VIENNA CERAMICS
The history
UNITED VIENNESE AND GMUNDNER CERAMICS
Wiener Keramik was founded in 1906 by the important Viennese sculptors Michael Powolny and Bertold Löffler and stands for the reorientation of artistic creation in Art Nouveau. In close cooperation with the famous Wiener Werkstätte, the ceramics manufactory created, among other things, brilliant works in black and white and colour-intensive works which were sold in their exquisite showrooms in Vienna, New York, Berlin and Zurich.
In 1912/1913, under Franz Schleiss II, Gmundner Keramik merged with Wiener Keramik, which worked together with Wiener Werkstätten as a sales organisation, and all models of Wiener Keramik were continued under the name "Vereinigte Wiener und Gmundner Keramik".
The "Vereinigte Wiener und Gmundner Keramik und Gmundner Tonwarenfabrik Schleiß GmbH" attracted talented decorative ceramics artists such as Peche, Powolny, Zülow and Hartmann in the summer months and turned Gmunden into an artists' colony.
Renaissance of a very special time
FROM THE PAST TO THE PRESENT
In 1909, the married couple Franz Schleiss II and Emilie Schleiss-Simandl ushered in a new era for ceramic art in Gmunden. Renowned artists contributed to the success of the manufactory with their designs. With the founding of GRUPPE H, modern ceramic art arrived in Gmunden.
Gmundner Keramik and OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH are continuing this long tradition of collaboration with artists of international standing with the format of the Academy of Ceramics Gmunden.
The resulting works of particularly high artistic quality are allowed to bear the Vienna Ceramics label.
Kim Simonsson
507 & 508
WOLFGIRL WITH LURU "THE WHITE-GOLDEN ONE" & WOLFGIRL WITH LURU "THE GREEN ONE"
These sculptures were designed by Kim Simonsson as part of the AoCG (Academy of Ceramics Gmunden) in 2025.
Limitedto 10pieceseach , these works are very special pieces for all art collectors and art lovers.
In addition to a high-quality wooden box to store the artwork, you will also receive a certificate of authenticity with your purchase.
Price: 7.500 €
Dimensions: 40 x 30 x 40 cm
If you are interested, please contact us personally.
Selected pieces can be viewed and purchased in the Gmundner Keramik shops.
Symbol photos
about
KIM SIMONSSON, FI
Kim Simonsson (*1974 in Finland) is a Finnish sculptor and ceramic artist who is best known for his expressive figures. His works often depict childlike, fairytale-like creatures, which at the same time radiate something dark and melancholy. His matt, often moss-green surfaces, which are reminiscent of nature, forests and tranquillity, are characteristic of his work. Simonsson combines traditional ceramic techniques with contemporary art, creating works that oscillate between innocence and unease, fantasy and reality.
Julia Beliaeva
504, 505 & 506
SADNESS, SIREN & HOPE
Three contemporary ceramic figures, with the white glaze characteristic of Gmunden ceramics, were created by Julia Beliaeva in 2025 as part of the AoCG (Academy of Ceramics Gmunden): A girl (Yana Stepanenkos) who lost her legs in the war and becomes a siren, a boy who symbolises the oppressive and ongoing situation in Ukraine and a portrait of her son as a bearer of hope.
Limitedto 10pieceseach ( 5x matt glaze | 5x glossy glaze), these works are very special pieces for all art collectors and art lovers.
In addition to a high-quality wooden box for storing the artwork, you will also receive a certificate of authenticity with your purchase.
Price: 6.800 €
Dimensions: Sadness: 57 x 14 x 14 cm | Siren: 35 x 20 x 34 cm | Hope: 55 x 37 x 14 cm
If you are interested, please contact us personally.
Selected pieces can be viewed and purchased in the Gmundner Keramik shops.
Symbol photos
about
JULIA BELIAEVA, UA
Julia Beliaeva (*1988 in Haisyn, UA) balances gracefully between virtuality, physicality and fragility, merging past and present. She uses modern technologies such as 3D scanning/modelling/printing and VR as well as traditional techniques, particularly with ceramics. After the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2022, she processed flight and destruction in her works, including the exhibition "Fragile City" With Gmundner Keramik, she created works that look like traditional tiled stoves, but at the same time are reminiscent of the bombed and burnt-out houses in Kiev and tell of war and flight in the figurative frieze.
Peter Baldinger
503 COUNTER-REFORMATION
This sculpture in the form of a stylised modern military missile and a historical tiara as a warhead was designed by Peter Baldinger as part of the AoCG (Academy of Ceramics Gmunden) in 2025.
