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For the past thirty-five years, acclaimed Canadian artist Steven Heinemann has transformed the medium of ceramics in Canada. This timely retrospective featuring more than 70 objects examines Heinemann’s fascinating and evolving process. Opens October 19!
Celebrate 25 years of Empty Bowls at the Gardiner! Sample delicious soups by some of the city's top chefs and choose a ceramic bowl to take home with you, all in support of Anishnawbe Health Toronto's work to aid the homeless.
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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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, all within the tightly controlled ceramic vessel.
This timely retrospective exhibition examines Heinemann’s fascinating and evolving process to reveal how he exploits a limited series of gestures, textures, pigments, and images to achieve his wondrously tactile bowls, pods, and other vessel-shaped forms that embody the polarities between life and nature.
Heinemann works on a single piece for months or even years, living with it, firing it multiple times to achieve the desired result, and reworking the surface by sandblasting, scratching, polishing, and sometimes stenciling to evoke glyph-like imagery.
The exhibition also delves into the artist’s creativity and inspiration, and particularly how his interest in ecology, cosmology, and ancient artifacts inform his lyrical investigations of containment, volume, and ornamentation.
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
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