A Continued Legacy
- PGBC Editor
- May 16
- 4 min read
Updated: May 22
Upcoming Ceramics Exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery
Mark your calendars for:
Written in Clay - The Gallery’s most significant exhibition of ceramics since the 1970s, featuring work by the 64 ceramic artists.
Otani Workshop: Monsters in My Head - featuring the work of Japanese artist Otani Workshop this event marks Otani’s first solo presentation in North America.
Both exhibitions will open on May 25 and run until November 9, 2025, with a significant opening celebration on Saturday May 24 at Art Party. Tickets here.
By Andrea Valentine-Lewis, Curatorial Assistant at the VAG
In 2020, the Vancouver Art Gallery presented the exhibition Modern in the Making: Post-War Craft and Design in British Columbia, curated by Daina Augaitis, then-Interim Director; Allan Collier, Guest Curator; and Stephanie Rebick, then-Associate Curator. The exhibition detailed complex histories of a diverse range of objects—furniture pieces, ceramics, textiles, fashion, and jewellery—to uncover the story of how exceptional design emerged in this region following World War II. In the accompanying catalogue’s introduction, Augaitis describes how this exhibition revived the Vancouver Art Gallery’s institutional history of supporting craft and design. Past exhibitions include Design for Living (1949) on modern furniture and crafts; Ceramics, Textiles, and Furniture (1951); Design in Scandinavia (1956); British Columbia Crafts (1961); and Ceramics ’69 (1969), as well as more than eight solo exhibitions featuring the work of ceramic artists and weavers during this early period.[1]
Augaitis describes how the 1980s brought a shift in curatorial interests, where works of performance, photography, video, and multimedia art were centralized in the Gallery’s program, and craft and design were less sought-after.[2] In the 2010s, the Gallery’s program was reassessed “to once again include visual culture exhibitions that ask broad critical questions related to the possibilities of design or that chart under-recognized typologies.”[3] Even while Augaitis has since retired and now holds the title of Chief Curator Emerita, the Gallery’s program has upheld this commitment and has presented recent exhibitions such as Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines (2024) on artists’ production of small-circulation, DIY magazines (zines); Fashion Fictions (2023) on experimental fashion innovations; and Edith Heath and Emily Carr: From the Earth (2021), which brought together two artists—a ceramic artist and a painter—who were both influenced by the land.
Through the years of research and preparation involved in the organization of Modern in the Making, the Gallery met many influential artists and collectors—one of whom was John David Lawrence, a voracious collector of ceramics, Indigenous art, painting, jewellery, photographs, and ephemera, and the proprietor of the shop DODA ANTIQUES in Downtown Vancouver. His Chinatown apartment and nearby antiques shop are both overflowing with remarkable treasures by artists who often have been historically overlooked, especially within the realm of “fine art” institutions. Over 40 years of collecting, Lawrence eventually narrowed his focus, for the most part, on BC ceramics from the 1920s to the 2000s.
Of the 1,500 ceramic objects in Lawrence’s collection, the Vancouver Art Gallery will soon present a selection of about 200 in the upcoming exhibition Written in Clay: From the John David Lawrence Collection, curated by Diana Freundl, Senior Curator; Michael Prokopow, Guest Curator; Stephanie Rebick, Director of Publishing and Content Strategy; and me, Andrea Valentine-Lewis, Curatorial Assistant.
The Gallery’s most significant exhibition of ceramics since the 1970s, Written in Clay features work by the following 64 artists: Alice Bradbury, Mollie Carter, John Charnetski, Nan Cheney, Stanley Clarke, Gary Crawford, Olea Davis, Walter Dexter, Ted Diakow, Reg Dixon, Katherine Dodd, Ed Drahanchuk, Axel Ebring, Leonard Epp, Jean Fahrni, Gathie Falk, Mary Fox, Jan and Helga Grove, Margaret Grute, Kathleen Hamilton, Frances Hatfield, Richard Hawbolt, Michael Henry, Gillian Hodge, Sue Hopper, Robin Hopper, Gordon Hutchens, Don Hutchinson, Avery Huyghe, Tam Irving, Charmian Johnson, Lynne Johnson, Thomas Kakinuma, Bob Kingsmill, Zoltan Kiss, Zeljko Kujundzic, Sam Kwan, Heinz Laffin, Laura Wee Láy Láq, Glenn Lewis, Des Loan, Rex Mason, Vincent Massey, Santo Mignosa, Joseph Mihalik, Wayne Ngan, Leonard and Mary Osborne, John Reeve, Bill Rennie, Lari Robson, Hilda Ross, Louise and Adolph Schwenk, Kinichi Shigeno, Debra Sloan, Ian Steele, Richard Tanaka, Gordon Thorlakkson, Rob Tribe, Jean Marie Weakland, Otto Wickman, and Andrew Wong.
Opposite to Written in Clay and occupying the east side of the Gallery’s first floor is a contemporary ceramic exhibition featuring the work of Japanese artist Otani Workshop. Also curated by Diana Freundl, Otani Workshop: Monsters in My Head marks Otani’s first solo presentation in North America. This exhibition transports viewers through an immersive labyrinth-like installation, where fantastical ceramic creatures emerge from foraged forest materials. Otani’s ceramic sculptures are hand-formed and fired using experimental and traditional techniques such as Raku and Seto-yaki. Many of the sculptures in this exhibition were created during Otani’s summer Deer Lake Artist Residency, hosted by the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby.
Both exhibitions will open on May 25 and run until November 9, 2025, with a significant opening celebration on Saturday May 24 at Art Party, unforgettable evening of art, music and live performance at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Tickets are available here: https://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/events/art-party-spring-2025.
Plan your visit to experience Written in Clay: From the John David Lawrence Collection and Otani Workshop: Monsters in My Head at www.vanartgallery.bc.ca.
[1] Daina Augaitis, “Introduction,” Modern in the Making: Post-War Craft and Design in British Columbia (Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 2020), 23–25.
[2] Augaitis, “Introduction,” 25.
[3] Augaitis, “Introduction,” 25.
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