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January 15 2012
Rangifer Sapiens
Please join me for the opening reception of my exhibition Rangifer Sapiens at the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador, on Saturday February 4 at 2pm. The exhibition will feature sculptures inspired by my sojourn on the isolated Grey Islands on the north coast of Newfoundland. The exhibition runs from February 4 to March 11. For details about the exhibition visit the Craft Council Gallery, and to learn more about the art click here.
November 15 2011
Rangifer Sapiens
Here are a couple images of new work I just pulled from the kiln for my upcoming exhibition Rangifer Sapiens. The show opens in February of next year, which is three months away but coming up fast nonetheless. I will post the details about dates and location before long, but for now I just wanted to post some teaser photos.
July 12 2011
New Work
I just pulled a piece out of the kiln that I thought I should post on here. It's the first of a new body of work that I'm doing for a show at the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador next winter. The works in the show are going to be sculptures combining caribou antlers and pottery shards, and experimenting with or swapping the surfaces on those two objects. In this piece the antler is decorated like blue and white pottery, while the tea cup is made to look weathered like an old antler. I don't think I've pulled it all together yet, but this is the idea of where I'm going. I should also mention that while antlers and pottery shards are objects that I've found during my adventures on the Grey Islands these sculptures are entirely fabricated from a low fire white earthenware clay. Yes, I've been making pottery and breaking it to use in these sculptures, and I've had to teach myself how to make the long spindly antlers out of a material that really doesn't like to be treated in that way. It's been a challenge for sure.
June 23 2011
New Pottery
I don't exactly make a ton of pottery, but I do enjoy it so I often look for excuses to get myself at the wheel. This time around I'm testing a local clay that I've been digging by making pottery with it. This clay is not too far away, just across the bay, and I can go over there and dig as much as I want. I've taken my class there, and several of my students have gotten quite into using this material. It's a typical terra cotta clay, but as I've never used a native clay before I'm pretty excited about it. It's a very pure, fine grained, medium plasticity clay that can actually be used for sculpture straight out of the ground. For use on the wheel I process it minimally - I dry it out completely, then slake it down into a slip, and then pass it through an 80 mesh sieve to remove the lumps and organic material. Then I just dry it out to the right consistency and put it straight on the wheel. Here are a couple pieces that I've made out of the clay:
I've also tried a few slips, glazes and terra sigillatas with this clay, but I don't have too much to report in that regard yet.
June 23 2011
Two Projects From My Class
This spring I've been teaching a course at the Grenfell called VART 3500 Combined Media in Ceramic Sculpture. We've got two projects from this class on public display. The first, Ceramics and Social Engagement, is an exercise in pottery, intervention and social media - you can see the blog for the project at http://ceramicsandsocialengagement.blogspot.com. The second, a display decorated pottery can be seen at the Ferris Hodgett Library at Grenfell:
Albarello
The Albarello is a pottery form common to the Mediterranean region from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. Most commonly used by apothecaries as drug jars, they were also used for many other mercantile purposes. The distinctive concave sides are an ergonomic feature that enable a jar to be easily taken off of a crowded shelf.
June 22 2011
Interview
From The Independent
May 1 2011
Two Shows
See my work in two shows currently happening in St. John's - Patrick: A Celebration at the Arts and Culture Centre and Blue at the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador. Patrick is an exhibition of figure studies of Patrick Brown, a model who has worked with many artists in St. John's over the years. I have two pieces in the show, one small clay figure I laboured over for weeks, and another huge lifesize figure I made in twenty-four hours during the Eastern Edge Art Marathon. Both these pieces come from around 2003 or 2004. In the Blue exhibition I have a new earthenware bowl. This is the first time I've exhibited a piece of pottery in many years.
April 20 2011
Sobey Art Award Long List
April 15, 2011 - HALIFAX, NS - The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and the Sobey Art Foundation are pleased to announce the long list for the 2011 Sobey Art Award, Canada’s pre-eminent prize for contemporary Canadian art. Following a three-month nomination process, the Curatorial Panel has announced the 25 artists vying for this year’s Award.
