In the PROFILES section: 7 ceramic artists from China, Germany, France, Netherlands, Greece. Coverage of EXHIBITIONS and EVENTS in Germany, Ethiopia, Italy, Germany, UK, Poland, USA. In the section ARTIST JOURNAL, we present Sukanjana Kanjanabat / Thailand and Kay Aplin / UK. And we also have interviews with artists IN STUDIO as well as listings of Dates, Courses, Seminars and Markets.
NEWS
PROFILES
Gu Yue – China
Michael Sälzer – Germany
Julie Cornette – France
Lina Wiedwald – Germany
Marga Knaven – Netherlands
Jaewon Kim – Korea / Germany
Maggy Ioannou – Greece
Ines Rother – Germany
EXHIBITIONS / EVENTS
Ceramics Initiative – Rheinsberg – Germany
Ceramics & Travel – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Ginori Alchemy 1737-1896 – Faenza – Italy
MADE IN GMUNDEN – Gmunden – Austria
6th Int. Ceramics Prize – Siegburg – Germany
COLLECT – London – UK
Porcelana jeszcze inaczej – Wrocław – Poland
“Crime Scene” Porzellan(ikon) – Selb – Germany
NCECA – Detroit – USA
BOOKS
New literature
ARTIST JOURNAL
Sukanjana Kanjanabat / Thailand – Kay Aplin / UK – Ting-Ju Shao
IN STUDIO
Shulamit Millar – Evelyne Schoenmann– Interview / Developing Skills
DATES / Exhibitions / Galleries / Museums
COURSES / SEMINARS / MARKETS
ADVERTISEMENTS
PREVIEW
Interviewed by Monika Gass
I met you in Jingdezhen in 2025 – introduced by Caroline Cheng – and had the honour of visiting your studio, where your stunning works were displayed. How did you begin your journey in ceramics?
My journey began with my introduction to ceramics. I enrolled in Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in 2008 and graduated with a master’s degree in 2015. I started my personal creative work around that time. During my school years, I was more focused on learning traditional ceramic techniques. The learning environment back then involved teachers explaining principles and basic operations, while Jingdezhen was filled with ceramic workshops where I could observe masters creating with various methods and skills. From them, I could more directly learn and understand what was taught in the classroom.
Besides the workshops of older-generation artisans, there was another place I visited every week: Jingdezhen Pottery Workshop (PWS). Every Friday, there were lectures, and on Saturday mornings, there was a market. For me, that was my only opportunity to learn about the outside world. It allowed me to experience the works and ideas of ceramic artists and young ceramicists from China and abroad. That stirred something deep within me: I also want to create what I desire.
Gu Yue
FROM LAW STUDENT TO POTTERY APPRENTICE
Breaking with my academic career and the need to create something I could literally “grasp” led me to ceramics. As a frustrated law student, I turned my back on divided Berlin, returned to the Westerwald region and started on a pottery apprenticeship. My old Silesian master in the pottery was a formative influence; large vessels were mostly thrown in series there and a good sense of form, mastery of traditional throwing techniques and speed were essential.
JAPANESE TRADITION AND HISTORICAL FUNCTIONAL POTTERY
To be able to make a living, I started with the serial production of tableware when I set up my own pottery. In the late 1970s, Bernard Leach’s A Potter’s Book, the Mingei movement in Japan and great masters like Hamada were very influential. This idealisation of unpretentious vessels led me to using clay found in nature for glazes, exploring ancient Silesian forms and, from their functional aesthetic, developing contemporary stoneware tableware. Firings were to 1300°C in an electric kiln, sales via the Frankfurt Fair and the newly created pottery markets.
Michael Sälzer
I first encountered Maggy Ioannou in a group exhibition, in a room full of ceramics that felt grounded, earthy, raw. There were heavy textures and sober presences, work that sat firmly on shelves and plinths, insisting on weight. And then, above it all, there was Greed.
It hung from the ceiling like a private galaxy that had drifted into the space by mistake. It glowed, soft and almost cushiony, perfectly balanced, porcelain doing that impossible thing it does when it looks both fragile and inevitable. The story moved before I fully understood it. A mermaid reached, a bird’s tail caught in her grasp, as if flight could be negotiated, as if desire could be translated into choreography. I remember spending that night returning to the piece again and again. It demanded the kind of attention you do not choose.
