2022
INTERNATIONAL
CERAMIC SYMPOSIUM
1 - 27 August


The International Ceramic Symposium is organised by the International Ceramic Studio in collaboration with the Foundation for Contemporary Ceramics (KKA), Hungary and funded by the Hungarian National Cultural Fund (NKA).

 DEIRDRE McLOUGHLIN
 Ireland / Netherlands

In a studio on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam a lump of clay and an invitation to make something was, I did not know it then, to be my future. Between times in the studio making forms to an end I did not comprehend I acted in short movies taking classes in the Stanislavski method.

The events in Northern Ireland in 1981 galvanised my mind to clarity. I realised the shapes I was making in the studio were a language of expression. As a composer finds sound, a painter colour and a writer words I found form in clay and it was what people called art and was necessary. There was no choice but to commit myself and to this end I went to Kyoto where the Sodeisha Group the best in my field were based. I lived and worked there for three and a half years with a rough studio on the edge of Kiyomizu. Honing my coiling skills under the eye of Tosai Sawamura the elder, I was deeply inspired by the works of Hayashi Yasuo and Arioka Susumu.

Everything I know is in my art work, I don’t always understand what I know.

Artist website

 ANNE-BRIT SOMA REIENES
 Norway

In this work, I have explored material-based articulations in that the lines are modeled intuitively, as dense writing over diary pages where each page in the book or each tile eventually forms a new whole. The tiles have been associated with fingerprints and maps of landscapes, with room for opportunity for close and more distant perspectives. The tiles are glazed with a white glaze that is matte and which in some places lets the goods through with a red glow. In the densely packed poetry that arises, the eye can wander and make room for the slower gaze.

Reienes works both sculpturally and in two dimensions with clay, mainly in a larger format aimed at decoration. She has a master's degree from the Department of Ceramics at SHKD / KhiB, Bergen and a Master's degree in crafts from the Hungarian State Academy, Budapest.

Reienes has participated in several exhibitions at home and abroad and worked with both public and private decorations. She also works cross-aesthetically and performatively with text / drawing / material and has previously made outdoor spaces in both brick and granite.

Reienes works in his own workshop / studio by Lake Mjøsa and is employed as an Associate Professor of Arts and Crafts at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at HiNN, Hamar.

 KONTOR ENIKŐ

 Hungary

Rustic surfaces, non-standard yet simple forms characterise the works of Hungarian ceramic artist Enikő Kontor. From her hands, romantic objects suggestive of nature are created, as well as modern, unusual works.

Her work is modest yet monumental in form with rustic surfaces rich in patina, captivate with their naturalness and the wonderful earth colors with which she works. But besides that, it is perhaps her enthusiasm that is even more captivating.

"I like many things. I like the smell of lavender and rose, for example, and I like to make my jam taste special. I love colorful knitted socks and patterned shawls. I like to get to know and understand people so that I can love them. I like to survive the summer heat and watch the winter out the window. I love living in the position of a snowman or even a centipede. I love the theatrical things, the generosity and the monumentality within 10 centimeters. I like to die a little bit in everything so I can be resurrected. But what I like best about it is that the clay is silent, and yet it can tell all that… "

Artist Facebook

 ILONA ROMULE

 Latvia


Ilona Romule is a studio artist from Riga, Latvia and has received international recognition with her slip cast porcelain figures examining the figure as a hollow vessel which through exquisite painting that is simultaneously two- & three-dimensional. Her human or animal figures are at the same time meticulously drawn on the sides of her pots meanwhile partially emerging from those pots as three-dimensional forms.

Ilona is known for her use of ironic and erotic imagery both in the form of her fine porcelain pieces and also in the surface decoration with the china paints. In ceramics Ilona is interested in the opportunity of three dimensional expression, using the scope of graphics and painting.

Traditionally she works with porcelain. Ilona supplements her sculptural works with fine painting in overglaze technique, thus developing plastically expressive compositions, participated by human, animal and peculiar hybrid figures. In the motives chosen by the artist, figures settle in form and material in the game of symbols and character situations.

artist website

 PÁZMÁNDI ANTAL
 Hungary

Antal Pázmándi’s ceramics recall the motifs of history and traditional architecture.

His insatiable thirst for playfulness is coupled with a need to address issues perhaps seen as marginal but which are not to be missed: the questions of form, light, colour, style, technique and aesthetic.

The directness of his creative process greatly contributes to this.  Using a  modular system of mortice jointing this technique allows the artist to show off his bravura since the parts are moulded when still wet thus requiring a special skill to be jointed seamlessly after they have dried. He enjoys the practical benefits of this technique. Pázmándi does not create wholeness in an ordinary fashion – we can explore the wholeness of entire worlds that are utterly human, aspiring to the skies, meandering through grids, hidden caves and cavities, evoking in us a sense of investigation.

