Nordic ceramics in the 47th Tendencies exhibition «Kneaded. Shaped. Fired.»

47TH TENDENCIES
Kneaded. Shaped. Fired.
Galleri F 15, Moss
20 June – 11 October 2026

Curator: Maria C. Havstam
Curatorial group: Anja Bjørshol, Nicolas Hughes og Marthe Næstby

For more than fifty years, Tendencies has marked a space of attention within Nordic contemporary craft, a recurring moment in which material practices are both presented and reconsidered. Since its first iteration in 1971 at Galleri F 15, the exhibition has shifted from a national survey into a broader Nordic conversation, one that reflects both continuity and change within the field.

The 47th edition turns to ceramics, not simply as medium, but as a way of thinking. Clay is an ancient substance, but it is never only historical. It resists, yields, remembers. It bears the trace of the hand and the contingencies of process, the pressures, temperatures, and temporalities that exceed intention.

For Kneaded. Shaped. Fired., the works of Wisam Al-Samad (Norway), Anton Alvarez (Sweden), Ane Fabricius Christiansen (Denmark), Christina Schou Christensen (Denmark), Anders Hald (Denmark), Fanny Ollas (Sweden), Erik Pløen (Norway), Andrea Scholze (Norway), Astrid Sleire (Norway), and Nina Andrea Standerholen (Norway) unfold within this unstable terrain between control and surrender. Whether in Al-Samad’s serial constellations of form or in Hald’s measured encounters between ceramic mass and wooden support, the material asserts itself as more than a vehicle; it becomes a collaborator.

Curated by Maria C. Havstam, the exhibition is structured through four overlapping terms – head, heart, hand, and soul. These are not separable faculties, but entangled modes of attention. To think through clay is also to feel through it, to know it through repetition and resistance. Drawing on theoretical perspectives that grant agency to non-human actors, the exhibition proposes a subtle but significant shift: that matter is not inert, but active, shaping both the work and our encounters with it.

This edition of Tendencies resonates within a broader Nordic context, where ceramics has, in recent decades, re-emerged with particular force. The historical distinctions between art and craft, once carefully maintained, have become increasingly porous. What remains is a field marked by negotiation: between tradition and experiment, utility and abstraction, intimacy and scale.

The presence of works by Erik Pløen, a central figure in the development of modern Norwegian ceramics and the initiator of the first Tendencies exhibition, introduces a temporal depth. His objects do not simply belong to the past; they continue to pose questions to the present.

For this 47th edition, Tendencies was developed as a collective inquiry, shaped through dialogue among artists, curators, researchers, and a youth advisory group. This expanded curatorial model reflects a commitment to shared knowledge, but also to the recognition that meaning is not fixed in the object alone. It emerges in relation, in the shifting space between material, maker, and viewer.

Set within the long-standing programme of Galleri F 15, Tendencies continues an institutional commitment to contemporary Nordic art that is both rigorous and open-ended. It offers a set of propositions, about matter, about making, and about the ways in which form, however solid it may appear, remains always in flux.

The exhibition has been made possible through support and collaboration. Special thanks are extended to private lenders and the National Museum in Oslo for loans of works by Erik Pløen; to the Clay Museum, Denmark, and the Röhsska Museum, Sweden, for their contributions related to participating artists; to Norwegian Crafts for their support; and to the Youth Response group: Johannes Bærhaugen, Julia Høye Pacheco, and Ludvig Hermansen Johansen.

CATALOGUE
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue as part of its mediation and research program, with texts by Maja Sofie Rasmussen, PhD fellow in ceramic art, and Mats Linder, researcher in craft and design. The catalogue is an essential part of the exhibition’s educational material and also serves as a lasting record of the research conducted for the project

PRESS PREVIEW
A press preview led by curator Maria C. Havstam will be held on Friday 19 June, 3 pm.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES
International
Amanda Kelly, Pickles PR, amanda@picklespr.com, +34 685 875 996
Vanessa Saraceno, Pickles PR, vanessa@picklespr.com, +39 327 328 0153

Norway
Ann Kristin Traaen, Galleri F 15, akt@gallerif15.no, +47 938 19 216

The media kit can be accessed here.

OFFICIAL OPENING
Saturday 20 June at Galleri F 15 in Moss
The official opening will take place at 2 pm in Alby Café.

Opening program
PhD fellow Maja Sofie Rasmussen on the ceramics boom
Greeting from County Mayor of Østfold, Sindre Martinsen Evje
Opening speech by ceramicist Yngvild Fagerheim
Musical performance by Stian Omenås

The gallery is open 11:00–17:00 on opening day.
Regular opening hours: Tuesday–Sunday, 11:00–17:00.