A Global Ceramics Party Begins This Week in Toronto

The Gardiner Museum presents the return of the International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF), its biennial celebration of innovation and contemporary directions in ceramics, running May 28 to August 16, 2026.

This year, ICAF is expanded significantly from a 10-day event to a 12-week exhibition and public program, positioning the fair at the forefront of how ceramics is evolving across art, design, and emerging technologies.

At the heart of this year’s edition is the theme “the city and the commons,” presenting ceramics as both material and method for examining how we live together in rapidly changing cities. From architecture to infrastructure, ceramics shelter, connect, and ground us, offering new ways to think about belonging, resilience, and shared space.

“ICAF 2026 looks at ceramics not only as one of the oldest and most deeply human artistic traditions, but as a medium shaping the future,” says Dr. Sequoia Miller, Chief Curator & Deputy Director at the Gardiner Museum. “By bringing together traditional approaches with contemporary forms and technologies, the exhibition explores how we build a sense of belonging and connection while sharing and sustaining urban life today.”

FEATURED ARTISTS AND GALLERIES

ICAF 2026 features a dynamic roster of Canadian and international artists whose practices reflect the breadth and evolution of contemporary ceramics today.

Canadian Artists

Eve Tagny (Cooper Cole) — A multidisciplinary artist working in lens-based media, installation, performance, and ceramics to explore how we create spaces of shelter and care in urban environments
Magalie Guérin (Galerie Nicolas Robert) — A Texas-based, Montreal-born artist whose topographical paintings and ceramic sculptures call to mind nature, bodies, and buildings
Mel Arsenault (Galerie Nicolas Robert) — Arsenault’s vessels explore notions of wonder and well-being linked to access to nature in urban environments
Hadi Jamali — Originally from Tehran, Jamali works at the intersection of mixed-material installation, interactivity, and time-based media to engage with contemporary forms of (dis)location: geographic, cognitive, temporal, and moral
Suzanne Morrissette and Jaimie Isaac (ROSEMARY Gallery) — ROSEMARY Gallery leads community-driven projects rooted in Indigenous knowledge, land-based practices, and collective making
Christine Howard Sandoval (parrasch heijnen) — A multidisciplinary artist living in Vancouver whose work questions the boundaries of representation, access, and habitation

International Artists

Ronald Rael — A design activist and pioneer in 3D-printed earthen architecture, merging digital fabrication with ancestral building practices
Sharif Farrag (Jeffrey Deitch) — Creates intricate ceramic worlds that blend his Arab heritage and Southern California subcultures, combining the technical precision of classical pottery with the improvisational energy of skate culture and the density of urban spaces
Anders Herwald Ruhwald (Morán Morán) — Danish-American sculptor whose large-scale ceramic plant-works function as environments for growth, care, and ecological thinking
Jolie Ngo (R & Company) — Using a 3D printer, Ngo blends new-age machinery with traditional craft, creating layered sculptures that reference her Vietnamese heritage
Noor Ali Chagani and Clio Lloyd-Jacob — The UK-based artists collaborate on an installation of miniature clay buildings set against a clay drawing that raises questions about public space and private memory

TECHNOLOGY, LAND, AND THE POLITICS OF THE COMMONS

Across ICAF 2026, the artists engage directly with the political realities that shape how land is defined, divided, and experienced, employing ancestral practices and new technologies.

Ronald Rael’s work considers borders not only as physical barriers, but as sites of exchange and possibility. Known for projects that protest the wall between the U.S. and Mexico, including Teeter-Totter Wall (2019), his practice reimagines how architecture and material can challenge systems of division and rethink access to shared spaces.

A central highlight of the exhibition is Rael’s pioneering use of 3D printing, which merges ancestral adobe building techniques with cutting-edge digital fabrication. A custom ceramic printer will operate live in the gallery, producing modular clay forms that evolve into a large-scale installation over the course of the exhibition, bringing his concept of “AI³” (Artificial, Ancestral, and Additive Intelligence) to life.

Iranian Canadian artist Hadi Jamali draws on the visual language of Middle Eastern cities to explore political instability and its impact on daily life. His large-scale installation, constructed as a shifting ceramic terrain, incorporates sensors triggered by the visitor’s presence. As the structure tilts, the landscape destabilizes and a dark liquid spreads across its surface, reflecting the fragility of cities shaped by conflict, displacement, and uncertainty.

Christine Howard Sandoval, an enrolled member of the Chalon Nation in Bakersfield, California, examines land through an Indigenous lens, reflecting on how colonial systems have reshaped relationships to territory. Drawing on her community’s connection to California, her video work and sculptural clay mounds revisit sites marked by missionization to consider how land, memory, and identity are continuously redefined across borders.

These and other works expand the exhibition’s theme of “the city and the commons,” asking who has access to space, how boundaries are constructed, and what it means to belong within increasingly contested landscapes.

Christine Howard Sandoval (parrasch heijnen) — A multidisciplinary artist living in Vancouver whose work questions the boundaries of representation, access, and habitation.

PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS

Extending beyond the gallery, ICAF 2026 unfolds through a dynamic program of talks, workshops, and participatory experiences designed to engage diverse audiences:

ROSEMARY Skool Brick Making Workshop (May 29): Community members are invited to participate in brickmaking while contributing to ROSEMARY’s ongoing project of exploring and enriching our connection to land.
ICAF Symposium (May 29–30): A two-day event. Keynote speaker Ronald Rael will present his concept of “AI³” (Artificial, Ancestral, and Additive Intelligence), exploring how emerging technologies and traditional practices can work together to reimagine architecture and the built environment. Panels to follow.
Masterclass with Jun Matsumura (June 6–7): An intensive, hands-on workshop with a visiting Japanese ceramic artist, exploring his distinctive approach to wheel throwing and carving.
Toronto Land Marks with Faizaan Khan (June 27): A participatory workshop inviting visitors to rethink how we value the landmarks of our daily lives.
In Conversation (July 16): A dialogue on contemporary ceramics featuring curator Suzanne Carte and artist Sameer Farooq.
Exhibition Tour (August 14): A guided tour of the International Ceramic Art Fair with Chief Curator & Deputy Director Dr. Sequoia Miller.

The fair opens with the Preview Gala on May 27, an exclusive opportunity to purchase works on view, with proceeds supporting the Museum’s Community Access Fund. Following the Gala, ICAF will transition into an exhibition presentation.

ICAF continues into the summer with SMASH: Afterglow (June 10), a high-energy, next-generation art party spanning all three floors of the Museum, featuring installations, performances, music, and interdisciplinary creative experiences.

The fair invites audiences to engage with urgent questions shaping contemporary life: How do we nurture communal relationships amidst dramatic change? How can material intelligence inform how we navigate cosmopolitan living? And how might emerging ceramic technologies reshape our sense of home, security, and belonging?

For more information, visit: gardinermuseum.on.ca | icaf.gardinermuseum.com

article provided by Matthew Hanick

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