The Group · Clay

The azulejo, handed to artists as a canvas

Contemporary ceramics from Portugal — modular Patterns, signed Editions, Clay Originals and bespoke Masterpieces, hand-produced in the Barreiro atelier and delivered into architecture.

Vhils composing a carved cobalt-glaze Masterpiece panel, Barreiro atelier · José Pando Lucas

A contemporary-azulejo house that hands the traditional Portuguese tile to artists as a support — first editions announced December 2024, publicly launched June 2025, presented by Underdogs. Each tile, a canvas.

Break the mold

Clay is the ceramics house of the Cultural Affairs Group — not a tile manufacturer but a platform that invites artists to explore the azulejo as artistic support. Every piece is handcrafted in Portugal, pairing traditional azulejo technique with contemporary design.

The proof-of-concept came at monumental scale: Vhils' Strates Urbaines, a mural of 11,132 tiles spanning 35 by 7 metres through the new Orly Airport metro station in Paris. Clay productises that lineage — from the founding line drawn by Vhils, AkaCorleone, JonOne and Kruella d'Enfer to a roster of thirteen artists, joined in 2026 by Anna Kruhelska, Evy Jokhova, Marta Lapeña, Stefhany Lozano and Joana Astolfi.

The work has begun moving from the store into buildings: a first delivered tile commission for Monte Palace in Madeira, a tile-panel collaboration with Hotel 1904 Benfica in Lisbon, and the newest catalogue drop — BLACKDOORS' Inward alongside Diango Hernández's Casita, April 2026.

The founding editions

Vhils — Rasura

Edition of 30

JonOne — First Series

Edition of 30 + 5 AP

Kruella d'Enfer — Serpente

Edition of 10 + 2 AP

AkaCorleone — Abstract I

Edition of 10 + 2 AP

The expanded roster

Evy Jokhova — The Hermit Crab

16-tile relief · 2026

Anna Kruhelska — Kinetic Dot

Edition · 2026

Joana Astolfi — RAW

Edition · 2026

Yonamine — Tshiganji

Pattern · 2025

BLACKDOORS — Inward

Edition + Pattern · April 2026

Diango Hernández — Casita

Edition + Pattern · April 2026

ana+betânia relief tile with yellow glaze accent, edge-on product view

ana+betânia — pattern

Pattern · October 2025

Stefhany Lozano — Mano de la Abundancia

Pattern · 2026

Marta Lapeña lemon-motif pattern tiles, signed panel

Marta Lapeña — pattern

Pattern · 2026

Commissions — into buildings

Strates Urbaines azulejo mural over the escalators of the Aéroport d'Orly station

Strates Urbaines — Gare d'Orly

Grand Paris Express · Paris · 2024

Aerial of the Monte Palace gardens, Madeira, with the carved cobalt azulejo panel above the arched terrace

Monte Palace — Madeira

Tile commission · 2025

Hotel 1904 Benfica — Lisbon

Tile-panel collaboration · 2025

Masterpieces — one of ones

Carved blue-and-white azulejo portrait panel by Vhils — Carved blue-and-white azulejo portrait — the signature carved-tile format

Cobalt relief glaze detail on azulejo — Cobalt relief and glaze — the ceramic surface up close

Carved azulejo portrait panel, portrait orientation — Bespoke, site-specific panels — co-created with artists in the Barreiro atelier

Carved blue-and-white azulejo portrait panel, frontal studio view — Carved azulejo panel — the blue-and-white portrait language, at panel scale

The artists, in the atelier

▶film

Kruella d'Enfer

Artist portrait · atelier film

▶film

AkaCorleone

Artist portrait · atelier film

▶film

JonOne — tile edition

Working the edition at the Viúva Lamego factory

PatternsModular ~15×15cm tiles by artists — repeatable, combinable

EditionsSigned, numbered limited compositions

Clay OriginalsIn-house designs by the Clay team

MasterpiecesBespoke, site-specific installations

Go deeper

The Vhils Rasura edition laid out grid-labelled at the tile factory

Collections & commissions

Patterns · Editions · Masterpieces · delivered commissions

Carved VHILS signature in the cobalt-glaze tiles at Monte Palace

The commissions, up close

Monte Palace · Hotel 1904 Benfica

The store — weareclay.net

The catalogue lives online at weareclay.net — per-artist Editions and Patterns across the thirteen-artist roster, each piece hand-produced in Portugal, signed where editioned. Masterpieces and architectural commissions are handled direct, from brief to installation.

Tiles in space — renders & studies

Panels and patterns placed in architecture before they are built — professional visualisations from the catalogue and commission work, alongside draft studies Clay publishes on @weareclayofficial. Renders and studies, not built works.

Draft visualisation — Lisbon pombaline facade fully clad in pink and red AkaCorleone pattern tiles at golden hour — A Lisbon facade in AkaCorleone tiles, golden hour — draft visualisation · via @weareclayofficial · Oct 2025

Catalogue render — BLACKDOORS Inward pattern tiles running up a staircase interior — BLACKDOORS — Inward running up a staircase · catalogue render

Catalogue visualisation — long gallery corridor clad floor to ceiling in a lemon-pattern tile wall, raking sunlight — A lemon-pattern corridor in raking light — catalogue visualisation · via @weareclayofficial

Catalogue render — orange relief tiles in a living-room interior above a wooden sideboard — Diango Hernández — Casita in relief above a sideboard · catalogue render

Catalogue render — a sixteen-tile BLACKDOORS panel on a plaster wall in a restaurant interior — BLACKDOORS — the edition panel in a restaurant interior · catalogue render

Draft visualisation — street wall in Vhils black-and-white newsprint-collage tiles, dappled light — Vhils' newsprint-collage tiles on the street — draft visualisation · via @weareclayofficial · Oct 2025

Contact

Collections, editions and commissions

Enquire about a work → Shop the catalogue at weareclay.net

info@weareclay.net