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2023: Amy Duval
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery is thrilled to announce that Amy Duval of Medicine Hat, Alberta is the winner of the 2023 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics! Duval will receive the $10,000 prize which will support the development of her career at this critical time. The only national award for emerging ceramic artists in Canada, the Winifred Shantz Award is a prestigious honour. Presented through an ongoing partnership with The Keith & Winifred Shantz Fund for the Arts held at Waterloo Region Community Foundation, winners and finalists of this award are recognized as the best and brightest of the future of Canadian ceramics.
We also celebrate the achievement of the finalists for this year’s award. The jurors have named François Grenier (Chatham, ON), and Brianne Siu (Burnaby, BC) as finalists of the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics, each receiving a prize of $1,000 to further their practice. This summer, the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery will feature the winner and finalists in our awards exhibition, Emergence. The exhibition will provide a rare opportunity for these emerging makers to share their work with an extensive audience while helping to build their careers at a pivotal moment.
Amy Duval
Born and raised in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Amy Duval received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Kwantlen Polytechnic University in 2017 where she focused on large scale ceramic installation based work that combine her various conceptual and technical interests. In 2017 she was accepted as a Ceramic Artist in Residence at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto where she lived and worked for two years. She currently resides in Medicine Hat, Alberta, where she continues her private studio practice while working as the Residency Coordinator at the Shaw Centre for Contemporary Ceramics, an International Artist in Residence Program.
François Grenier
Francois' path to ceramic art is not a typical one. His interest with clay first began with the study of surface treatment. From there, he progressed to hand building as a mean to create a canvas for the dry glazes - the 'crusts'. A large portion of his practice continues to focus on developing dry crusts for clay shapes designed to give life to the materials enrobing them. Francois' research into surface treatment has been transferred into a technical book for the ceramic students, offering a method that demystifies the nature of glazes and allows the learner to work and research raw material independently.
Francois' current focus is an examination of the relationship between texture and form, and how dry glazes can be extended to large figurative installations. His work has been shown in twelve group exhibits and his first solo show is scheduled to open in June 2023.
Brianne Siu
Brianne Siu is an emerging ceramic artist based in Vancouver and has been working in ceramics since 2015. After earning her BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2019, she has gained valuable teaching experience working at various art centres across Metro Vancouver sharing her knowledge and passion for ceramics.
Brianne has worked as a studio assistant to Heather Dahl and learned a lot about her successful business and practice. Brianne has also completed a year-long residency at Medalta in the Historic Clay District in Medicine Hat, Alberta from 2021-2022. Meanwhile, she has been dedicating her time creating a new body of work and continuing to grow as an artist at Nanaimo Ceramic Arts for a 4 month residency. She hopes to continue developing her artistic practice by either continuing residencies or pursuing further education.
The 2023 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics was juried by Elaine Cheasley Paterson, Robin Dupont, and Roswitha Wulff. On making their selection, the jurors state:
“Our 3 finalists for the Winifred Shantz award this year all showed exceptional promise, and we as jurors agreed that we will undoubtedly observe them all contribute to the ceramics community here in Canada in the coming years. Although all three presented solid proposals, Amy Duval rose to the top. Her varied and uninterrupted career path in ceramics since her undergraduate studies, exhibits a maturity and commitment that sets her aside from most artists with this tenure. Amy has both built a career for herself while meaningfully contributing to our community through exhibition, teaching, public presentations and working in arts administration.”
Elaine Cheasley Paterson
Dr. Elaine Cheasley Paterson is Professor of Craft Studies in the Department of Art History at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Concordia University in Montréal. Her research concerns women's cultural philanthropy in early 20th century craft guilds of the home arts movement and for tracing a lineage from this historical material to current expressions of craft. A new line of her research focusses on education, settlement, social benevolence and imperial philanthropy (through the migration of people, craft practices and objects) in early twentieth-century Britain and Canada. Some of her publications include Craft and Heritage: Intersections in Critical Studies and Practice (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021), a special issue on Identity, Craft, Marketing of the Journal of Canadian Art History (2018), and Sloppy Craft: Postdisciplinarity and the Crafts (2015) with Susan Surette.
Robin Dupont
Robin DuPont is a ceramic artist and educator specializing in atmospheric firing techniques. His work is an inquiry into the ceramic process and the relational aspects of useful objects.
With a Masters Degree from Utah State University, Robin has also participated in several artist-in-residence programs, research and work studies abroad and has professional experience in kiln building and teaching at the post secondary level.
