The front entrance of the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza, Italy

The Premio Faenza is a biannual international competition of contemporary ceramic art held at The International Museum of Ceramics (Fondazione Museo Internazionalle delle Ceramiche) or MIC, in Faenza, Italy. (Faenza is about 3 hours south-west of Venice by train and about 1/2 hour south of Bologna).

The work of 31 finalists from 10 countries has been on display there since June 16th this year. The exhibition will close on August 19th 2007. I visited the Premio Faenza as part of my field trip in July and was simply blown away by the quality of the finalists’ work, the museum’s permanent collection and the beauty and atmosphere of Faenza itself.

The Premio Faenza is a competition open to anyone, (although this year there was an age limit of 40). Up to three works per finalist are chosen from digital images or slides by an international jury of museum experts, directors, curators, critics and established artists. The deadline for the 55th exhibition was August 2006. The first prize is 26,000 Euro, so get your entries ready for 2008!

Click here to see photos from Faenza. In a lot of cases I haven’t been able to include my photographs of the pieces because I’m still unsure of the copyright restrictions.

Below is a list of the finalists whose work was chosen to be exhibited at the Premio Faenza. When possible, I’ve included links to the image of their Premio Faenza entry on the artist’s website. Otherwise the link is just to the main page of their website.
If you are one of the artists listed below and would like to send me an image of your work or a link to your website, it would be wonderful to hear from you.

Winners (Premio Faenza):

Ian McDonald (USA) with “Beyond all boundaries”

Simone Lucietti (Italy) with “Tokillchirikill”

Winner (Acquisition Prize):

Andrea Salvatori (Italy) with “Stars”

Winner (Prize Monica Biserni):

Alessandro Neretti (Italy) with “Capovolgimento delle parti ovvero quando 1 viso mi da 1 vaso”

Winner (Silver Medal of the President of the Italian Republic):

Barnaby Barford (UK) with “oooh mom, it was my turn to be guard”

Winner (Silver Plaque of the Senate of the Italian Republic):

Tomonari Kato (Japan) with “Standing Formation”

Winner (Medal of the President of the Chamber of Deputies):

Shigeki Hayashi (Japan) with “Q.P”

Winner (Plaque of the Region Emilia-Romagna):

Silvia Zagni (Italy) with “Melodramatica”

Winner (Plaque of the Assemblea Leislativa of the Regione Emilia-Romagna):

Clare Twomey (UK) with “Temporary”

Winner (Medal of the Lions Club Faenza Host):

Ruth Borgenicht (USA) with “White moon rising”

Winner (Medal of the Rotary Club in Faenza):

Bagrodia Jalan Nidhi (USA) with “Untitled”

Winner (Gold Megal in memory of “Eleuterio Ignazi” reserved for a young ceramist):

Marianne Eggimann (Germany) with “Frau mit Ei”

Finalists:

There were a few finalists whose work didn’t arrive or it arrived damaged. Such work wasn’t included in the exhibition and is not included in this listing either.

Adam Abel (Poland)

Yoshinori Akazawa (Japan)

Ottavio Coppola (Italy)

Valder De Bartolomeis (Italy)

Julieta Dentone (Spain)

Rikke Frydensbjerg (Denmark)

Kristina Grigorova (Bulgaria)

Kenichi Harayama (Japan)

Wess Harvey (USA)

Kazuhito Nagasawa (Japan)

Alessandro Neretti (Italy)

Akio Niisato (Japan)

Thomas Schmidt (USA)

Mattia Vernocchi (Italy)

Mariko Wada (Denmark)

Shang-Feng Yang (Taiwan)

Meng Zhao (USA)

Silvia Zotta (Argentina)

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In front of The International Museum of Ceramics,
Faenza, Italy on July 17th 2007

I’m a uni student yet again, this time an MPhil candidate at the School of Art, Australian National University. My first year has started with a few field trips, intended to provide additional context for my own research.

Firstly, from 4th to 6th of July, I attended the “New Craft – Future Voices” conference at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee, Scotland. After that, in search of more inspiration and to get an eye-witness overview of the international contemporary art scene, my lovely friend Sharnie and I decided to embark on a whirlwind art trip to Italy and Germany. Our first stop was the 55th Premio Faenza (Faenza, Italy, of majolica fame), followed by The Venice Biennale (La Biennale di Venezia, the 52nd International Art Exhibition, Venice, Italy) and Documenta 12 (an international art exhibition held in Kassel, Germany). We rounded it all off with a couple of days in Berlin, however by then, we had reached saturation point on the art scale, and decided cocktails might be in order.