Blog

An update from Chief Curator Sequoia Miller on the Gardiner’s ongoing anti-racism, anti-oppression, and equity work.

This year in celebration of International Women’s Day, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favourite Canadian contemporary women ceramic artists to follow on Instagram. It’s a great reminder that much of the most exciting talent in the field is right in our own backyard.

In July of 2020, students in a “Poetry and Pottery” seminar held virtually at the 92Y Unterberg Poetry Centre in New York City wrote original poems based on the objects in our online exhibition Women and Ceramics. Curator Karine Tsoumis selected a few of her favourite compositions to share on our blog.

When we closed our doors for the first time in March 2020 as a result of COVID-19 , the Gardiner Shop was in the midst of a retail exhibition by German-born abstract artist Katja van den Enden. Last month, Van den Enden returned to the Shop with a new series of work inspired by the pandemic. In a recent interview with the artist, she offered insight into her process, her relationship with clay, and what she’s working on next.

In March 2020, the Gardiner acquired 52 objects of African village pottery from the Harmsen Collection. The Collection, which dates to the early 1960s, is a snapshot of traditional modes of production that have changed considerably since it was formed, particularly with the introduction of plastics. It also brings greater diversity and perspective to the Gardiner’s collection of modern and contemporary ceramics, in which Black artists and artists of colour are underrepresented.

Last year the Gardiner acquired a blue-and-white pharmacy jar from Puebla, Mexico dated to the first half of the 18th century. It was made using the same techniques as Italian maiolica, French faience, and Dutch delftware. The history of this object encompasses themes of trade, imperialism, colonization, cross-cultural exchange, and local innovation.

An update from Executive Director & CEO Kelvin Browne and Chief Curator Sequoia Miller on the Gardiner’s ongoing anti-racism, anti-oppression, and equity work.

As we continue to refine our health and safety protocols for staff and visitors, and adjust to reduced weekday admissions, the Gardiner will be adopting new hours to coincide with the periods of highest demand. We will continue to offer free weekend admission into the fall.

This moment of temporary retreat into the private sphere offers us the chance to think about the relationship between the inside and the outside worlds, and the things we consider central to our ways of life. Ceramics from the past highlight the social function of domestic objects and exemplify the ways in which they contribute to identity.

In anticipation of Clay Date on August 25, we talked to featured artist Habiba El-Sayed about her early experiences with ceramics and how she sees raw clay as the perfect medium to express some of the complex emotions we’re all experiencing right now.