Exhibitions
Ceramic craftsmanship is flourishing, both in ceramic art and ceramic design. That is what we celebrate at Keramikfestival. The diversity of nuances. For this reason, Keramikfestival’s exhibitions range from craft and everyday objects to the innovative vanguards of Danish and international art.
Gerda Østergaard
At Keramikfestival, ceramicist Gerda Østergaard has taken over the Community Gallery at Bruuns Hjørne, where she is exhibiting, among other things, her large jars and platters. Nature, the sea and the sky are the sources of inspiration behind her works, which reflect the landscape’s colours and moods.
Since the 1960s, Gerda Østergaard has worked with stoneware and porcelain and has been behind a wide range of ceramic installations in public spaces—both in Sorø, Slagelse and Holbæk—and last year here in Skælskør, where she created five ceramic mosaics on the bridge by Norvejen for Keramikfestival’s 10th anniversary.
Gerda’s work is inspired by Middle Eastern ornamentation and characterised by a distinctive calm and precision in both colour choices and composition. She lives and works in Skælskør, where she is part of Bruuns Hjørne. Gerda is also part of Kunstnerlavet KIT.
Visit Gerda in tent no. 10 by the canal.
Louise Lange
Louise Lange, born in 1978, is a third-generation ceramicist. Today, she has her own studio in the heart of Aalborg, where she works with her personal visual language, in which the sensuous, the functional, and the sculptural meet in a calm and poetic whole.
As a studio-trained ceramicist, Louise has, over many years, developed her own approach to clay with great respect for the craft and the material’s possibilities.
Her work ranges from paper-thin thrown porcelain to floor vases in stoneware. The decorations are often inspired by nature’s rhythms, movements, and colours.
In 2023, she received the Birger Prize from Dronninglund Art Centre, and in 2024 she was named Honorary Craftsperson of the Year at the SMV Award for her ability to unite tradition, quality, and creative renewal.
Since 2025, Louise has been Chair of Danske Pottemagere af 1894, where she works to strengthen and develop Danish ceramics with respect for both tradition and the present day.
Read more about Louise here
Visit Louise in tent no. 2 by the canal
Louise is giving an artist talk at the exhibition at 1 pm
Aarhus Academy of Fine Arts
Skælskør Art Association is once again pleased to welcome the ceramics programme from Aarhus Academy of Fine Arts.
This time, six ceramicists are presented in a joint exhibition exploring materiality, narrative, landscape, the body and technology through the many expressions of ceramics.
The exhibition ranges from Alberte Julie Miltersen Paulsen’s explorations of the relationship between inner and outer, to Anja Marie Palm’s poetic work with porcelain and the narrative layers of language. Janni Drejer works with ceramic landscapes inspired by geology and architecture, while Rikke Nørgaard Zachariasen examines everyday objects and their sensory and human significance. In Tina Lynge’s work, the pieces revolve around transience, rituals and historical grave goods. In Vanda Zwick’s porcelain sculptures, the biological and the technological meet in reflections on human beings, machines and free will.
Janni Drejer will give an artist talk in the exhibition at 3 pm
Jørgen Sten Nielsen
Ceramic artist Jørgen Sten Nielsen creates works in which simplicity, a sense of material, and the poetry of form come together as a harmonious whole.
His stoneware and porcelain balance the functional and the sculptural—always with a calmness that invites contemplation.
At KUNST & DESIGN Købmandsgaarden, you can experience a selection of his works that demonstrate the breadth of his expression: from clean, harmonious forms to more organic experiments. A tribute to craftsmanship, presence, and the slow gaze.
The works can be experienced throughout July and August.
Jørgen Sten Nielsen will be present at the exhibition from 2–4 pm.
Table of the year
Ane is a fourth-generation ceramicist, and for 23 years she has been creating ceramics with glossy surfaces and bold colours—especially functional pieces such as plates, cups and jugs.
Colours affect us all, both physically and psychologically, and help shape the way we live our lives—consciously and unconsciously. It is clear that the colours that are significant to Ane Schollert are blue, green & pink in an endless number of beautiful shades. Ane uses stoneware clay, which is very white in colour, to achieve the clear colours in the glaze, and she works deliberately with the glaze’s crackle. If an item has been newly fired, you may even find that the crackle continues to develop further after you have taken it home with you.
See more of Ane Schollert’s work here.
