sculptures that revel in the material possibilities of clay. These ceramic collages are produced out of free association: relationships between different recycled materials are realized in the process of creating each work. These discoveries suggest form which, in turn, encourage narrative. But what is the story that Ellen Lancaster is trying to tell?

By Amy Gogarty

In Vancouver, Jig Art has a reputation for presenting art, including ceramics, that builds cultural bridges. While the gallery showcases artists from diverse backgrounds, much of their focus in on ethnically Chinese artists. The Greater Vancouver Region is one of the most multi-cultural in North America, with visible minorities representing over 50% of residents. Approximately 20% of the population identifies as Chinese-Canadian, including immigrants from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and those whose families have lived here for generations. This makes for a very lively and complex cultural mix, but ceramics practice in the province of British Columbia continues to be understood largely in terms of traditions deriving from Bernard Leach and European Modernism.

The exhibition Where Form Meets the Boundless includes work by five Taiwanese artists, Ming-Shun Cho, Yu-Ying Huang, Ming-hsiang Hsu, Shanyin Lee, and Chen-Long Lin. Four Canadian artists, Amy Chang, Wei Cheng, Ying-Yueh Chuang, and Debra Sloan provide a local component.

👌 We’re hiring! Ceramics Now is looking for a Freelance Editorial Assistant to help us publish artist profiles and introduce the work of more ceramic artists to our international readership. This is a remote freelance position for approximately 8 hours per week, with flexibility around when those hours are worked. Compensation is $15-25/hour, depending on experience and location. The role could work particularly well alongside an artistic practice, studies, or other freelance work.

🖼️ The Jane Hartsook Gallery at Greenwich House Pottery is accepting exhibition proposals for its 2027–2028 season. Open to artists and curators working with ceramics as the primary medium, the call welcomes solo, group, and curatorial proposals that reflect the wide-ranging possibilities of clay across art, craft, and design. Selected exhibitions will take place between August 2027 and May 2028, with each exhibition on view for approximately six weeks. Applicants must be 21 or older and not currently enrolled in an education program. Proposals are due September 1, 2026.

📍 Artists are invited to apply to OPEN STUDIO 2026, the second International Contemporary Ceramics Prize organized by Fondazione Cèramica Montelupo for the Cèramica Festival in Montelupo Fiorentino, Italy. The main prize is €2,000, with additional cash prizes, two artist residency awards, scholarships, special mentions, and partner prizes also available. Applications are due October 19, 2026.

🍵 Applications are also open for the 10th International Modern Teapot Art Biennial, taking place in Wuxi, China, from November 19–23, 2026. Works submitted through the global open call will primarily be considered for the Global Modern Teapot Art Exhibition. Selected participants receive accommodation, meals, local transport, access to official events, and a cultural visit to Yixing, the birthplace of Zisha teapot culture. Submissions close October 11, 2026.

🤝 Artists based in the UK are invited to apply for the British Ceramics Biennial Mentorship Programme 2026/27, open to early-career creatives working in clay who feel they face barriers to career progression or accessing professional networks. The free online programme will support up to seven artists from October 2026 to February 2027 through mentoring sessions, a bespoke artist film, promotion, peer networking, and support from the BCB team. Applications are due September 15, 2026.

👉 Earthworks and Gertrude are inviting applications for a three-month ceramics residency in London. The residency offers time, studio access, and community for the development of a new body of small-scale ceramic work, alongside six months of free membership at Gertrude. The programme is free to apply to and free to participate in, with shared studio facilities and firings included, though accommodation and materials are not provided. Residency periods run from November 2026 to January 2027 and from February to April 2027. Applications are due September 21, 2026.

🗿 Artists able to work on-site in London can also apply for County Hall Pottery’s new landmark ceramic commission. The competition will select one artist to create a permanent outdoor ceramic sculpture for the historic courtyards of County Hall. Proposals should be figurative, human or animal, respond to the theme of peace, and be made primarily in ceramic. The selected artist will receive a £10,000 commission fee, four months of studio space, kiln access, materials, and technical support. Applications are due September 6, 2026.

🎓 The Taoxichuan Art Center Residency Program in Jingdezhen is accepting applications for its 2027 Migratory Bird Program. Open to all artists working with ceramics, glass materials, woodworking, painting, and other composite materials, the residency invites artists to explore Jingdezhen’s ceramic traditions and contemporary art ecosystem. Residency periods are available between February 2027 and January 2028, with a minimum duration of eight weeks. Applicants will be reviewed in three categories: Invited Artists, Half Self-funded Artists, and Self-funded Artists, with support ranging from accommodation and studio space to travel reimbursement and a creation grant. Applications close August 28, 2026. Interested applicants should contact residencyjdz@outlook.com

🙌 There’s only one month left to submit your work for Ceramics Now Annual, our new flagship publication launching this December (when we also celebrate 16 years of Ceramics Now). Published in print and digital editions, the Annual will feature at least 20 artists selected through an international open call, with the digital edition free to read. Open to ceramic artists worldwide. We look forward to receiving your applications by September 15, 2026. Submission fee: $15.

📙 Book recommendation: Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America [Craft in America]. Craft in America presents a compelling and essential portrait of American culture through an extraordinary range of handmade objects. The book is a visually stunning, deeply inspiring celebration of America’s spirit through ordinary, surprising, and overlooked handcrafted objects spanning more than 250 years. Edited by Emily Zaiden, director and lead curator of the Craft in America Center, with a foreword by Carol Sauvion, the visionary behind the Peabody Award–winning PBS series Craft in America, this book is part of a sweeping national initiative marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Find the book on Bookshop .org (US) or Amazon (world).

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