"The Sobey Art Award offers a wonderful opportunity for dialogue about the currents in Canadian contemporary Art. From the diversity of practice and place in this year’s longlist we can see how vibrant Canada’s arts community truly is."
- Sarah Fillmore, Chief Curator, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and Curator, Sobey Art Award.
The 2011 Long List
Atlantic:
Zeke Moores
Kym Greeley
John Haney
Michael Flaherty
Becka Viau
Quebec:
Jérôme Havre
Chris Kline
Emanuel Licha
Nadia Myre
Manon De Pauw
Ontario:
Aleesa Cohene
Christian Giroux and Daniel Young
Derek Sullivan
Gareth Long
Josh Thorpe
Prairies and the North:
Denton Fredrickson
Sarah Anne Johnson
Dave and Jenn
Wally Dion
Dominique Rey
West Coast:
Sonja Ahlers
James Nizam
Helen Reed
Charles Stankievech
Joseph Tisiga
The shortlist for the 2011 Sobey Art Award will be announced in May 2011. Selected work by the shortlisted artists will be featured in an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, on view from September, 17 2011 to January 8, 2012. The winner will be announced during a Gala event at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia on October 13, 2011.
The 2011 Sobey Art Award Curatorial Panel consists of:
Bruce Johnson, Curator at the Rooms Provincial Art Gallery
Gaëtane Verna, Director and Chief Curator, Musée d'art de Joliette
Marnie Fleming, Curator of Contemporary Art, Oakville Art Galleries
Ryan Doherty, Curator, Southern Alberta Art Gallery
Mary Bradshaw, Gallery Director, Yukon Arts Centre
About The Sobey Art Award
The Sobey Art Award, Canada’s pre-eminent award for contemporary Canadian art, was created in 2002 by the Sobey Art Foundation. It is an annual prize given to an artist under 40 who has exhibited in a public or commercial art gallery within 18 months of being nominated. A total of $70,000 in prize money is awarded annually; $50,000 to the winner and $5,000 to the other four finalists. Since its inception, the Sobey Art Award and accompanying exhibition have been organized and administered by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
April 1 2011
Glaze Calculator
I just finished work on the first version of a glaze calculation spreadsheet. In case this may be of interest to you other technical nerds out there I'm posting it here (Glaze Calculator) for you to download. If you'd like to comment or complain about it just shoot me an email at ceramicfundamentalist@yahoo.com
February 10 2011
Website Renovations!
If you've been here before you may notice a slightly different look and updated content. If you've never been here before you may still notice inconsistent formatting and a few other issues. I'm currently working on a major content update and a minor design update which I hope to have completed in the next couple weeks. This update will make it possible to access all my media from one page, and it will integrate my Grey Islands and Bicycle Rehabilitation Project online resources more seamlessly. At least that is the idea. Check back soon to see this website at its best.
January 15 2011
Visiting Artist: Jim Smith
January 20-21 2011
Grenfell Campus welcomes artist Jim Smith for a two-day workshop including studio demonstrations and lectures. Participants welcome, contact Mike Flaherty for details: mflaherty@swgc.mun.ca
November 11 2010
Exhibition: Mixer
Nov 13 2010 to Jan 8 2011
Opening Reception Saturday Nov 13 2010 7-9pm
Grenfell Art Gallery presents Mixer, an exhibition of the faculty and staff of the Visual Arts Program at Memorial Univeristy of Newfoundland - Grenfell Campus. Exhibiting artists include Maggie Atkinson, Bruce Bryne, Michael Coyne, Gerard Curtis, Michael Flaherty, Don Foulds, John Graham, Shirley Greer, Matthew Hollett, Barb Hunt, Charlotte Jones, Kent Jones, Pierre LeBlanc, Marlene MacCallum, George Maslov, David Moorish, Ingrid Percy, Chris Short.
