Exhibitions

Test Kitchen: A Museum Project

Oct 18 2024 – Aug 24 2025

From the Italian Renaissance to present-day Canada, discover ceramics from across time and geographies. Part exhibition, part workshop, and part ideas generator, Test Kitchen invites you to engage with the collection and take part in hands-on activities.

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Collecting Memories: 40 Years of Ceramics and Community

Oct 9 2024 – Jun 22 2025

The Gardiner Museum is 40 years old! To celebrate this milestone, we invited our Gardiner community to help us curate an exhibition of beloved objects from the Museum’s collection.

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International Ceramic Art Fair 2024

May 23 2024 – Jun 2 2024

The International Ceramic Art Fair is a 10-day celebration of some of the most compelling recent ceramic art, featuring works by emerging and established artists from a wide range of backgrounds, as well as online and in-person programming by artists and curators.

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Mariana Bolaños Inclán: As Told by a Hummingbird

May 18 2024 – Jun 27 2024

Through her sculptures of kitchen objects blossoming into trees of life, Mariana Bolaños Inclán questions ideas about femininity and domesticity.

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Sheridan Graduate Show: Method, Matter, Moment

Apr 5 2024 – Apr 21 2024

Meet the next generation of ceramic artists in this exhibition showcasing the work of Ceramics graduates from the Bachelor of Craft and Design program at Sheridan College.

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Genealogies of Sustenance

Jan 19 2024 – May 12 2024

Genealogies of Sustenance explores experimental and traditional craft forms and techniques that meditate on themes of sustenance, ancestral and embodied memory, as well as plant life stories across regions in Africa and the Black diaspora.

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Radius Child and Youth Services: No Mud, No Lotus

Dec 7 2023 – Dec 11 2023

We’re commemorating the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women with an exhibition that features the work of participants from Radius Child and Youth Services and celebrates their journey of healing and empowerment.

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Magdalene Odundo: A Dialogue with Objects

Oct 19 2023 – Apr 21 2024

This exhibition features the exquisite sculptural vessels one of the world’s most renowned ceramic artists, Dame Magdalene Odundo. Her first exhibition in Canada and the largest ever presentation of her work in North America, the show brings together works spanning the artist’s career, including new pieces directly from her studio.

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Soaking Wet and On Fire: Ceramics and Painting by Natalka Husar

Sep 9 2023 – Jan 7 2024

This lobby exhibition brings together early ceramics and a recent painting by Toronto-based artist Natalka Husar. Her irreverent depictions of food, clothing, and care packages explore themes of cultural identity and belonging in the Ukrainian-Canadian diaspora.

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Mark Making: Narrating Our Histories

Aug 11 2023 – Sep 4 2023

Part of Community Arts Space 2023, this presentation features works created through a series of workshops led by multidisciplinary artist and mentor, Sharon Norwood, along with five members of VIBE Arts’ Emerging Artists program.

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Zachari Logan: The Flourishing Edge

Jul 12 2023 – Jun 28 2024

In this site specific installation, artist Zachari Logan brings ceramics into the centre of his long-standing exploration of weeds, wildflowers, and ditches as avatars of queer male embodiment.

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International Ceramic Art Fair 2023

Jun 8 2023 – Jun 18 2023

The International Ceramic Art Fair is a 10-day celebration of some of the most compelling recent ceramic art, featuring works by emerging and established artists from a wide range of backgrounds, as well as online and in-person programming by artists and curators.

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Reclaimed: Indo-Caribbean HerStories

May 4 2023 – Aug 30 2023

This mixed-media ceramic-based exhibition illuminates the power, courage, and strength of Indo-Caribbean women, past and present. Through a feminist lens, artist Heidi McKenzie reveals the little-known histories of Indo-indentureship in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries through to today.

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Sheridan Graduate Show: Until Next Time

Apr 6 2023 – Apr 23 2023

Meet the next generation of ceramic artists in this exhibition showcasing the work of Ceramics graduates from the Bachelor of Craft and Design program at Sheridan College.

