Ceramic chainmaille sculpture by Jason Holley of Newfoundland
This spring week I have been working on a variety of
projects that will bear fruit in the coming months. Rarely do I get the opportunity to work on only one thing at
a time…that's real life isn't it?
We all live there.
This is what I'd like to share with you this week: an
upcoming ceramics symposium in Halifax.
I am really looking forward to this. Why? For one: I get to work with some dynamite
colleagues of mine. Like Sandra
Alfoldy the reigning queen of Canadian craft theory and the current curator of
ceramics at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; Rachel Gotlieb the
tell-it-like-it-is new curator of contemporary ceramics at the Gardiner Museum
of Ceramic Art in TO; and Robin Metcalfe, my favourite, fearless bad boy of the
curatorial world, who is the director and curator at Saint Mary's University
Art Gallery, and the venue for the next stop on the Alexandra McCurdy
tour.
One of Alexandra McCurdy's prints from her lingerie series. Working on this show gave me a whole new appreciation of the evolution of feminism.
Reason number two: The collections and shows that I will get to see. Sandra A
will be showing us her new toys or recent acquisitions at the AGNS. St. Mary's
will have a little jewel box of a show of historical ceramics and the opening
of the McCurdy show will be one of the events as well. Alex and I have worked out a walk and
talk where we bounce back and forth from the artist's perspective and the
curator's perspective. Believe me
they aren't the same. But like yin
and yang they fit together.
Reason number three: the talks, I am looking forward to hearing the presentations
of my colleagues, catching up on shop talk, conspiring for the future and
making my own presentation, which will be about contemporary ceramic practice
in my home province of Newfoundland and Labrador. I have seen such growth in the field of ceramics within NL
since 1993. It is staggering. Yeah team!
See you there.
Planted Pots:
Ceramics in Context
A Symposium
NSCAD University, Bell
Auditorium
Friday, 25 May 2012
Co-presented by NSCAD
University, Craft Division &
Saint
Mary's University Art Gallery
Planted Pots:
Ceramics in Context examines
issues associated with ceramics on display in Halifax this May: how social
realities such as immigration and the status of women in mid-century Canada are
reflected in the development of ceramics, particularly in Atlantic Canada, and
the introduction of European Modernist aesthetics to local ceramics practice.
Exhibited works include mid-century ceramics by immigrant couples (Alma &
Ernst Lorenzen; Erica & Kjeld Deichmann), contemporary works by
trans-Atlantic immigrants such as Roman Bartkiw and Alexandra McCurdy, and
ceramics by emerging Atlantic ceramists such as Jason Holley.
An opening reception for
the symposium will begin at 6:00 pm on Thursday, 24 May at Saint Mary's
University Art Gallery, in conjunction with the opening of the exhibitions The
Fabric of Clay: Alexandra McCurdy
(a collaboration with Burlington Art Centre; curator: Gloria Hickey) and Lorenzen
Pottery: 50 Years in the Making
(curator: Victor Owen).
Symposium Schedule
1:00 pm Welcome
& opening remarks – Robin Metcalfe, Director/Curator, Saint Mary's
University Art Gallery
1:15 pm Married
to Pottery: a presentation by
Rachel Gotlieb, Senior Curator, Gardiner Museum, on mid 20th Century European
immigrant ceramists in Canada who worked collaboratively as husband and wife
2:15 pm Coffee
break
2:30 pm Clay
on the Rock: Critic & curator
Gloria Hickey on contemporary ceramics in Newfoundland & Labrador
3:30 pm Wrap
up – Dr Sandra Alfoldy, Professor of Craft History & Chair, Historical and
Critical Studies, NSCAD University and Associate Curator of Fine Craft, Art
Gallery of Nova Scotia
4:00 pm Sandra
Alfoldy will give a Curator’s Tour
of ceramics on exhibit at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, including work by
Jason Holley and Roman Bartkiw, and a special peek at recently acquired works
by Erica and Kjeld Deichmann.
5:00 pm Social
time: open for participants to
avail themselves of the many bars and restaurants in downtown Halifax
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