On the sands of Miami Beach, eleven galleries showcase clay that challenges conventions—asserting new possibilities for the medium.
By: Abbey Chase, Emily Carroll & Irene Sperber
December 11, 2025
Ocean Drive and 12th Street, Miami Beach, US
From December 3–7, 2025, the fourteenth edition of Untitled Art Fair welcomed visitors to its custom-built tent on the glorious sunlit sands of Miami Beach. 160 galleries from twenty-nine countries participated, each gallery focusing on one or two, often emerging, artists. Ceramics are experiencing elevated involvement in the fairs, along with a noticeable uptick in collector interest in handcrafted work within the art market as a whole. Digital arts have ratcheted up to third place with collectors. Conversely, almost as an antidote to the tech intensity, there is more connection with craftsmanship, concentrating on the zen-like quality of close personal connection between art, the earth, and humanity. Untitled Art has added new direction and growth to this fair over the years.
Lindsey Mendick’s glazed ceramics at the Carl Freedman Gallery feature designed images of the excesses of contemporary female experiences layered onto hand-built vase forms with intensely glazed clay reminiscent of metal patinas. Nearby, the focus shifts to the unapologetic rawness and vibrancy of former painter Roger Herman’s rough glazed vessels at Nino Mier Gallery, balanced by Mel Arsenault’s statement on feminine strength with her freely painted, floral, glazed stoneware vases at Galerie Nicolas Robert.
Nicole Cherubini arranged her distinctive clay benches in an installation presented by the September Gallery. Drawing from Mexican and Turkish ceramics, she deconstructs raw clay and blended glazes to reveal both the delicate and the rugged strengths of her art form. Just beyond, Anna Zorina Gallery showed Korean artist Soojin Choi, who mirrors that duality in complicated sculptures using clay “because of its ability to create surface, space, and physicality.” And further along, The Landing Gallery displayed L.A. artist Aili Schmeltz, whose textile paintings, exuding strength and confidence, set the scene for a connection to the women of the Mojave Desert, where she worked during the pandemic. The desert brought about a stunning use of large wood-fired stoneware, formed into molded modular units (ceramic totems) stacked like natural stones.
Moving from gallery to gallery in quick succession is an exercise in contemplating where we are going with ceramics in 2025. Natural forms are a key interest, with no fear of bold colors or raw emotion strongly displayed through glazes and the fearless use of materials. Melding other art forms within a piece is given free rein, as is bringing ancient techniques and iconic imagery with us.
Here are eleven galleries at Untitled Art, Miami Beach showing how far ceramics have come—and where they’re headed.
SEPTEMBER Installation at Untitled Art 2025 | Photo courtesy: Emily Carroll
SEPTEMBER Installation at Untitled Art 2025 | Photo courtesy: SEPTEMBER
SEPTEMBER Installation at Untitled Art 2025 | Photo courtesy: SEPTEMBER
Nicole Cherubini | Bench from The Secrets of the Flowers of Refinement, or the Vulgarity of Loneliness | 2025 | terracotta, earthenware, glaze, soil, and plants | Photo courtesy: SEPTEMBER
Nicole Cherubini | Bench from The Secrets of the Flowers of Refinement, or the Vulgarity of Loneliness | 2025 | terracotta, earthenware, glaze, soil, and plants | Photo courtesy: SEPTEMBER
Nicole Cherubini | Bench from The Secrets of the Flowers of Refinement, or the Vulgarity of Loneliness | 2025 | terracotta, earthenware, glaze, soil, and plants | Photo courtesy: SEPTEMBER
Nicole Cherubini | Bench from The Secrets of the Flowers of Refinement, or the Vulgarity of Loneliness | 2025 | terracotta, earthenware, glaze, soil, and plants | Photo courtesy: SEPTEMBER
Bahnhof Installation at Untitled Art 2025 | Photo courtesy: Bahnhof
Kuril Chto | Vase 1 | 2025 | glazed ceramic | 21 x 8.5 in | Photo courtesy: Bahnhof
Detail shot of Vase 1 | Photo courtesy: Bahnhof
CONTRIBUTORS
Emily Carroll studied art and design at distinguished universities such as Rhode Island School of Design, School of Visual Arts and Parsons School of Design in New York where she earned her BFA degree in 1993. Since then, she has been utilizing her design skills for prominent publications, ad agencies and design firms working in New York and Miami.
Irene Sperber has been a freelance art reviewer in Miami, Florida for almost twenty years. Previously, Sperber had a career in photographic imagery and documentation. Currently, she is completing her travel memoir and participating in anthologies focusing on Florida’s unique quirks.
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