30 June – 3 October 2026

Vienna Ceramics Edition

The Vienna Ceramics Edition brings together international contemporary artists who are rethinking the medium of ceramics, exploring the boundaries between sculpture, concept and artistic experimentation. At the Gmundner Keramik Manufaktur, specially developed, strictly limited editions and ceramic sculptures are created in collaboration with OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH and its exhibition programme.

The exhibition presents works by Peter Baldinger, Julia Beliaeva, Maria Kulikovska, Jakob Lena Knebl, Kim Simonsson, Rosi Steinbach, Elmar Trenkwalder and Erwin Wurm. On display are small-scale series and ceramic objects that explore the creative and material possibilities of the medium.

The Vienna Ceramics Edition builds on the tradition of the Wiener Werkstätte and the ‘Vereinigte Wiener und Gmundner Keramik’, which produced significant Art Nouveau ceramics in Gmunden from 1913 onwards. Artists such as Gudrun Baudisch-Wittke, Bertold Löffler, Dagobert Peche, Michael Powolny, Emilie Schleiss-Simandl and Franz von Zülow shaped this fusion of art, design and ceramic production, which has been continued in a contemporary context since 2022 as part of the Academy of Ceramics Gmunden

Made in Gmunden

AoCG Artists in Residence

The exhibition featured works by five international artists who worked in Gmunden and at the exchange partner, the New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan, during the summer of 2025.

The Academy of Ceramics Gmunden (AoCG), run by Gmundner Keramik and OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH, aims to foster exchange and mutual inspiration between one of Europe’s oldest centres of ceramics and contemporary artists. Artist-in-residence programmes, alongside accompanying exhibitions and discussion forums, promote the transfer of artistic and technical expertise.

AoCG 2025 artists:

• Chen-Hsiang Kao, TW/JP

• Rosmarie Lukasser, AT

• Maryna Talutto, UA

• Helena Sekot, DE/AT

• Charlotte Wiesmann, DE/AT

Bad People by Erwin Wurm

His series of sculptures, “Bad People”, was created at the Gmundner Keramik Manufaktur and is characterised by paradoxical depictions of human figures. Noses, ears and mouths, taken from the physiognomy of the human face, are recontextualised and become part of figures and inflated faces that embody the all-too-human. Erwin Wurm’s ceramic sculptures reveal their immediate creation—the re-creation born of destruction, deformation and distortion—emphasising the absurd, gestural expression, physicality and the creative possibilities of the medium of clay. Ceramics as a means of artistic expression aligns with Erwin Wurm’s performative approach and is once again highly topical in contemporary art.

Ceramic Visions

The Collection of the “Austrian Gallery of Ceramics”

In an era marked by change in the art world, Heide Warlamis founded the “Austrian Gallery of Ceramics” in 1981. Works by established artists such as Kurt Ohnsorg, Kiki Kogelnik and Colin Pearson were exhibited alongside pieces by emerging artists who shaped clay into extraordinary sculptures, visionary objects, decorative jewellery and bold designs for ceramic vessels. The exhibition presents an impressive selection of sculptural pieces from Heide Warlamis’s multifaceted collection. She assembled a unique selection of expressive ceramics that showcase the diversity of form, colour and technique inherent in the material.

Elmar Trenkwalder Sculptures

Elmar Trenkwalder’s monumental ceramic sculptures, with their fantastical, exuberant richness of detail, are reminiscent of opulent Baroque and Rococo architecture, but also of Asian structures. For more than three decades, the Austrian artist has impressed with a body of work characterised by fascinating thematic and visual ambiguity. It is above all his eccentric and radical approach that gives him a unique position on the international art scene. Coming from a background in painting, he was already using clay as an independent medium of artistic expression by the mid-1980s. Through the development of a construction method conceived more in architectural than ceramic terms, he increasingly created those opulent, space-filling sculptures that are now found in many major museums and collections.

Moss People

With his life-size “Moss People”, visitors are immersed in a fantastical world inspired by the home of Finnish artist Kim Simonsson. His ceramic figures, reminiscent of fairy tales, manga films and computer games, are covered with a moss-like surface that lends the figures a mythical yet melancholic air. Cute at first glance, the artist nevertheless creates a dissonance that lends the figures a special presence and captivates the viewer.

23x Salzkammergut on display

Clothing, work or kitchen tools, crockery, furniture, grilles or gates – almost all objects of material folk culture are adorned with ornamentation. Twenty-three museum pieces, each linked to one of the 23 municipalities of the 2024 Capital of Culture and featuring ornaments or patterns, form the starting point of the exhibition. These diverse patterns served as inspiration for the Gmunden-based female artists to design 23 unique plates. The resulting works illustrate the diversity of forms in the Salzkammergut and bear witness to its rich culture, craftsmanship and traditions. Patterns help to define one’s own identity and demonstrate cultural connection. At the same time, they serve to beautify. Whether lines, spirals, zigzag patterns, stars, hearts or tendrils – ornaments have been used, passed down and reinterpreted across centuries and regions. They are not rigid structures, but malleable art forms. The fruitful combination of ancient patterns and the fresh creative impulses of the Gmunden-based female painters is impressively evident in the resulting plates, whose form was designed by the ceramic artist Gudrun Wittke-Baudisch in the 1970s.

Special Feature: The Ernst Grabner Collection

House of Ceramics

Even before the Gmundner Keramik Manufaktur opened, green-flamed tableware was being produced on the shores of Lake Traunsee. The exhibition of Ernst Grabner’s private collection of old Gmunden faience was made possible thanks to the curatorial and design support of OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH. Colourfully painted ceramics depicting cheerful, lively and rustic scenes tell the story of faience production from the 17th century to the start of mass production in 1903 at the newly opened House of Ceramics.

Rathausplatz 2
4810 Gmunden