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Ai Weiwei is one of the world’s most influential artists and human rights activists, and one of China’s most formidable critics. Ai Weiwei: Unbroken features a selection of the artist's most iconic ceramics, and marks the international debut of new work. See it before it closes on June 9!
SMASH: Nourish is a night of bold artwork, delicious cuisine, refreshing drinks, and invigorating experiences. The Gardiner Museum Young Patron Circle's annual art party sold out last year, so get your tickets early!
The Gardiner Museum is among the few museums in the world focused on ceramics, and is one of the most important specialty museums internationally. It houses approximately 4,000 objects, including European porcelain, ceramics from the Ancient Americas, Chinese porcelain, Japanese porcelain, and contemporary ceramics. Search the collection online!
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February 13 – April 27, 2014
Ron Thom was one of Canada’s greatest architects, with enduring testaments to his genius, such as Massey College and Trent University, still among the country’s most admired buildings. But Ron Thom, like Frank Lloyd Wright and other architects of his generation, believed in creating not just a building for a client, but a whole world – from the landscaping to the interiors and the furniture to the ceramics. This exhibition explores Ron Thom’s brilliant architecture in the context of his total aesthetic. Ron Thom and the Allied Arts is a travelling exhibition organized by the West Vancouver Museum in collaboration with Trent University and Massey College
“Few architects have helped shape Canadian architecture as poetically as Ron Thom. From his early days as a west coast artist to his crowning achievements designing Massey College and Trent University, Ron Thom devoted himself to a profoundly holistic approach, wherein the fields of architecture, ceramics, visual arts, furniture and landscape formed a continuum. He was a fan of the Mingei folk craft movement, wherein potters and other artisans opting out of the industrial age found a higher beauty in the hand-made. Of this architect’s long and illustrious career, Ron Thom and the Allied Arts celebrates the most creatively fertile period, 1947 – 1972, with a focus on five west coast houses, Massey College, Trent University, and the ceramic and other arts that inform them. On display will be a selection of Ron Thom’s original paintings, prototypes for furniture and fittings, architectural drawings and sketches, archival and architectural photography, the original hand-rendered 1960 Massey College presentation boards, and the ceramics he commissioned as an integral component of it all. ” – Adele Weder, Curator
EXHIBITION EVENTS
PANEL DISCUSSION RON THOM AND HIS LEGACY Tuesday February 11 7 – 8 pm Moderator: Adele Weder Panelists: Shawn Micallef, Larry Richards & Brigitte Shim
LUNCH + LEARN THE CHANGING FACE OF MODERNISM IN TORONTO Thursday February 27 12 – 1:30 pm Speaker: Shawn Micallef
LECTURE CANADIAN MODERN: THE ALLIED ARTS IN CANADA Tuesday March 25 6:30 – 8 pm Speaker: Dr. Sandra Alfoldy
SPECIAL EVENT MOD MAD PARTY: A BASH INSPIRED BY THE ERA OF MAD MEN Friday March 28 6 – 10 pm
LECTURE DIGITIZING CONTEMPORARY CERAMICS Thursday, April 10 6:30 – 8 pm Speaker: Ezra Shales
LECTURE MOXY, MONUMENTALITY AND CERAMIC MURALS Wednesday, April 23 6:30 – 8 pm Speaker: Susan Surette