In the PROFILES section: 7 ceramic artists from Germany, Latvia, USA, Germany, Mexico. Coverage of EXHIBITIONS and EVENTS in UK, USA, Germany, Argentina, Taiwan, Portugal, Austria, Ireland, Germany, Cameroon. In the section ARTIST JOURNAL, we present Connor Czora – Detroit – USA. And we also have interviews with artists IN STUDIO as well as listings of Dates, Courses, Seminars and Markets.
NEWS
PROFILES
Bernd Fischer – Germany
Marina Kuchinski – Latvia / USA
Patrick M. Ryan – USA
Helmut Menzel – Germany
Paloma Torres – Mexico
Dirk Staschke – USA
Germany, Latvia, USA, Germany, Mexico
EXHIBITIONS / EVENTS
Felicity Aylieff – Petworth House – UK
Ceramic Odyssey – London – UK
Kathy Butterly – Saratoga Springs – USA
Clay Conversation – Neunkirchen – Germany
Patagonia – Gaiman – Argentina
2026 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale – Yingge – Taiwan
Ting-Ju Shao – Taiwan
Clay Kitchen – Nova de Milfontes – Portugal
Matéria Nova – Berlin – Germany / Portugal
Given by Nature – Gmunden – Austria
Throwing Shapes – Dublin – Ireland
Ceramics for Humanity – Germany
King of Bamoun II – Bamoun – Cameroon
BOOKS
New literature
ARTIST JOURNAL
Connor Czora – Detroit – USA –Monika Gass
IN STUDIO
Akira Satake – Evelyne Schoenmann– Interview / Developing Skills
DATES / Exhibitions / Galleries / Museums
COURSES / SEMINARS / MARKETS
ADVERTISEMENTS
PREVIEW
Ceramist Bernd Fischer at seventy
On the left bank of the Weser in Bremen’s Neustadt district, in what is known as the “Flüsseviertel”, Bernd Fischer’s studio is situated in a narow, quiet residential street. He has been back since 2012, returned to his city and to his “thing”, pottery on the wheel. One might think that a biographical circle has been closed, but of course that only seems to be the case when seen from above. Viewed from the side, his life’s course more closely resembles a spiral whose ends lie decades apart and never close to form a ring. Whether this circuit has wound its way up or down over the long course of time remains a matter of perspective, a matter of judgment, which Bernd Fischer has long since ceased to care about.
Today, he can hardly believe it himself, but concrete chronology cannot be overturned. For five and a half decades, Bernd Fischer has been captivated by the soft material that turns into hard shards in the fire – stoneware or porcelain, thinly coated in coloured glass, glossy or matt, monochrome or polychrome – over such a long period, you can do quite a lot, although perhaps at the beginning something else still drew him in – such as the love of his girlfriend, who gave him the necessary direction in his disorientation with a lump of clay from her small studio.
(Walter Lokau)
Bernd Fischer
I have been making art for as long as I can remember. My father, though not a professional artist, was able to draw very well, and one of my earliest memories of him was telling me stories and bringing them to life through drawings. My mother was a fashion designer and an incredibly creative person, always sewing, crocheting, knitting, or making something with her hands.
I was born in Latvia and moved to Israel with my parents as a young child. Growing up in Israel, I experienced a complex mix of cultures, religions, histories, and identities; Israeli and Palestinian, religious and secular, ancient and contemporary. Drawing, painting, and sculpting became a form of visual journaling, allowing me to process and document what I observed and experienced.
Throughout these changes, animals remained a constant source of curiosity and stability. I was drawn to them and their representations everywhere; from ancient reliefs and artifacts at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and the streets of old city of Jaffa to contemporary works at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. This early fascination with animals and animal-human combination became a continuous thread in my work.
After moving to the United States for graduate school at Penn State University, animals continued to be a constant in my life, while their role and meaning within my work has evolved and deepened. My exploration of animal studies as a discipline opened up a new avenue for contemplating the complex and often ambivalent relationships between humans and other animals.