Visit Ane in tent 8 by the canal
Marie Rosendahl Chemnitz
Marie Rosendahl Chemnitz is both a set designer and a ceramicist, and is interested in how stories can be told through spaces, materials and objects. Marie rediscovered a new language in clay, where the set designer’s interest in narratives continued in a freer, more tangible and slower process. The works contain stories about relationships, experiences, questions or emotions – like the budding links in the holding cells at the town hall today.
Marie Rosendahl Chemnitz will give an artist talk in the exhibition at 2 pm
See also Ninna Stryhns exhibition at the town hall:
Ninna is interested in the tactile, the surface, the visual, as well as colour and form in her work with textiles and ceramics. The combination of the softness of textiles and the hardness of fired clay is enhanced by the interplay of colours in the matte and glossy surfaces.
In the old cells
Meet three young international artists from Guldagergaard, who are showing their work down in the old prison cells at the Old Town Hall.
Oliver Lucas Harding – United Kingdom
Miguel Angel Bernal Torres – Colombia
Aleksander Kacper Glich – Poland
Lene Hansen & Nelly Gaskin
Ceramist Lene Hansen exhibits her iconic large jars, which she creates masterfully using a special throwing technique and glazing to produce her unique works.
Ceramist Nelly Gaskin exhibits jars, vases and sculptures, where her whimsical line characterises both the ceramics and the decorations. The expression is always light and playful, and rhinoceroses and hens often appear side by side in an eternal friendship.
In the house’s large shared gallery, Gerda Østergård exhibits her large jars and platters inspired by nature, the sea and the sky.
And in the cosy courtyard, to the gentle rhythms of the Day’s Bluegrass House Band, you can enjoy coffee, cake and sandwiches served on ceramics made by the house’s ceramists.
1:00–4:00 PM LIVE music with the Day’s Bluegrass House Band
Michael Borup (bass, vocals), Jens Falck (violin, guitar and vocals), Tommy Sloth (dobro, vocals)
Visit Nelly and Lene in tent 3 by the canal.
Ceramic mosaics
To mark Keramikfestival’s 10th anniversary in 2025, local ceramicist Gerda Østergaard has created a beautiful, sensory artwork as a gift to the town of Skælskør. The work consists of a total of five mosaic friezes with ceramic panels in many shapes, colours and techniques—each telling its own story. From the rich animal and plant life to symbols and figures that characterise the area around Skælskør. The friezes are a tribute to ceramic craftsmanship and at the same time show a great love for the town. Read more about the artwork here.
The project was a collaboration between the KIT artists’ collective and Guldagergaard – International Ceramic Research Center, with funding donated by Holmene Holding and Bettina & John Christensen.
One of the mosaics was donated by the public in 2025 – see the accounts for the collection here
Visit Claytopia
Special exhibition in the park at Guldagergaard: Vessels
Visit Guldagergaard’s beautiful, historic cultural park and its contemporary ceramic sculptures. In connection with Claytopia, Guldagergaard presents the exhibition Vessels – a group exhibition featuring:
Andrés Anza (Mexico), Anders Børgesen (Denmark), Thiébaut Chagué (France), Christian Glahn (Denmark), Aeyoung Kim (South Korea), Jihyun Kim (South Korea), Anne Marie Laureys (Belgium), Peter Thomas Petersen & Kirsten Holm Nielsen (Denmark), Yuta Segawa & Miyu Kurihara (Japan), Saeri Seo (South Korea/UK).
In addition, the participating artists will exhibit in Guldagergaard’s Project Network 2025 I & II, as well as graduating students from the Royal Danish Academy’s ceramics department on Bornholm.
In the lovely design shop, you can purchase ceramics from the workshop’s hidden treasures, as well as applied art, one-of-a-kind pieces, and curiosities.
Opening hours: 10:00 AM–6:00 PM
Free admission
Helene Fridan Pedersen
Traces of the past and emotions
The ceramics are shaped by the past—and by emotions that are not tucked away.
Helene is concerned with the traces we humans leave behind. Ancient cultures—Egyptians, Etruscans, Greeks—and fossils leave their mark on Helene’s forms and surfaces. She explores how stories and symbols still live on when shaped by hands. Inspiration comes not only from antiquity, but also from a living family history, as Helene grew up in a fishing family—and the sea, the salt, the nets, and the waiting settle as silent layers in the clay.
