Blog

Heidi McKenzie is a Toronto-based ceramic artist. In 2009, she apprenticed in her father’s ancestral home of India under the mentorship of Mansimran Singh, a student of the acclaimed British studio potter, Bernard Leach. McKenzie’s new exhibition in the Gardiner Shop, Family Matters, speaks to her family’s histories through photographic imagery coupled with abstract representation.

Dr. Cheryl Thompson writes about Hair We Are, a Community Arts Space exhibition that explores self-care and beauty through the eyes of racialized young women and girls.

Historically associated in the West with the decorative and the domestic, ceramics has long been regarded as a feminized practice with a particularly strong queer dimension because of its status as a subaltern to painting and sculpture.

As the Senior Curator of RBC’s art collection, Corrie Jackson knows her way around great art—which is why we’re thrilled to have her on board as the Art Director for SMASH: Nourish, our summer art party in support of the Gardiner.

Meet this year’s Community Arts Space partners, and get a sneak peek at what they’ll be bringing to the Gardiner this summer.

Ai Weiwei has been using LEGO bricks as a medium since 2007. He appreciates the accessibility and ubiquity of the bright, colourful bricks, stating: “As an artist, I always avoid [making] my art too ‘arty’ or too ‘high’ taste. [I] want my art to be fresh, to be understood by children.”

A short conversation between artist Ai Weiwei and his close friend and collector Larry Walsh.

As part of the Ai Weiwei: Unbroken publication, we invited curator and artist Henry Heng Lu to respond to Ai Weiwei’s Han Dynasty Vases with Auto Paint, 2015.

SMASH, the Gardiner Museum’s annual summer art party, returns on Wednesday June 26.

As part of the Ai Weiwei: Unbroken publication, we invited Toronto City Councillor and human rights activist Kristyn Wong-Tam to respond to Ai’s artwork Blue and White Porcelain Plate (Crossing the Sea), 2017.