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.
This installation within the exhibition Transformation by Fire features sculptural ceramics by artist Susan Low-Beer, and reveals how her psychological investigations underscore and intersect with her collaboration with the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic and Gardiner Museum through their therapeutic arts program.
About the Artist Susan Low-Beer was born in Montreal and studied at Mount Allison University where she received her bachelor of Fine Arts. She acquired a Master of Fine Arts degree at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. In 1999 she received the Saidye Bronfman Award for Excellence in the Crafts, and in 2000 was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
Since the early 1980s, the main subject in Susan’s art has been the figure. Working primarily in clay, she has concentrated on the psychological and archetypal aspects of the human experience. Her last major piece was an installation called State of Grace. This consisted of fifteen jumping children, and was shown at the David Kaye Gallery, The Clarington Art Gallery, the Clay and Glass Gallery and the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound. Some of the pieces traveled to Cheongu, Korea in Unity and Diversity, the Canadian Crafts Federation Exhibition.
Her show Tools for Daily Living traveled from 2003-2006 and was exhibited at the McClure Gallery in Montreal, the Karsh Masson Gallery in Ottawa, Material Gallery in Quebec City and the Japan Foundation in Toronto. In 2001, Susan created an installation entitled Rocksbreath in the courtyard garden of the Burlington Art Centre. The following year the pieces were installed indoors at the Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo.
Susan’s work has been exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions and group exhibitions including Aspects of Figurative Ceramics at the Riley Hawk Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio; The International Exposition of Sculpture Objects & Function Art in Chicago and New York City; Survivors in Search of a Voice: The Art of Courage, an exhibition that toured internationally; and The Eighth Chunichi International Exhibition of Ceramic Art in Japan.
Her work is represented in the collections of the Museum of Civilization, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the National Museum of Modern Art in Japan, the Mint Museum of Craft and Design in, North Carolina, the Burlington Art Centre, the Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, the Mississauga Art Gallery and the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, as well as numerous private collections. susanlow-beer.com
Exhibition Programs & Events
Tuesday February 26, 6:30 – 8 pm Lecture: Susan Low-Beer