The works are like an open diary. Emotions and the past are modelled into every bowl, figure, and surface. They are honest, sensuous, and raw—and they always ask: Who was here before me? And what do I set in motion myself?
Helene Fridan Pedersen works under the artist name sofie-med-lårene.
Visit Helene in tent 34 by the harbour.
The Ceramic Makers
In the garden at The Ceramic Makers, there is calm and a sense of well-being. Enjoy it! And go in search of beautiful ceramics among the garden’s shrubs and trees…
You can also buy this year’s festival mug, and in the shop see the wide selection of practical stoneware for everyday enjoyment.
Also visit The Ceramic Makers in tent 34 at the festival site by the harbour.
Cecilie Dige from The Ceramic Makers is part of the artists’ collective Kunstnerlavet KIT
Journeymen on the road
In the workshop windows at Skovvej 8, near the old town hall, Chr. Glahn is showing this year a selection from his collection of European traditional potters’ dishes.
Decorations and forms show how potters’ journeymen “went on the road” to foreign countries and, in workshops there, exchanged both aesthetic inspiration and technical knowledge. These travelling journeymen—often called Navere, an abbreviation of Scandinavians—were bound by a strict code of ethics, which ensured that they were welcome wherever they went. They committed to travelling for at least three years and one day before they were allowed to return home.
The Naver movement encompasses many different trades and has experienced a renaissance in recent years, so it is not impossible today to come across groups of Navere in their very distinctive attire.
Christian is part of the artists’ collective Kunstnerlavet KIT
Ceramics in the garden’s narrative
Karen Gurli Larsen’s work springs from narrative. As a visual artist, the sensuous and the poetic are her language, and ceramics have become a natural part of this expression. The garden is both inspiration and co-creator. Here, life is lived close to the changing seasons—sprouting, blooming, decay, and death. The transient and the eternal cycle.
Around the garden and in the gazebo, you will encounter small ceramic sculptures—traces of stories, moments of presence, and reflections on life. Perhaps you will catch a glimpse of something familiar? Perhaps the garden and the works will awaken a new story?
Karen will be present at the exhibition and is happy to tell visitors about the works. Her studio, Atelier Baghuset, is also open all day, showing both ceramics and prints. It is also possible to buy a cold drink for a break in the beautiful garden.
Karen is part of Kunstnerlavet KIT
Gerda Østergaard
At Keramikfestival, ceramicist Gerda Østergaard has taken over the Community Gallery at Bruuns Hjørne, where she is exhibiting, among other things, her large jars and platters. Nature, the sea and the sky are the sources of inspiration behind her works, which reflect the landscape’s colours and moods.
Since the 1960s, Gerda Østergaard has worked with stoneware and porcelain and has been behind a wide range of ceramic installations in public spaces—both in Sorø, Slagelse and Holbæk—and last year here in Skælskør, where she created five ceramic mosaics on the bridge by Norvejen for Keramikfestival’s 10th anniversary.
Gerda’s work is inspired by Middle Eastern ornamentation and characterised by a distinctive calm and precision in both colour choices and composition. She lives and works in Skælskør, where she is part of Bruuns Hjørne. Gerda is also part of Kunstnerlavet KIT.
Visit Gerda in tent no. 10 by the canal.
Louise Lange
Louise Lange, born in 1978, is a third-generation ceramicist. Today, she has her own studio in the heart of Aalborg, where she works with her personal visual language, in which the sensuous, the functional, and the sculptural meet in a calm and poetic whole.
As a studio-trained ceramicist, Louise has, over many years, developed her own approach to clay with great respect for the craft and the material’s possibilities.
Her work ranges from paper-thin thrown porcelain to floor vases in stoneware. The decorations are often inspired by nature’s rhythms, movements, and colours.
In 2023, she received the Birger Prize from Dronninglund Art Centre, and in 2024 she was named Honorary Craftsperson of the Year at the SMV Award for her ability to unite tradition, quality, and creative renewal.
Since 2025, Louise has been Chair of Danske Pottemagere af 1894, where she works to strengthen and develop Danish ceramics with respect for both tradition and the present day.
Read more about Louise here
Visit Louise in tent no. 2 by the canal
Louise is giving an artist talk at the exhibition at 1 pm
Aarhus Academy of Fine Arts
Skælskør Art Association is once again pleased to welcome the ceramics programme from Aarhus Academy of Fine Arts.
