Mariana Monteagudo's ceramic and mixed media dolls get better and better. These expressive sculptures are a mix of cultural influences that range from pre-Columbian aesthetics to Japanese manga, and occupy a special niche on the art scene. The Venezuelan artist uses a variety of materials to complete her ceramic figures: hair, fabrics, necklaces. The dolls have an air of innocent wisdom about them, often due to their all-knowing, unblinking eyes. Some appear worldly; others more naïve. How eerily exciting it would be to find oneself surrounded by Monteagudo's range of silent personalities.

Artist: Mariana Monteagudo
+ marianamonteagudo.net

Brooke Noble is a ceramicist whose imagery on functional pottery and wall works often emphasize the idea of home. Winged women seek independence while trying to honour their duties and are reflected by the birds that fluctuate between nest and cage. According to Noble, "[h]ome can describe the physical structure of house, a comfortable emotional bond, or a specific appreciated locale." Noble's use of soft pillow imagery instead of traditional plaques or plates for wallhangings serves to underline the notion or presence or home yet a gain. Where we are expecting something soft, she gives us hard and shiny.

Artist: Brooke Noble
+ ferringallery.com

Laura Liberte is a young artist in Latvia who paints decorative masks. The masks depict ladies who are a cross between high fashion and Pierrot (although a couple of stylish bandits have crept into the fray). Although the black-gloved arm is not part of the mask, it is the perfect accessory for the photos.

Artist: Laura Liberte
+ etsy.com

Vancouver artist Jeremy Hatch integrates modern touches into classic ceramics, perfect examples of Elegant Corruptions, the show in which they were exhibited. Accident is a decorative wall piece seems like a simple figurine at first glance, but the highlighted detail of the boy's puddle contradicts the refinement. The (Sevres) Urn takes on a fleshy aspect, as Hatch takes an eighteenth century form and reveals an unexpected interior. The Soft Candlesticks are hand-pinched, putting the emphasis on the maker's mark and enveloping it with gold lustre.

Artist: Jeremy Hatch
+ jeremyhatch.ca
+ ricochetstudio.blogspot.com

Katherine Morley's Freaksware pieces of tableware are modelled on the sideshow "freaks" of the circus of yesteryear, and actually modeled on real performers. Made of glazed slip cast porcelain, this collection took the stage as part of the Radiant Dark Elegant Corruptions exhibit curated by MADE in Toronto last week. The irregularities, perceived or not, of the Schlitze the Pinhead, Violet and Daisy Hilton, Johnny Eck the Half Boy and the Curved Lady are softened by the medium as the artist explores the notion of human oddities from a perspective that combines nostalgia and horror. The inspiration for these pieces may come from the past, but, sadly, a quick pass across the channels and we realize that television is the new circus. What is normal anyway?

+ madedesign.ca

Taliaferro Jones' Healing Wound Tea Service is among the most delicate pâte de verre and porcelain set of ceramics we have ever seen. Exhibited at MADE's Radiant Dark show, Healing Wound is a good example of the Elegant Corruptions theme. The material used imitates salt whose properties are at once fragile and corrosive. While it can "cure foods, clean wounds, cleanse the environment and contribute to our biological equilibrium," it can also cause harm when there is a lack of balance.

Artist: Taliaferro Jones
+ taliaferrojones.com
+ madedesign.ca

Coexistence is an elegant new installation that integrates ceramics and horticulture by Mineo Mizuno and opening at the Samuel Freeman on February 14. Mizuno, an artist with an expertise in glazes, starts with large pebble forms that are dotted with holes, then planted with moss. After a precise schedule of shade and mist, the moss develops into an organic glaze. The outer covering remains responsive to the effects of temperature and moisture.

Artist: Mineo Mizuno
+ samuelfreeman.com

Taika means magic in Finnish and artist Klaus Haapaniemi sure knows how to create it with his detailed illustrations that conjure up fairy tale forests with sometimes just a touch of oddly urban action. Here the illustrations grace a collection of porcelain tableware for Iittala, along with exhibition editions. The style is reminiscent of a traditional folkloric pattern in an enduring tapestry of form and colour (but even the black and white pieces are just as whimsical). Our favourites have to be the pieces that mix the rich cornflower blue with various shades of sky, in sharp contrast to the deep red and orange.

Artist: Klaus Haapaniemi
+ klaush.com
+ iittala.com

Welsh ceramicist Lowri Davies does double duty as illustrator and potter to create contemporary ceramics and tableware that is a mix of new and old. Strongly influenced by traditional imagery and iconic references, Davies uses her slip-cast earthenware pieces as a base for her illustrations that she applies by using industrial transfers. The results are delicate and charming, but with a decidedly contemporary flavour. Architectural scenes are as welcome as the more expected flora and fauna.

Artist: Lowri Davies
+ lowridavies.com

Maya Ben David is an industrial designer from Israel whose recent works in ceramic include elements of textiles. Ben David was inspired by travels to India, and the results are quietly elegant vessels that practically beg to be touched.

+ flickr.com

Ohio design collective Non Fiction just finished a three-week residency at the Dresdner Porzellan factory in Dresden, Germany. While there, they were able to combine historic molds and local porcelain slip with their own rapid prototyped taxidermy scans to produce marvellous creatures that are a mixture of three hundred years of tradition and some very modern mindsets. It is a veritable menagerie of pugs, rats, swans and roosters. In addition to the photos after the jump, there are more great images on the Non Fiction studio blog.

+ nonfictiondesigncollective.com
+ nonfictiongroup.blogspot.com