The Kootenay School of Art, a landmark in Nelson, BC, has run an acclaimed ceramics program since the early 1990s, largely due to the cohesive leadership of Pamela Nagley Stevenson, Garry Graham and David Lawson.
Together with nine outstanding graduates, each of whom have successful professional careers and a wide body of achievements in clay sculpture and pottery, they will be feted with a group exhibition at the BC Gallery of Ceramics, on Granville Island in Vancouver, called KSA: Out There. This means more prestige and exposure.
"Collectors mainly reside on the west coast," Stevenson explained during a tour of her Slocan Valley studio. "Our graduates are outstanding, but the Kootenays are so distant from Vancouver, it creates isolation. Did you know that we have more artists per capita than the Gulf Islands? Because we can't easily nurture relationships with the big galleries and guilds, we are like this best-kept secret."
Each participant has a divergent and unique style. Selections from their low-end production wares, mid-range specialty items, and finest art will be on view in order to celebrate their versatility.
Stevenson delights in the working dynamic between Graham, Lawson and her, and after nearly 20 years of instruction together, claims they share an almost telepathic rapport. "We try to keep in touch with all our students."
She heaped praise upon her colleagues:
David Lawson:
- "Austere, elegant, minimalist forms. His exhibition piece is a nesting form which can be transformed by being taken apart."
- A "glaze-master" who coaches students on the chemistry and physics involved in clay, ensuring they leave with a solid foundation and unique glaze palette.
- "Garry creates practical, down-to-earth pieces which display technical virtuosity."
- He instructs students in the practical skills required to make a living.
Of her former students, Stevenson was equally generous:
Sarah Lawless:
- Recipient of the 2008 BC Creative Achievement Awards for Applied Art and Design.
- "A shooting star" who has won multiple juried prizes.
- inspired by well-eroded organic forms.
Samantha Dickie:
- "raw" smokefired stoneware with an implied narrative
- gutsy, unflinching and provocative
- "honest, earthy, timeless" salt-glazed earthenware, rooted in tradition, but playfully altered.
Tanis Saxby:
- altered wheelthrown porcelain sculptures which are "sensitive, fanciful and elegantly formed. A magnificent spatial awareness."
Maggie Finlayson:
- Tactile, lowfired soda earthenware with lustrous glazes and traces of pattern that "recall poetry and dreams."
Julia Gillmore:
- Bold Japanese-influenced modernism in black & white with highly attenuated porcelain forms: "a fickle media with lots of memory. If babied, it may accomplish amazing feats, but try too fast or impatiently and it will balk. Julia has mastered it."
Kathi Hofmann:
- Vulnerable, different and individual pieces which are warm, traditional and very feminine.
Lise Kuhr:
- Sophisticated structures with a brilliant sense of construction and form, which are influenced by Scandinavian minimalism.
Donna Partridge:
- Dramatic French porcelain pieces influenced by Islamic Art and by her experiences with painting frescoes and restoring Ottoman palaces in Dubai and Saudi Arabia.
"KSA: Out There" runs at the Gallery of BC Ceramics from September 6th--29th, 2008: 1359 Cartwright Street, Granville Island, Vancouver, BC, Canada (604) 669- 3606, Daily from 10am to 5pm. For further information visit the Potters Guild of British Columbia website.
Simone Keiran - Simone Keiran’s book A Brief History of Western Sculpture, Quantum Books, was released at the 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair. Her articles ...
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