Look who's 40! Art Gallery of Burlington's ceramics collection set to celebrate

The Art Gallery of Burlington (AGB) is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its ceramics collection with an intimate and personal retrospective exhibition, The Weight of Clay 40 Years of the Collection, from June 16 to Oct. 8 in the Lee-Chin Family Gallery.

The exhibition features a broad selection of work from the collection, ranging from functional ware to sculptural installations that illustrate the intersection of technical proficiency and artistic expression, from artists from across the country.

Over the last four decades, the AGB has amassed the largest comprehensive collection of contemporary Canadian ceramics in the world, totaling more than 4,000 works. The Weight of Clay exhibition and programming series honours the artists, curators, educators, volunteers and donors who have built the gallery’s holdings and contributed to the intellectual growth of ceramics in the country.

“The Art Gallery of Burlington is paying homage to our Ruby anniversary by acknowledging our unique past and celebrating our tremendous success within contemporary Canadian ceramics,” said Suzanne Carte, Senior Curator, in a press release.

The AGB's previous exhibition, The Weight of Clay, From Collector to Collection, championed their beginnings with the 1984 Herbert O. Bunt donation that helped  establish the focus of the collection.

"Now we are acknowledging the testimonials, stories, archives, and energies of the artists, curators, gallery staff, collectors, committee members and clay communities who have, over the decades, demonstrated that the collection truly is a sum of its parts,” said Carte.

At the centre of the exhibition is the selection of 40 works by 40 artists representing each year of the AGB’s history. Looking at the archive of work from 1983 to 2023, the AGB’s Curator Emeritus, Jonathan Smith, compiled a chronological timeline of works illustrating the growth of the collection.

From Jim Hong Louie to Brendan Lee Satish Tang, the assembly of works reflects a history of burgeoning techniques and acknowledges each artist’s contribution to the rise of clay in the country.

Functional forms are also in the spotlight. Unifying technical proficiency with beauty, this selection of works is drawn from two subsections of the collection, mugs and place settings, which showcase the diversity of form and aesthetics that can derive from the execution of single functional object.

The Dan Lawrie Courtyard, an architectural feature, is the centre around which the building’s energy circulates. For decades, artists have been commissioned to dream in the outdoor space and create site-specific installations here. Many of the artworks taken into the collection were from the courtyard commission, including those from Sally Michener, Susan Low-Beer, Sarah Link, Aleksandr Sorotschynski and Magdolene Dykstra, which have been reinstalled for The Weight of Clay.

Most collecting institutions are able to display only a fraction of what they hold at a given time. Throughout the building’s corridors, AGB is debuting some of the newest acquisitions, to celebrate their addition to the Canadian ceramic narrative at the AGB and to ensure that they have their moment to shine.

The exhibition’s public programming series will feature hands-on workshops and courses for clay artists to build a greater personal connection to their craft and experience professional growth by learning new techniques, discovering other artists’ practices, and understanding contemporary art in greater depth. A digital program with panel discussions and artist talks will accompany the series to transport the exhibition to national and international audiences.

The AGB is located at 1333 Lakeshore Road. For full programming details, visit the AGB website.