Modern Ceramics and Porcelain Objects

From September 19 to October 19, 2025, the Association of Visual Artists of Northern Swabia and Augsburg (BBK) will present five artistic voices who explore the possibilities of ceramic design in strikingly different ways. It is the first exhibition in the BBK’s 76-year history devoted exclusively to ceramics, with a special focus on porcelain. The exhibition was conceived by Karin Bauer. The five artists featured are Zsuzsa Füzesi, Susanne Petzold, Ulrike Spangenberg, Jochen Rüth and Otto Scherer.

Small detail reflects the whole. Ceramic by Zsuzsa Füzesi. To be seen at the BBK Gallery in the Glaspalast, Augsburg.

The timing is right: modern ceramics and contemporary porcelain have long since emancipated themselves from purely functional or decorative roles. What once appeared as vase, bowl, or figurine is now deconstructed, distorted, and reimagined through artistic freedom. Forms lose their utilitarian purpose, surfaces speak of rupture and experimentation, and materiality itself becomes an expressive force. Boundaries between sculpture, installation, and vessel dissolve. Some works only faintly echo their traditional origins—they carry the memory of craft, yet speak in their own, often radically contemporary language. Ceramic is no longer just a material, but a medium for social, emotional, and poetic inquiry. It can be beautiful, but also questioning, demanding, or formless. Look closely, and you realize: fragility can also be powerful. All five artists have exhibited widely and received awards; here, they are brought together for the first time:

Zsuzsa Füzesi

Born in 1953, the Hungarian-Swiss ceramic artist unites philosophical depth with technical mastery. Her work is based on the principle of self-similarity: the small detail reflects the whole. This idea is particularly clear in her series Koan, in which she translates the Zen-Buddhist challenge of breaking free from logical thinking into ceramic form.

Susanne Petzold

Born in Dresden in 1978, Petzold opened her own studio in 2006 after completing her diploma in ceramics at Kunsthochschule Burg Giebichenstein. For her, porcelain is a material of endless possibility: a canvas, a building block for gestural spatial drawings, a stage set for stop-motion, fragments for sculptural collages, or the substance of vessels. Always spontaneous and intuitive, her work probes the boundaries of the medium. At the BBK Gallery, her porcelain modules will interact with the pieces of her colleagues, becoming a site-specific installation shaped by dialogue and exchange.

With her collection of “porcelain building blocks” from the years 2010–25 Susanne Petzold creates spatial installations.

Ulrike Spangenberg

Based in Gröbenzell near Fürstenfeldbruck, Spangenberg describes her artistic aim in her own words: “To grasp the essence of a tangible or conceptual thing and transform it into a coherent visual form—that is my goal. Discovering the deeper image beyond what the eye first perceives drives me. My choice of material always corresponds directly and precisely to the intended meaning.” Her ceramic sculptures reference functions of the human brain, reflecting aspects of her ongoing series At Second Glance. These works highlight our five senses and their countless neural centers across both hemispheres.

Headplastic by Ulrike Spangenberg.

Jochen Rüth

Born in Würzburg in 1960, Jochen Rüth investigates the origins of material. His works—seemingly products of geological processes—are not imitations, but the result of unique clay mixtures and unconventional firing methods. Out of this emerge both classically thrown vessels and fragmented sculptural bodies. His lava-like objects, pressed from the earth before our eyes, suggest that even what seems “carved in stone” is in constant motion. One is tempted to say: everything flows.

Geoden ceramic artist Jochen Rüth calls these objects.

Otto Scherer

Born in Transylvania in 1955, Scherer studied at the art academy in Brașov (then Kronstadt) and now lives and works in Pürgen near Landsberg. His precise geometric figures are shaped with a high proportion of grog, making them more workable. Over the years, he has developed series of forms – squares, spheres, cylinders, and more – each evolving annually. Their lustrous surfaces often conceal the underlying material, resembling armor that masks the fragility within.

Wall object out of ceramics by Otto Scherer.

Exhibition Opening: Friday, September 19, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. Keynote address: Wolfgang Loesche, former director of Galerie Handwerk, Munich. Music: Ruth Rossel, cello and loop.
The artists will be present at the opening and on Sunday, October 19.