Roswitha Wulff
Roswitha Wulff was born in Tabrize, Iran but spent her early childhood with her mother, potter Helma Klett, in Germany. She came to Australia at the age of eight. In 1964, she obtained a ceramics certificate from the East Sydney Technical College. From 1964-65, she worked with Robin Welch and Ian Sprague at Sprague's Mungeribar Pottery in Upper Beaconsfield, VIC. In 1966 she worked at the Sturt Pottery in Mittagong, NSW under Les Blakebrough. Between 1967 and 1969 she travelled overseas, spending 6 monthe with Robin Welch after his return to England and 9 months as a full-time thrower at Briglin Pottery, London, as well as working in potteries in Denmark and Germany. From 1969-70, she worked in North-West Pakistan as a research scholar for the Smithonian Institute and the University of NSW. Returning to Australia in 1970, she set up a workshop in Paddington, NSW, with the help of an Australia Council grant and taught part-time at the East Sydney Technical College and the Willoughby Workshop Art Centre. Since then she has been a lecturer and Head of Ceramics in many institutions, including the National Art School. In the 1990s, she moved her studio to Botany Bay, NSW, where she still lives and works.
Emergence 2023 | Winifred Shantz Award Digital Brochure
2022: Matthew O’Reilly
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery is thrilled to announce that Matthew O’Reilly of Medicine Hat, Alberta is the winner of the 2022 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics! O’Reilly will receive the prestigious $10,000 prize, which will support the development of his career through an artist residency and future exhibition projects in Canada and the United States. The only national award for emerging ceramic artists in Canada, the Shantz Award has supported more than twenty artists since it was first presented in 2001.
We also celebrate the achievement of this year’s finalists: Katie Lemieux (Thunder Bay, ON), Alana MacDougall (Winnipeg, MB), Heidi McKenzie (Toronto, ON), Rebecca Ramsey (Montreal, QC), and Daumante Stirbyte (London, ON). Each finalist will also receive a prize of $1,000 to support the development of their artistic practices.
This fall, the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery will feature Matthew O’Reilly and the finalists in our awards exhibition, Emergence, along with the RBC Award for Glass winner and finalists. The exhibition will provide a rare opportunity for these emerging makers to share their work with an extensive audience while helping to build their careers at a pivotal moment.
The 2022 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics was juried by Robin DuPont, Kevin Andrew Morris, and Susan Surette. On the selection of this year’s winner and finalists, the jury states:
“The range of exciting and excellent ceramic work executed by all the finalists for the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics reveals the wide range of professional practices that are undertaken today. Matthew O’Reilly demonstrates a strong commitment to the values embodied in the Shantz Award. He engages with his medium from strong material, technical, and conceptual bases, which he has consistently explored and developed through a graduate degree and residencies, and he has maintained a sound exhibition presence. This award supports his clearly defined residency project that will enhance his professional practice. The jury has no doubt that Matthew O’Reilly will continue to contribute to the Canadian contemporary ceramic art scene through his research into analogue and digital clay and we look forward to seeing how his artistic and professional practice develops through this opportunity.”
Katie Lemieux (Thunder Bay, ON)
Katie Lemieux was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario. She holds an Honours in Fine Arts, Ceramics from Lakehead University in 2016 and a Masters in Fine Arts from the Peck School of the Arts in Milwaukee, WI USA (2019). Katie’s work has allowed her to travel to China, where she completed a 6-week residency at the renowned Jingdhezhen facility in the province of Sanbao. She was later accepted into an exhibition in Croatia, EU, where she met the head of the Graduate program at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Since her Masters, Katie has moved back home to Thunder Bay, continuing her research in non-verbal communication as both an artist and PSW.
Alana MacDougall (Winnipeg, MB)
Working primarily in ceramic sculpture and drawing, Alana MacDougall explores ideas around the body, communication, and the abstract nature of medical imagery. Her work focuses on the vulnerability of the body and the psychological impact of the familiar appearing foreign. MacDougall holds a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) from the University of Manitoba and a Master of Fine Art from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. She has exhibited in Canada, the United States, and Australia and has taught at the University of Manitoba since 2018.
Heidi McKenzie (Toronto, ON)
Heidi McKenzie is a Toronto-based ceramic artist. Heidi is informed by her mixed-race Indo-Trinidadian/Irish-American heritage. Her work seeks to reinvigorate modernism through abstraction and engages issues of race, identity, ancestry, archive, and migration as well as body and healing. The recipient of numerous awards, Heidi has exhibited internationally. As an artist in residence, Heidi has worked in China, Indonesia, Hungary, Denmark, and Canada. Heidi participated in the World Indian Diaspora Congress in Trinidad, 2020, and her upcoming solo exhibition at the Gardiner Museum, (spring 2023) continues to explore the little-known histories of Indo-Caribbean indentureship through a feminist lens.
