call for entry: OPEN TO ART

 

OPEN TO ART
 
International Art and Design Ceramics Competition
 
Competition rules available at the website: www.officinesaffi.com

Created and promoted by Officine Saffi, Open to Art
confirms its status as a tool for enhancing and promoting the use of
ceramics in contemporary art, design and furnishing. The competition
also represents an opportunity for reflecting on the latest developments
in visual design and technology.

Open to Art is a competition open to artists of any age, without any limits on subject matter, and with the only requirement that ceramic has to be the principal material used in the work. There are two sections in which artists can take part: Art Ceramics, and Design Ceramics. The complete competition rules can be downloaded from the website www.officinesaffi.com. Applications are accepted up until 30 June 2016.

The Jury
An international jury will assess the works submitted, according to criteria of quality, research, originality and contemporaneity. The jurors are:

 

  • Laura Borghi, creator and promoter of the prize, Officine Saffi, Milan
  • Aileesh Carew, Project Director of the National Craft Gallery, Ireland
  • Carlotta de Bevilacqua, vice-president of Artemide and President of Danese Milano
  • Paolo Dell’Elce, designer
  • Flaminio Gualdoni, art critic and historian, editor of the magazine La Ceramica in Italia e nel Mondo
  • Franco Marrocco, Director of the Brera Fine Arts Academy
  • Shozo Michikawa, artist
  • Museo del Design 1880-1980, Milan
  • Kristina Riska, designer and artist

Prizes
For the winners, the prize money available is 10,000 euro, shared between two first prizes, one for the Art category and one for the Design category, so that each has a value of 5,000 euro.
As well as the first prizes in the two categories, there are 5 additional prizes, two of which comprise artists’ residencies, one in Japan during the International Ceramic Art Festival, Sasama, and one in Finland.
The Museo del Design 1880-1980, Milano will offer to a selected artist the Solo Show Prize, a solo exhibition in the museum spaces. A special Production Prize will be offered by FABLAB Milano. As in the previous edition, Open to Art dedicates particular attention to young artists, by means of an Under 30 Prize with support from the Brera Fine Arts Academy, which will select a work by a young artist to be exhibited at the Academy.

Finalist’s Exhibition
All the finalist works in Open to Art will be presented in a special exhibition that will open in January 2017 at Officine Saffi in Milan. The winners will be announced at the exhibition inauguration.

OFFICINE SAFFI
Officine Saffi, an organization based in Milan, is an experimental hub dedicated to contemporary ceramics.
Its audience comprises artists, designers, architects, ceramists and
everyone interested in ceramics and art. The project consists of the Art gallery, for exhibitions with works by international artists, the Workshop for courses, also used for artists’ residencies and production by artists and designers, and the Publishing Company that produces art catalogues and the quarterly magazine La Ceramica in Italia e nel mondo (www.laceramicainitalia.com).

Part of Officine Saffi’s mission is the Open to Art International Competition,
dedicated to Art Ceramics and Design Ceramics. Through its operations,
Officine Saffi represents a point of reference for international
ceramics, with a mission to enhancing the significance of ceramics in
the areas of art, design and architecture.

Useful information:
Competition: Open to Art, International Art and Design Ceramics Competition
Applications can be submitted from 31 March 2016
Deadline: 30 June 2016
Prize-giving and exhibition inauguration: January 2017
Location: Officine Saffi Ceramic Arts Gallery, Via Aurelio Saffi 7 – Milan.
Tel: +39 02 36 68 56 96
E-mail: [email protected]
Info: www.officinesaffi.com

movie day: The Cup with Sophie Moran


The Cup from Story Shed on Vimeo.

Sophie Moran produces ceramic tableware and unique pieces that sell in galleries and retail outlets throughout Australia.

The Quarry collection features high fired, functional, stoneware
vessels with flecked, matte glazes in a palette of earthy colours. While
recognising the influence of traditional Japanese pottery, this work
also aims to capture the sun bleached character of the Australian
outback, bringing a sense of the land into contemporary homes, for use
with our modern and multi-cultural meals. sophiemoran.info

Story Shed is a video production company based in Melbourne, formed
by multi-media producer Nadia Hume and award-winning cameraman Matt
Jasper. Together, Nadia and Matt have over 40 years experience in
broadcast media working in Australia and internationally.

Story Shed was formed out of a shared love of bringing stories to life on screen. storyshed.com.au
The music is by local Melbourne band Ponyface. Pony Face’s music is a
sonic kaleidoscope, encompassing psych/surf guitars, doom drums, bass
lines moulded from rock bottom and sampled textural layers which have
become synonymous with a loud spacial sound. ponyface.com.au

The video was shot by Matt Jasper using a Canon 1DC with Zeiss prime
lenses. It was edited in Avid Media Composer and graded using Deluts
within Davinci Resolve. The video was produced by Nadia Hume for Story
Shed Melbourne.

monday morning eye candy: Joyce St. Clair ~ Guest Post by Ceramic Artists Now

Balance of excess in color,
adornment, and form is a challenge to achieve. Joyce St. Clair is pushing hard to find
and defy this balance. Her functional pottery teeters on the edge of this
balance while she seems to not actually care whether or not there is such a
thing as “too much”. This works to St. Clair’s benefit as her work takes the viewer
into a much richer and decadent reality while using and living with her work.
The viewer is also given a source of endless entertainment within the mass of
decorative elements lumped together; eyes can pass from flower to flower to
brilliant swirl to leaf and back a hundred times in a unique order always with
new shapes and colors and glaze runs to enrich the experience. St. Clair’s
forms are quite elegant and exaggerated while retaining some very strict
utility within their stable feet, generous rims, and comfortable handles. While
red, blue, and green are colors we constantly see in nature, there is something
slightly supernatural about St. Clair’s glaze palette, which regains humanity
when it loses control, running and pooling over the clay. 
St. Clair earned her BFA in Ceramics from University of North Texas in Denton, Texas and her MFA from Wichita State University in Kansas in 2014. She was named an Emerging Artist of 2015 by Ceramics Monthly and is currently a long-term resident at Red Lodge Center for Clay in Montana.


 

Thanks again to our great Guest writers from Ceramics Artists Now. Make sure to check out their website for more amazing ceramic based artwork.