During Cèramica 2025, the ceramics festival of Montelupo Fiorentino, the OPEN STUDIO International Contemporary Ceramics Prize placed artistic research at its very core. Contemporary ceramics guided the entire project, uniting the award and the exhibition within a single, clear, and shared vision. Right from the opening, this artistic language asserted itself with great strength, utilizing matter and form to narrate the present in a direct and experimental manner.
The exhibition brought together the finalists’ works in a cohesive itinerary, fostering dialogue between artists, curators, and the public. At the same time, OPEN STUDIO strengthened its role as a leading platform for contemporary ceramics, both in Italy and abroad.
The Main Section Prize, worth 1,500 euros, was awarded to Otilia Efros for her work Porcelain shape. The jury recognized her technical perfection in the use of porcelain, while also appreciating the balance achieved between fragility and solidity. The artwork conveys a sense of lightness, simultaneously suggesting different states of matter, from solid to liquid and gaseous.
Following this, the Residency Prize – Main Section, also valued at 1,500 euros, was awarded to Caterina Sbrana and Gabriele Mallegni for their project Lapidaria. The project stands out for its hybridization of natural elements and domestic details, documenting a profound research that is both conceptual and aesthetic. For this reason, the jury deemed it ideally suited to be developed within the production context of Montelupo Fiorentino during their upcoming residency at the Centro Ceramico Sperimentale (Experimental Ceramics Center)