Matthew O'Reilly (Medicine Hat, AB)
Matthew O’Reilly is an emerging artist who recently completed his MFA in ceramics at the Alberta University for the Arts in Calgary, AB, Canada. He also holds an Honors Bachelor of Fine Arts, a Bachelor of Education, and a Masters in Education with a specialization in social justice from LakeHead University. He is a passionate educator, as well as a formidable maker. Matthew was a year-long 2021-2022 artist in residence at the Medalta Clay Center in Medicine Hat, Alberta, where he developed new bodies of work concerning the tension between individuals and collectives. Matthew intends to further explore these ideas and their relationship to digital media during a residency at the Clay Studio of Missoula.
Rebecca Ramsey (Montreal, QC)
Rebecca Ramsey uses ceramics and other materials to explore questions pertaining to energy and matter. She has a BFA from ECUAD (2017) and is currently an MFA candidate at Concordia University. She has completed residencies at Guldagergaard: Project Network (Skælskør, Denmark, 2017), Medalta (Medicine Hat, AB, 2018) and the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts (Burnaby, BC, 2018). Exhibitions include Ung Keramisk Kunst: Projekt Netværk (Guldagergaard, Skælskør, Denmark,) L-abri-désir (Projet Casa, Montreal, 2021), Points de Bascule (Centre Clark, Montreal, 2022). She is grateful for receiving support from Concordia’s fellowship program, the BC Arts Council, and Artch Montreal.
Daumante Stirbyte (London, ON)
Daumante Stirbyte was born and raised in Lithuania. She moved to Ireland in 2007, where she graduated from the National College of Art and Design in 2016 with a BDes (Hons). Dauma was an international artist in residence at the London Clay Art Centre (Canada) from 2017 to 2020, where she also taught sculpture classes. In 2018 Dauma was named Best in Show at Fusion’s Emerging Artist exhibition. Represented by The Benz Gallery (London, ON), and the Wall Space Gallery (Ottawa, ON). Dauma currently works from her home studio in London, ON.
Emergence 2022 | Shantz Award Digital Brochure
2021: Jocelyn Reid
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery is excited to announce that Jocelyn Reid of Calgary, Alberta has won the 2021 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics. The finalists of the award are Mitsuo Kimura (Toronto, ON), Matthew O’Reilly (Calgary, AB), and Jessica Sallay-Carrington (Montreal, QC).
Jocelyn Reid is a ceramic and mixed media artist from Mohkinstsis (Calgary), Alberta. Reid received her bachelor’s degree from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2013 and has since exhibited her work throughout North America and Europe. Reid has received many awards, including the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Scholarship, as well as individual project grants from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Canada Council for the Arts. Reid has participated in residencies at the Archie Bray Foundation (Montana), The Banff Centre (Alberta), and Guldagergaard ICRC (Skælskør, Denmark). She is currently the Educational Art Technician for Ceramics at the Alberta University of the Arts.
The 2021 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics was juried by Amy Gogarty, Maja Padrov, and Susan Surette. On making their selection, the jurors state:
The jury is pleased to recommend Jocelyn Reid for the Winifred Shantz Award. Her porcelain slip-cast objects are technically well-executed and conceptually strong. Her work exhibits maturity, imagination, and attention to detail in production and presentation. She has demonstrated a lively exhibition record and an on-going commitment to professional development including attendance at a number of national and international artist residencies. Her work has been recognized by professional peers through publications and through scholarships and awards granted on regional, provincial and national levels. Her clear and realistic goals for future research point to her deep commitment to exploring a range of processes involving ceramic materials, which will facilitate further conceptual growth. Jocelyn Reid’s ceramics, professional exhibition and research record, and projected direction embody the spirit and substance of the Winifred Shantz Award.
2020: Joon Hee Kim
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery is pleased to announce that Joon Hee Kim of Oakville, Ontario has won the 2020 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics. The finalists of the award are Magdolene Dykstra (St Catharines, ON), Keeley Haftner, (Den Haag, Netherlands), Grace Han (Coquitlam, BC), Toni Losey (Dartmouth, NS), and Jessica Sallay-Carrington (Montreal, QC).
Our 2020 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics Digital Exhibition featuring the winner and finalists can be viewed by clicking here.
