TORONTO POTTERS Monthly Meetings
Fall – 2019
LOCATION:
Gardiner Museum
Main Floor Auditorium
111 Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2C7
TYPICAL TIME:
6:45pm – 8:45pm
The Gardiner Museum has graciously agreed to host Toronto Potters for Tuesday meeting dates, on the 4th Tuesday of each month. Toronto Potters is grateful to the Museum for offering their support. The meeting time will be 6:45 pm and will end at 8:45. The speakers’ programme will begin at 7:15 pm after a short business meeting.
September 24th
6:45pm-8:45pm
Guest Speaker: Dana Prieto
Dana Prieto is an Argentine visual artist and educator based in Toronto who has recently completed a Masters in Visual Studies at the University of Toronto.
She has developed award-winning projects working within diverse communities in Toronto, Hamilton, Halifax and Buenos Aires. Her work has been exhibited in Museo del Hambre, Buenos Aires, MAW NYC and, Idea Exchange, Cambridge and Trinity Square Video, Xpace Cultural Centre,Blank Canvas and Harbourfront Centre in Toronto.
Since 2012 she has received several exhibition grants and awards in Canada. Her work has been featured in a variety of publications, and she has been Interviewed for the CBC, Blogs and digital publications.
She describes her work as “engaging with mundane objects and rituals seeking to unsettle modes of relating, producing, exchanging and consuming in an era dominated by extraction and exhaustion.”
Dana is also new member of Toronto Potters Studio.
October 22nd
6:45pm-8:45pm
Guest Speaker & Live Demonstration: Richard Mund
Originally from Grimsby, ON, Richard Mund began working in clay after receiving a Creative Arts Diploma from Georgian College in Barrie (1993). After an apprenticeship with Cunningham Pottery in West Des Moines, Iowa, he attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax,N.S, while supporting himself through employment at Clayworks, an internationally respected production pottery in Halifax. After completing a BFA (1997) Richard continued at NSCAD as the Ceramic Technician and part-time Continuing Education Instructor.
Since that time, he has lived as a self- employed studio potter in the quiet Ontario village of Neustadt, specializing in Maiolica glazed production pottery.
Richard will give a short visual presentation about his work and studio, as well as a demonstration of his maiolica glazing technique.
November 26th
6:45pm-8:45pm
Guest Speaker & Live Demonstration: Magdolene Dykstra
In her artist’s statement Dykstra states that she:
“explores landscapes inspired by microbiology, finding lineage in the Romantic artists of the 19th century who pursued the sublime in grand vistas. In a time of environmental endangerment, I use an aesthetic of unrestrained growth to examine the questions behind human existence. Sculpture and installation allow me to make the unseen tangible. These landscapes, both simple and complex, familiar and unfamiliar, reflect on the vast network of multiplicity that operates just beneath the surface. Using clay connects me to rituals and cultures throughout human history. I am one of many makers who uses this material to explore spirituality and my link to the rest of the universe. Instead of relying on the ability of fired clay to withstand time, I use raw clay in order to embrace ephemerality. Impermanence enhances preciousness”.
Dykstra is a first generation Egyptian-Canadian. After receiving an M.Sc.Ed. from Niagara University and her M.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University, she was awarded two Graduate Assistantships and a Travel Grant to Arrowmont Centre, Tenn., has participated in residencies at York University in York, England and at Medalta in Alberta, was an invited Artist in Residency at Watershed in Maine. Also awarded several grants from the Ontario Arts Council, her work has been exhibited internationally, in museums and galleries, and is included in collections around the world. She lives in the Niagara region of Ontario where she is a passionate artist-educator, teaching at secondary and post-secondary levels.
On November 26, she will give a visual presentation of her work plus a short demonstration on constructing sculpted heads incorporating textures she uses in her “landscapes”.