This time, six ceramicists are presented in a joint exhibition exploring materiality, narrative, landscape, the body and technology through the many expressions of ceramics.
The exhibition ranges from Alberte Julie Miltersen Paulsen’s explorations of the relationship between inner and outer, to Anja Marie Palm’s poetic work with porcelain and the narrative layers of language. Janni Drejer works with ceramic landscapes inspired by geology and architecture, while Rikke Nørgaard Zachariasen examines everyday objects and their sensory and human significance. In Tina Lynge’s work, the pieces revolve around transience, rituals and historical grave goods. In Vanda Zwick’s porcelain sculptures, the biological and the technological meet in reflections on human beings, machines and free will.
Janni Drejer will give an artist talk in the exhibition at 3 pm
Jørgen Sten Nielsen
Ceramic artist Jørgen Sten Nielsen creates works in which simplicity, a sense of material, and the poetry of form come together as a harmonious whole.
His stoneware and porcelain balance the functional and the sculptural—always with a calmness that invites contemplation.
At KUNST & DESIGN Købmandsgaarden, you can experience a selection of his works that demonstrate the breadth of his expression: from clean, harmonious forms to more organic experiments. A tribute to craftsmanship, presence, and the slow gaze.
The works can be experienced throughout July and August.
Jørgen Sten Nielsen will be present at the exhibition from 2–4 pm.
Table of the year
Ane is a fourth-generation ceramicist, and for 23 years she has been creating ceramics with glossy surfaces and bold colours—especially functional pieces such as plates, cups and jugs.
Colours affect us all, both physically and psychologically, and help shape the way we live our lives—consciously and unconsciously. It is clear that the colours that are significant to Ane Schollert are blue, green & pink in an endless number of beautiful shades. Ane uses stoneware clay, which is very white in colour, to achieve the clear colours in the glaze, and she works deliberately with the glaze’s crackle. If an item has been newly fired, you may even find that the crackle continues to develop further after you have taken it home with you.
See more of Ane Schollert’s work here.
Visit Ane in tent 8 by the canal
Marie Rosendahl Chemnitz
Marie Rosendahl Chemnitz is both a set designer and a ceramicist, and is interested in how stories can be told through spaces, materials and objects. Marie rediscovered a new language in clay, where the set designer’s interest in narratives continued in a freer, more tangible and slower process. The works contain stories about relationships, experiences, questions or emotions – like the budding links in the holding cells at the town hall today.
Marie Rosendahl Chemnitz will give an artist talk in the exhibition at 2 pm
See also Ninna Stryhns exhibition at the town hall:
Ninna is interested in the tactile, the surface, the visual, as well as colour and form in her work with textiles and ceramics. The combination of the softness of textiles and the hardness of fired clay is enhanced by the interplay of colours in the matte and glossy surfaces.
In the old cells
Meet three young international artists from Guldagergaard, who are showing their work down in the old prison cells at the Old Town Hall.
Oliver Lucas Harding – United Kingdom
Miguel Angel Bernal Torres – Colombia
Aleksander Kacper Glich – Poland
Lene Hansen & Nelly Gaskin
Ceramist Lene Hansen exhibits her iconic large jars, which she creates masterfully using a special throwing technique and glazing to produce her unique works.
Ceramist Nelly Gaskin exhibits jars, vases and sculptures, where her whimsical line characterises both the ceramics and the decorations. The expression is always light and playful, and rhinoceroses and hens often appear side by side in an eternal friendship.
In the house’s large shared gallery, Gerda Østergård exhibits her large jars and platters inspired by nature, the sea and the sky.
And in the cosy courtyard, to the gentle rhythms of the Day’s Bluegrass House Band, you can enjoy coffee, cake and sandwiches served on ceramics made by the house’s ceramists.
1:00–4:00 PM LIVE music with the Day’s Bluegrass House Band
Michael Borup (bass, vocals), Jens Falck (violin, guitar and vocals), Tommy Sloth (dobro, vocals)
Visit Nelly and Lene in tent 3 by the canal.
Ceramic mosaics
To mark Keramikfestival’s 10th anniversary in 2025, local ceramicist Gerda Østergaard has created a beautiful, sensory artwork as a gift to the town of Skælskør. The work consists of a total of five mosaic friezes with ceramic panels in many shapes, colours and techniques—each telling its own story. From the rich animal and plant life to symbols and figures that characterise the area around Skælskør. The friezes are a tribute to ceramic craftsmanship and at the same time show a great love for the town. Read more about the artwork here.