Limitedto 10 pieces, these works are very special pieces for all art collectors and art lovers.
In addition to a high-quality wooden box to store the artwork, you will also receive a certificate of authenticity with your purchase.
Price: 4.500 €
Dimensions: 80 x 25 x 25 cm
If you are interested, please contact us personally.
Selected pieces can be viewed and purchased in the Gmundner Keramik shops.
Symbol photos
about
PETER BALDINGER, AT
Peter Baldinger (*1958 in Linz) is an Austrian visual artist, painter and graphic designer. He began his professional career in the 1980s as a journalist and illustrator for newspapers and magazines before devoting himself exclusively to fine art from the early 1990s. Baldinger lives and works in Vienna and has realised numerous solo exhibitions and interventions in Austria and abroad over the course of his career, including at the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig and St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. His works range from painting and photography to installations in public spaces, often focussing on social issues and visual perception.
Maria Kulikovska
502 ASHTRAY
This series of ashtrays was designed by Maria Kulikovska as part of the AoCG (Academy of Ceramics Gmunden) in 2024.
Limited to 30 pieces, this work is a very special piece for all art collectors and art lovers. Each of the 30 pieces is characterised by its own unique and unmistakable design.
In addition to a high-quality wooden box to store the artwork, you will also receive a certificate of authenticity with your purchase.
Price: 290 €
If you are interested, please contact us personally.
Selected pieces can be viewed and purchased in the Gmundner Keramik shops.
Symbol photos
about
MARIA KULIKOVSKA, UA
Maria Kulikovska is an internationally active queer artist who was born and raised in Crimea. She has lived in exile since the annexation of Crimea. The main themes in her work are the female body, physicality and borders, political and geopolitical, but also human and personal borders. In her art, she processes traumatic experiences of homophobia, marginalisation, violence and war. Her anger, but also tenderness, sexuality and eroticism are motifs in the artist's watercolours. She used her unusual painting style at the Academy of Ceramics Gmunden in 2022 on a series of crockery items from the traditional manufacturer Gmundner Keramik. In doing so, she denounces Russia's recently launched war of aggression against Ukraine and thematises the associated violence against women.
Rosi Steinbach
501 LID VASE
This lidded vase was created by Rosi Steinbach in 2022 as part of the Academy of Ceramics.
Limited to 10 pieces, this work - which represents the new edition of Viennese ceramics - is a very special piece for all art & collector lovers.
In addition to a high-quality wooden box to store the artwork, you will receive a certificate of authenticity when you purchase this unique piece.
Price on request.
Personal collection necessary.
Symbol photos
"I have been creating ceramic objects in my workshop in Leipzig for many years. My colourfully glazed portrait busts are particularly well known. However, I also work on other objects that increasingly focus on our relationship with nature. Shapes and structures from nature serve as a source of ideas or as a direct model for my colourfully glazed, shiny objects. It can be tree stumps or boulders, lichens, mushrooms or even animals that are depicted or provide inspiration for a ceramic object. During my stay at the Academy of Ceramics Gmunden in 2022, I created a series of lidded vases. The lids can be imagined as organic shapes that grow out of the vases. When the vases are filled with flowers, the lid stands next to them as a small sculpture in its own right. I developed my Traunstein vases for Gmundner Keramik based on the "flamed" ceramics and tiled stoves that one regularly encounters in Gmunden and the surrounding area and also inspired by the lush nature of the mountain and lake landscape of the Salzkammergut. With this series of unique vases, I would like to take up the tradition of the United Viennese and Gmunden Ceramics."
- Rosi Steinbach, artist
about
ROSI STEINBACH
born in Karl-Marx-Stadt, GDR /Chemnitz
lives and works in Leipzig, DE
1977 Studied at the engineering college in Köthen
1981 Graduate engineer for plant construction
since 1990 works in ceramics
since 1996 participation in exhibitions
2022 Artist in Residence, OÖ AIR, AoCG, Gmundner Keramik, AT
2021 Grassi Prize of the Carl and Anneliese Goerdeler Foundation,
Grassi Museum for Applied Arts, Leipzig
2020 Residency, Centre for Ceramics, Berlin
2017 Artist in Residence, c.r.e.t.a. Roma, Rome, IT
2014 Artist in Residence, A.I.R. Vallauris, Vallauris, FR
2011 Prize of the Leipzig annual exhibition
