lecture series: Robin DuPont: Wood-firing in Canada

by | Mar 22, 2022 | Uncategorized

The North-West Ceramics Foundation is pleased to announce that their next speaker, Robin DuPont, will be presenting via Zoom on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at 2pm Pacific Standard Time. The NWCF Speaker Series is free and open to all. All are welcome, but registration is required. Please see here or below to register for this exciting talk.

Robin DuPont received his BFA from the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary and his MFA from Utah State University in Logan, Utah. He also studied at the Kootenay School of the Arts in Nelson and the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. He has been a visiting artist and instructor at numerous institutions, has participated in several artist residencies, and has built a variety of wood-fired kilns in Canada. In 2013, DuPont was nominated for the RBC Emerging Artist Award, and in 2021, he received the North-West Ceramics Foundation Mayer Wosk Award of Excellence. He lives in the Slocan Valley, in the interior of BC. He makes utilitarian wood and atmospheric-fired pots, which are exhibited across Canada and the United States. Recent exhibitions include Thrown, at the Touchstones Museum of Art & History in Nelson, BC, and a solo exhibition, Of This Place, at the Langham, in Kaslo, BC, both in 2021.

In his talk, Wood-firing in Canada, DuPont will share his insights into how the genre of wood-firing plays a role in contemporary ceramics in Canada. He will discuss makers, kilns, influences at work within the genre, and innovating a process that is thousands of years old. From kiln architecture to dispelling stereotypes, the artist will share his thoughts on the people and places contributing to this field.

DuPont’s talk will take place via Zoom on March 27, at 2pm. During the presentation, we ask the audience to please turn off their videos and mute themselves. After the talk, there will be ample time to ask questions via the chat function. We look forward to seeing you there!

To register for this exciting talk by a very popular BC ceramist, see here

For more on Robin DuPont’s work, please see his website.

For more on the North-West Ceramics Foundation and to sign up to receive emails about upcoming events, please see our website.

 

Thrown @ Touchstones Nelson

by | Mar 18, 2021 | exhibition

“The show, which runs March 13 to May 29, is a group exhibition featuring a diverse cross-section of artists from across the country, all of which offer a distinct and exemplary approach to ceramics. Featured in the show are Samantha Dickie, an abstract assemblage artist from Victoria, BC; John Kuroc, an artist from Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, specializing in hand-built forms; Shary Boyle, an artist of many mediums who explores the fantastical potential of the human form; Jody Greenman-Barber, whose delicate works find inspiration from dance and movement; Sergio Raffo, a Kaslo resident of Cuban origin who works in both human and architectural forms; Robin Dupont, a specialist in atmospheric firing techniques and a skilled kiln-builder; and Rory Macdonald, an artist and professor at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, whose work blurs the line between installation and intervention.

“These types of medium-centric group exhibitions create an opportunity for a rare form of dialogue amongst the participating artists, even in times when active mentorship and collaboration are not possible, as the respective works speak so strongly of perspective and means and method,” says Touchstones Nelson Curator Arin Fay. THROWN, Fay explains, is the second iteration of an ongoing series of medium-centric exhibitions which was inspired by Lost Thread, a well-received group textile show mounted in 2018 which highlighted six textile artists from across the nation, but with a very specific focus on regional Kootenay artists, and with “the same eye to diversity of expression and methodology,” she adds. “This formula of curating exhibitions gives us the opportunity to include ‘our’ artists in wide-ranging cultural and creative conversations, within a Canadian context.”

This project is being supported through a Canada Council grant and has partnered with Selkirk College and Medalta in Medicine Hat. This exhibition project will support a tour to Medalta in the Summer of 2021, a publication, and online programming.”

Find out more about the art and artists and view the exhibition online HERE.

worth a read: How one Canadian School is adapting to covid in the ceramics studio.

by | Jan 4, 2021 | Uncategorized

“By following the health and safety protocols established to allow in-person learning, students in the Ceramics Studio at the Selkirk College Victoria Street Campus are flourishing and appreciating the opportunity to deliver beauty under the shadow of uncertainty.

The wheels of creativity continue to spin at Selkirk College’s downtown Nelson campus where students in School of the Arts craft studio programs have been engaged in hands-on learning since September.

Adhering to the Provincial Health Officer’s COVID-19 pandemic guidelines for safe learning within the post-secondary education system, the Victoria Street Campus is currently offering in-person training for learners in the Blacksmithing Studio, Sculptural Metal Studio, Textiles Studio and Ceramics Studio. With small class sizes and adjusted studio spaces, ten ceramics students are currently putting the final touches on projects as they prepare for the holiday break.

“Creativity at this time is super important,” says student Candace Ferguson, who moved from the Lower Mainland this past summer to attend Selkirk College. “Nobody wants to be in this situation, but allowing creative people to do creative things… it actually gives life to others who enjoy the final outcome and it brings hope. It’s beauty in a place of brokenness.”

Continue reading the full article here: selkirkcollegearts.ca/news/killing-covid-in-the-ceramics-studio/