Category Archives: Contemporary

2000-present

Amélie Proulx wins the 2016 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics.

 

Amelie Proulx. Metaphores Mortes. Photo source: Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery

Amélie Proulx . Metaphores Mortes. Photo source: Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery

The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery has announced that Amélie Proulx has won the 2016 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics. The award will be presented at the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery on November 12, 2016. The ceremony will feature a brief artist talk.

  • Amélie Proulx from Lévis, QC, is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily with porcelain. She is interested in the possible shifts of meanings in language and in the perception of natural phenomena. She received a BFA from Concordia University in Montreal (2006) and an MFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in Halifax (2010).
  • Her artwork has been presented in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the United States, Australia and France. In 2013, she received the RBC Emerging Artist People’s Choice Award at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto. She has participated in several residencies, notably at the European Ceramic Work Centre (The Netherlands, 2014) and the Guldargergaard International Ceramic Research Centre (Denmark, 2015). She teaches ceramics and visual arts at La Maison des métiers d’art de Québec and at Cégep de Sainte-Foy. She is represented by Galerie 3 in Quebec City.
  • Proulx has been chosen for the Arts/Industry Program at the Kohler Company in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. There she will research and produce a new body of work that will convey ideas of technological translations of ceramics.
  • Proulx will use the Shantz Award to prepare for this residency; she will generate 3D printed moulds at the artist-run centre La Chambre Blanche in Quebec City and CNC milled plaster moulds with Epic Welding in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

The award was juried by Laura Kukkee, Rory MacDonald and Aaron Nelson.

Proulx will receive $10,000. This prestigious national awards allows early career professionals to undertake a period of independent research, or other activities that will advance their artistic and professional practice at a key moment in their careers.

The Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics is supported by the Keith and Winifred Shantz Fund for the Arts, held at The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation.

  • About Winifred Shantz: The late Winifred Shantz was a driving force for the arts in Waterloo Region for more than 40 years. A successful ceramist, entrepreneur and visionary philanthropist, she was committed to finding ways to enable artists to reach their full potential.
  • About The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation: The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation (KWCF) improves the quality of life in Kitchener-Waterloo and the surrounding area, now and for generations to come, by building community endowment, addressing needs through grant making, and providing leadership on key community issues.
  • The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery’s mission is to showcase the most innovative, influential contemporary Canadian ceramic, glass, and enamel artworks and to make them accessible to all through acclaimed exhibitions that address issues and themes relevant to our times, through an impressive selection of artworks in our Gallery Shop, and through intriguing public programs that engage, educate, and inspire.

For information about the Awards contact: William D. Poole, Executive Director, Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery; director@theclayandglass.ca • 519.746.1882 x231

Robin Hopper, RCA. A Major Page Update Added To Studio Ceramics Canada

Robin Hopper In His Studio

Robin Hopper In His Studio

Robin Hopper’s page was one of the first posted on this website, three years ago.  It is also one of the most visited. A major update is long overdue.  Artists’ pages on the site, their scope, format and content, have evolved, expanded.

The revised page explores more of Robin’s past activities and work, and also touches on his more recent activities and passions during what for him are difficult times.

Enjoy connecting with one of Canada’s most renowned ceramists, Robin Hopper RCA.

Walter Dexter RCA Page Added to Studio Ceramics Canada

Young Walter Dexter

Young Walter Dexter

I have added a page on Walter Dexter RCA to the website studioceramicscanada.com .

Dexter was an artist who moved from the the influences of Luke Lindoe and Bernard Leach, through the raku inspiration of Americans Hal Riegge and Paul Soldner, to his own signature “Torso” works and their recognizable style. His journey took him from Alberta, to Europe and eventually to British Columbia.

Enjoy his journey.

Debra Sloan And Her Ceramics. A New Page Published On Studio Ceramics Canada

Debra Sloan with her work

Debra Sloan with her work “Shall I Be Mother?”

A page on that powerhouse of energy, and award winning artist, Debra Sloan, has been added to the studioceramicscanada.com website.

Mobile Girl – with Dead Battery, 2015. L15 x H13 x D10 cm. Porcelain and telephone wire, modeled. Photo E.A.Clarke

Mobile Girl – with Dead Battery, 2015. L15 x H13 x D10 cm. Porcelain and telephone wire, modeled. Photo E.A.Clarke

Debra’s babies, dogs and horses are familiar to many. Her press moulded and slip cast figures sometimes entertain but mostly challenge the viewer’s assumptions and attitudes through their poses, gestures, surfaces and expressions.

In addition to her art she has exhibited and traveled internationally and has also researched and documented the history of the development of studio ceramics in British Columbia.

Enjoy this page and let Debra know how much you appreciate her art. You can also see more about her on her own website  http://www.debrasloan.com/ .

