The Gardiner Museum is open seven days a week! Explore our permanent collection, discover special exhibitions, and get hands-on with clay in our studios. We look forward to welcoming you.
Discover an exhibition of new work in our lobby by members of Inspirations Studio, a unique low-barrier ceramics program in Toronto for women and gender diverse people who have experienced marginalization.
Our Joy of Ceramics fundraiser returns on October 27, featuring a presentation by Sarah Milroy, Chief Curator at the McMichael Gallery, who will talk about a work by Shary Boyle, including its many meanings and her decision to donate it. This event sells out every year!
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!
Help us continue to offer innovative and engaging exhibitions, programs, and community projects in person and online, as well as plan for the future. Please consider making a donation today.
Ceramic creatures of liquid and bone stand motionless, guarding treasures of eras faded beyond recall. In those centuries predating the primacy of written language, the craftsmen were storytellers and the artists’ painterly sleight of hand embellished the spoils of nature for all to gaze at and wonder.
About the Artist
Drawing from the history of ceramics and craft, Nurielle Stern explores clay as a contemporary sculptural material throughout her multidisciplinary practice. Her sculptural objects and installations are informed by historical approaches to ornament, function and story-telling in the design of common objects. Through a re-imagining of the familiar, her work encourages the seeds of new narratives to take root.
While based in Toronto, Nurielle is currently an MFA Candidate in Ceramic Art at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. She has been awarded a Graduate Fellowship for her two-year course of study. Nurielle received her Bachelor’s in Fine Art degree (Sculpture and Installation) from OCAD University in 2007 and went on to study ceramics at the Sheridan School of Craft & Design (2009-12).
Nurielle has participated in several group exhibitions including FUSION’s Biennial Juried Exhibition at the Ontario Crafts Council Gallery and the Art Gallery of Mississauga (2011) and the 17th Annual Juried Graduating Sculpture Student Exhibition at the Sculptors Society of Canada (2012) where she was the recipient of the Abraham & Malka Green Award. In her final year at Sheridan College she was awarded the Clifford Scholarship and the 2012 Gardiner Museum Award.
Header Image: Nurielle Stern, Eyes of Metal and Agate, 2013, glazed ceramic