CAM’s fall show turns antique china into modern commentary

The Cincinnati Art Museum is challenging traditional views of history and identity this fall with the debut of “Recall. Reframe. Respond.,” a new exhibition featuring more than 50 works by British artist Paul Scott.

Known for transforming classic (mostly) blue-and-white ceramics, Scott turns antique tableware into bold artworks that explore American life through a contemporary lens. He breaks, rearranges and reimagines 19th- and 20th-century ceramics using collage and printing techniques, creating patterns that challenge familiar stories and spark new ways of seeing.

The exhibition runs Oct. 10, through Jan. 4, 2026, in the Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell and Manuel and Rhoda Mayerson galleries. Alongside Scott’s ceramics, the museum will debut a new letterpress artist book and pair several pieces with works from its American art collection.

“This is not your grandparents’ blue-and-white china,” said Amy Dehan, the museum’s curator of decorative arts and design. “Paul Scott’s work is witty, wry and challenging. It urges us to look critically at dominant narratives while making connections across time and place.”

Challenging history through craft

Based in Cumbria, England, Scott is a British artist, author, curator and educator with an international reputation for using ceramics to explore politics, history and place. He first became interested in transferware depicting American scenes during a 1999 visit to Ohio State University.

Transferware refers to ceramic tableware mass-produced using a print transfer process – traditionally from copper plates to paper, then applied to the surface.

Since that visit, Scott has reworked these historical pieces with present-day imagery, aiming, in his words, to “rebalance the narrative with something more contemporary and inclusive.” Today, his work appears in major collections around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Norway, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

“Industrial transferwares were part of the new media revolution in the late 18th and early 19th centuries,” Scott said. “They have always carried images and patterns, which have journeyed through media, time, histories and geographies, capturing and changing meanings as they have travelled.”

Scott’s “Cumbrian Blue(s)” series builds on that legacy, blending historic forms with sharp social commentary. For this exhibition, he continues that conversation by placing his ceramics alongside paintings, prints and photographs from CAM’s permanent collection.

“Recall. Reframe. Respond.” also features reflections from local community members and includes two transferware works he created with Cincinnati artist Terence Hammonds. CAM will also take a major step forward in accessibility with this exhibition – it’s the first to include Braille labels, thanks to support from the Clovernook Center for the Blind & Visually Impaired.

Admission and parking at the Cincinnati Art Museum are free. Photography is welcome without flash. For updates and programming, visit cincinnatiartmuseum.org or follow #RecallReframeRespond on social media.

Cincinnati Art Museum