ARTIFACT: An International Call for Ceramics-based Works of Art
At Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio

To be presented during the 2021 NCECA conference in Cincinnati, Ohio*

Submission Deadline: January 4, 2021

This ceramics-based competitive group exhibition is offered for national and international artists working in and around ceramics-based media who may have a strong interest in participating at Manifest during the NCECA Conference in March 2021. *Manifest’s exhibits are not official Conference programs and are not endorsed by NCECA.

Manifest Gallery is centrally located within two miles of the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Contemporary Arts Center, Xavier University, the Weston Art Gallery, and the University of Cincinnati, and within one mile of Core Clay and the Manifest Drawing Center in Walnut Hills.

“Clay is moulded to make a vessel, but the utility of the vessel lies in the space where there is nothing. Thus, taking advantage of what is, we recognize the utility of what is not.” ― Lao Tzu

Fire hardened dirt has been a part of humanity’s long evolution across millennia. Right alongside paintings and drawings on cave walls, shards of ceramic have evidenced the human animal’s intellect, sophisticated approach to manipulating its environment, and its ingenuity for survival. But even more, surface quality manipulated with deliberate designs carry a psychological portrait of the maker, and culture, relative to aesthetic and symbolic meaning through mark making.

How do artists and craftspeople of today carry such processes forward, or connect them in retrospect to the long lineage that came before? How is work made of ceramic used today to convey meaning, to create valuable experiences for the viewer, to express content or aesthetic moments beyond the raw material itself? How is the medium negotiated between form and function, art and utility? For this exhibit Manifest invites artists to share works that in some way answer these questions, to provide examples of exceptional contemporary ceramic artifacts.

This exhibit has no defined expectation for type or style of work to be considered or selected. Submissions can range from the most traditional to the most conceptual, abstract, or experimental of any media so long as the work is primarily made of or with ceramic. This theme is very much open to interpretation by each artist.

For the full prospectus, and to apply, visit http://www.manifestgallery.org/artifact/index.html