Being one of the oldest and most widely used materials in humanity's history, stoneware has been shaped through several techniques that have become perdurable and passed down through generations. However, the past century has witnessed drastic developments in technology, transforming the art and design industry indefinitely. Ceramic artists and designers working with ceramic have been continuously experimenting with ways to select, utilise, combine and process the raw material, to realise a wide range of creative concepts.
Revisiting the best of 2024, STIR highlights design narratives spelt in ceramic, which, in their translation and abstraction, overcame the limitations of clay as a raw material through various design approaches and experimental crafting techniques.
1. Ceramic furniture by Casey Zablocki
American designer Casey Zablocki presented his latest ceramic furniture designs at a solo exhibition at the Guild Gallery in New York, honouring the natural landscape of the American state of Montana, where he presently resides. The artist crafted coffee tables, side tables, chair designs and thrones by experimenting with size and colour. Using traditional firing techniques and local materials such as porcelain for glazing to achieve complex hues, the furniture designs feel at once, ancient and enduring.
Zablocki describes his work as a balance of contrasts. "All of those tensions between rough and soft, weight and weightlessness, refined and unrefined; hopefully they can be as timeless and vast as the landscape” he conveys.
2. Le Foyer by Marjorie Waks
Unlike her usual, small-scale product designs, French designer and ceramicist Marjorie Waks presented larger pieces sculpted from ceramic and aluminium for her first solo show, Le Foyer, at the Pradier-Jeauneau Gallery in Paris this year. Le Foyer, translating to 'The Fireplace', prologued the warm and intimate environment within the gallery as the lighting designs, sculptures and furniture pieces, totemic and architectural, designated the exhibition space a contemplative tone.
"I don't usually try to imitate anything in my ceramic pieces. Instead, I am trying to create works that occupy space uniquely, asserting their own presence and originality," Waks told STIR.
3. Box Works Series by Isabel Rower
NY-based artist Isabel Rower's recent Box Works Series, reminiscent of her past experimentations, comprised a series of ceramic furniture and homeware objects such vessels and lamp designs. Using discarded cardboard boxes as moulds, Rower designed the frameworks for each of the stoneware products that bear an uncanny semblance to cardboard cutouts through their shape, texture and colour. In conversation with STIR, the artist provided an in-depth look at the makings of the collection and the inspiration and vision of her design practice.
As the artist told STIR, "Working with clay, there is always a degree of material secrecy. The material will do things completely unpredicted that's totally beyond my control. This element of clay is a gift because there are wonderful things that come from it, but it is also a very frustrating aspect of the material."
4. Peach Melba at the Peach Corner Gallery
The Peach Corner art gallery in Denmark arranged a visual and tactile feast during 3daysofdesign 2024 by showcasing the Peach Melba collection of ceramic art pieces, highlighting the material's deep, sensuous qualities. The collection featured jugs, vessels and artworks from several international and Danish artists, including Hilda Piazzolla, Johannes Nagel and Lisbet Thorborg Andersen, who presented their 3D printed, sand-casted and spirituality-inspired ceramic works.
5. The Rumpus Collection by Daniel Shapiro
At the ICFF 2024, US-based ceramic artist Daniel Shapiro presented a variety of lighting designs through The Rumpus Collection, guided by and named after specific sounds such as boom, flutter and even whawha. Shapiro had taken inspiration from the incidental sounds produced in his studio while he had been tinkering with extrusions, arbitrary shapes and coils of clay. As he sculpted the pieces, he prioritised forms that subsumed the qualities of sound patterns—straight lines represented silence, while sinuous ones were attributed to the sampled audio forms.
Expanding on what fuels his creative escapades, the artist relays, "For me, the defining element is shape. This newest collection...is the closest I have come to a clear articulation of meaning in shape."
6. Cardboard by Jacques Monneraud
French product designer Jacques Monneraud's Cardboard collection had an extensive variety of objects, ranging from vases, pitchers and touts that are meticulously handmade using clay. Commenting on the inspiration behind Cardboard, Monneraud relayed, "First, its paradoxical nature: unalterable cardboard. I have always been susceptible to things that time deteriorates, things that don't last. I like the idea of being able to freeze fragility. Then, its apparent simplicity: Three pieces of cardboard + two pieces of tape = a pitcher. It's a mockery of our world of overproduction and overconsumption. We don't throw this cardboard away. If someone hid one of my pieces, it could still be on earth in 3000 years."
Through meticulous attention to detail and a keen eye for the subtle nuances of everyday objects, Monneraud's works challenge perceptions, celebrate the beauty of the ordinary, and prompt reflection on our relationship with consumption and materiality.
7. ReCollection, Heritage and SPIRIT by Tomoya Sakai
Japanese artist Tomoya Sakai explored his experiences through three ongoing series of ceramic sculptures, ReCollection, Heritage and SPIRIT, developed to investigate themes of personal and collective memory as abstract artworks. Thinking about the digital age and the dissonance it brings between people and collective identities, Sakai considered, "What is the god in today's Japan? Living in contemporary Japanese culture, which introduces various elements and evolves in its own way, I have created works that can be called 'the guardian deity of memory'; while incorporating gods from ancient and modern times."
The recognisable yet bizarre sculptural art objects are intended to be evocations of the present-day pop culture of manga, anime or idols, which Sakai admitted is a big influence on him.
8. Nomad II by Sofia Karnukaeva
Barcelona-based artist and architect Sofia Karnukaeva's collection of clay sculpture designs, Nomad II, featured light sources cleverly concealed within the gaping crevices and crannies of its zoomorphic forms. Hand sculpting the designs provided the artist freedom and flexibility in using techniques and moulding the forms, allowing viewers to connect and familiarise themselves with the pieces. "The body of a living organism is felt as both a vessel and a home. A habitat envelops us, we merge with it as we absorb its images and elements. It affects our imagination," stated the artist, whose collection was inspired by the idea of a home and the imagination of creatures emerging from enclosed spaces.
9. BRICK by Floris Wubben
Inspired by the burnished red facades of the boroughs of New York, Dutch artist Floris Wubben's BRICKS series featured pressure-extruded clay modules craftsmanship of red clay extracted from the Northern province of The Netherlands. The collection consists of table designs, benches and a chandelier, which exhibited striking visual contrasts due to the juxtaposition of clay elements and cement-like binding agent. As the press release noted, the collection attempted to reconcile the material architectural heritage of New York—cemented in Dutch brick—and that of The Netherlands, honouring the history through a contemporary design approach.
STIRred 2024 wraps up the year with curated compilations of our expansive art, architecture and design coverage at STIR this year. Did your favourites make the list? Tell us in the comments!
- 3daysofdesign
- abstract art
- art and design
- Barcelona
- Ceramic Art
- ceramic artist
- Ceramicist
- ceramics
- chair design
- chandelier
- Coffee table
- contemporary design
- craftsmanship
- Danish Artist
- furniture design
- homeware
- Japanese artist
- lamp design
- lighting design
- new york
- paris
- product design
- Product Designer
- Sculptural Art
- sculptural design
- side table
- solo exhibition
- Table design
- united states
What do you think?