State of clay: we’re making a sharp turn with our pick of the shapeliest new ceramics

Matt Davis

A graduate from the University of Brighton, Davis creates his ‘hyperreal vessels’ by combining traditional porcelain craft with a futuristic aesthetic. His goal is to push the boundaries of what’s possible with ceramics, using software to generate his designs, which are then 3D-printed, moulded and slip-cast in bone china.

Maddalena Selvini

For her S.Pot project, Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Selvini experimented with north Italian soapstone. She designed a traditional stove-style cooking pot, which was cut by local experts, then used the residue from the lathing process to create a new stoneware and glaze, producing delicate vessels.

Dimitri Bähler

Bähler’s Iridescences project explores a technique used in central Italy since the 15th century. Working with craftsman Maurizio Tittarellli Rubboli, the Swiss designer used a blend of metallic salts and clay to produce special chromatic effects, their luminescence brought to life by a variety of shapes and ribbed surfaces.

Christopher Riggio

One of the more recent graduates among our pick of ceramicists to watch, with an MA from London’s RCA, Riggio also made our Graduate Directory. His Paste series nods to 1920s Cartier designs as well as the art of Lucio Fontana, and is intended to ‘evoke a sense of nostalgia through new material sophistication’.

Ben Medansky

A self-described ‘orchestrator of controlled chaos’ and ‘refiner of industrial aesthetics’, Medansky is a ceramicist whose sculptural work features intersecting shapes, sudden flashes of colour and unexpected volumes. Influences range from industrial design and brutalism to the architecture of Los Angeles, where he founded his studio in 2012.

Irina Razumovskaya 

Leningrad-born Razumovskaya studied in St Petersburg, Jerusalem and London. She is most inspired by the past, and ‘the ageing of architecture, where rigid things are softened with the touch of time’. This is apparent in her 2017 Post-Surface series, which explores the slow decay of the constructivist structures of Soviet Russia.

Yao Wang

A graduate of London’s RCA, Wang has produced a series of abstract shapes symbolising the tension and balance of dance. Titled The Mind is a Muscle, the Chinese artist’s collection features decorative objects that were either planned carefully or made intuitively and responsively on the wheel.

Ekaterina Semenova

With her Care for Milk project, Semenova explored the potential of using dairy waste in glazing techniques. The Dutch Design Academy graduate’s collection features simple vessels in earthy tones, achieved with different types of milk (raw, high fat or low fat). Once baked, its sugars caramelise, taking on a variety of shades of brown.

Agustina Bottoni

An Argentinian based in Milan, Bottoni set up her studio in 2015. Her tableware collection references South America’s mate, a bitter infusion usually drunk from a leather-clad gourd container. The ceramic pieces, which include a vase and a teapot, are encased in a leather sleeve that will develop a unique patina over time. 

Maddalena Selvini

As well as her S.Pot collection, Selvini has produced Morning Spikes, a series of organic-looking coffee cups. Playing on ideas of warmth and tactility, they are covered in multiple barbs, designed to hold layers of wool (not shown) in place. As the wool-clad cups are washed, they gain an increasingly felted feel.

As originally featured in the January issue of Wallpaper* (W*226)