29/06/2026
George Vavatsis (George Vavatsis) has been named among the 15 finalists of the inaugural NOĒMA Craft Prize by for his work, Landmarks.
The nomination marks another important moment in the journey of Landmarks, a significant body of work developed through a decade-long process of research. A large-scale installation from the series is currently presented in the garden of the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes, where Vavatsis has been invited as an honorary guest artist of the second Biennale of Contemporary Keramics (Biennαle of Contemporαry Kerαmics), recently opened across the Medieval City of Rhodes.
His participation follows his distinction at the inaugural BCK in Santorini in 2024, where he was awarded First Prize.
Working primarily with earth and fire, Landmarks brings together forms, colours, fragments and material transformations that carry traces of place and memory. The installation unfolds as a perspectival landscape, inviting the viewer to move among sculptural volumes in which matter becomes the narrator of intimate, diary-like impressions. Both imaginary and familiar, the landscape evokes a sense of place that is at once Greek, Mediterranean and universal, pointing towards a shared material existence and a common origin.
Based in Thessaloniki, George Vavatsis has developed an extensive artistic and educational practice spanning more than two decades. His work has been presented internationally, while his ongoing contribution to contemporary ceramics includes the founding of Hakah Ceramics Design Production and 6exi Contemporary Ceramics, a project space dedicated to artists from Greece and abroad.
Congratulations, George, on this well-deserved recognition. We are proud to see Landmarks continuing its journey and entering new conversations around contemporary craft and ceramic practice.
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Photography:
1 Stathis Mamalakis Noema Craft Prize Athens
2, 4, 5 Constantinos Caravatellis, BCK2026 Rhodes
6 Labros Papanicolatos BCK 2024 Santorini
7 Rene Habermacher BBD 2022 Koufonisi
