Ceramics biennale: Playing with clay forms

Idiosyncratic and surprising, whether smooth or rough, ceramics just demand to be touched. Whether they are for everyday use, traditional craft or high art for display, ceramics are an ancient medium that have shaped the way we live. Italian architect and founding member of the Memphis Group Ettore Sottsass waxed lyrical about the form, saying, “They are older than the Bible and Jesus Christ, older than all the poems ever written, older than all houses, older than all metals. Ceramics support everything — the old, gently dry terracotta bears all things. They bear all things.”

On a recent walkabout of the work created for the Corobrik National Ceramics Biennale, it was impossible not to be joyfully swept up in the versatility, beauty and romance of ceramics. The viewing — led by passionate ceramicist Eugene Hön, curator Rika Nortjé, and some of the artists whose work was on display — was a huge eye-opener.

The sheer diversity of ceramics South Africans conjure, ranging from earthenware to porcelain and stoneware clay, is one element to be amazed by. It is equally astounding how scientific, yet still up to chance, the manufacturing process and results are.

While wending our way between colourful figures, delicate pots and floral vases, Hön, who also judged the event, said of his chosen medium, “Clay is such a versatile and humbling material — the crack is always there. Ceramics permeate every aspect of our lives — bricks, toilets, plates, optical fibres, and so on.” Of course, South Africa has a long, impressive history of ceramics, from the iron-age kind, excavated in the Mapungubwe Valley, to Mpumalanga’s Lydenburg Heads, dating back to about 500AD.

Fast-forward 1,000 years or so and we come to the much-celebrated ceramics of Ardmore. These pieces, conjured by Fèe Halsted and her team in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, have become highly collectable. The brand has even collaborated with French design house Hermès. Then, most recently, Calitzdorp artist Hylton Nel’s iconic cats transformed the runway at the Dior Men’s Summer 2025 show in Paris.

Ceramics Southern Africa was created in 1972 to promote ceramics by improving the work being produced and fostering public interest in the art form. The first ceramics biennale was held that same year, the winners being Esias Bosch, Digby Hoets and Elsbeth Burkhalter, all of whom went on to have illustrious international careers. The 2024 biennale curator Rika Nortjé says of the importance of the event, “Exhibitions such as this biennale showcase the full extent of creativity and push the boundaries of clay.”

Joburg ceramicist Kevin Collins agrees and says, “Competitions such as the ceramics biennale are important to keep pushing the boundaries of possibility in a field of art or craft that’s often seen to be stuck in tradition. I entered to see if I could measure up to the amazingly high standard that ceramics in South Africa is now reaching, and to perpetuate a ‘tradition’ of queer ceramic representation Hylton Nel has so elegantly done for years.”

A painter by training, Collins sees the surface of a ceramic as another form on canvas and says of the pieces he submitted for the biennale, “I conceptualised these two male figures — both tattooed — titled The Delft Collector and the Jazz Musician. The concept of the body as a canvas for mark-making is intriguing, so I imagined a man covered in blue markings, much like a traditional willow pattern on a Delft plate, and his partner, whose body is covered with the score of a convoluted jazz work.”

After a tough judging process, the top prize in this year’s competition went to Mpumalanga-born veteran ceramicist Nic Sithole for his vessel Tall Spike Vase. Hön said of the piece, “Sithole’s expressive ceramic vessel deserved the Ndebele Premier Award. It was the piece that stood out for me from my very first encounter as I scanned all the work on display. It’s simple black burnished clay body (saggar-fired) exhibited high on a plinth, and was gleaming among all the predominantly loud, expressive vessels and colourful, whimsical ceramic sculptures. Elegant in its form and shape, with subtle textures and added amasumpa-like carved raised decorations, it is a creative and innovative departure from this age-old local ceramic tradition of coiled ceramic vessels.”

Also worth mentioning is Hennie Meyer’s Anthropomorphic Vase. “Adorned with colourful hand-built extensions in high-fired layered glazes, it challenges the creative boundaries of what we perceive to be a vase,” Hön says. “Its gaudy appearance exudes clay’s plasticity and fired rigidity, making it a deserving winner of the Corobrik award.”

Other winners were Gari Louridas, who won the Glazecor Award for her spectacular Porcelain knitted vessel with gold lustre detail, and Carla da Cruz’s Guardians, a set of three ovoid terracotta forms, each on four legs and with added details.

Most crucially, future South African ceramicists were represented at the biennale too. Taking in the Young People’s Tile Exhibition was a reassuring moment. Children from all over the country had been tasked with creating their own coloured tiles. These small artworks made by little fingers were so expressive, and you could just see the care and attention put into each one of them. What a perfect tactile medium for children to get stuck into. With any luck, one of these budding artists will be our next Hylton Nel.

To keep up to date on all local ceramic-related information, go to ceramicssa.co.za and follow @ceramics_sa_gauteng. To purchase works, click here.

This artilce originally appeared in Sunday Times Lifestyle.