The Hungarian Connection
A selection of Hungarian ceramic artists

László Fekete (b. 1949). Hungarian studio potter. Fekete studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Budapest under Imre Schrammel, graduating in 1974. He makes intricate stoneware and porcelain sculpture with social commentary at its heart, sometimes decorating the works with readymade industrial decals. He also creates works by assembling seconds from the Herend Porcelain Manufactory.

György Fusz (b. 1955). Hungarian ceramist. Fusz studied at the Academy of Applied Art in Budapest. He makes hand-built, hybrid figurative-abstract sculpture, based on the language of the human body. Fusz was visiting guest artist at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia in 1999 and has been a resident artist at the International Ceramics Studio in Hungary. He is considered one of Hungary's foremost ceramic sculptors.

Maria Geszler-Garzuly - see Artist of the Week.

Sándor Kecskeméti (b. 1947). Kecskeméti was apprenticed to master potter Tamôs Lôszlô from 1965-67. He then studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Budapest under Professor Arpád Csekovszky. Since 1985 he has been a teacher on the MA course at the International Ceramics Studio and in 1987 he became Professor of Ceramics at the Academy of Applied Arts. He makes large-scale, monumental sculpture, sometimes over four meters in height. Between 1990-93 Kecskeméti also worked on architectural commissions in Germany in collaboration with the architect Egon Kunz. He cites natural rock formations, monuments such as Stonehenge and the sculptor Henry Moore as his early influences.

Márta Nagy (b. 1954). Nagy graduated from the Hungarian Academy of Craft and Design in 1979, then worked as a designer in different porcelain factories. In 1995-98 she took part in the Doctor of Liberal Arts program under Imre Schrammel at the Janus Pannonius University. In 2000 she became a Doctor of Liberal Arts at the Pécs University, where she is now professor. Nagy taught at the Academy of Craft and Design from 1989-96 as lecturer and from 1992 in the Master-School. She has contributed designs to the Herend Porcelain Manufactory since 1996. Nagy has received numerous fellowships, including several from the International Ceramics Studio and the Ceramics Colony, Siklós, as well as the Lajos Kozma fellowship in 1988, the fellowship of the Hungarian Academy in Rome in 1992 and 1993 and a fellowship from the Clay Studio Philadelphia in 1999. Her numerous awards include a Bavarian State Award in 1988, a 1st Prize at the Hungarian Ceramics Biennial, Pécs, in 1992 and a 2nd Prize in 2004, and a Diploma of Honor at the 1st World Ceramic Biennial, Ichon, Korea, in 2001.

Imre Schrammel (b. 1933). Hungarian ceramist and designer. Schrammel studied under Miklós Borsos at the Porcelain Department at the Hungarian College of Applied Arts. He worked as artistic adviser at the Hollóháza Porcelain Factory from 1959-62 and has taught at several institutions, including the Hungarian College of Applied Arts and the Janus Pannonius University in Pécs, where he helped to establish the Fine Arts Master Training Institute and was appointed Professor in 1991. He also served as rector of the Hungarian College of Applied Arts from 1993-99 and has worked as artistic adviser at the Herend Porcelain Manufactory since 1996. Schrammel has become well known for his relief murals and figurative sculpture, and since the 1980s, figurative, mythical nudes. He has been a member of the Hungarian Kecskemét Group since1980, was a founding member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts in 1993.

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