Jury
Mary-Beth Laviolette, Canmore
Mary-Beth Laviolette is a free-lance curator currently working on shows for the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (Banff), the Triangle Gallery of the Visual Arts (Calgary) and the Okotoks Art Gallery. She was formerly a Senior Curator of Art at the Glenbow Museum, and is the author of two books on Alberta art and fine craft.
Les Manning, Medicine Hat
Les Manning’s artistic career spans 40 years, from studio potter to senior arts administrator. He was president of the Alberta’s Potters Association, the first president of the Canadian Craft Council and is one of the founders of the Alberta Craft Council. Les was recently honoured with an Alberta ”Centennial Medal” for his contribution to Alberta Arts and Society. Les is the former Artistic Director/Coordinator of the ceramics residency art the historic Medalta Potteries in Medicine Hat.
Virgina Stephen, Edmonton
As the Executive Director, Liberal Studies, Faculty of Extension at University of Alberta, Virginia Stephen brings over 25 years of experience as an arts educator, museum educator and senior arts administrator. As an educator, artist, writer and curator, her focus has been to facilitate individual and group interaction with art by enriching ways of knowing, interacting with the world and other people, and achieving innovation with students, adults, and corporate groups.Virginia holds a MA in Visual and Performing Arts Education and undergraduate degrees in both Art History and Arts Education.
Mary-Beth LAVIOLETTE
Canmore, Alberta
As a juror for CLAY 2010, it was informative and also a pleasure to be involved in the task of choosing many new ceramic works for the collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Given the AFA’s long association and support of this medium, the addition of 70 works by 37 artists will make this collection all the more richer and comprehensive. For that investment and recognition of the importance of ceramic art in the Alberta scene, I applaud the Foundation’s generosity and continuing commitment. In addition, kudos to the Alberta Craft Council for organizing CLAY 2010 in a professional and fair manner.
It was nearly forty years ago in 1972, that the Foundation was established under the newly elected government of Peter Lougheed. I am not certain which pieces were the first to be acquired for the collection but I do know that within a few short years, works of fired clay were included in national and international travelling exhibitions organized by the Foundation. In one 1975 review, a London critic highlighted Walter Drohan’s Bottle No.3, Ed Drahanchuk’s “elegantly finished” Lidded Jar and a “ Raku Pot of splendidly archaic feeling by Mary Shannon Will.”
Today, even more can be said, given the range and excellence of what was submitted to CLAY 2010. Not only was the competition cross-generational but even multi-generational; a reflection of a clay scene that continues to widen and mature. Senior artists like John Chalke, Jim Etzkorn, Connie Pike, Carol and Richard Selfridge, Barbara Tipton and Sam Uhlick gave a solid showing.
Evident, as well, in work submitted by Ed Bamiling, John Borrowman, Jim Marshall, Shirley Rimer and Diane Sullivan was the promise of new directions. Instructors too, came forth with some strong ideas matched by material resolution. They are Trudy Golley of Red Deer College and Katrina Chaytor, Alberta College of Art + Design.
In the work of Bradley Keys and Brian McArthur, as a juror I was delighted with how a sense of place could be expressed without cliché. Ditto for Dawn Detarando, inspired as she was by the Australian environment, and Shirley Rimer, whose residencies in China gave her new forms. There was also the new and unfamiliar, (at least for me), which gave pause and a hearty response in the positive. This includes Dale Lerner, Lucia Atanase, Ruth-Anne French, Stephanie Jonsson and Linda Willard. Each submission was entirely different from each other in terms of content and means of expression but in the pieces chosen, they were materially resolved, visually engaging and able to take the viewer’s imagination into another domain.
Over the years, acquisitions for the AFA Art Collection have been guided by the idea that Alberta artists “may be encouraged through the purchase of their art”; that the citizens of the province “may enjoy the art created”, and that such work is “preserved as part of the cultural heritage” of Alberta. To those successful CLAY 2010 applicants, (including those that are not mentioned in above): Congratulations.