Joon Hee Kim is a Canadian artist originally from Seoul, Korea. As a recipient of the Cecil Lewis Sculpture Scholarship, she completed her MA at the Chelsea College of Arts in London, England. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including a solo exhibition at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery. Her work explores the human existence by examining and reconciling diverse identities and heritages, as well as the compelling forces of beauty and desire.
The 2020 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics was juried by Michele Hardy, Anna-Marie Larsen, and Maja Padrov. On making their selection, the jurors state:
“We are delighted to announce that Joon Hee Kim of Oakville, Ontario, is the recipient of the 2020 Winifred Shantz Award, a prize given annually to an emerging ceramic artist. Kim capably synthesizes subject with masterful technique to produce engaging narratives about the ways ornament, beauty, and heritage can frame a sense of self in a complicated world. Winifred Shantz fiercely believed in nurturing young artists, and equally endorsed travel as an integral aspect of artistic research. Kim intends to use the prize to develop new skills and conceptual directions during a residency at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Japan. The quality of Kim’s production and the clarity of direction expressed in her application resulted in a unanimous decision by the jurors to bestow her with the Winifred Shantz Award.”
2019: Nurielle Stern
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery is pleased to announce that Nurielle Stern of Toronto, Ontario has won the 2019 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics. The finalists of the award are Trevor Baird (Montreal, QC), Naomi Clement (London, ON), Grace Han (Winnipeg, MB), Joon Hee Kim (Oakville, ON), Jocelyn Reid (Calgary, AB) and Zane Wilcox (Regina, SK).
The winner and finalists will be celebrated in a group exhibition which will run from September 21 to November 17, 2019. The opening reception will be held at the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery on Sunday, September 29 at 2:00pm. Award winner Nurielle Stern will provide a brief artist talk during the reception.
Nurielle Stern is a ceramic sculpture and installation artist and a graduate of Alfred University’s renowned MFA program in Ceramic Art (2014). She has also studied ceramics at Sheridan College and holds a BFA in Sculpture and Installation from OCAD University. Stern’s most recent exhibition, Unswept Floor (Tesserae), was commissioned by the Gardiner Museum in response to Ai Weiwei: Unbroken. Stern’s upcoming exhibitions include a collaborative exhibition at the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ontario (with Nicholas Crombach, July-September), and large-scale commission for Gardiner Museum’s new Joan Courtois Gallery to be installed this coming Fall.
The 2019 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics was juried by Pascale Girardin, Michele Hardy and Rory MacDonald. The jury would like to acknowledge a very competitive field of emerging ceramic artists who applied. The jury is unanimous in selecting Nurielle Stern as the recipient of this year’s award. In her work, Stern demonstrates a combination of daring, rich investigation of narrative and subject matter and a mastery of her craft. The jury was impressed with the quality of her strong exhibition production combining work of installation and display as well as the strength of her proposed award project. As part of her project, Stern will produce large-scale ceramic sculptures for exhibition, beginning with her participation in a residency at the California State University Long Beach Center for Contemporary Ceramics.
Since 1996, Pascale Girardin has been investigating clay’s potential both as a signifier and as a device within a broader sculptural practice. Her installations, performances and sculptures stem from her extensive experience in craft, design and visual arts in order to study how know-how and materiality contribute to the development of theoretical knowledge.
Michele A. Hardy is a Curator with Nickle Galleries and Program Coordinator for the Museum and Heritage Studies Program, University of Calgary, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Hardy studied textiles and craft before turning to cultural anthropology (PhD. UBC’03). Her ongoing research examines the changes affecting rural Muslim craftspeople in India as well as changing craft traditions across Asia.
Rory MacDonald is interested in the many roles for ceramics within the practice of craft, design and art concentrating on the development of new public audiences and spaces for contemporary ceramics. MacDonald received his M.F.A from Alfred University (1999) and is currently Associate Professor of Ceramics at NSCAD University, One of the Principals of Craft Institute, Chair of NSCAD Senate.
2018: Lindsay Montgomery
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery is pleased to announce that Lindsay Montgomery of Toronto, Ontario has won the 2018 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics.
The winner was celebrated and the award presented at the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery on Saturday, December 1 at 7:30pm. The ceremony featured brief artist talks by Montgomery as well as Janet Macpherson, who won the Award in 2013. The ceremony was accompanied by a performance from the Penderecki String Quartet to close out the Gallery’s 25th Anniversary Year celebrations.
