Sometimes the most important posts get stalled in Cfile’s queue and either do not get published or appear much later. One such example is a book and exhibition review of Geert Lap: Specific Objects. Its is exceptional, visually documenting ceramics’ greatest minimalist, who died in 2017, superbly, rationally and beautifully Dutch in its design, with a unique photo concept.  Erik and Petra Hesmerg spent years traveling the world to document Lap’s colorful, serene works in private and public collections. In addition to faithful, sharp studio images of the work, we get to see Lap’s pot ..read more

Oxford, UK–Matt Smith is one of ceramics most gifted polymaths. His exhibition Losing Venus, (March 4 – November 29, 2020 and extended to March 6, 2022), consisted of multiple installations at the Pitt Rivers Museum, highlighting the colonial impact on LGBTQ+ lives across the British Empire and sought to make queer lives physically manifest within the museum. From 1860 onward, the British Empire criminalized male-to-male relations, imposing lengthy prison sentences, and the legacy of these legal codes lives on.  Of the 72 countries in the world with anti-gay laws, 38 of them were on ..read more

When you look at the Pluto Ware some people only see pollution, darkness, and grim and then other people—like myself—see a kind of strange dark beauty.  -Happy Price I make sensual work. The use of my work is to lead to an experience that makes life more interesting or enjoyable, like listening to music, or reading poetry.[…] I’m trying to get feeling into my work, like joy. Sometimes I want to have an ominous quality, so that it has an edge, and humor in the form, too, if possible. -Ken Price Pluto Bomb (Red) 1993 Glazed ceramic New York–Ken Price: Pluto Ware at Matthew Marks Gal ..read more

New York–Kasmin’s exhibition of new work by Bosco Sodi (October 8–November 12, 2020) Vers l’Espagne is Sodi’s second solo exhibition at the gallery. Its title translates as “To Spain” in homage to the lineage of artists who influenced his early development as a painter. Drawing upon the evolution of art history from prehistoric cave painting through to modern Spanish artists Eduardo Chillida, Manolo Millares, Joan Miró, Antoni Tàpies, and Informalismo Catalan, Vers l’Espagneis a love letter to gesture, nature, and the artistic instinct. The exhibition brings together five large ..read more

Höhr-Grenzhausen, Germany–As part of this year’s “Compass Europe: Northern Lights” program of the Rhineland-Palatinate Kultursommer, the Keramikmuseum Westerwald presented Marit Tingleff: Earthen Things (June 12 – October 31 2021) by the Norwegian artist Marit Tingleff, one of Norway’s internationally known contemporary ceramic artists.  The history of Norwegian ceramics is marked by close ties to Denmark and northern Germany. In the south of the country, a red-firing clay is available, which was used to make low-fired pottery. Tingleff consciously places herself in this tradit ..read more

New York—Jack Hanley Gallery presented Elizabeth Jaeger’s fifth solo exhibition with the gallery. In a new series of black ceramic vessels, large peepholes reveal worlds of miniature scenes placed inside. Resting on handmade powder-coated wire cages, the depicted scenes and figures range in settings and size: a dormitory with neatly arranged beds, a meeting of individuals seated in a circle, someone lying on their stomach reading a book, or a single cat lounging in the safety of the hole. From a bird’s eye view, the viewer becomes witness to intimate scenes withheld from them in everyday life ..read more

In 2020, New York gallery Freidman Benda initiated an international series of online interviews, Design in Dialogue, with leading voices in the creative field. The conversational program held virtually on zoom is hosted alternately by curator and historian Glenn Adamson and designer Stephen Burks that engages with designers, makers, critics, and curators as they reflect on their careers and creative processes against the backdrop of the pandemic and global lockdowns.  On June 30, 2021, Design in Dialogue welcomed Detroit-based ceramicist, sculptor a ..read more

NEW YORK-The Ghanian-British architect Sir David Adjaye, and his firm Adjaye Associates, has completed the Public Member Spaces of the new headquarters in New York City of the 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the largest healthcare union in the US. Known for their sensitive and responsive architecture, the firm’s design strongly embodies the principles, ethos and achievements of the 88-year-old union. Conceived out of collaboration with the politically active community of 1199SEIU, the project represents a space of social justice where Martin Luther King Jr. himself attributed the unio ..read more

Cape Town + New York—Southern Guild and Friedman Benda presented iThongo by Andile Dyalvane, premiering in Cape Town on 10 December, 2020 and in New York on 29 April, 2021. An extensive collection of sculptural ceramic seating, iThongo is Dyalvane’s fourth solo exhibition at the Guild. In homage to his ancestors, the work was first presented in Dyalvane’s rural homestead in Ngobozana, Eastern Cape, where his family and extended community had the opportunity to experience it for two days in November (21-22) before it was shown in the galleries. iThongo, meaning “a ..read more

London—This exhibition, Ebika Bya ba Kuchu mu Buganda (Kuchu Clans of Buganda) II, at Stephen Friedman Gallery (June 4 – July 30, 2021) brings together large-scale ceramic works, wooden sculptures, masks and vibrant paintings on paper. Leilah Babirye’s powerful works are a testament to her fiercely intelligent approach to the transformation of found materials. Her oeuvre examines the legacies of British colonialism in Uganda and the traditional clan systems of the kingdom of Buganda, encompassing progressive ideas regarding alternative forms of kinship, community and LGBTQI activism ..read more