The World Wide Web with its text, graphics and sound capabilities offers the opportunity for individuals and galleries to 'exhibit' work to a broad audience. While online ceramics shows might be a bit controversial -you can't actually see the work, let alone feel its tactile qualities- an online ceramics exhibition still offers the viewer a legitimate way of interacting with ceramics artists' work. Without that medium, hundreds, if not thousands of 'visitors' would never be able to see the works in any form at all.
The show Symmetry deals with similarities between the crafts and other areas, eg. between ceramics and bread baking. Those readers who are ceramic artists themselves know that there are plenty of sinimarities between clay and the kitchen -the rolling pin is another one!
The 4th Annual Strictly Functional Pottery Exhibit shows the work of about 30 American ceramists, while the 11th Annual San Angelo National Ceramics Competition features the work of 19 participants ranging from the functional to the sculptural.
An extensive enterprise is the 1997 CerCoN Ceramics Award, with 30 international artists represented. The winner of that particular online competition Pilar Rojas makes minimalist sculptural objects. The site also features a guest book for you to leave your comments.
The pioneer of the online ceramics exhibition is the The Virtual Ceramics Exhibit with 49 mainly US artists represented. Of particular interest is the statement by juror William Hunt, who has some very interesting thoughts on representing ceramics online. Watch out for the now famous quote at the end!
Actual ceramic exhibitions (you might say 'wet wares') come and go, but online ceramic exhibtions have the potential to hang around forever. Hopefully we will be seeing more of them in the future!