Lindsay Montgomery works across a variety of media including ceramics, painting and puppetry to create narrative videos, performances and objects. Her work is focused on creating personal mythologies that address a wide range of topics and issues including death and mysticism, family dynamics, and evolving modes of power. She earned a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and received her MFA from the University of Minnesota. Her work has been exhibited in Canada and internationally with exhibitions at The Gardiner Museum for Ceramics, The Archie Bray Foundation, and The National Conference on Education in the Ceramic Arts. She is the recipient of numerous awards including The Helen Copeland Memorial Award, The Joyce Carlyle Memorial Scholarship in the Crafts Endowment, and an individual project grant from The Canada Council for the Arts. She lives and works in Toronto and Montreal and currently teaches at Concordia University.
Lindsay Montgomery plans to participate in an intensive artist residency in the spring of 2019 at Medalta, an industrial contemporary ceramic arts facility, art gallery and community hub in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Medalta’s facilities offer Montgomery the chance to develop her Neo-Istoriato series on a larger scale not possible in her own studio. The Shantz Award will extend Montgomery’s grand prize one-month residency at Medalta into an immersive twelve-week residency which includes teaching workshops alongside research and exploration dedicated to earthenware technologies.
The 2018 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics was juried by Dr. Rachel Gotlieb, Gloria Hickey and Paul Mathieu.
Click the videos below to watch artist talks from both the 2018 winner Lindsay Montgomery and the 2013 winner Janet Macpherson.
2017: Zimra Beiner
The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery is pleased to announce that Zimra Beiner has won the 2017 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics and Montserrat Duran Muntadas has won the 2017 Award for Glass.
The winners were celebrated and awarded at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery on Saturday, January 13. The ceremony featured brief artists talks by each of this year’s winners as well as presentations from the inaugural winner of each award; Susan Collett who won the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics in 2001 and Julia Reimer who won the RBC Award for Glass in 2008.
The winner of the 2017 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics is Zimra Beiner from Toronto, Ontario. Beiner studied ceramics at Sheridan College, NSCAD University and received an MFA from Alfred University in 2012. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and Canada, including exhibitions at the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, Cross Mackenzie Gallery, and the Gardiner Museum. Recent awards include the NCECA Emerging Artist Award, nomination for the RBC Emerging Artist Award in Ceramics, and recent residencies include The Berlin Ceramics Centre, Germany, and Private Studio Jingdezhen, China. He is currently Assistant Professor in ceramics at the Alberta College of Art + Design in Calgary, Canada.
Watch the video of the ceremony here:
2016: Amélie Proulx
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery is pleased to announce that Amélie Proulx has won the 2016 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics.
The winners were celebrated and the awards presented at the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery on November 12, 2016. The ceremony featured brief artist talks by each of this year’s winners as well as presentations from two previous award winners: Marc Egan, who won the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics in 2003 and Benjamin Kikkert who won the RBC Award for Glass in 2012.
The winner of the 2016 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics is Amélie Proulx from Lévis, QC. Proulx is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily with porcelain. She is interested in the possible shifts of meanings in language and in the perception of natural phenomena. She received a BFA from Concordia University in Montreal (2006) and an MFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in Halifax (2010). Her artwork has been presented in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the United States, Australia and France.
In 2013, she received the RBC Emerging Artist People’s Choice Award at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto. She has participated in several residencies, notably at the European Ceramic Work Centre (The Netherlands, 2014) and the Guldargergaard International Ceramic Research Centre (Denmark, 2015). She teaches ceramics and visual arts at La Maison des métiers d’art de Québec and at Cégep de Sainte-Foy. She is represented by Galerie 3 in Quebec City.
Proulx has been chosen for the Arts/Industry Program at the Kohler Company in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. There she will research and produce a new body of work that will convey ideas of technological translations of ceramics. Proulx will use the Shantz Award to prepare for this residency; she will generate 3D printed moulds at the artist-run centre La Chambre Blanche in Quebec City and CNC milled plaster moulds with Epic Welding in Medicine Hat, Alberta.
The Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics was juried by Laura Kukkee, Rory MacDonald and Aaron Nelson.
2015: Alwyn O’Brien
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery is pleased to announce the 2015 Award Winners: Alwyn O’Brien has won the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics.
The winners were celebrated and the awards presented at the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery on November 14, 2015. The ceremony featured brief artist talks by each of this year’s winners as well as presentations from two previous award winners: Kasia Piech, who won the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics in 2008 and Rachel Wong who won the RBC Award for Glass in 2010.
