Anca Ion
Ceramic sculpture

I was born in Bucharest, but since 2003 I have been living in El Vendrell, Spain.

I am an informative craftswoman potter from Pottery’s family, issued by the Generalitat of Catalonia and I am also degree in Contemporary Applied Arts, Fire Arts (Ceramics and Glass), Escola Massana and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

I had the opportunity to enter my work in ceramic competitions, National and International, both physically and online and I was awarded the Mention of Honour for my work “Las Kokedamas” at N.A.C.E. Unique Piece Contest 2021, Navarrete City, Spain, Popularity Award Batra 2021 for my piece “The Return of Nature to the Cities”, at Biennial - International Ceramic Competition, Romania.

In January 2022 I was awarded the prize “OLIVERART 2022” for the category Project Solo Exhibition (July- October 2022) in a competition organized by the Museum and Centre of Culture of Olive Oil of Catalonia. During the exhibition I oversaw demonstration and workshop.

In December 2022, I was awarded with the 1st Prize for my work “Substrats” at the 16th National Award of Ceramic “Ciutat de Castelló”.

All other selected works at the contests were presented in a collective ceramic exhibition. This was a significant step in the exposure of my work.

Regarding my work in ceramic art, my goal is to express as much as I can my imagination about nature. I have always been inspired by nature, in its transformation, its plants, vegetation and insects. My sculptures are like something out of a fantasy! Roots growing into a cylinder produced on the pottery wheel or shapes exploding into different forms of the nature like sponges, smalls living beings, branch and trees transformed in little monsters. My historical references are Greek mythology, the archaeology, the observation of the nature and its shapes. I am particularly fascinated by the organic shapes, but I also like the geometric ones because they talk about the relation between the nature and mathematic. Clay is used to recreate this shapes and texture, inspired by nature that suggest motion and love.  

As an artist who enjoy the time in the nature, I often go trekking in the mountains or fields. I take some samples, or I take pictures and I check the type of moss, tree, plant, butterfly, or the “invisible” foam of the forest, I find along the way.

In my work, I am looking for originality, fragility, and textures that you can see in nature. I use materials at high temperatures, porcelain, clays that reach a temperature of between 1200º-1280º, pigments and oxides. Sometimes I use transparent and white glazes, almost all time with a matte quality.