Maggy’s work has always carried narrative, quietly and stubbornly, almost against the grain of what contemporary taste often rewards. She once told me she used to feel guilty about the poetic tendency in her practice, about letting an emotional, lyrical current shape the form. It was not trendy, and there came a moment where she had to decide: either she would embrace that tenderness and dig deeper, or she would stop making altogether. She chose depth, and you can feel that decision as air entering a sealed room.
(Eleni Lozou)
Maggy Ioannou
It would be hard to imagine a more fitting description of this dynamic artist and her dedication to art than the quote with which Ines Rother herself describes her passion for ceramics. Driven by a growing sense of inner freedom and curiosity, she continually expands her artistic oeuvre with verve and fresh ideas. The possibilities yet to be explored that clay offers her – a material she has been familiar with for well over thirty years since her intensive training as a thrower – seem ever more enticing. Following a traditional pottery apprenticeship in Römhild and two stints as a journeyman potter, she completed her studies in ceramic design in Höhr-Grenz-hausen and subsequently settled in Siegburg, a city with a rich ceramic history, in 1997.
But what would her works be without the painting? It is the colourful surface designs that create to the striking pieces with their high recognition value. That ceramics and painting form a unified artistic practice is not so unusual. Even in historical applied arts, sculptural and painterly forms of expression frequently converged. Traditional pottery is often decorated with painting in various techniques, frequently slip painting. And if you think of ancient ceramics in Greece, you will inevitably encounter the oft-cited painter Euphronius, who gave up painting in favour of pottery around 500 BC.
In Ines Rother’s case, however, the development proceeded in the opposite direction. Her sound knowledge of ceramics and her interest in artistic processes provided her with a welcome foundation to explore pictorial forms of representation as well and, from 2010 onwards, to combine both media.
(Gudrun Schmidt-Esters)
Ines Rother
On 1 February 2026, the Siegburg International Ceramics Prize was awarded for the sixth time. Three hundred and thirty-five entries from 23 countries had been received by the closing date, and a jury selected 67 participants, as well as the prize winners, from among the submitted works.
The majority of participants still came from Europe, but some works also reached Siegburg from overseas. Numerous works evolved from classic vessels to vessel sculptures. However, the creative focus was on abstract forms, supplemented by some large-scale wall pieces and installations, some of which were expansive.
The exhibition showed a fascinating variety of contemporary ceramic art, in which compact pieces stand alongside openwork and fragile forms, conceptual rigour and geometric clarity alongside gestural expressiveness and fragile structures, individual pieces alongside series and multipart works made up of small individual parts alongside large-format installations almost too large for the space available.
First prize went to Philsoo Heo for his work The Touch of Ignorance. The Korean artist’s work reflected his exploration of the tension between ignorance and knowledge in the search for a deeper “truth” of being. It showed the ambivalence of life between different cultures and social influences in the rapidly changing globalized world. Between the stability of a robust foundation and an undefined future, the plurality of the present forges a path, depending on the viewer’s point of view.
(Gundula Caspary)
Marianne Wesolowska-Eggimann, Trust the Process
Collect is the long-standing, leading international art fair for contemporary, museum-quality craft and design. Now in its 22nd year, the fair returned to Somerset House in central London from 27 February to 1 March 2026.
Presented by the Crafts Council, again 40 specialist galleries and arts organisations from across the globe exhibited, including 14 new exhibitors in 2026 from Canada, China, France, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Korea and the UK.
Collect 2026 was also the first fair under a new leadership. TF Chan is the new fair director, a freelance editor and writer on architecture, art and design. Chan, who has a degree in history from Princeton University, US, was editor at Wallpaper magazine from 2020 to 2023, a design magazine focussing on architecture, interiors, fashion, art and contemporary lifestyle.
In his statement he confirms his interest in making, materials and longevity against the backdrop of technology and mass production. Craft for him are objects that reconnect with the physical world and offer tactile experience. At the same time, he acknowledges that craft is evolving and has to embrace new technologies and markets.