She received her MFA in 2010 from the University of Washington in Seattle and her BFA from Emily Carr Institute. Her work is featured in the collections of the Seattle Art Museum, the Surrey Art Gallery, and the Mackenzie Art Gallery. She divides her time between Saltspring Island, B.C. and Vancouver, where she is currently an instructor at both Emily Carr University of Art and Design and Langara College.
The Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics was juried by Xanthe Isbister, Kelly McCray and Paula Murray.
2014: Christopher Reid Flock
The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery announced the winners of the 2014 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics and RBC Award for Glass at an Awards ceremony held at the Gallery on November 22. The ceremony featured brief artist talks by each of the shortlisted candidates.
The winner of the 2014 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics is Christopher Reid Flock. In his work, Mr. Flock has been reinterpreting the root of functional objects, focusing on aesthetic contrasts and parallels between Japanese and Canadian cultural history.
By exploring scale, colour and the integration of mixed media, his works have evolved into free-form shapes and sculptural constructions that evoke recognizable and classic references of traditional Japanese Ikebana arrangements and kimono-wrapping while combining aspects of western industrialisation. This award will allow Flock to undertake an eight-week residency at the Medalta International Artists in Residence Program at the Historic Clay District in Medicine Hat, Alberta where he plans to increase the scale of his works and explore rapid prototyping technologies.
Jody Greenman-Barber of Buena Vista, Saskatchewan received the second prize. The Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics was juried by Iris Amizlev, Marie Côté and Jonathan Smith.
2013: Janet Macpherson
The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery announced the winners of the 2013 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics and RBC Award for Glass at an Awards ceremony held at the Gallery on November 9.
The winner of the 2013 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics is Janet Macpherson.
Ms. Macpherson began studying ceramics at Sheridan College. For several years, she maintained a studio practice in Toronto before going to Ohio State University where she received her MFA in Ceramics. Her new work has been exhibited extensively across the United States. In 2012, Macpherson held an artist-in-residence/faculty position at Sheridan College and is currently an artist-in-residence at the Craft Studio at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. This award will allow her to undertake a three-month period of work and research at the Zentrum fur Keramik in Berlin, Germany.
Carole Epp of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan received the second prize.
The Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics was juried by Bruce Cochrane, Jennifer Leskiw, Jessica Steinhäuser.
2012: Eliza Au
The winner of the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics is Eliza Au of Richmond, British Columbia. Carole Epp of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan received second prize. The winners were announced at an Awards Ceremony held in Waterloo on October 10, during which guests were treated to an entertaining talk by celebrated artist Jack Sures.
2011: Karine Giboulo
The winner of the 2011 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics is Montreal sculptor Karine Giboulo. Ms. Giboulo’s work has been exhibited throughout Canada and the United States and one of her works Village démocratie is currently on tour in Quebec and Ontario. In 2009, she came in second for IMPULSE, a prize awarded to an emerging artist of distinction featured at the PULSE NY Contemporary Art Fair and her work is in the collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Art. The Award will allow her to do an artist-in-residence in Mumbai and to produce a major new work.
Mr. Clint Neufeld of Osler, Saskatchewan received the Second Prize.
2010: Brendan Tang
The Clay & Glass Gallery is pleased to announce the winners of the 2010 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics and the RBC Award for Glass. These awards mark a significant moment in an artist’s career by supporting the recipients in their research and career aspirations. The awards also recognize the remarkable practices and achievements in contemporary ceramic and glass art in Canada.
Brendan Tang Shantz Award Winner 2010
Rachael Wong RBC Glass Award Winner 2010
2009: Jasna Sokolovic
Ms. Sokolovic uses clay not just to make objects but as a way for developing structures for drawing and painted images. Using images and text she presents thoughts on relationships. Images of two chairs, two birds, titles like “Waiting for You”, “With or With Out You,” show stories of life. There is an element of installation in how she uses the wall and floor and engages the viewer with alternative image sources to tell a story. Her work is an excellent example of contemporary art whose style fit perfectly well to the project she intents to undertake which includes one residency and two researches in Mexico.
“My work has been highly influenced by Mexican traditional art in my choice of colours and imagery, as well as in the way I use them to depict every day stories on ceramic works.” Jasna Sokolivic
2008: Kasia Piech
The Winifred Shantz for Ceramics annual award presents $10,000 to Kasia Piech to conduct research and travel to Spain to study the paintings of Hieronymus Bosh in the Museo del Prado, and participate in a residency in Italy to explore concepts of faith and religion. This research expands on her most recent work entitled “The Garden of Earthly Delights”.