Different periods – abstract, figurative, pop art, architectonic, decorative, using graphic art and stickers or alien materials – follow one other in his art, overlapping and often melded together. The essence of his art, however, is constructed with utter precision and it can only be created  by an artist endowed with will, inspiration, humour and the attitude akin to that of a mathematician or an engineer.

 RUZICSKA TÜNDE
 Hungary

The sour scent of clay, its moist, dry, soft and fragile properties, make for a close physical experience that reaches its ultimate consistency in the digestive fire.

The hand-formed clay surfaces and shapes are a result of slow, layer-by-layer construction.

Contemplation.

Self-reflection.

The vacuum between outer and inner space defines the shape.
Geminity, twin identities. Images and spaces of transitional states appear. Situations and relationships result in an ultimate unity.

Time is change. Space is time and body.

Silence is presence.

 SINKOVITS ZSUZSA
 Hungary

The pieces of the Geoform series are ceramic paraphrases from our surrounding geological formations. Each objects evoke a characteristic features of a natural formation with their forms, surfaces and color variants. The materials developed from the original soils and the shapes of the objects came from the structure of the nature analogies.
The vessel captures the movement of quicksand. 3D printing technology has transformed these sand lines into a static, sculptural surface. The effect is further enhanced by the glaze.
Water-soluble salts, such as magnesium carbonate causes salinization in soil. When we mix this component into a ceramic glaze it’s create a cracked surface that also occurs in nature. Reflecting on the infinite extent of the Great Plain, where is usually appear this phenomenon, I displayed this cracked surface into an endless lens shape.
The geological rocks layers are piled one on top of the other, which in many cases revealed by abandoned mines. The vessel material came from a Hungarian quarry called 'Sámsonháza' where you can find five type of geological rocks at the same place. The vessel using the geological strata were made using Nerikomi technique, transforming the stratification into patterns.

 KUNGL GYÖRGY
 Hungary

My works are ceramics in terms of material, sculptures in their intention. So ceramic sculptures. I don't use the usual aggressive materials of sculpture: stone, concrete, iron, steel. 
My sculptures are made of the finest, noblest porcelain available. Material is an integral part of the concept. This material is malleable, obedient at the patterning stage, and humbly follows the human will. During firing, there are forces beyond human control that are independent of it. In its final state, the work is extremely solid, hard, unalterable, yet fragile.

My works are, on the one hand, frozen thoughts and, on the other hand, meditation mediums in which passions, emotions, and sublime ideas appear on animal figures. It embraces the (crystallized) human core values, moral axioms, norms of life, rules, and the clash of unbridled, unrestricted thought enshrined in the text.

In my more recent sculptures, animal figures come into contact with each other or with objects of symbolic meaning (book, chalice). They do things we like to cover up. They act by yielding to the weaknesses, the mortalities, the temptations of the sins that live in them. They are lazy, selfish, envious, gluttonous, drunk, lurking, quarrelsome, sad as we are.

 REVÁK KATALIN
 Hungary

The creative activity itself is a moral compulsion for me. Art is not just a form of self-expression, but a means to influence other people. The inclusion of the interpreter can be greatly facilitated with the right choice of subject, the use of colour, humor, and narrative. With this in mind, I place great emphasis on their application in my work.

The animal form is a mediating substance for me. I believe that animal figures make it easier to grab people’s attention because it evokes a sense of honesty and familiarity, and in material terms, a desire to grasp from the outside observer. My main sources of inspiration are human relationships and the unequal distribution of burdens between them, the formulas for relationships, the positive and negative processes associated with birth, altruism, and the inertia of passing away.

Nowadays I focus on animal figures, which I think is a better field to catch people’s attention with the feelings of honesty and familiarity. I pay special attention to narration in my pieces. I think there is always a need of tales, not only telling stories in spoken and written words, but in pictures and in sculptures too. Humor and playfulness are also available to help you think about important topics.

 HENNA NUUTINEN

 Finland

I am fascinated by the rugged nature - The seas, the cliffs and the dark forests. All that latent layering and secrets that they have accumulated in their eternity. I build abstract organic forms from clay utilising these emotions.

I build my work using a very thin wall with traditional coiling technique, which is a slow and meditative process. The combination of hard fired clay and an almost fragile wall fascinates me.

I have degrees as an interior architect and furniture designer from South-Easter Finland University of Applied Sciences in the spring of 2017 and Master of Arts from Aalto University 2021.

Kecskeméti Kortárs Művészeti Műhelyek
NEMZETKÖZI KERÁMIA STÚDIÓ

Kecskemét Contemporary Art Studios
INTERNATIONAL CERAMICS STUDIO

Address:

Kápolna u.11,
Kecskemét 6000
Hungary

Phone:
+36 76 486867

Email:

Steve Mattison: icshu@me.com 
Erika Sütő: studiovezeto@kkmm.hu
NKS Office: icshu@t-online.hu

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