This trend of the craft market towards interior design and lifestyle is not a new trend, however it’s not surprising and became very clear when I visited that Collect 2026 under his new leadership has seen an increasing presence of collectible design and furniture alongside a diverse range of craft.
(Regina Heinz)
Gallery Daguet-Bresson, Claire-Lindner, Petit-Buisson
On Thursday evening, a record was set with more than 7,500 participants and visitors: around 8,000 ceramics enthusiasts were determined not to miss the chance to enthusiastically celebrate NCECA’s 60th anniversary in Detroit, despite the current uncertainties surrounding travel to the USA. A well deserved record. After all, a ceramics conference like this requires setting up and dismantling, as well as two years of planning and weeks of hands-on work (plus the subsequent follow-up). Highly focused, running smoothly, peaceful – readings, lectures, panel discussions and podcasts took place without incidents or any stressful situations at Huntington Palace, a huge, typically American conference centre located in the heart of Detroit.
Choosing your favourites and making efficient use of your time was easy thanks to the very well-signposted room layout – but arriving on time was incredibly difficult because of meeting acquaintances and people I hadn’t seen for ages, which threw all my time-management plans out of the window… NCECA is, after all, always a celebration of exchange and almost family-like encounters. Add to that the exhibition hall, superbly stocked with hundreds of stands offering raw materials, equipment, kilns, machinery, a wide variety of 3D printers, all manner of aids – everything from the finest materials to anything useful or new for craft, technology, hobbies, teaching and the arts… I had the feeling that Detroit 2026 was even more wide-ranging than any previous NCECA.
Always a highlight for me are the information desks of the universities and residencies, staffed by their experts, ready to discuss conditions and opportunities. For young people and those interested, an absolutely invaluable, directly accessible information hub.
(Monika Gas)
Jonathan Christiansen Caballero, Coclé with Sugarcane eartenware with second hand clothes
Sukanjana Kanjanabat – Thailand
Kanjanabat (1987) originally worked as an interior designer, with her work focusing on computer-aided design and layouts. Although she graduated from the Department of Interior Architecture at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, she gradually discovered that hands-on creation was more compelling to her. Her chance encounter with clay as a medium opened a new path of exploration. She explains that her previous experience in architecture has made her particularly interested in structural forms.
Kay Aplin – Scotland
Aplin’s (1971) works are composed of diverse single objects assembled into sculptural structures. These may take the form of circular arrangements radiating outward, horizontal extensions, or arrangements of black dots of varying sizes adorned with different types of flowers – resembling a three-dimensional floral mural viewed from above. She draws on the natural colours of flowers as her primary palette and extends or expands her compositions through repeated use of several basic units.
(Ting-Ju SHAO)
Sukanjana Kanjanabat – Thailand
Kay Aplin – Scotland
Shulamit, can you tell us about your journey into ceramics? What first drew you to clay as your primary medium?
I love history – it’s the best gossip in town. Wanting a broader view, I studied archaeology and art history, which brought me close to material culture. From there, it felt inevitable to put my hands into mud. Working with clay awakened my curiosity about material transformation, eventually leading me to geology – layers of time that now converge in my work.
As you said, you studied archaeology, among other things. Do you integrate this knowledge and the nature of excavation work into your current working methods?
Not directly, but the idea of a humble message from the past is always present. Fragments of my work may one day be excavated in the far future; I see myself as a single grain in a long chain of makers. In 2015, I participated in a group exhibition at the Photography Museum in Tel Hai titled Quest, which invited artists to respond to an archaeological object from a museum collection. I chose an 8th-century BCE pitcher imported from Cyprus, an object that had stayed with me since my archaeology studies. Its fish motif felt strikingly contemporary, particularly in its restraint and generous use of empty space. I presented a group of pitchers in dialogue with this vessel, responding to its balance between surface and void, image and silence. Since then, my approach to crystalline glaze has become more minimal and deliberate. As a quiet homage to the anonymous potter, I now apply a black linear mark to most of my pieces.
(Evelyne Schoenmann)
Shulamit Millar