Adjudicating this year’s submissions for the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics were Rosemary Aicher, a potter from Waterloo, Jim Thomson, an Ottawa artist creating in clay since 1973, and Reed Weir, a ceramist from Newfoundland.
Winners were announced at an Award Gala on September 25, 2008. A highlight of the Award Gala was a talk by the notable international Glass/Ceramic artist Peter Layton.
Kasia Piech is a ceramic, mixed media artist. Piech completed her first degree in Religious studies at the University of Windsor in 1992. She obtained a BFA Ceramic Sculpture in 2001 from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC and an MFA, 2003 from the University of Waterloo. In recent work, she utilizes runny glazes that make her sculptural figures look like they are rotting or melting. Piech makes her glazes out of canned food, often goods well past their expiration date. One of the themes she is pursuing is the idea of the world turned upside down.
2007: Rory Macdonald
Winifred Shantz Award 2007 goes to Rory MacDonald.
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery, through support from local patron Winifred Shantz, has named Regina based artist Rory MacDonald winner of this year’s Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramists. MacDonald was awarded a $10,000 prize on Thursday night at a gala event.
Adjudicating this year’s submissions were Marlen Moggach, a potter from Waterloo, Ontario, Mariko Paterson, an artist from Calgary, AB and Steve Smith, a Six Nations artist who is recognized as one of Canada’s most distinguished ceramic artists. Applications for the award were received from across Canada.
Rory MacDonald is an Assistant Professor of Ceramics at the University of Regina. He holds an MFA from Alfred University in New York, and a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Planning to use the award to travel in Canada and Southern France and Northern Italy, MacDonald will create multiple public art interventions and a database and curatorial proposal concentrating on Canadian emerging ceramics. The artist notes that; “the ability to apply this award directly to travel will provide new opportunities to explore the possibilities of mobility in the ceramics process.” The award was presented to MacDonald amongst an audience of visual art and craft professionals and supporters.
Another highlight of the evening was the keynote address by Peter Powning, recipient of the 2006 Saidye Bronfman Award, Canada’s foremost distinction for excellence in craft. He has lived and worked as an artist in the hills of southern New Brunswick since 1970.
2006: Ying-Yueh Chuang
Winifred Shantz Award 2006 goes to Ying-Yueh Chuang
The highly anticipated Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramists was awarded at a gala, invitation-only event tonight at The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery to Ying-Yueh Chuang of Toronto.
Adjudicating this year’s submissions were Stephen Hawes, a potter from Waterloo, ON, Laurie Rolland, a potter from Sechelt, BC and Jack Sures, of Regina, SK, who is recognized as one of Canada’s most distinguished ceramic artists. Applications for the award were received from across Canada.
Ying-Yueh Chuang holds an MFA in Ceramics from NSCAD University, and a BFA in visual arts from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. She has received many grants and awards, and participates in exhibitions internationally. Eleanor Heartney wrote in the June 2004 issue of Art in America that the artist’s “brightly coloured sculptures have the look of deep-sea creatures crossed with exotic vegetables…but despite resemblances to sea anemones and coral, the sculptures are sufficiently mutant to bring to mind the familiar cinematic nightmare of nature gone bad. Meanwhile, the pastel palette conjures elaborate bakery confections. As a result, the metamorphic forms have a simultaneously repellent and enticing effect.”
Ms. Chuang will be using her award to further develop her practice as an artist in residence at the Jingdezhen Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute in China. This program offers a broad range of facilities and will allow the artist to learn different ways of approaching the multiple. “Studying the cultural aspects of creative mass production from the traditional to the contemporary and being able to incorporate that process in my work would be a magnificent opportunity and a turning point in my career.” The artist, with Chinese heritage, was born in Taiwan and studied ceramics in Canada. “The chance to go to one of the only major ceramics centres in China will allow me to reconnect with my cultural roots. Support from the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramists will give me the possibility to embark on this journey, of which I am sincerely grateful.”
Another highlight of the evening was the engaging and dynamic keynote address by Jonathon Bancroft-Snell, owner of the largest commercial ceramic gallery in Canada, Bancroft-Snell Interiors. We are delighted to have Jonathon share his knowledge with us.
2005: Kate Hyde
porcelain, 20 cm h (2000)
Kate Hyde Receives the $10,000 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramists
The Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramists was awarded at a gala event tonight at the The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery to Kate Hyde of Warsaw, Ontario.
Adjudicating this year’s submissions were Karen Fletcher, artist/educator, Stuart Reid, director/curator of the Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery and Maurice Savoie, ceramic sculptor and recipient of the 2004 Saidye Bronfman Award. Applications for the award were received from across Canada.
