Katalina Caliendo is a contemporary ceramic artist whose sculptural practice explores the relationship between humanity and the natural world. Working primarily in porcelain and stoneware, she creates tactile, hand-built forms inspired by ecology, geology and environmental philosophy.
Through experimental making processes, her work considers how landscapes are shaped by the interaction of living and non-living systems, resulting in sculptures that blur the boundaries between craft, contemporary art and scientific enquiry.
Born in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, Caliendo moved to the United Kingdom in 2016 to study Contemporary Design Crafts at the University of Hertfordshire, graduating with First Class Honours. She went on to complete an MA in Ceramics & Glass at the Royal College of Art, where she further developed her distinctive approach to hand-building and material experimentation.
Central to Caliendo's practice are processes she describes as imbrication and sympoiesis. Her labour-intensive imbrication technique involves building sculptures from hundreds of individually formed clay elements, creating richly textured surfaces that evoke geological formations, lichen, bark and coral. In other works, she combines porcelain with organic materials such as mycelium and yeast, allowing unfired sculptures to continue changing over time. These evolving forms challenge conventional ideas of permanence in ceramics and invite reflection on humanity's place within wider ecological systems.
In 2020, Caliendo was awarded a prestigious QEST Benefact Trust Scholarship, supporting research alongside her studies at the Royal College of Art. The scholarship enabled extensive fieldwork across the UK, collecting materials and studying natural environments that continue to inform her ceramic practice. Her innovative approach has also been recognised through a Global Talent Visa endorsed by Arts Council England.
Caliendo has exhibited widely, including at Collect at Somerset House, London Design Festival, the Design Museum, London Art Fair, and Crafting a Difference. Her work has been featured by Homo Faber, which recognised her as a Rising Star of contemporary craft, and she continues to develop an interdisciplinary practice spanning ceramics, performance, photography and installation.
