The Gardiner is now open from Thursday - Sunday, including free weekend admission! There's plenty of space to reconnect and amazing art to discover in all corners of the Museum. Clay Restaurant is still open Tuesday - Sunday. Reservations fill up fast, so book your table early. Please read our new health and safety policies before you visit.
From sticky to crusty, pliable to powdery, and shaped to shapeless, clay’s ability to transform in real time is prompting a new generation of artists to explore the possibilities of this ancient material. RAW features new work by four artists who are pushing boundaries with unfired clay: Cassils, Magdolene Dykstra, Azza El Siddique, and Linda Swanson. See it now!
We're firing up the kilns again! Join us on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 - 3 pm for drop in clay classes in our pottery studios. We've reduced our class sizes to allow for safe physical distancing, and instituted new health and safety protocols. Registration opens online at 10 am on the morning of the class. We can't wait to see you back in the studios!
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!
As we begin to welcome visitors back to the Gardiner, we need your support to continue offering innovative and engaging exhibitions, programs, and community projects on site and online. Make a donation and 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