Yen Yen Lo is a contemporary Asian ceramics artist working in Australia. She specializes in pinched forms, and prefers to emphasize the aesthetic quality of her work rather than the functionality. She is well known for her ceramic bells which she carefully pinches the basic forms of animals or people, before sculpting and attaching unique details to the face as well as legs for the clapper. To finish her pieces, she paints the bells with great detail, capturing the unique personality and expression of her subjects.

(Source: http://yenyenlo.wixsite.com/pinch)

Wang Ruilin is a contemporary Chinese ceramics artist working in Beijing. He creates emotionally charged sculptures of animals, ranging from rhinos to horses, to express his thoughts and feelings about the world. His pieces are intended to be symbol and metaphorical, with the horse often functioning as a self-portrait of the artist. He imbues his animals sculptures with emotion and human-like expressions. (Source: https://blog.thedpages.com/wang-ruilins-soulful-animal-sculptures/)

Zemer Peled is a contemporary Israeli ceramics artist working in the United States. She is drawn to the tactile quality of the medium and often allows the creative process to dictate the resulting abstract forms of her sculpture rather than starting with a preconceived idea. Much of her work incorporates the aspect of “breaking” as she typically begins by making individual non-objective porcelain pieces, breaks them into shards once fired, and then pushes these shards into a moist clay base before firing the whole sculpture. Her work draws inspiration from nature, such as coral reefs and bird feathers, as well as from the reactions of her body and mind to the work itself. (Source: http://zemerpeled.com/about)

Magdalene Odundo is a contemporary ceramic artist from Kenya. Her minimalist hand-built coil vessels are function & reminiscent of the human form. Great care is given to each piece & each is finished with a burnishing technique, before & after firing, using certain minerals to achieve tonal shifts. Odundo is influenced by her African cultural traditions as well as by ancient Roman & Greek vessels.

(Source: https://www.contemporaryand.com/magazines/magdalena-odundo-dancing-with-vessels/)

Roberto Lugo, calling himself a “Ghetto Potter,” is a Puerto Rican contemporary ceramic artist and social activist whose work comments on the larger social issues of poverty, racial injustice, and inequality. His thrown vessels juxtapose traditional European vessel forms with vivid imagery from modern urban culture, such as graffiti and portraits of those who have been overlooked or discriminated against, with the choice of using the medium of porcelain, historically reserved for the wealthy class, further commenting on society’s inequalities.

(Source: robertolugostudio.com)

Betty Woodman was a contemporary ceramic artist who started as a production artist, yet is most well known for her colorful and abstract ceramic pieces. As she intended for her later pieces to prioritize aesthetics over function, she often manipulated vessels, platters, and other functional pieces to the point at which their original form was almost not apparent.

(Source: https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/betty-woodman-obituary)

Jim McDowell is a contemporary African American potter who creates face jugs, inspired by his African American heritage and ancestors who created face during slavery. According to legend, face jugs were intended to look “ugly” or scary so as to ward off evil spirits and were sometimes used to mark the graves of African American slaves.

(Source: http://blackpotter.com)

Stella Baggott is a contemporary English ceramics artist known for her playful, yet classy planters, votives, and bells. Each of these pieces has a minimalist feel with clean, hand-built forms upon which she adds simplistic faces with long noses in relief. She also sometimes adds a stamped pattern for added decoration around the circumference of the piece.

(Source: https://www.atelierstellaceramics.com/)

Jae Yong Kim is a Korean contemporary ceramics artist that specializes in creating ceramic donuts. Interestingly, the meaning behind his donut sculptures has changed over the years. For instance, his first donuts, which appeared with snail sculptures functioning as a metaphor of the artist’s own search for a place that felt like home after his immigration from South Korea to the U.S., were intended to symbolize “greed and gluttony” and to comment on the American cultural focus on money. As Kim made more donuts, however, his donuts took on new and more complex meanings, such as focusing on the joy that donuts bring to him and other people, especially during challenging times. In addition, as noted by Weir, since many of his donuts are inspired by other artists, such as Jackson Pollock, Walt Disney, and Yayoi Kusami, his pieces can encourage viewers to ask such questions as if they are visually attracted to the donuts, the artwork, or the art world, in general. Also, considering the American problem with obesity, since donuts are a high calorie food, Kim’s artwork also brings viewers to question just how much is too much when it comes to appreciating donuts and even art.

(Source: https://hamptonsarthub.com/2014/12/18/tonsrthub.com/2014/12/18/2014/12/18/donut-rush-by-jae-yong-kim/)