Marina Kuchinski
“Something Becoming: the body [in denial]”
Patrick M. Ryan’s sculptures are populated by the uneasy offspring of flesh and machinery: intestines become ductwork, pumps become organs, industrial fragments press against synthetic skin, and the rigid geo- metry of machines begins to resemble the architecture of a body. At first glance, Ryan’s ceramic objects can feel like artifacts excavated from some speculative future – machines that have begun to grow, or bodies that have begun to manufacture themselves. Look longer, however, and something more intimate emerges.
Beneath the machinery, the grotesque surfaces, and the science-fiction imagery is a deeply human preoccupation: the fact that the body ends.
Ryan is not interested in imagining technology as something separate from the human body. His concern is what happens when the separation disappears.
That question has its roots in a deeply personal encounter with mortality. Ryan’s father was diagnosed with stage-four spinal cancer that originated in his colon. As the disease progressed, Ryan watched his father’s body become increasingly dependent upon medical technology. Machines that were intended to preserve life became extensions of the body, surrounding and sustaining it while also making visible its physical failure.
(Amanda Lee Ryan)
Patrick M. Ryan
Self-portrait
I was born in Mexico City in 1960. At the age of 23, I began my exploration of ceramics as a student at the National School of Plastic Arts (ENAP). Since then, I have been passionate about clay. I soon realised that this material requires, in addition to technical mastery, an understanding that the process of building and raising my sculptures is a fundamental part of my work. Working on a piece involves thinking and rethinking it; the conjunction between the limits of the material and my desire to articulate its development allows me to evolve from the first idea to the finished piece. But regardless of how I construct it or what colour I paint a sculpture, there will always be the surprise factor: chance, as fire always has the last word.
As an artist, the same process has led me to work with other media. My sculptures are also made of bronze, wood, metal, concrete and even felt. Through these techniques I have been able to move from the three-dimensional to the two-dimensional; with my graphic practice, my production has been enriched by drawing, painting, textiles and relief. In this volume I integrate planimetries, elevations and perspectives, records of polygonals and city spots, photographs, prints, metal and clay pieces, reliefs and objects, paintings, and an avalanche of sculptures. This diversity of forms and materials seeks to share with the reader that my process of composition requires arduous research and design work in the studio.
Paloma Torres
A vision of coexistence?
This exhibition was held at the rapidly growing magnet venue for contemporary ceramics, County Hall Pottery in London from 17 March – 3 May 2026.
Curated by Jihyun Kim, also an exhibitor, the works included attempted to imagine future-facing ceramics through the lens of bio-futurism. Showcasing five artists whose work stretches the boundaries of clay, the exhibition led us into a world of fantastical objets d’art. Completely outside the realms of functionality, each artist produced pieces that celebrate their craftsmanship and skill with their chosen material, clay, extending the process to one that suggests a hybrid between humans and living organisms.
From the outset, the exhibition embraced speculative narratives in which clay becomes a host, a carrier, a collaborator in processes more commonly associated with biology. The gallery space was transformed into something akin to a laboratory or incubation chamber, with works that felt grown as much as they were made. Surfaces shimmered, rippled, blistered and bloomed, evoking skin, coral, fungi and other organic systems. There was an undercurrent of unease throughout, but also a sense of wonder at the possibilities of material transformation.
(Julia Ellen Lancaster)
Ceramic Odyssey exhibition
Assume Yes
Ceramist Kathy Butterly’s solo exhibition at Skidmore College’s Tang Teaching Museum in Saratoga Springs, New York, titled “Assume Yes,” features 45 pieces produced between 1994 and 2026. While many observers focus on the diminutive scale, technical continuity, and playfulness of her multi-fired work – which often enters the kiln dozens of times – the trajectory of her career offers an equally compelling narrative.
Born in 1963, Butterly grew up in a Long Island suburb near Levittown – the famous postwar housing development defined by thousands of nearly identical single-family homes. Seeking a different path, she attended a private art college in Philadelphia. From nearly the beginning, Butterly created exquisite attention-getting artwork, earning her Master of Fine Arts degree under the famed “Funk” art master Robert Arneson near the very end of his teaching career.
