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2023: Jeanne Létourneau
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery is thrilled to announce that Jeanne Letourneau of Montréal, Quebec is the winner of the 2023 RBC Award for Glass! Letourneau will receive the $10,000 prize which will support the development of her career at this critical time. The only national award for emerging glass artists in Canada, the RBC Award is a prestigious honour. Presented through an ongoing partnership with RBC Emerging Artists, winners and finalists of this award are recognized as the best and brightest of the future of Canadian glass art.
We also celebrate the achievement of the finalists for this year’s award. The jurors of the RBC Award for Glass have selected to honour Charlie Larouche-Potvin (Montréal, QC) as the runner up, with a prize of $2,500, and Nadira Narine (Toronto, ON) as a finalist with a prize of $1,000. 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.
Charlie Larouche-Potvin
Charlie Larouche-Potvin is a 22-year-old glassblower from Montreal. He started glassblowing in 2017 and finished his three-year college program at Espace Verre. Charlie was a member of the Fusion program at Espace Verre from 2020-2022. He had the chance to take classes with some renowned glass blowers at the Corning Museum of Glass as well as taking maestro Davide Fuin's class, in Murano, two times where he fell in love with the traditional Venetian glassblowing process. With the knowledge Charlie gained from these formations, he was able to be a finalist for the Prix François-Houdé 2021-2022 and the RBC Award for Glass 2022.
Charlie's work is mainly focused on goblets. He finds in the technical aspect of their fabrication, the teamwork required in their manufacturing, the knowledge of the material required in their making, and the rich cultural background they possess a way to grow as a maker and also as a person. Mostly inspired by work from Venetian masters of the 19th and 20th centuries, he strives to stay authentic to the techniques he was shown in Murano while bringing his own touch to this kind of work.
Jeanne Letourneau
Jeanne Letourneau is a glass artist from Montreal, Quebec. She graduated from the glass program at Espace VERRE in 2021. During her short career as an emerging artist, she was a finalist and laureate of several awards such as: The 2nd place of the 2021 Student Exhibition Award given by Glass Art Society, the Bourse Faire la différence and the Bourse Houdé-Mendel. She participated in exhibitions including Virtual 2021, GAS Student Exhibition, Evolution - A Showcase of Emerging, International Talent, and Onirique, a group exhibition for the Espace Verre 2021 graduates. She was also chosen as a Pilchuck Emerging Artist in Residence (EAiR) for the fall of 2022. Currently, her works combine engraving and lost wax techniques using mainly glass and crystal to represent her ideas of the beauty that surrounds us.
Nadira Narine
Raised in Panama City, Nadira Narine has a deep interest in her cultural roots. Having lived in Canada for 10 years, she explores objects and memories from her childhood as a means of self-discovery and connection to home. Nadira Narine is a current Artist-in-Residence (Glass) at Harbourfront Centre.
The 2023 RBC Award for Glass was juried by Susan Edgerley, Jessamy Kelly, and Julia Reimer. On selecting this year’s winner and finalists, the jurors state:
“The quality and diverse range of excellent glass work created by all the finalists for the RBC Award for Glass was a pleasure to view and we were in unanimous agreement upon the merit of the three finalists. The high standard of the work submitted to the award is testament to the wide range of new creative works that are being realised today within the thriving Canadian art glass scene. The work of the winning finalist Jeanne Letourneau shows an unusual commitment to glass making at such an early stage in her career with a strong and well thought out conceptual framework. Jeanne’s current work is focused on the contemporary urban environment and her proposal for new work will shine a new light on everyday urban objects and how they can be revered as status symbols when transformed into kiln-cast glass. She plans to carry out a range of material tests and experiments in kiln-casting, before creating a new body of artworks for exhibition; the award will provide her with specialist materials, equipment, and studio space to carry out her artistic work. This award supports her clearly defined project proposal and will support her continued creative practice in the unique medium of art glass. The jury were thrilled to be able to support such a strong and able applicant, ensuring that Jeanne will be able to continue to fully contribute to the Canadian art glass scene. In addition to funding the overall winner, it was decided that two additional awards be made, in recognition of the two other finalists’ applications and their strength of proposals for the award. Their dedication and desire to gain a deeper understanding of glass through making new work was marked for special commendation and we hope that these additional prizes support them in their endeavours. Charlie Larouche-Potvin will be awarded $2,500, which we hope can part fund his residency plans, and Nadira Narine will receive $1,000 to develop her new work. We anticipate the full fruition of these exciting art glass projects and look forward to seeing all of their work exhibited in the Emergence exhibition this summer atthe Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery.”
