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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!
Everyone can love clay! Become a Friend at one of the world’s great specialty museums and enjoy the benefits, including unlimited admission, invitations to exhibition previews and special events, discounts on lectures and clay classes, and more.
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