The Gardiner Museum’s Ceramic Sculpture Competition is challenging artists from across the country working in all mediums to create a new Toronto landmark using clay. The monumental sculpture will be installed in front of the Museum on Queen’s Park, along the busy Bloor and Avenue Road Corridor, joining the Jun Kaneko “head” as a focal point of the Museum’s plaza.
The work will be unveiled on Queen’s Park next summer, coinciding with Canada’s 150th.
The winning sculpture will be selected by a five-person jury made up of artist and novelist, Douglas Coupland; Director of the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Gaëtane Verna; Associate Dean of OCAD University, Michael Prokopow; Gardiner CEO and Executive Director, Kelvin Browne; and Gardiner Chief Curator, Meredith Chilton.
The competition will promote the benefits of public art, and demonstrate both the versatility of clay and its potential for outdoor art. It will also build appreciation for artists who work in the ceramic medium and encourage artists to experiment with it for the first time.
The Museum will announce the winner in September, 2016.
THE FINALISTS:
Shary Boyle
Shary Boyle works across diverse media, including sculpture, painting, installation, and performance. Boyle represented Canada with her project Music for Silence at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. Her work is exhibited and collected internationally, and is currently on display in Ceramix: Art and Ceramics from Rodin to Schütte, at Cité de la ceramique, Sèvres, and la Maison Rouge in Paris. She lives in Toronto.
Cracked by Shary Boyle
Christopher Reid Flock and Sin-Ying Ho
Christopher Reid Flock majored in English literature and violin at the University of Western Ontario before discovering clay. After mentoring with Canadian ceramist Kayo O’Young in 1998 and studying at the Sheridan College School of Ceramic Design, Reid moved to Ibaraki, Japan where he lived and studied ceramics for nine years. He returned to Canada in 2009 and established his studio practice in Hamilton.
Sin-Ying Ho holds an Honors Diploma from the Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and an MFA from Louisiana State University. Ho has lectured and exhibited across Canada and the USA. Many of her pieces are in permanent collections of museums. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Queens College, City University of New York.
Link by Christopher Reid Flock and Sin-Ying Ho
Linda Swanson and Paul Holmquist
Linda Swanson is an artist whose interests are grounded in the metamorphic nature of ceramic materials and processes. Her raw and kiln fired ceramic works have been exhibited internationally. She currently teaches Studio Arts at Concordia University.
Paul Holmquist is a designer, teacher, architectural historian, and theorist. His research concerns architecture as constitutive of the public realm through the engagement of the senses, emotions, imagination, and conscience, as well as the political implications of technological and poetic modes of architectural practice. He currently teaches Architectural Design and Theory at Carleton University.
Grotta by Linda Swanson and Paul Holmquist
Brendan Tang
Brendan Tang was born in Dublin, Ireland of Trinidadian parents and is a naturalized citizen of Canada. Tang has lectured at conferences and academic institutions across North America, and his professional practice has also taken him to India, Europe, and Japan. He dedicates his full attention to his professional art practice in Vancouver, where he explores the interface between culture and material.
Re:Solve by Brendan Lee Satish Tang
The Gardiner is grateful to La Fondation Emmanuelle Gattuso for commissioning the artwork and to the City of Toronto for their support of the Ceramic Sculpture Competition, and would like to recognize Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam and Emmanuelle Gattuso, in particular, for their leadership in helping this important civic initiative to proceed.