Susan Edgerley
Susan Edgerley is renowned for her singular and poetic glass practice. Her large-scale glass and mixed media works have been exhibited in North America, as well as in Europe and Asia. Involved in glass education and the glass community in Canada for over 35 years, at Espace Verre in Montreal, she was responsible for founding FUSION, a hot glass studio for graduates. Represented in corporate and private collections, her work is also included in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, and the Canadian Museum of History. In 2019 she received the Governor General Award for the Arts, the Saidye Bronfman Award, Canada’s highest distinction in crafts.
Jessamy Kelly
Dr Jessamy Kelly is a glass artist based in Edinburgh, she completed her BA in ‘Glass and Ceramics’ at the University of Sunderland in 2001 and went on to complete a Masters in Glass at Edinburgh College of Art, in 2002 and a PhD in glass and ceramics at the University of Sunderland in 2009. She is a Lecturer in Glass at Edinburgh College of Art and is the vice chair of the Raft research group, a network that supports and explores the changing identity of craft practice. Her work has been exhibited widely throughout the UK as well as internationally throughout Europe and the United States.
Julia Reimer
Julia Reimer’s distinctive blown glass pieces contain an aesthetic inspired by crisp prairie light and windswept grasslands reflecting this environment's simplicity of light and form. Her original design and meticulous craftsmanship have been recognized through scholarships and awards from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, The Corning Museum of Glass and the Canada Council for the Arts. As well, her work is featured in the publication 500 Glass Objects and she is the inaugural recipient of the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery’s National Award for Excellence. Her work is in the collections of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Emperor and Empress of Japan. She has been selected to create public art for Canada’s 150th and the Royal Tyrell Museum, Illuminart Festival.
Emergence 2023 | RBC Award for Glass Digital Brochure
2022: Jared Last
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery is thrilled to announce the winner of the 2022 RBC Award for Glass is Jared Last (Revelstoke, BC)! Jared Last will receive a prize of $10,000 to undertake a residency and continue his creative exploration to advance his artistic and professional practice.
Jared’s work will also be featured in an awards exhibition alongside RBC Award finalists Charlie Larouche-Potvin (Montréal, QC), Jeanne Létourneau (Montréal, QC), and Jérémie St-Onge (Montréal, QC), as well as the winner and finalists of the 2022 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics. The award finalists will receive a $1,000 award to support the development of their practice. 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.
The 2022 RBC Award for Glass was juried by Laura Donefer, Dr. Juliette MacDonald, and Julia Reimer.
On reviewing the submissions and selecting Jared Last as this year’s winner, the jurors state:
The jurors were delighted to see the passion and dedication of the applicants. The calibre of the applicants this year was fantastic, and a testimony to the strength of glass art in Canada. Jared’s work is striking, and he is clearly fully dedicated to the discipline and enthusiastic to develop as an artist whilst also supporting new workers in the field.
Charlie Larouche-Potvin (Montréal, QC)
Charlie Larouche-Potvin is a 22-year-old glassblower from Montréal, Québec, Canada. He started glassblowing in 2017 and finished his three years college program at Espace Verre where he was taught a multitude of different glassblowing techniques. Larouche-Potvin had the chance to study with the glass masters Davide Fuin in his studio on Murano as well as William Gudenrath at the Corning Museum of Glass. He is now a member of the Fusion program at Espace Verre which gives access to alumni of the college to the glassblowing facilities for up to two years for them to do research, exploration and to start a business. His work is mainly focused on goblets in which he finds technical challenges. The traditional Venetian glass as well as the choreography required to make them is a major source of inspiration for Larouche-Potvin.
Jared Last (Revelstoke, BC)
Jared Last, based in Revelstoke, BC, holds a BFA in glass from the Alberta University of the Arts, graduating with distinction in 2016. He has been fortunate to study at both the Corning Museum of Glass and at Pilchuck Glass School, and recently completed a 3 year residency at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. Jared's work combines his interests in colour, pattern, architecture and the unique optical properties of glass to create both sculptural and functional works that invite investigation and engagement. He creates works that draw viewers inwards, encouraging them to experience space, pattern, colour and glass from alternate perspective(s).
