In accordance with the announcement by the provincial government, the Gardiner Museum has closed temporarily. 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!
On Thursday April 29 at 1 pm, join us for a free online lecture with Professor Alison McQueen, who will discuss the significant contributions of women working at Sèvres in the first century of its history. The presentation will feature works from leading international porcelain collections and bring attention to the often-overlooked roles of women retouching glaze, laying down prints, and burnishing. Register now!
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
Today, Japanese clay art is experiencing one of the richest and most diverse periods in its long history. Throughout 2018, three lobby displays, curated by Joan B. Mirviss, an authority on Japanese ceramics and a New York City gallery owner for 40 years, will feature the work of ground-breaking Japanese ceramists who stand on the world stage, boldly asserting their independence, creativity, and technical genius.
Form + Function shows vessels created for use with floral displays or referring, sometimes loosely, to that function. As Japanese ceramics have evolved through the centuries, form has always played the central role in their aesthetics; even vessels created for everyday use display a sophistication of form. Since antiquity, Japanese potters have continued to develop new shapes and techniques that, while based on indigenous regional styles or ancient prototypes, have also drawn from foreign sources, principally from China, Korea, and more recently, the West.
January 12 – April 22 Form + Function
June 7 – September 2 Surface
September 7 – January 13 Female Masters
Presented by
Supported by
Header: Nakamura Takuo (b. 1945), Vessel that is not a Vessel, 2016, Stoneware with kutani-style glazes, Collection of the Gardiner Museum G17.6.1a-b, Photography by Richard Goodbody