Ceramics Residency · 2026
The 2026 Residents
We're so excited to announce the winners of our 2026 artist residency open call!
Huge congratulations to:
- Craig Hartenberger
- Chryssa Kotoula
- Edie Morris
- Ivana Poliakova
- Katy Stubbs
- Leonardo Devito
- Sofia Melluso
- Stefan Holzmair
- Toni Graton
- Uriel Caspi
- Valeria Carrieri
We can't wait to welcome you in Salemi!
Our fully funded residency - in collaboration with Badr el Jundi Foundation - has been awarded to Katy Stubbs.
A heartfelt thank-you to everyone who applied and shared their work with us. We received an exceptional number of strong applications, making the selection process especially difficult: so much so that we decided to invite 11 artists instead of 9!
We're really grateful for your interest and support for Salemi Ceramics!
Craig Hartenberger
Visual artist working in ceramics · USA
Craig Hartenberger (b. 1990, USA) is a visual artist working primarily in the medium of ceramics. Through a meditative relationship with material, his sculptural works explore the language of pattern and geometric abstraction, drawing connections to his interest in observing the built world through architecture and objects. His practice embraces slow and deliberate work, giving attention to each moment. His works have been exhibited and collected across the US and internationally in a variety of venues.
View profile & journal →Ivana Poliakova
Ceramicist; founder of the project Sercetvir · Ukraine (Odesa)
Ivana Poliakova is a Ukrainian artist, ceramicist, and founder of the project Sercetvir. Her practice focuses on cultural and historical research into the continuity of ceramic tradition. She works with themes of memory and identity, addressing questions of heritage preservation and exploring the connections between past and present through the history of material.
View profile & journal →Katy Stubbs
Illustrator and ceramicist
Katy Stubbs is an illustrator by training who has worked with ceramics for almost ten years, using clay to tell stories with a playful look and a sharp sense of humour. Her pieces pair a naive aesthetic with barbed humour – accidents, tabloid headlines and collected ephemera reappear across her pots, plates and ceramic books.
View profile & journal →Leonardo Devito
Painter and ceramic artist · Italy
Leonardo Devito (Florence, 1997) lives and works in Turin. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence (BFA) and at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna. In 2020 he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, and in 2023 from the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts of Turin (MFA).
View profile & journal →Sofia Melluso
Ceramics, drawing, photography and writing · Italy (Palermo, Sicily)
Sofia is an artist from Palermo, Sicily. She works with ceramics, drawing, photography, and writing. For her, ceramics is a tool to think about time in a non-linear way — a practice that crosses different eras and brings past and present into dialogue. When she works with clay, she feels she enters a suspended dimension, where the gesture belongs to a history much broader than her individual time.
View profile & journal →Toni Graton
Ceramic sculptor (printmaking background) · Brazil
Toni Graton is a Brazilian artist who came to ceramics from printmaking in 2017 and set up his own studio at the start of the pandemic. He sculpts human and hybrid forms in unconventional configurations, often starting from the vessel form, always in search of unexpected results. Though he now works primarily in ceramics, he also does metal engraving and painting.
View profile & journal →Valeria Carrieri
Multidisciplinary artist and researcher · Italy (Rome)
Valeria Carrieri is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher from Rome, with a PhD in literature. She works across drawing, monoprint, painting, sculpture, embroidery and texts, merging autobiographical narrative with theoretical speculation and a deep interest in mythology and popular arts and crafts. Much of her work circles around female figures from ancient Mediterranean myth — particularly those forced to transform.
View profile & journal →