Jeanne Létourneau (Montréal, QC)
Jeanne Letourneau is a glass artist from Montreal, Quebec. She graduated from the glass program at Espace VERRE in 2021. During her short career as an emerging artist, she was a finalist and laureate of several awards such as: The 2nd place of the 2021 Student Exhibition Award given by Glass Art Society, the Bourse Faire la différence and the Bourse Houdé-Mendel. She participated in exhibitions including Virtual 2021, GAS Student Exhibition, Evolution - A Showcase of Emerging, International Talent, and Onirique, a group exhibition for the Espace Verre 2021 graduates. She was also chosen as a Pilchuck Emerging Artist in Residence (EAiR) for the fall of 2022. Currently, her works combine engraving and lost wax techniques using mainly glass and crystal to represent her ideas of the beauty that surrounds us.
Jérémie St-Onge (Montréal, QC)
Jérémie St-Onge lives and works in Montreal / Tiohtià:ke / Mooniyang, where he was born in 1996. St-Onge became a student at Espace Verre in 2014 and quickly integrated glass studios as an assistant. After 5 years as first assistant at Babajaga Glassworks, a studio specialized in lighting design, he became proficient with all aspects of a high end production. During this time, St-Onge also participates in different group shows, combining craft and contemporary art. Verre d’Onge was launched In 2019, introducing a more mercantile approach without sacrificing its codes and conditions. The project is amplifying and the collaborations are decoupling ever since.
Emergence 2022 | RBC Award Digital Brochure
2017: Montserrat Duran Muntadas
The winner of the 2017 Award for Glass is Montserrat Duran Muntadas from Montreal, Quebec. In 2010, she graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Universitat de Barcelona and in 2007, from the Escuela del Vidrio of the Real Fabrica de Cristales de la Granja, Centro Nacional del Vidrio of Segovia, Spain. Over the years, she has participated in more than 30 national and international group exhibitions including: the SOFA Chicago 2016, the European Glass Context 2016 in Denmark and the European Glass Festival 2015 in Poland. Also, she was a finalist and laureate of several awards such as: the FUSION: The Ontario Clay and Glass Association and the Bourse ForCGal as well as receiving grants from the Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Quebec and the Canada Council for the Arts. In 2015, she had her first collaborative exhibition with Jean-Simon Trottier at the Galerie Espace VERRE in Montreal. Currently, her works which combines glass with other materials – such as paper, fabric or diverse organic materials – often take the form of wearable art, sculptures and art installations. Moreover, Montserrat has several solo exhibitions planned until 2020.
The Award for Glass was juried by Warren Carther, Carole Freve and Julia Feyrer.
2016: Aaron Oussoren
Aaron Oussoren has won the 2016 RBC Award for Glass. The winner of the 2016 RBC Award for Glass is Aaron Oussoren from Vancouver, BC. Oussoren graduated from Sheridan’s Craft + Design program: Glass (2008), was an artist in residence in the glass studio at Harbourfront Centre (2008-2012) and has recently completed a Master of Design degree at Emily Carr University. He has worked with glass in a variety of ways, from public artwork to tableware, and currently has a research practice that integrates 3D printing and a variety of digital manufacturing methods with traditional glass working. In 2013 he won the second prize for the RBC Award for Glass. Currently, he is teaching in the Design and Visual Arts departments at Emily Carr. He is excited to be part of the forward momentum of the glass community in Vancouver.
Oussoren plans to travel to Japan to study with glass master Peter Ivy. This mentorship will provide him with an opportunity to experience Peter’s unique studio practice and techniques, explore local aesthetics of the area and research customized equipment. Oussoren plans to apply these new skills and techniques from this trip to new work and share his knowledge with the glass community.
The RBC Award for Glass was juried by Diane Charbonneau, Lisa Pai and Rachael Wong.
2015: Laila Le Francois
The winner of the 2015 RBC Award for Glass is Ito Laïla Le François from Rimouski, QC. Ito holds diplomas in sculpture and glass art. Her works are unfolding chimeras with strong primitive touches as she examines the beauty and ugliness of living beings. Femininity, violence and body obsession govern her art – instinctively, metaphors emerge. In her creations the human and animal anatomy are omnipresent with looming death and the coexistence of life. By choosing media for their symbolism and strength she sculpts a range of materials, those which occupy an important place in her creative process, to enable the blending of several complex ideas together in one work of art.
Despite her somewhat aggressive approach, sensuality dominates, seeming to originate from the unconscious in which her memories, written and spoken words are expressed and brought to light.
The RBC Award for Glass was juried by Alex Anagnostou, David James and Koen Vanderstukken.
