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Julia Nema is a fine artist, porcelain and ceramic designer based in Budapest, Hungary, recognized with major national prizes like the Hungarian Design Award (2003) and Ferenczy Noémi Award (2013). Her work is characterized by a unique harmony of fine arts, design and handicrafts. She is the founder of one of the leading ceramics studios in Hungary which is the first and only venture in the country using a high-temperature wood-fired kiln for professional creation of artworks and functional ware.

The artistic credo of Julia Nema has been shaped by substantial East-meets-West experiences, creating bridges between Constructivism and Concrete Art, Far Eastern aesthetics, European design and local pottery traditions. Her masters include painter and sculptor János Fajó (1937–2018), and Frederick L. Olsen ceramic artist and kiln designer.

Currently supported by the Hungarian Academy of Arts, Julia Nema continues to research natural sources like clays, soil, rocks and minerals across the country for a sustainable art practice with unique results. Her upcoming solo exhibition, as part of the programme of Veszprém–Balaton 2023 European Capital of Culture, will present the outcome of this interdisciplinary and cross-cultural project.

With her ground-breaking bespoke tableware sets, Julia Nema has renewed the ways of plating and serving in contemporary Hungarian gastronomy. Besides private commissions, her extensive client roster includes Michelin-starred restaurants SALT Budapest, 42 Restaurant and Babel Budapest (2016–2020), as well as Laurel Budapest, Botaniq Castle of Tura and Salon, formerly the fine dining venue of the New York Palace Budapest, and many more.

Julia Nema is the author of a monograph about wood-fired ceramics ("Fired Up High", 2013), a pioneering publication on the subject in Hungarian. Her works, encompassing sculpture, reliefs, everyday objects, paintings, silkscreen prints and photograms, have been widely exhibited from America through Europe and Japan. She is a regular participant in conferences and symposia worldwide, and has published in international periodicals. Julia Nema earned her doctorate degree (PhD/DLA) in 2012, and has well over a decade’s teaching experience in higher education at various universities.