JOURNAL

From contemporary sculpture and experimental materials to Lucio Fontana's ceramics, Avant Craft explores selected highlights from Frieze London, Frieze Masters and PAD London 2026, tracing the dialogue between art, craft and collectible design.

Beyond Frieze, London's independent art fairs offered fresh perspectives on contemporary art. Avant Craft explores highlights from Minor Attractions, Fair Play and Paraíso, celebrating artistic experimentation, emerging talent and new approaches to exhibiting and collecting art.

Italian artist Rossana Rubino explores paper as a living material through sculpture and installation, transforming paper pulp, textile fibres and natural materials into works shaped by fragility, memory and change.

A visual journey through British Art Fair 2026, exploring material, gesture and process across modern and contemporary British art, including selected works from Spotlight: Contemporary.

Italian sculptor Alberto Gianfreda discusses ceramic sculpture, fragmentation and transformation, exploring how breaking can become a gesture of possibility. Primary

British ceramic artist Kate Malone reflects on nature, crystalline glazes and the transformative force of clay, exploring optimism, control and unpredictability, the evolution of the Pumpkin, relationships with collectors and her work with FiredUp4.

Italian ceramic artist Teresa Lobelia D’Arienzo explores the dialogue between ceramics and cinema, where gesture, material, fragility and balance shape a distinctive sculptural language.

Italian ceramic artist Angelica Tulimiero discusses movement, materiality, wood firing and the relationship between contemporary ceramic sculpture, nature and artistic research in this original Avant Craft Journal interview.

A visual journey through the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2026, exploring contemporary art, craft, ceramics and collectible design through the theme of Interconnectedness.

Federica Paglia discusses her multidisciplinary practice, exploring the space between contemporary ceramics, art and design. In this conversation with Avant Craft, she reflects on material experimentation, craftsmanship and creating objects that invite contemplation and enduring relationships with those who live with them.

Interview by Amalia Di Lanno and Valeria Zerbo Over the last three decades, Paola Paronetto has developed one of the most distinctive voices in Italian contemporary ceramics. At the heart of her practice lies paper clay, a material she transformed from a technical experiment into a personal language capable of expressing lightness, emotion and individuality. Yet for Paola, the life of a work truly begins when it leaves the atelier. Once placed within a home and woven into eve

Interview by: Valeria Zerbo and Amalia Di Lanno Photos: courtesy Arianna De Luca Among the new voices shaping the landscape of Italian contemporary ceramics, Arianna De Luca has developed a distinctive language that transforms Mediterranean memories and traditional craftsmanship into bold contemporary objects. Born in Abruzzo, between the hills and the Adriatic Sea, Arianna grew up surrounded by landscapes, colours and traditions that continue to inform her work today. After

A reflection on Ceramic Art London 2026 and the evolving landscape of contemporary ceramic practice. Through a selection of international artists — from Toni Losey to Matthew Chambers — Avant Craft explores how today’s ceramic makers are redefining clay through sculpture, material research, texture, memory, and collectible design.

Collect Art Fair 2026 at Somerset House reaffirmed its position as a leading international platform for contemporary craft. This visual narrative reflects on selected works across ceramics, lacquer, wood and metal that formed part of our broader engagement with this year’s edition.

Interview by Amalia Di Lanno Francesca Romana Cicia holding a fractured ceramic vessel set against one of her paintings. Francesca Romana Cicia is an Italian artist based in Rome. Through painting, sculpture, and installation, she explores the need to investigate that hidden place which preserves the fragments of lived experience. Her practice is rooted in depth, reflection, and an attentive listening to matter. Indeed, blue is the color she feels most connected to—a metaphor

Claudio Campana’s practice unfolds at the intersection of theory and making, where art history, technical discipline, and material research converge. Working with scagliola and liquid porcelain, his objects explore technique as a language—shaped by process, variation, and an enduring attention to craft.

Interviewed by Amalia Di Lanno, Vincenzo d’Alba is an architect, designer, and illustrator. An eclectic personality, he boasts a rich and wide-ranging portfolio of projects that reflects a well-established experience across multiple fields. Indeed, he is a multidisciplinary artist who, through different media, is able to communicate and convey his ideas and design vision in a transversal way. An artist fully immersed in the creative process.

Through Intrecci Toscani, Marco Gentili reinterprets ancient Tuscan weaving traditions into contemporary Italian handmade objects. Crafted in small batches, his work celebrates material honesty, slow design, and the enduring presence of the human hand.

Italian ceramic artist Anna Resmini approaches clay as a space of listening rather than control. In this interview, she reflects on Italian ceramics shaped through an intimate dialogue with material.

Rooted in Apulian heritage yet expressed through a contemporary lens, Santo Peccatore is the design-led project of Domenico De Palo — a Designer–Founder whose work embodies the evolution of contemporary Italian ceramic. In this conversation, De Palo reflects on symbolism, materiality, and the dual voice shared between designer and artisan that shapes each sculptural object.