2014: Cheryl Wilson Smith
The winner of the 2014 RBC Award for Glass is Cheryl Wilson Smith of Red Lake, Ontario. Cheryl Wilson Smith’s delicate and complex kiln-cast works are inspired by the boreal forest and the rocky shores of Red Lake where she lives. Created by translating drawings into countless individual layers of glass frit, her sculptures push the limits of glass while interpreting the northern Ontario light, landscape and wilderness. Wilson Smith has been invited participate in “First Light” an artist-in-residence inside the Arctic Circle of Norway, timed to coincide with the first day during which the sun reappears over the horizon line. The residency will also include visits of natural and artistic interest.
Working with renowned American glass artists Steve Klein and Richard Parrish and Norwegian artist Daniela Salathe she will experiment with the addition of colour, representing a significant technical challenge.
Karina Guévin and Cédric Ginart of Ange-Gardien, Quebec received the second prize.
The RBC Award for Glass was juried by Sandra Ainsley, John Paul Robinson and Valérie Paquin.
2013: Brad Turner
Mr. Turner received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Alberta College of Art and Design and, most recently, his MFA from the School of Art and Design at Alfred University (Alfred, NY). Turner’s work has been exhibited extensively in the Toronto area as well as at the Museum of Vancouver, SOFA New York, SOFA Chicago, Glassmuseet Ebeltoft (Denmark) and the Cheongju International Craft Biennial (South Korea). This award will enable Turner to travel throughout Germany, Denmark and Norway to visit museums and glass blowing production studios before producing new work while in residence at Glazenhuis in Lommel, Belgium.
Aaron Oussoren of Toronto, Ontario received the second prize.
The RBC Award for Glass was juried by Susan Edgerley, Elena Lee and Tina Poplawski.
2012: Benjamin Kikkert
The winner of the 2012 RBC Award for Glass is Benjamin Kikkert of Toronto, Ontario. Dominique Beaupré St-Pierre of Montreal, Quebec 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: Sally McCubbin
The winner of the 2011 RBC Award for Glass is Toronto glass artist and designer Sally McCubbin. Ms. McCubbin graduated from the Crafts and Design Glass Program at Sheridan College in 2005. In addition to an active exhibition career, last year she produced two public art commissions for the TTC in Toronto. She is also the Managing Editor for Contemporary Canadian Glass Online Magazine and is an instructor at Sheridan College. The prize money will allow her to travel to Frauenau, Germany to do an artist-in-residence at the Eisch Glass Factory.
Mr. Benjamin Kikkert of Toronto received the Second Prize.
2010: Rachael Wong
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: Cali Balles
Cali Balles work is very intimate in scale but reaches great depth in its discourse on environmental issues. Simple and elegant, yet powerful in the way they focus the attention of the viewer, her work shows her interest in the way patterns of the city interact with current and historical elements of the landscape. The project will examine relationships between nature and the urban environment.
“I have become curious about how the patterns of city structures have developed over time to create the urban environment. This was partly driven by my learning of the buried neighborhoods and hidden rivers that exists beneath Toronto’s streets; one such river runs beneath my home.” Cali Balles
2008: Julie Reimer
The RBC Award for Glass presents $5,000 to Julia Reimer to travel to Japan and research the influence of Japanese design and culture on modern western craft. In particular she will examine the influence of the Mingei Movement on vessel design and the role of nature as inspiration for Japanese craft design. She will be conducting her research at the Japan Traditional Craft Center and The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, as well as working directly wit mentor, glass artist Masahiro Sasaki.
The RBC Award for Glass was juried by Lou Lynn, a British Columbia sculptor working in glass and metal, Bruno Andrus, a Montreal-based glassblower artist, and John Kepkiewzc, glass artist from Thorn Glass Studio, St. Jacobs, Ontario.
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.
Julia Reimer: Julia Reimer studied glass blowing at the Alberta College of Art + Design, and enhanced her knowledge of design and traditional European glass making techniques through travels to Scotland, Spain, France and Hungary. Her original design and meticulous craftsmanship have been recognized through several awards, including the Canada Council for the Arts. In 2002 she was chosen as an Artist in Residence at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York state. Her work is carried in several Canadian and U. S. galleries and has been exhibited in Europe. Reimer’s designs are inspired by the landscape that surrounded her childhood home in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in southern Alberta. “That’s where I acquired an appreciation for the crisp prairie light, and the undulating hills and grasslands carved by wind and water that influence my artistic vision”, she says, adding, “My love of the stark montane landscape has led