Following her education, Butterly moved to Hoboken, New Jersey, then an affordable bohemian enclave just outside New York City. She immediately established a studio, producing her distinctive work using only an electric kiln, simple tools, and patient labor. Butterly was quickly welcomed into New York circles by figures like Matt Nolen. Nolen and his partner, Edward Pate, ran the exquisitely curated Archon Gallery out of their tiny apartment. They enthusiastically promoted Butterly’s work, and soon Nancy Margolis Gallery and Franklin Parrasch Gallery began exhibiting her pieces.
(Marc Leuthold)
After Easy, 2008
When Humans Meet the Earth
31 July – 27 December 2026
Exhibition Venue:
3F Exhibition Room,
New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum
Reshaping the Narrative of Contemporary Ceramics
As the digital world advances toward homogeneity and transparency, how can we once again perceive the complexity of life? When clay meets fire, when humans meet the earth, the story begins here.
As algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly shape our time, human understanding of the world seems to grow more simplified and uniform. The 2026 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, curated by Daicho Tomohiro, Chief Curator at the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, presents the theme When Humans Meet the Earth. It brings together 59 artists from 21 countries with 85 works, opening a lively dialogue on clay, time, spirit and civilization.
Takaharu Hori, ELEC Actuate Mantis 2025, porcelain, 58 × 50 × 43 cm, Japan
Connor Czora / USA
How did it start – from Kindergarten? Please tell us this story… It’s explained very well in one of the videos!
For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be an artist. Growing up, I was always more interested in staying inside and drawing than in playing sports with everyone else. In elementary school, any time we had a worksheet asking what we wanted to be when we grew up, my answer was always “artist” – and that never left me. But my focus up until college was in 2-D media, not clay. I had a knack for drawing, and I found that I could use charcoal and coloured pencil to express my truth and critique the social issues I saw around me. I only came to clay in college through some electives that ended up changing my life.
You love perfection, gold, political and social issues as well. How does this merge together? Isn’t it kind of contradictory at first glance…?
These certainly are contradictory! I grew up in a conservative environment, which was difficult as a queer kid. My grandparents also happened to be antiques collectors, so I grew up surrounded by china cabinets full of porcelain tableware and parian statuettes. In undergrad, one of our first assignments was to create work based on the idea of material as metaphor. In interrogating this, I realized that the values that I grew up with weren’t just taught verbatim, but were also perpetuated and embedded within the objects around me. For instance, a 19th century figurine in the china cabinet might depict very particular gender roles, showing what the ideal body looked like or what traits and tasks might be expected of women. These gender roles aren’t stated word for word, but the artwork still normalizes certain hierarchies and value structures.
(Monika Gass)
Tasse Intifada, 2025, glazed porcelain, custom ceramic decals, and gold lustre
cup 6.4 x 8.3 x 6.4 cm, saucer 3.2 x 10 x 10 cm – photo – Connor Czora
Akira, you got into ceramics relatively late. Music used to be more your thing. Can you tell us a little about your background and how you got into ceramics?
I moved to San Francisco in my early 20s from Japan, where I was working for a company as a photographer. After that, I moved to New York City.
I had been playing music quite seriously since middle school, but at the time I thought it was a good idea to focus more on my photography career. However, once I arrived in New York, things quickly picked up on the music side instead. I was performing a lot, producing my own solo CD and I eventually started a music production company, which grew quite significantly. Around the same time, I also started my own record company.
After more than 10 years of a very busy and hectic life, I became quite stressed. To help myself step away from that stress, I began taking pottery classes.
Do you feel that, as a self-taught artist, you have to work harder to gain recog-nition than those who have completed a traditional pottery apprenticeship?
I don’t think it was too difficult for me. By participating in many shows and regularly posting my work on Facebook and Instagram, I was able to attract attention fairly quickly.
(Evelyne Schoenmann)
Akira Satake
