May 28 –  August 16, 2026
Special Exhibition Hall. 3rd Floor
Included with admission. Free for Gardiner Friends.

The International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF) is the Gardiner Museum’s biennial celebration of innovation and contemporary directions in ceramics, inviting visitors to discover how the boundaries of craftsmanship are being redefined in clay.

ICAF 2026 has been expanded from a 10-day event to a 12-week exhibition and public program exploring how ceramics is evolving across art, design, and emerging technologies. At the heart of this year’s edition is the theme “the city and the commons,” presenting ceramics as both material and method for examining how we live together in rapidly changing cities. From architecture to infrastructure, ceramics shelter, connect, and ground us, offering new ways to think about belonging, resilience, and shared space.

How do we nurture communal relationships amidst dramatic change? How can the intelligence of ceramics inform how we navigate cosmopolitan life? How can new approaches to ceramic technology re-shape the ways we live together?

Join us to discover the works on view and participate in programming that explores these and other questions.

Anders Herwald Ruhwald (Denmark)

Christine Howard Sandoval (British Columbia)
parrasch heijnen (California)

Eve Tagny (Québec)
Cooper Cole (Ontario)

Hadi Jamali (Québec)

Jolie Ngo (Rhode Island)
R & Company (New York)

Magalie Guérin (Québec / Texas)
Galerie Nicolas Robert (Ontario / Québec)

Mel Arsenault (Québec)
Galerie Nicolas Robert (Ontario / Québec)

Noor Ali Chagani (UK) & Clio Lloyd-Jacob (UK)

Ronald Rael (California)

Suzanne Morrissette (Ontario) & Jaimie Isaac (Manitoba)
ROSEMARY Gallery

Sharif Farrag (California)
Jeffrey Deitch (New York / California)

May 27, 2026
7:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Be among the first to view and purchase exceptional works at the Preview Gala of the 2026 International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF). Proceeds support the Gardiner Museum’s Community Access Fund, making clay programs more widely available to communities with limited access to arts education.

In conjunction with ICAF 2026, the Gardiner Museum is pleased to host a symposium supported by the Raphael Yu Centre for Canadian Ceramics. Keynote speaker Ronald Rael will present his concept of “AI³” (Artificial, Ancestral, and Additive Intelligence), exploring how emerging technologies and traditional practices can work together to reimagine architecture and the built environment.

Friday May 29, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Keynote Presentation by Ronald Rael

Ronald Rael is a designer, activist, trained architect, author, and Eva Li Memorial Chair in Architecture at the University of California Berkeley. His research interests connect Indigenous and traditional material practices to contemporary technologies and issues and he is a design activist, author, and thought leader within the topics of additive manufacturing, borderwall studies, and earthen architecture.

Saturday May 30, 9:30 am – 6:00 pm
A full day symposium featuring speakers, panel discussions, and more. Lunch and refreshments are also included.

With thanks to our 2026 Honorary Committee

James Appleyard, Robert Davies, The Hon. Nicole Eaton, Yvonne Fleck, Jennifer Kerbel Poirier, Nattiya King-Stewart, Patricia Koval, Nancy Lockhart, David Mirvish, Kent Monkman, Melanie Munk