Les MANNING
Medicine Hat, Alberta
CLAY 2010, is an impetus of a grand proportions within the Alberta ceramics community. The creation of this Exhibition and Acquisition is an ambitious collaboration of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts in consort with the Alberta Craft Council. Such a meaningful support certainly helps to define the significance of fine craft. Collections of this caliber provide the foundation that all art disciplines require to demonstrate the high quality and influence brought about by their very existence, as well as the talent of the artist who creates them. In doing so, they substantiate their unquestionable value for a broader audience.
The works selected for this particular exhibition are, as it should be, a very eclectic group of objects. The final choices were decided on for both their quality and the jury`s intent to illustrate the broad spectrum of ceramic creativity in the province at this juncture: 2010. The artists included in the exhibition represent a scale from emerging artists to those in the upper echelon of the field – the masters. It is essential that we gather a large number of these works without borders to fully realize the skill, power and diversity of the many aesthetic notions from the functional to the abstract, the narrative and conceptual. No doubt the range of expression has been influenced by ceramic art history and contemporary ideas. This obviously includes Alberta`s landscape, its history and the global immigration that has transformed our provincial culture.
This traveling exhibition will allow many Albertans to witness the event in person. Touring such a large group of art objects is a major undertaking, but it is imperative in that the audiences are reminded that ceramic art in Alberta is alive and well. Our young people need opportunities to see exhibitions of this kind in order to realize that art, as an occupation, is a real and thought-provoking challenge career. Craft and the result of the maker`s work are a very real test and testimonial of the hand and eye skills that have produced some of the most celebrated and cherished art objects in human existence.
Virginia STEPHEN
Edmonton, Alberta
It is very difficult to get the ceramics bug out of your system. Once you have experienced the visceral pleasure of getting your hands into cool, wet clay to wedge it and form it by hand or on a wheel; practiced the science and serendipity of mixing glazes and the application of colour to greenware; or felt the breath-holding anticipation while the heat of the kiln does its magic (or mayhem) you are hooked. It has been over 30 years since I have made a pot or fired a kiln but the thirst to purchase, visit, collect for a public art museum (and myself), or to curate an exhibition of ceramics has not abated. No wonder there was no hesitation on my part when asked to be on the selection jury for CLAY 2010.
Over the years I have had the privilege to meet artists, and visit studios, shops, exhibitions and teaching faculties across the country as well as abroad. When I moved to Alberta 9 years ago, one of the things I looked forward to was revisiting the Alberta based ceramic artists whom I had met in person or through their work and to meet the many others I knew must be here. I have not been disappointed. Standing amongst the submissions to this project I couldn’t help but acknowledge once again that the work produced in Alberta stands up strongly against that made anywhere else. Around me was work that demonstrated absolute technical command of the medium; used the medium with invention; reflected understanding of the aesthetic and functional traditions of clay here and around the world, now and throughout history; was simple in its elegance or just plain wacky in subject and execution; made strong (or very subtle) statements about place, people, environment, ideas or things; took liberties with and gave respect to conventions; but most of all expressed the breadth and depth of ceramics practice here.
It has indeed been a pleasure and honour to meet Brian McArthur’s mom and dad through the eyes, hands and heart of their son; to see up close, Lucia Antanse’s lustrous porcelain tapestries; to experience the stunning contrast between John Borrowman’s elegant melon bowl and the crystalline glaze on its top surface; and to ‘un-pack’ Katrina Chaytor’s multi-sectional flower holder, each piece of which is an exquisite work unto itself. Dawn Dentarando and Fran Cuyler’s sassy crows, Mary Swain’s winter ravens, and the various mythical and invented ‘creatures’ of Stephanie Jonsson or Dale Lerner cause reflection on the everyday and the imagined. Even the pots, vases, cups, teapots and plates express a narrative not only of ceramic art in Alberta today but also tell stories in their decoration or form, whether they have the stripped down elegance of Neil Liske’s teapot or Joe Reid’s lidded jar; or they have the ‘out there’ weightiness of Barbara Tipton’s cups and saucers; or their surfaces portray a mountain landscape, fruits and flowers, or pattern.
It is impossible to mention all thirty-seven artists in this short piece, much as I would want to, but to all I say thank you and stand proud.