The project was a collaboration between the KIT artists’ collective and Guldagergaard – International Ceramic Research Center, with funding donated by Holmene Holding and Bettina & John Christensen.
One of the mosaics was donated by the public in 2025 – see the accounts for the collection here
Visit Claytopia
Special exhibition in the park at Guldagergaard: Vessels
Visit Guldagergaard’s beautiful, historic cultural park and its contemporary ceramic sculptures. In connection with Claytopia, Guldagergaard presents the exhibition Vessels – a group exhibition featuring:
Andrés Anza (Mexico), Anders Børgesen (Denmark), Thiébaut Chagué (France), Christian Glahn (Denmark), Aeyoung Kim (South Korea), Jihyun Kim (South Korea), Anne Marie Laureys (Belgium), Peter Thomas Petersen & Kirsten Holm Nielsen (Denmark), Yuta Segawa & Miyu Kurihara (Japan), Saeri Seo (South Korea/UK).
In addition, the participating artists will exhibit in Guldagergaard’s Project Network 2025 I & II, as well as graduating students from the Royal Danish Academy’s ceramics department on Bornholm.
In the lovely design shop, you can purchase ceramics from the workshop’s hidden treasures, as well as applied art, one-of-a-kind pieces, and curiosities.
Opening hours: 10:00 AM–6:00 PM
Free admission
Helene Fridan Pedersen
Traces of the past and emotions
The ceramics are shaped by the past—and by emotions that are not tucked away.
Helene is concerned with the traces we humans leave behind. Ancient cultures—Egyptians, Etruscans, Greeks—and fossils leave their mark on Helene’s forms and surfaces. She explores how stories and symbols still live on when shaped by hands. Inspiration comes not only from antiquity, but also from a living family history, as Helene grew up in a fishing family—and the sea, the salt, the nets, and the waiting settle as silent layers in the clay.
The works are like an open diary. Emotions and the past are modelled into every bowl, figure, and surface. They are honest, sensuous, and raw—and they always ask: Who was here before me? And what do I set in motion myself?
Helene Fridan Pedersen works under the artist name sofie-med-lårene.
Visit Helene in tent 34 by the harbour.
The Ceramic Makers
In the garden at The Ceramic Makers, there is calm and a sense of well-being. Enjoy it! And go in search of beautiful ceramics among the garden’s shrubs and trees…
You can also buy this year’s festival mug, and in the shop see the wide selection of practical stoneware for everyday enjoyment.
Also visit The Ceramic Makers in tent 34 at the festival site by the harbour.
Cecilie Dige from The Ceramic Makers is part of the artists’ collective Kunstnerlavet KIT
Journeymen on the road
In the workshop windows at Skovvej 8, near the old town hall, Chr. Glahn is showing this year a selection from his collection of European traditional potters’ dishes.
Decorations and forms show how potters’ journeymen “went on the road” to foreign countries and, in workshops there, exchanged both aesthetic inspiration and technical knowledge. These travelling journeymen—often called Navere, an abbreviation of Scandinavians—were bound by a strict code of ethics, which ensured that they were welcome wherever they went. They committed to travelling for at least three years and one day before they were allowed to return home.
The Naver movement encompasses many different trades and has experienced a renaissance in recent years, so it is not impossible today to come across groups of Navere in their very distinctive attire.
Christian is part of the artists’ collective Kunstnerlavet KIT
Ceramics in the garden’s narrative
Karen Gurli Larsen’s work springs from narrative. As a visual artist, the sensuous and the poetic are her language, and ceramics have become a natural part of this expression. The garden is both inspiration and co-creator. Here, life is lived close to the changing seasons—sprouting, blooming, decay, and death. The transient and the eternal cycle.
Around the garden and in the gazebo, you will encounter small ceramic sculptures—traces of stories, moments of presence, and reflections on life. Perhaps you will catch a glimpse of something familiar? Perhaps the garden and the works will awaken a new story?
Karen will be present at the exhibition and is happy to tell visitors about the works. Her studio, Atelier Baghuset, is also open all day, showing both ceramics and prints. It is also possible to buy a cold drink for a break in the beautiful garden.
Karen is part of Kunstnerlavet KIT