2025 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery is thrilled to announce that Sami Tsang of Toronto, ON is the winner of the 25th Annual Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics. Tsang will receive a $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 the award are recognized as the best and brightest of the future of Canadian ceramic art.
We are pleased to celebrate this year’s Shantz Award runner-up, Corwyn Lund (Toronto, ON), who will receive a $5,000 prize. We also celebrate the achievement of the finalists for this year’s award: Etty Anderson (Montréal, QC), Gloria Han (Coquitlam, BC), and Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona (Ottawa, ON). Each finalist will receive a prize of $1,000 to further their practice.
The 2025 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics was juried by Susan Collett, Carole Epp, and Sequoia Miller. On the jurying process, Susan Collett states: “Having won the first Winifred Shantz prize 25 years ago, I was honoured to be invited onto the jury process. Fascinating to read all the engaging entries. It took me back to that crucial time those years ago when I was seeking support. All our winners hit home with me in their dreams and aspirations…and high caliber portfolios.”
Carole Epp shared: “I am forever grateful for the opportunity to jury awards such as this, for these glimpses into the creative work and research of our Canadian emerging artists reinforces my belief in the tremendous talent, diversity of perspectives, and important research being produced in our ceramic community.”
On selecting Sami Tsang as the 2025 winner of the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics, Sequoia Miller states: “Sami Tsang has been pursuing her artistic vision with guts, determination, and a continued sense of play. This award recognizes her extraordinary growth over the last several years and her role as an inspiration to other artists.”
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).
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.
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.
Jurors
Susan Collett maintains a full-time studio art practice in downtown Toronto for over 30 years, she holds a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and is an elected member to the International Academy of Ceramics, Geneva and to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, Ottawa. The portfolio focus is large-scale sculpture and printmaking. Public and private gallery exhibitions and commissions sustain her full-time practice. Collections include The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Canada House, Trafalgar Square, UK; Sevres Museum, Paris; Kasturbhai Lalbhai Museum, India; Arizona State University Museums, USA; The Gardiner Museum; Gyeonggi Museum, Korea; and the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery.
Carole Epp is a Saskatoon-based artist, curator, educator, writer, podcast host, and community builder whose multifaceted practice pushes the boundaries of traditional ceramics. Her work challenges and subverts the cultural and material histories embedded in ceramic objects, using them as vessels to explore contemporary politics and social commentary. Through a diverse range of creative methodologies and materials, she addresses the deeply personal and collective existential crises of our time. Currently, her research explores the integration of artificial intelligence as a creative tool within the ceramic process. This investigation examines how AI can recontextualize notions of authorship and collaboration in art, questioning where the line between maker and machine blurs. As she navigates these intersections, Epp is also working towards developing ethical frameworks for incorporating this technology, ensuring that its use in creative practice respects both the integrity of the medium and the complexities of human intention.
Sequoia Miller is the Chief Curator and Deputy Director of the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto. He holds a PhD in the History of Art from Yale University; an MA in Design History from the Bard Graduate Center; and a BA in Cultural Studies from Brandeis University. Recent curatorial projects include Magdalene Odundo: A Dialogue with Objects and Shary Boyle: Outside the Palace of Me. Publications include Magdalene Odundo: A Dialogue with Objects (2024), Ceramic Art (2023); and The Ceramic Presence in Modern Art (2015). Prior to his academic and curatorial work, Sequoia was a full-time ceramist who exhibited and led workshops across the United States.
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.