guest of honour
Each year, ceramic brussels plans to invite an artist to bring and elevate the programme by enriching it with his.her experience and perspectives on contemporary ceramics.
Emar Trenkwalder was the 2026 ceramic brussels' guest of honour.
biography & works
From the 1990s onwards, Trenkwalder established himself on the international scene. In 1990, he took part in Aperto 90at the Venice Biennale, curated by Harald Szeemann, and in 1997 he was invited to the Lyon Biennale. This was followed by notable exhibitions such as Austria im Rosennetz at the MAK in Vienna and Wunderkammer Österreich at the Kunsthaus Zürich (1996), as well as Contrepoint at the Louvre Museum (2005). In 2008, La Maison Rouge in Paris devoted an exhibition to him and Augustin Lesage, Les inspirés, confirming his major role in the dialogue between contemporary art and visionary heritage.
Trenkwalder’s work has been the subject of numerous major solo exhibitions, including those at the Salzburger Rupertinum (2001), Kunsthalle Krems and Gerhard-Marcks-Haus in Bremen (2012), MUDAM Luxembourg (2013), MUba Eugène Leroy in Tourcoing (2014), Kunstraum Dornbirn and the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig (2018), and the Kunstmuseum Olten (2019). More recently, his monumental sculptures have been exhibited at the Beelden aan Zee Museum in The Hague (2023), the Schlossmuseum in Linz, and the Gmundner Keramik Manufaktur (2025).
Over the course of his career, Elmar Trenkwalder has received several awards, including the City of Vienna Prize (1991), the Anton Faistauer Prize for Painting (1993), the Salzburg State Prize for Ceramics (2004), and the Tyrol State Prize for Contemporary Art (2015).
Today, Elmar Trenkwalder is recognised as one of the leading figures in contemporary European sculpture. His work, both visionary and deeply rooted in art history, forges a unique connection between ornament, architecture, and spirituality.
