2025 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery is thrilled to announce the finalists for the 2025 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics:
Etty Anderson (Montréal, Québec)
Gloria Han (Coquitlam, British Columbia)
Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona (Ottawa, Ontario)
Corwyn Lund (Toronto, Ontario)
Sami Tsang (Toronto, Ontario).
Stay tuned for the announcement of the winner and runner-up next week!
The winner of the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics will receive $10,000. One runner-up will receive a prize of $5,000. Up to 3 finalists will also be selected who will each receive a prize of $1,000. The winner, runner-up, and finalists will have their work featured in a group exhibition at the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery from May 2025 to September 2025. The Award will be presented at the opening reception, held at the Gallery in Waterloo on Sunday, June 1st, 2025, at 2:00pm.
Etty Anderson is a multi disciplinary queer artist whose main focus is ceramic arts. Sitting on the outside of the traditional education framework, Etty’s knowledge base stems from their diverse learned skills and experiences. Etty’s work employs design-driven wheel throwing, nerikomi and hand building. They use these disparate techniques to create a cohesive whole in their large furniture, composite vessels, and sculptural pieces. Etty is currently exploring the use of mimicry and colored porcelain processes to challenge our expectations of common things we use and discard without thinking. Etty has shown works in both North America and Europe, most recently in Paris for the Craft Biennale in 2023. As part of a relational practice, Etty runs a roving underground supper club spanning almost two decades. Etty is a non binary trans, white Canadian settler. They live and work in Tiohtià:ke Quebec.
Gloria Jue-Youn Han is a ceramic artist whose art investigates how traditions are preserved and transformed by diasporic peoples. She studies Korean traditional celadon ceramics under Master Clay Jung-Hong Kim and Sylvia Kim. Gloria earned her BFA from Emily Carr University, MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2024 she was awarded one of the NCECA Emerging Artist Fellowships, and currently teaches in the ceramics department of Langara College and Emily Carr University.
Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona is a multidisciplinary Inuit artist and writer based in Ottawa, ON, who creates ceramics, prints, graphic art, wall-hangings and more. Kabloona’s work often incorporates traditional Inuit stories told through a modern, feminist lens. Gayle enjoys carrying imagery between mediums, while paying respect to traditional methods and expertise. Her artwork allows an intimate view into contemporary Inuit life.
After developing his interest in sculptural, architectural, and experimental ceramics at residencies in the Netherlands, China, Israel, the United States, Corwyn Lund earned an MFA in Ceramic Art from Alfred University in 2022. Since graduation, he has had solo exhibitions at the Alberta University of the Arts, the Yuill Gallery at Medalta, and the Headstone Gallery in Kingston, NY. Lund’s ceramic work is held in the collections of the Alfred Ceramic Art Museum and the Boijmans Museum in Rotterdam. Emerging internationally, in April 2024 his work was the subject of the cover and feature article of US-based Ceramics Monthly magazine.
Sami Tsang (b. 1997 Windsor, Ontario, Canada) is a Toronto-based ceramic artist whose work explores domestic encounters and private narratives borne out of the flux amidst two cultures – Chinese and Western. Sami studied traditional Chinese painting for 7 years in Hong Kong, which profoundly affected her pursuit of an art career. Sami earned her BA in Craft & Design from Sheridan College (2019) and her MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University, NY (2021). Sami has presented solo, and group exhibitions and art fairs in the United States, China, and Canada, including Sculpture Space, NYC, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, the Gardiner Museum, Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto, ON, Claire Oliver Gallery in NYC, Toronto Art Fair, NADA Miami, and AYE Gallery in Beijing, China. Tsang’s work is included in private collections, Collection Majudia, and Gardiner Museum. Sami is an Artist-in-Residence (Ceramics) at Harbourfront Centre (Toronto, Canada).
About the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics
The Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics is presented annually by the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery and is supported by The Keith and Winifred Shantz Fund for the Arts, held at Waterloo Region Community Foundation. This prestigious $10,000 award allows practising early-career ceramic artists to undertake a period of independent research or other activities that advance their artistic and professional practice. One runner-up will receive a prize of $5,000. Up to 3 finalists will also be selected who will each receive a prize of $1,000. Each summer, the winners and finalists of the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics and RBC Award for Glass will have their work presented in an awards exhibition held at the Gallery.
Lael Chmelyk, Soft Bulk, 2023. Soda-fired stoneware, slip transfers, underglaze, cobalt inlay. 25x25x11 cm each. Photo by Matthew Huitema.
Past recipients of the award truly represent the best of the emerging ceramic artists in Canada. Lael Chmelyk of Calgary, Alberta was the winner of the 2024 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics. Click here to learn more about the winners of the award in past years.
About Winifred Shantz
The late Winifred Shantz was a driving force for the arts in Waterloo Region for more than 40 years. Her philanthropy, dedication, and passion for the arts is what allows many local cultural institutions to thrive – including the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery – through a legacy of support. A successful ceramist, entrepreneur, and ardent supporter of the arts, Winifred, along with her husband Keith Shantz, were integral in the founding of the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery and have enabled the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics to continue in perpetuity.
About Waterloo Region Community Foundation
Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF) collaborates with partners to create sustainable, equitable and thriving communities. We connect regionally and locally, working with three cities and four townships – to include the people and places across our region. Together, we develop forward-thinking innovative solutions and seize opportunities to meet current and future needs of our community. We make philanthropy easy for individuals and companies to support organizations and issues they care about. WRCF is focused on Granting, Impact Investing and Convening to make measurable and sustainable impacts. Gifts are directed to WRCF’s endowed funds that drive positive change through grants with the income generated being distributed in partnership with Fundholders to support a wide range of charitable causes within our community. A portion of the endowed funds are also used for impact investments that deliver both financial returns as well as positive social or environmental outcomes. As a leading community-building organization we also work to amplify voices and issues of importance by convening conversations and sharing information, while approaching our work with an equity mindset. www.wrcf.ca
Past Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics Brochures
Contact:
For additional information, contact Peter Flannery, Senior Curator & Collections Manager: 519.746.1882 x235 or peter@theclayandglass.ca.