“My imagination has been engaged since I was a child by clothing, history and theatre,” says Ms. Hyde. “I use historical themes and reference the history of ceramics in my work, for instance Commedia del Arte 18th C. Meissen figures. The clothing in my work is a kind of puzzle: where is the body? The body has vanished, yet its gesture remains and hints about the past.”
Ms. Hyde, who uses porcelain in her work, will be using her award to take up a two-month residency at The International Ceramic Research Centre Guldagergard in Skaelskor, Denmark, alongside related research. “The clarity in use of material and surface treatments and diversity of techniques in Danish design and ceramics are an important influence in my work, particularly with regards to handling of materials and surface treatments.” In Denmark, she will have access to Royal Copenhagen and Limoges porcelains, as well as a wood-fired soda vapour kiln.
2004: Joan Bruneau
Joan Bruneau Receives the $10,000 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramists
The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery is pleased to announce the winner of the 4th annual Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramists. This annual award, funded by the well-known arts philanthropist and craft enthusiast from Kitchener, Ontario, is designed to allow the recipient time for travel, to attend international residencies, or to conduct research that will enrich experience and fortify career aspirations in the field of contemporary ceramics.
Adjudicating this year’s submissions were Judy Donaldson Artist/Educator from Waterloo; Evelyn Grant, Artist and Public Arts Administrator from the City of Calgary and Walter Ostrom, Artist Educator from the Nova Scotia School of Art And Design, Halifax. Applications for the award arrived from across Canada.
A native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Joan has studied and taught her craft in various parts of Canada and the U.S. since 1985. A native of Halifax, she has maintained her ceramic studio and gallery, Nova Terra Cotta, in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia since 1995. She received a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1988 and an MFA from the University of Minnesota in 1993. She has served part-time on the Faculty at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design since 1993 and was Assistant Professor at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver from 1998 to 2002. Joan has taught workshops and has exhibited throughout Canada and the U.S. Her work can be seen in detail at www.joanbruneau.com.
“One of the strongest and most influential of European earthenware traditions is Italian maiolica. My interest in researching earthenware decoration and architectural ornament has lead me to apply for a residency at La Meridiana International Centre for Ceramic Arts, 20km south of Florence, Italy. This residency will enable me to internalize research through the exploration of a body of work and provide hands-on studio time to experiment with new techniques, develop new forms and create contemporary responses to historical models.” – Joan Bruneau
2003: Marc Vincent Egan
2002: Laurent Craste
The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery is pleased to announce the winner of the annual Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramists.
Jonathan Smith, Curator of Collections at the Burlington Art Gallery, Bruce Taylor, ceramic artist and educator from the University of Waterloo and Wendy Walgate, Toronto sculptor, adjudicated this year’s submissions. Applications for the award arrived from across Canada.
This year’s $10,000 award was presented to Laurent Craste, a highly gifted artist from Montreal. Mr. Craste exhibits widely in Canada and has been in three recent international exhibitions. Coincidentally his work is included in AUTOPORTRAIT, the 10th National Biennial of Ceramics currently on view here. In addition to his ceramic expertise, Mr. Craste also holds a Masters in Physiology and Anatomy and a degree in Veterinary Medicine.
Mr. Craste will use his award to travel to Greece to improve his knowledge of the techniques, the iconography, the function and the symbolism of ancient Greek Ceramics. From there he will visit and be mentored by two famous Italian ceramic artists, Nino Caruso and Luigi Mainolfi. He hopes to do a collaborative work with Luigi Mainolfi.
“I am very much honoured and delighted to be the recipient of the 2002 Winifred Shantz Award. This prestigious and generous prize will allow me to achieve important projects that will stimulate my artwork and career development”. – Laurent Craste
2001: Susan Collett
Artist’s Statement:
I was drawn to apply for the Winifrid Shantz Award for Ceramists in order to focus my time to secure the future of my sculptural works. My concepts involve clay in conjunction with nichrome wire. As stimulating and challenging as the demands of running my art business can be, at times it depletes rather than fulfills the inspiration needed to simply create.
The proposal to work for an intensive period in the Ceramic Arts/Industry program at the Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin, USA, will place me in an internationally renowned atmosphere to create sculpture within its factory, offering the artist exposure to glaze research laboratories, brass/iron foundries, enameling facilities and industrial pottery studios. The beauty of this valuable award lies in the freedom to realize my imagined goals and raise my sights in learning new ceramic/metal techniques within a community of working artists.