Welcome to Spotted, our weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the worlds of contemporary ceramic art and contemporary ceramics. This week, we have quite a treat for you! Dive into summer (and especially the 4th of July for our American friends) with a mega-cool All-American-Made ceramic growler that is just so American. Cue Star-Spangled Banner.

All-American-Made Cannonball Growler

Check out this handmade ceramic growler formed to look like a cannonball. According to the New York-based manufacturer, Terracotta Republic, weighing in at 3lbs. the cannonball can carry up to half a gallon (64 fl. oz.) of beer thanks to its spherical shape, which provides the least surface area to volume.

Made of stoneware clay, it is strong, airtight, non-absorptive and opaque — making for a perfect environment to temporarily store your beer (or any other beverage you deem fit).

They have been referred to as cannonballs, beer bombs, groggers, or just plain jugs. Call them what you will and enjoy in good health…

Cheers to that! Now, our question to you: Do we fill our cannonball with ale or lager?

Nelli Szabó

We’re feeling a bit cheeky this week, maybe it’s all the buzz surrounding our exciting Global Ceramic Auction. And in that fun spirit, Hungarian designer Nelli Szabó‘s latest collection, Trickster, hits the mark.

In cultural anthropology, the trickster is a knave character, a hybrid creature, who transgresses the norms. The concept can also mean boundary objects, inanimate systems, material taxa, which are created as hybrids between two species or concepts, and their essential status is to exist in this border state. The pieces of the collection are built around the symbolic figure of the border areas, the character of the trickster.

Tricksters have a kind of shape shifter attribution. The natural materials (such as leather and bristle solutions) conjures up associations of animals and creatures. These solutions give the animosity character of the objects.

The collection consists of six basic shapes, three porcelain and three glass containers in different colors. By removing the objects’ brushes (legs), they can bobble around their own axis without falling over.

Michael Boroniec

We’ve highlighted the young artist Michael Boroniec in the past showcasing his mind-bending spiral vessels, some of which we share below, but you’ll also find some of his other floral works. We think they’re fabulous.

One of Boroniec’s vessels is even up for bid in our auction.

Jason Jaques Gallery: George Hoentschel  + Eric Serritella + Nils de Barck

The Jason Jacques Gallery booth at Frieze 2017 New York (May 4 – May 7, 2017) featured George Hoentschel’s (1855 – 1915) floral and organic stoneware forms. Fittingly, alongside Hoentschel’s works were those by his contemporary Nils de Barck and recent works by Eric Serritella.

Serritella’s biomorphic trompe l’oeil vessels, eerie and dreamlike, remind us of a minimalist set design for a production of Les Sylphides. The entire exhibit was encased by a giant spider-like structure.

Hoentschel worked with ceramists to produce stoneware pieces that incorporate a wide range of visual references, from Japanese pottery and Gothic architecture, to animals, fruits, and vegetables.

They remain some of the most preeminent and creative figures of the Art Pottery Renaissance that took place in Europe at the end of the 19th century.

Robert Arneson + William T. Wiley

George Adams Gallery is exhibiting works by godfather of funk art Robert Arneson (1930 – 1992) and William T. Wiley (New York, May 24 – July 7, 2017)—both central figures in the emergence of the evolving art scene that flourished in the Bay Area during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.

The exhibition will feature surrealist and proto-Funk work, including ceramics, collages, and unique bronzes by Arneson; paintings, works on paper and, most notably, a ceramic sculpture and large abstract canvas by Wiley.

Do you love or loathe these art works from the worlds of contemporary ceramic art and contemporary ceramics? Let us know in the comments.