HAMBURG.- As part of the opening of this year's MK&G messe, the renowned Justus Brinckmann Award was given to the Rheinsberg-based ceramist Aino Nebel yesterday evening. The award annually honours an outstanding personality of contemporary arts and crafts and is endowed with 7,500 euros.

The jury's statement was: "Aino Nebel is a ceramic artist with international appeal. Her work represents a unique combination of master craftsmanship and poetic artistry. She fires her vessels in a wood fire and creates unique pieces with extraordinary surfaces and colours. Her ceramics seem to come from another world, full of magic and primeval charm. She lifts her ceramic art into a new sphere with the play of conscious coincidence and artistic intention."

The jury also decided to award the New Generation Award to the jewellery designer Jiun-You Ou, who lives in Vienna and Taiwan. The jury's statement: "The award is given to a highly talented and versatile artist who uses materials and forms in an unconventional and highly experimental way. For example, she uses inkstone, the material used for ink pots in calligraphy in Taiwan, and develops complex, fascinating jewellery objects from it. Despite the simple material, her works have a high aesthetic quality that evokes exciting associations. The award is intended to encourage her to continue on her chosen path."

With a new promotional programme for "Young Talents", the launch of the "Contemporary Craft" exhibition series with works by the renowned ceramist Young-Jae Lee and around 50 exhibitors, the MK&G messe will once again present current trends in contemporary international arts and crafts from 23 to 27 November 2022. The participants come from France, Italy, Austria and northern Macedonia, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan as well as from all parts of Germany, around 60 per cent of whom are newcomers since the fair's reorientation last year. Fresh positions and more space for young artists characterise the new concept, which for five days shows jewellery and textile design, ceramics, one-of-a-kind metal and wood pieces in the highest quality of design and craftsmanship. The examination of ecology and new luxury, unique and mass-produced goods as well as production and working conditions is currently giving the MK&G messe a new topicality.

JURY

Prof. Tulga Beyerle, Director Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G)

Cécile Feilchenfeldt, winner of the Justus Brinckmann Preis of the MK&G messe 2021 and freelance artist, Paris

Thomas Geisler, Director of the Museum of Decorative Arts of the Dresden State Art Collections

Prof. Axel Kufus, Professor of Design and Development, Faculty of Design, Berlin University of the Arts

Wolfgang Lösche, Head of the Exhibitions Department of the Chamber of Crafts Munich and Upper Bavaria

Erika Pinner, Curator and Head of the Collection Applied Arts and Design Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G)

Prof. Angeli Sachs, Professor Zurich University of the Arts, Zurich

Marlo Scheder-Bieschin, Vice Chair Justus Brinckmann Society, MK&G Circle of Friends, Hamburg