In accordance with the announcement by the provincial government, the Gardiner Museum has closed temporarily, effective Monday November 23. While this news is difficult, the health and safety of our visitors, staff, and the wider community remains our top priority. We'll continue to provide you with engaging digital content to keep us connected while the galleries are closed.
During our temporary closure, we're posting exhibitions and selections from our collection online. Discover Inuit ceramics, Chinese and Japanese porcelain, pottery from the Ancient Americas, and more!
In accordance with instructions from the provincial government, the Museum closed to the public on Monday November 28 and we have cancelled all clay classes. We regret the inconvenience this may cause, but are hopeful that these actions will help maintain the health and safety of our communities. We will automatically be crediting students with a refund for remaining sessions.
Every object in our permanent collection can be accessed through our eMuseum portal. Learn about individual collecting areas, like Italian Maiolica or Modern and Contemporary Ceramics, or search the full collection by keyword. You'll be amazed by what you discover!
With the Museum closed temporarily, we need your support to continue to offer innovative and engaging exhibitions, programs, and community projects online, as well as plan for the future. Please consider making a donation to help us build community with clay.
Lobby Display
Edmund de Waal is a renowned English potter and author, who for the past twenty-five years has been exploring rhythms in white porcelain. He uses Limoges porcelain clay with a small range of translucent glazes including a subtle, pale celadon which occasionally oxidizes, resulting in a creamy tone.
The lobby display, Rhythm in White, features a grouping of works from two Toronto private collections, including a series of de Waal’s famed “cargo” vessels, inspired by historical cargos of porcelain shipped in vast numbers to Europe from China and Japan, as well as “twin” covered jars, with subtle differences and distinct personalities, commissioned by the collectors to celebrate the birth of identical twins.
De Waal became a household name following the publication of his international best-seller The Hare with the Amber Eyes, a family memoir told through a collection of miniature Japanese carvings, and its follow up The White Road: A Journey into Obsession, an intimate glimpse into the artist’s lifelong passion for porcelain.
Born in Nottingham, England in 1964, Edmund de Waal is best known for his large-scale installations of white porcelain vessels. His work has been exhibition throughout the UK and internationally, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and most recently at the Kunsthaus Graz alongside Ai Weiwei. He’s won numerous literary awards including the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Costa Biography Award, and his work has been translated into over twenty-five languages. In 2011, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to art.