Format at Ceramic Brussels 2026
21 - 25 January 2026
Our presentation at Ceramic Brussels 2026 consists of three ceramic artists representing the large variety in both the Norwegian and Nordic ceramic field. The carefully selected artists reflect the different tendencies within the unique and celebrated Nordic craft scene. Their work varies in techniques, ceramic materials and artistic approach, and they distinguish themselves with exceptional quality pieces. These are established artists with high quality unique objects with a striking artistic expression.
Format Oslo’s presentation at Ceramic Brussels 2026 consists of ceramic artists Heidi Bjørgan, Nils Martin and Irene Nordli.
Heidi Bjørgan
Heidi Bjørgan is internationally recognized for her experimental and expressive ceramic forms, pushing the boundaries of form and material, as well as for her theatrical, spatial installations inspired by directors like Peter Greenaway, David Lynch, and Robert Wilson. Considered one of the foremost craft artists of her generation in Norway, Bjørgan’s work often engages in dialogue with the history of ceramics, exploring and deconstructing its archetypal vocabulary and challenging preconceptions of beauty and ugliness, right and wrong.
Heidi Bjørgan (b. 1970, Trondheim) holds her degree from Konstfack in Stockholm and Bergen Academy of Art and Design. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions and fairs, both nationally and internationally, including the National Museum in Oslo, Taste Contemporary, Genève, Simone DeSousa Gallery, Detroit and Wu Changshuo Museum, Shanghai. Bjørgan’s works are part of numerous museum and private collections within and beyond Norway, including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, National Museum of Decorative Arts in Trondheim, Kode Bergen Art Museum, and Kunstsilo.
Nils Martin
Nils Erichsen Martin (b. 1969) is a ceramicist producing graphic, figurative sculptures and bas-reliefs infused with the playful gestures and signs of everyday identity. His aesthetic lifts from consumer culture, cubism, drawn animation, and graphic advertisement. Martin holds a masters degree in ceramics from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts – Department of Ceramics. He has exhibited widely in Norway and internationally, including at CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art, Kunsthall Grenland, Kunstbanken Art Museum, Sørlandet Art Museum, the Jingdezhen Ceramic University Art Museum, the Suzhou Jinji Lake Art Museum, and the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. His work is included in several collections, including the National Museum in Oslo and Nordenfjeldske – National Museum of Decorative Arts in Trondheim.
Irene Nordli
Irene Nordli's organic vessels have strong references to the body - as vessels and pots often do. The vessels are assembled and built from fragments with different textures into three-dimensional collages. The fragments are direct imprints of objects and figures from her surroundings. The power and movement she puts into the works remain present even after the firing process, after the living soft clay has become hard ceramic. The glazes melt together in uncontrolled ways into the clay and become one. For nearly 30 years, clay has been Irene Nordli's most important material. She follows and renews ceramic history. Her new works have gradually become more absorbed in their own materiality. She works with vessels and figurines, the core elements of ceramics.
Irene Nordli (b. 1967, Oslo) lives and works in Oslo and Heestrand in Sweden. She is educated at the National Collage of Art and Design, in Bergen (1995) and was a professor at the Oslo Academy of the Arts, Department of Arts and Crafts until 2019. She has exhibited widely both in Norway and internationally. Her works have been acquired by Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum Trondheim, Nasjonalmuseet Oslo and KODE Bergen, Eskilstuna Art Museum and Hamburg Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Germany, among others.
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