Ceramic and glass award winners announced

WATERLOO — The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery has announced winners of the 2013 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics and RBC Award for Glass.

Janet Macpherson of Toronto won the Shantz ceramics award.

Brad Turner of Calgary, Alta. won the RBC glass award.

The runner up for the Shantz award was Carole Epp of Saskatoon, Sask., while Aaron Oussoren of Toronto was runner-up for the RBC award.

The winners attended the gala award ceremony at the gallery on Saturday. Macpherson and Turner received $10,000, while Epp and Oussoren received $1,000.

Macpherson began studying ceramics at Sheridan College in 1999. For six years she maintained a studio practice in Toronto, making functional ceramics, participating in exhibitions and selling work at Toronto galleries.

In 2008 she began her MFA in ceramics at Ohio State University, in Columbus, where she explored a more figurative approach.

She has shown her new work extensively in exhibitions across the United States.

Macpherson held an artist-in-residence/faculty position at Sheridan College in the 2012 fall semester and is now an artist-in-residence in the Craft Studio at Harbourfront Centre.

She will undertake a three-month period of work and research at the Zentrum fur Keramik in Berlin, Germany.

Gallery curator Christian Bernard Singer had high praise for both artists.

"Macpherson has gained attention with her recent sculptures of farm animals wrapped, bandaged and bound in protective fabrics as they await exhibition and judging," Singer noted.

Turner received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Alberta College of Art and Design and his MFA from Alfred University (Alfred, NY).

His work has been exhibited in the Toronto area, as well as at the Museum of Vancouver, SOFA New York, SOFA Chicago, Glassmuseet Ebeltoft , in Denmark, and the Cheongju International Craft Biennial, in South Korea.

Turner will travel throughout Germany, Denmark and Norway to visit museums as well as glass-blowing production studios. He will serve as artist-in-residence at Glazenhuis, in Lommel, Belgium.

"Brad's glass aesthetic is conceptually inventive and thoughtful yet elegant and exhibits a mastery and sophistication of form, design and balance," Singer observes.

The two prestigious national awards administered by the Waterloo gallery are for ceramic and glass artists who have been working professionally for two to 10 years.

Each award is intended to allow the artist to undertake a period of independent research, or other development activities, to advance their artistic and professional practice.

Guests at the award ceremony heard a presentation by Marie Côté, a ceramic and installation artist from Montreal. Her exhibition Of Vessels and Voices was on view at the gallery this summer.

Jane Buyers, an artist, former professor at the University of Waterloo and member of the board of directors, reflected on the gallery's first 20 years, since its opening in June, 1993.

Information is available online at www.theclayandglass.ca