Design writer Sisse Bro visited the ceramics fair in Brussels, where Danish and international artists and craftspeople meet in a ceramic crossroads.
Ceramics Brussels
In January 2025, Ceramic Brussels opened its doors to the art fair for the second time with a clear desire to support ceramics, both as a form of expression and as a craft in an international forum. What is particularly emphasised is the union of contemporary art and craft artists. The intersection is ceramics, but the approach to the material is remarkably diverse. Ceramic Brussels spanned five days, with 65 galleries and institutions from 14 countries representing over 200 different artists.
From the moment you enter the fair, you get the impression that art is a high priority. No lavish floral arrangements or other irrelevant decorations, but a floor-to-ceiling piece from a local artist duo, KRJST. A reminder of what we are here for. The same tone is maintained in the exhibition space, which opens with the solo exhibition of this year’s guest of honour, American Elizabeth Jaeger.
In the same simple and white scenography as the rest of the fair, Jaeger has built a diorama with a series of rooms where she presents her works in ceramics, glass and metal; figures that immediately capture the viewer. Dogs and rats stare deep into our eyes, birds are pitch black and hundreds of beetles swarm out of a window, evoking eeriness and wonder.
The staging is deliberate because it forces the viewer to stop and take the time to see all the parts. Jaeger explains how she uses the colour black to slowly reveal the works; first you see the silhouette and then the many details. The dark and mysterious mood permeates Jaeger’s exhibition as a reminder that we need to take nature and its creatures seriously, and with respect and craftsmanship, the animals are represented as beautiful, soulful beings. The choice of Elizabeth Jaeger as this year’s guest of honour seems right to the fair’s co-founder and artistic director, Jean-Marc Dimanche. Jaeger is a woman, she is young but experienced, and she manages to combine idea and craftsmanship to perfection.
Nature as a focal point
Nature is strongly represented at this year’s Ceramic Brussels, in the form of animals, plants, organisms and stones, but also transformed into supernatural and surreal creatures. There is an obvious need among the artists to express a special awareness of the connection between man and nature, or perhaps the lack thereof. Two artists’ works in particular stand out as examples of a growing awareness of nature’s ecosystems.
Norwegian gallery Kiosken presented multidisciplinary artist Eirik Falckner‘s work from 2023, part of the series ‘They Emerged from the Depths’. A ceramic work that has been placed in the sea off Bergen for a number of months and in the process has been covered with barnacles, an organism that will die out when the sea becomes too acidic due to high CO2 levels. A work that in the future will be seen as a trace of a lost past.
French artist Damien Fragnon won last year’s Jury Prize and therefore had a solo stand at the fair this year. He has similarly placed ceramic works in the sea for a long period of time to investigate how the ceramics and the minerals in the glaze are slowly dissolved by the salt water, creating nourishment for animals such as sea anemones and starfish. Fragnon takes a laboratory approach and works with simulations of the environment to draw attention to climate change and nature’s man-made vulnerability.
From the power of the elements to the beauty of the plant kingdom
A somewhat more poetic experiment, which also brings to mind the contemporary climate – and perhaps especially the Arctic – debate, is French artist Benoît Pouplard‘s porcelain icebergs on display at Galerie NeC. Ice blue celadon glazes explosively leap out of the white porcelain, expressing the power of the elements, the meeting of materials with fire. The works appear at once thoughtful and liberatingly surrendered to the greater forces.
The opposite is true in Danish Marianne Nielsen’s meticulously crafted leaves, showcased at the American gallery Hostler Burrows. Here we are reminded of both the beauty of the plant kingdom and the history of Danish ceramics, namely Fanny Garde and Effie Hegermann-Lindencrone’s fascination with nature in their work for Bing & Grondahl in the early 20th century.
In addition to great technical precision, Marianne Nielsen presents a mesmerising lightness in her works, a symbol of the fragility of nature. They remind us to appreciate even the most familiar objects in the forest, the leaves of the trees. Read also the article A sensuous look at Effie and Fanny.
Focus on Danish craft artists
For the second year running, two galleries with a special focus on Danish craft artists, the artist collective Peach Corner from Copenhagen and Puls Ceramics from Brussels run by Danish Annette Sloth, are participating. This year, Peach Corner presents a number of both Danish and Scandinavian artists: Gitte Jungersen, Hilda Piazzolla, Petra Dalström, Sisse Lee and Martin Bodilsen Kaldahl. With a very contrasting idiom, the works stand somewhat lonely in their own space. However, it is clear that the curation of the exhibition focuses on ideas and an experimental approach to process and development. The chemical process is given plenty of space in Jungersen’s large square boxes. The bubbling surface emerges in the space, wants to be seen and becomes the work. Piazzolla’s 3D and machine-created works, in their shades of brown and blue respectively, are reminiscent of something created by nature, but could not be further from it. It raises exciting questions about what we as humans perceive as natural and relatable.
At Puls Ceramics, the works, with the exception of the wall-hung pieces, are displayed on one large table, mixed and in dialogue. Here, the attraction is clearly surfaces, colours and shapes. This year, Puls presents glass from Maria Bang Espersen, Pernille Braun, and Morten Klitgaard as well as ceramics from Charlotte Nielsen, Rikke Elgaard, Anders Børgesen, Gregory Georgescu and Maxwell Mustardo. There are layers of experimentation in the many different works, where glass can look like ceramics, as with Klitgaard and Braun, or where ceramics almost appear as plastic in Mustardo’s amphorae. Several of the works express meticulous care in their design, as in the work of Børgesen, Elgaard and Nielsen, where it is the art of variation that speaks.
Danish craftsmanship has an international status
It is thanks to generous government support that galleries with Danish and Scandinavian connections can participate in a fair like Ceramic Brussels. This is worth noting. It is an important international forum for galleries, and thus also artists, to be a part of, especially because Ceramic Brussels opens up for the interdisciplinary, where ideas, design and craftsmanship are allowed to unfold on an equal footing.
Peach Corner emphasises how important it is for a gallery to maintain its network and create new contacts across national borders, with customers, colleagues, institutions and media. Puls Ceramics emphasises how Danish ceramics and craftsmanship still have a kind of blue stamp in the eyes of international art collectors in terms of expression and quality, and a showcase like this fair can help to preserve that impression.
"Ceramics is diverse, as this fair proves. While some works are characterised by a sharp idea, others stand out thanks to an elaborate craftsmanship."
A rapidly evolving art form
With 65 galleries and over 200 different artists, this brief summary is by no means complete. You should therefore also visit Ceramic Brussels’ own website, which provides a clear overview of all participating galleries and artists. Overall, however, it can be said that the level, both artistically and technically, was high and that the basic idea of crossing the various art and craft disciplines with ceramics as a focal point really works.
This year, galleries with historical works by Pablo Picasso and Vassil Ivanoff, for example, were also invited, which also contributed to a wider perspective. A fair such as this provides an opportunity to delve into the development of ceramic art. It’s clear to see how this art form is rapidly evolving and that different generations need to express themselves differently, both in terms of ideas and form.
Ceramics is diverse, as this fair proves. While some works are characterised by a sharp idea, others stand out thanks to an elaborate craftsmanship. For decades, Belgium and Brussels have established themselves as a hub for major art and design fairs, and what they all have in common is their ability to attract both international exhibitors and visitors. Ceramic Brussels would do well to invite galleries of even more diverse nationalities in the coming years. With its geographical position in the centre of Europe’s major capitals, and with Belgium having the highest number of art collectors per capita in the world, there is more than enough reason to attend or visit Ceramic Brussels.