Breaking news: Last week Debra was awarded  the biannual Hilde Gerson Award by the Craft Council of BC. Congratulations, Debra!

Judy Blake Page Added To Studio Ceramics Canada

Judy Blake working on a Penguin Sculpture.

Judy Blake working on a Penguin Sculpture.

Judy Blake. Saggar fired Vessel, 2005. 30 cm h x 28 cm w. White earthenware. This piece shows the lines from the ‘fuming’ of the copper wire on the shoulder.

Judy Blake. Saggar fired Vessel, 2005. 30 cm h x 28 cm w. White earthenware. This piece shows the lines from the ‘fuming’ of the copper wire on the shoulder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy the elegant forms and birds and the dynamic surfaces of Canadian ceramist Judy Blake. Judy’s specialty is smoke firing in its many forms: naked raku, sawdust and saggar firing. Tucked away in Lincoln, NB, she is making her presence felt on the national and international scene.

You can also see more of her work on Judy Blake’s  website.

 

The Name is Tang, Brendan Tang

Brendan Tang

Brendan Tang

The page on Brendan Tang and his art is the first page for the 2015 year for Studio Ceramics Canada.

Brendan, an award winner and currently an instructor at Emily Carr University of Art + Design has developed styles and themes that incorporate his interests ranging from traditional Chinese Ming ware to European Rococo Orientalism and decoration, to Japanese Manga and Anime, to Techno-Pop. His work can be provocative or subtle but is always thought provoking.

Look for future pages on artists such as Judy Blake, Stan and Jean Clarke, and John Chalke.

Brendan Tang with Les Manning, Susan Collett, Ann Mortimer and Ann Roberts at the IAC General Assembly Dublin 2014

Brendan Tang with Les Manning, Susan Collett, Ann, Mortimer and Ann Roberts at the IAC General Assembly Dublin 2014

Meanwhile enjoy Brendan Tang’s page.

 

Judy Blake. A New Book On Her Work and Career

 

Judy Blake by Jonathon Bancroft Snell. Frye Canadian Ceramist Collection.

Judy Blake by Jonathon Bancroft Snell. Frye Canadian Ceramist Collection.

Congratulations to Judy on a recently published book, titled “Judy Blake”! Written by Jonathon Bancroft-Snell the book describes the evolution of her ceramic birds as well as her trajectory from functional potter to ceramic artist to sculptor.

The book is available from the Jonathon Bancroft-Snell Gallery in London, ON ( 1-519-434-5443) or from Botinicals in Fredericton, NB ( 1-506-454-6101).

Also, look for Judy’s page on this website in the early new year.

New Book On Keith Campbell’s Recent Social-Political Works

Keith With The New Book  On His Social-Political Works

Keith With The New Book On His Social-Political Works

The books on our ceramics artists just keep on coming!

“KEITH CAMPBELL” is a new book written by Jonathon Bancroft-Snell and published by  Ronald P. Frye & Company. This book is about Keith’s social-political clay works. Often comical and  irreverent the works are always seeking new truths in Keith’s inimitable style. Check out Keith’s page on this website.

Congratulations, Keith. Thank you Jonathon.

Enid Legros-Wise RCA: Page Added To Studio Ceramics Canada

Enid Legros Wise, Hope Town, June  2011.  © JFBérubé

Enid Legros Wise, Hope Town, June 2011. © JFBérubé

A new page on  Gaspé, Quebec, artist, Enid Legros-Wise has been added to the website studioceramicscanada.com.

Enid’s extensive award winning career and forms of art are internationally recognized. Her explorations have taken her from almost miniature sizes to gallery-filling installations. She pioneered porcelain work in Quebec and has developed major, multi-media, ceramic-based exhibitions.

Stay tuned. More pages are in the works on artists such as  Connie Pike, Stan and Jean Clarke, Luke Lindoe, Brendan Tang, Gaetan Beaudin and many others.

Artist Paula Murray Page added to studio ceramics.com website

Paula Murray

Paula Murray

A new page on the Meech Lake artist, Paula Murray, has been added to the website studioceramicscanada.com.

Paula Murray’s porcelain works reflect an inquisitive mind exploring the natural and the spiritual within the individual and within the group. Shells and shorelines, bowls and reeds are her literal subjects, as individuals or in groups. Within these forms she explores the forms and stresses, the cracks and pressures of surface and shape as porcelain and fibreglass are folded, pressed and stained. Her work displays effects ranging from an almost exact individual zoological precision to the subtle metaphorical individuality of surfaces and shapes within a grouping. Subtlety and contemplation are constants.

Stay tuned. More pages are in the works on artists such as Ann Mortimer, Susan Collett, Enid Legros-Wise, Connie Pike, Les Manning, Stan and Jean Clarke and many others. Anyone who has memories or images of these artists they would be willing to share please contact me.