We're delighted to announce that the Gardiner Museum will reopen to the public with two days of free admission on Saturday July 11 and Sunday July 12. From July 13 onward, we'll resume our regular hours and admission rates. It seems we've been gone so long—we miss you and can't wait to welcome you back! Please read about our new health and safety protocols before your visit.
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!
We're excited to present a new live series hosted by Chief Curator Sequoia Miller in which an artist will share three of their artworks and speak about them in connection to a larger theme. On Thursday July 9 at 1 pm, Azza El Siddique, a Sudanese-Canadian interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture, installation, painting, photography, and film, will discuss three of her artworks in the context of the theme “Absence”. Registration is free!
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!
We’re closed until further notice, but we’re planning for the day when we can again welcome visitors. We encourage you to make a gift to the Gardiner. This will be vital for when we reopen, and is the optimistic message we all need.
Curated by Rachel Gotlieb
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Read the Toronto Star review
For the past thirty-five years, acclaimed Canadian artist Steven Heinemann has transformed the medium of ceramics in Canada. Working in varying scale, Heinemann explores the paradoxes between culture and nature, deliberation and chance, interior and exterior surfaces.
This first major retrospective examines Heinemann’s fascinating and evolving process to reveal how he uses form, texture, pigment, and imagery to achieve his wondrously tactile bowls, pods, and other universal shapes that embody the polarities between life and nature.
Heinemann’s process can stretch over months or even years, firing a piece multiple times, and reworking the surface by sandblasting, scratching, polishing, and stenciling to evoke glyph-like imagery. His studio is evoked in the gallery through an installation of sketchbooks and source material, including original photographs and a wall of ceramic test tiles. A time-lapse video shot by the artist documents a treated clay surface as it dries, warps, and cracks according to chance and calculation.
Click here to see Steven Heinemann in his studio discussing one of the works in the exhibition.
About the Artist
Since completing his MFA at Alfred University in 1983, Steven Heinemann (RCA) has taught widely in Canada and the United States. He has exhibited continuously since his first solo show at the Ontario Crafts Council in 1982, and his work is part of numerous public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Museum Of Fine Arts (Boston), Icheon World Ceramic Centre (Korea), National Museum of History (Taiwan), the Museum of Art and Design (New York), Museum Boymans van Beuningen (Rotterdam), and The Contemporary Museum (Honolulu).
Heinemann has received national and international awards including the Bavarian State Prize (Germany), the Juror’s Award (Mino, Japan), Fletcher Challenge (New Zealand), and in 1996, he was granted the Saidye Bronfman Award, Canada’s highest recognition of achievement in contemporary craft.
Heinemann lives and works near Cookstown, Ontario.
Exhibition Programs & Events
Tuesday October 17, 7 – 9 pm Steven Heinemann: Culture and Nature In Conversation Join exhibiting artist Steven Heinemann, Executive Director & CEO Kelvin Browne, and curator Rachel Gotlieb as they discuss how Heinemann’s artistic process has evolved through his lyrical investigations of containment, volume, and ornamentation. $15 General / $10 Gardiner Friends Learn more
Wednesday October 18, 10 am – 6 pm Steven Heinemann Friends Day Gardiner Friends are invited to join us for a sneak peek of the special exhibition Steven Heinemann: Culture and Nature. Free with RSVP. Learn more
Wednesday November 8, 6:30 – 8 pm Artist Lecture: Steven Heinemann Steven Heinemann reflects on his career as a Canadian contemporary ceramist and how philosophies of ecology, cosmology, and ancient artifacts have inspired his work. $15 General / $10 Gardiner Friends Learn more
Saturday November 11, 2 – 4 pm Steven Heinemann: Culture and Nature Exhibition Walk-Through Join Steven Heinemann and contemporary ceramics collector Raphael Yu for a walk-through of Culture and Nature. $30 General / $25 Gardiner Friends Learn more
Saturday November 18, 10 am – 4 pm Master Potter at Work: Steven Heinemann Steven Heinemann leads an intimate observation-based workshop in our Community Clay Studio for emerging, established, and curious ceramic makers, exploring key elements of his artistic process. $30 General / $25 Gardiner Friends Learn more
Saturday January 13, 1 – 3 pm Steven Heinemann: Culture and Nature Exhibition Walk-Through Join artist Steven Heinemann and exhibition curator Rachel Gotlieb for an in-depth walk-through of Culture and Nature. $30 General / $25 Gardiner Friends Learn more
Saturday January 20, 10 am – 5 pm Ceramic Change: How to Make It This one-day workshop intensive for emerging artists in the expanding field of ceramics will focus on the nuts and bolts of professional survival and enabling skilled connections. $25 General / $22 Gardiner Friends & Students Learn more
Presenting Sponsors The Thor E. & Nicole Eaton Family Charitable Foundation Ira Gluskin & Maxine Granovsky Gluskin
Exhibition Partners
Gail & Mark Appel David W. Binet Lisa & John Eaton Linda Frum & Howard Sokolowski Barb & Dougal Macdonald Diana Reitberger & Harry Beck Jason Wong & Angela Jerath
Image: Steven Heinemann, farawaysoclose (detail), 2000, Collection of the Gardiner Museum, Purchased with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program, G01.3.1, Photography by Toni Hafkenscheid