The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery is home to four collections, each of which are held in public trust. Since the Gallery’s opening in 1993, the collection has grown to encompass a wide range of artworks and objects in ceramic, glass and enamel from throughout Canada and beyond.
Susan McKinnon and Katherine Marshall are actively working towards making our collection holdings available online, including 300 works from our Permanent Collection and finding aids for archival materials. Stay tuned for updates.
If you are interested in supporting the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery’s Collections through donations of artworks or financial support to assist with acquisitions, collections management, conservation, or other opportunities, please visit the link below:
Recent Acquisitions
Marilyn Levine is best known for her stoneware sculptures that mimic leather. In this piece from 1986, Levine mimics a small leather case with precision detail, including realistic qualities of imperfection, such as the strap getting stuck inside the lid. Using gold luster to recreate the two buckles and snaps, Levine incises marks into the surface to create the illusion of stitches.
Marilyn Levine (1935 – 2005) earned her Masters of Science in Chemistry before moving to California to pursue an MFA in Sculpture. Her highly realistic sculptures and interest in chemistry demonstrate how closely linked the arts and sciences are and the amount of chemistry knowledge that goes into ceramics and glass-based arts.
Emily Carr had a lifelong passion for craft art including rug pulling and pottery. She fired her clay pieces in her backyard in a homemade kiln. After the pieces had cooled, she often hand painted them with enamel paints. Like her paintings, her ceramics are decorated with motifs she borrows from Indigenous artists near Vancouver, where she lived. She signed her ceramic pieces, Klee Wyck, the name given to her by the Nuu-chah-nulth people of western Vancouver Island, which means “Laughing One.”
Emily Carr (1871–1945) became a leading artist in twentieth century West Coast Canadian art. She is best known today for her paintings, plein-air sketches, and correspondence with members of the Group of Seven.
Alfred Engerer’s monumental, laminated plate glass sculpture now sits on display in our upstairs offices. In this piece, Alfred uses multiple, small, shard-like pieces to create a large iceberg form. This large glass sculpture is made up of three pieces that sit on top of each other.
Alfred Engerer is a Toronto based glass artist known for his sculptures. He works in both blown and plate-glass techniques and has been working with these mediums since the 1970s. In 2022, a short documentary was made about his life and craft in Toronto, called The Sunny Side.
Right: Heidi McKenzie, “Excavated No. 2”, 2018. Stoneware, coloured slips. 24 x 38 x 14cm. Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery Permanent Collection. Gift of the Artist. 2022.018.002
“Excavated #1” and “Excavated #2” are part of Heidi Mckenzie’s “Spaces Within” series and were displayed in Emergence from September 24, 2022, to January 8, 2023 at Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery. These stoneware sculptures use positive and negative space to create bone-like forms. Heidi’s work draws on themes of identity and belonging, as well as home and family.
Heidi Mckenzie is an award-winning Canadian ceramic artist based in Toronto. She completed her Diploma at Sheridan College in 2012 and her MFA in Curatorial Practice and Art Criticism at OCAD University in 2014. Her work has been shown internationally.
Continuing with our practice of purchasing a piece by each of our award winners, the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery has recently acquired 2022 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics winner Matthew O’Reilly’s “Connected #4”.
Matthew O’Reilly’s figurative works play on grotesque forms and humour to explore the human condition. In “Connected #4”, O’Reilly uses ceramics and acrylic paint to create a sculpture that speaks to the tension between connection and individuality. In this piece, he took inspiration from his relationship with his older brothers.
Matthew O’Reilly is an emerging ceramic artist from Alberta. He has his MFA from Alberta University of the Arts and graduated from NCECA in 2021. Most recently Matthew won the 2022 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics.
Continuing with our practice of purchasing a piece by each of our award winners, the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery has recently acquired 2022 RBC Award for Glass winner Jared Last’s “Reflector Series (sphere, off axis)”.
Jared Last’s interest in optical effects and form are on full display in this piece from 2021. Last’s sandblasted, blown piece uses repeating forms and glass lenses to create a dizzying optical effect. Playing with historic glass working techniques and contemporary forms to create a piece that blends historic and contemporary glass.
Jared Last is a British Columbia based glass artist and the winner of the 2022 RBC Award for Glass and was featured in Emergence from September 24, 2022, to January 8, 2023, at Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery. He has been working in glass since 2011, earning his BFA with Distinction in Glass from Alberta College of Art and Design in 2016.
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery’s Collections Include:
The Permanent Collection
The Permanent Collection includes nearly one thousand works of art in ceramics, glass, and vitreous enameling. Our collections mandate focuses on contemporary works (those produced since 1950) from Canadian artists, although some International and historical pieces are also included in the collection for reference. Most of the works have been acquired from donors and are used in regular exhibitions at the Gallery, for research, or can be loaned to other institutions for exhibition.
The Archives
Housed in the Ann Roberts Archival Centre, the Canadian Clay & Glass Archives includes documents, photographs, and other ephemera from artists who worked in ceramics, glass, and virteous enameling. The Archives also includes the Gallery’s institutional archives, which feature materials related to the Gallery’s foundation, history, exhibitions, and building architecture. These materials are for use by researchers and artists in the development of scholarship and the furthering of artistic practice in ceramics, glass, and vitreous enameling.
The Study Collection
The Study Collection includes works that can be used in the Gallery’s educational programming or for research. Relating to Canadian, as well as international artists, the works in the study collection give researchers and artists the ability to interact with specimens of varying ceramic and glass techniques.
The Sinclair Family Library
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery Sinclair Family Library includes books, exhibition catalogues, and periodicals related to ceramics, glass, and copper enameling locally, nationally, and internationally.
For more information about the Gallery’s collection holdings, contact Peter Flannery, Senior Curator & Collections Manager, at 519-746-1882 ext. 235 or peter@theclayandglass.ca.