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Mel Wright: Love of Strangers

Mar 22 2023 – Apr 23 2023

This lobby show features new work by Mel Wright, recipient of the 2022 Gardiner Museum Prize, awarded to a graduate of the Sheridan College Ceramics Program. Through improvisation, intuition, and play, Wright use form, scale, colour, and texture to express simple ideas.

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Replicas and Reunions: Ancient and Contemporary Ceramics from Ecuador

Nov 10 2022 – Mar 12 2023

Highlighting the work of Quito, Ecuador-based artist Pamela Cevallos and her five collaborators, the exhibition explores the artisanal and ancestral knowledge of ceramic production.

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Karine Giboulo: Housewarming

Oct 20 2022 – May 7 2023

Montreal-based artist Karine Giboulo invites visitors into an immersive reimagining of her home. Brought to life by over 500 miniature polymer clay figures, this is no ordinary house.

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Crafting Narrative

Sep 10 2022 – Oct 30 2022

Crafting Narrative features ceramics by members of YWCA Toronto’s Inspirations Studio, a unique low-barrier ceramics program in Toronto for women who have experienced marginalization.

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Fragments and Fictions

Aug 12 2022 – Sep 5 2022

The Gardiner Museum’s Community Arts Space is a series of collaborations with community partners and local artists rooted in the real and metaphorical ability of clay to transform. This year’s featured project is led by Z’otz* Collective (Nahúm Flores, Erik Jerezano, and Ilyana Martínez).

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International Ceramic Art Fair

Jun 9 2022 – Jun 19 2022

The International Ceramics Art Fair (ICAF) makes its highly anticipated return, featuring works by emerging and established ceramic artists, and an exciting slate of programming.

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Sharif Bey: Colonial Ruptures

May 14 2022 – Aug 28 2022

Sharif Bey works figuratively, often repurposing fragments of his own earlier sculptures to create beings with a sense of wonder, ritual, and ambiguity.

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Pippa Samsworth: Tannery Park

Apr 8 2022 – May 8 2022

Pippa Samsworth is the winner of the 2021 Gardiner Museum Prize presented to a graduate from the ceramics program at Sheridan College. This display features a series of platters that capture quiet moments spent in and around Tannery Park.

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Sheridan Graduate Show: continuum

Apr 8 2022 – Apr 24 2022

Meet the next generation of ceramic artists in this exhibition showcasing the work of Ceramics graduates from the Bachelor of Craft and Design program at Sheridan College.

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Shary Boyle: Outside the Palace of Me

Feb 24 2022 – May 15 2022

Outside the palace of Me is a major exhibition of new work by Canadian visual artist and performer Shary Boyle. Reflecting on contemporary constructions of self through the language of costume, character, set design, and stage effects, Boyle explores how we see each other, and how we see ourselves.

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Gifted: Recent Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection

Feb 18 2022 – Apr 3 2022

This lobby display highlights recent additions to the Gardiner Museum’s permanent collection

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Sami Tsang: Mooncake Party

Nov 20 2021 – Jan 23 2022

This lobby show features new work by Sami Tsang, the winner of the 2019 Gardiner Museum Prize. The artist’s graphic, narrative sculptures negotiate her identity as a Canadian-born Chinese woman artist.

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Renaissance Venice: Life and Luxury at the Crossroads

Oct 14 2021 – Jan 9 2022

Renaissance Venice was a multicultural metropolis where migration and mobility shaped the daily lives of its inhabitants. Its position at the crossroads of trade routes linking Europe to the Islamic World brought a continuous flow of commodities like pigments, spices, and luxury objects. Renaissance Venice: Life and Luxury at the Crossroads recreates a sensory world of objects, foregrounding visual conversations across cultures.

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Knowing Histories, Building Futures

Oct 1 2021 – Dec 31 2021

Gardiner and Nia Centre for the Arts partnered to offer a series of free clay workshops for Black community members looking to experiment with the medium.

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Shannon Weston: African Identities

Sep 19 2021 – Nov 14 2021

This lobby exhibition features figurative ceramic sculptures adorned with tactile designs inspired by African scarification.

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Forever (Bird-Botanicals)

Aug 21 2021 – Aug 31 2021

David Constantino Salazar, a Toronto-based sculptor, transforms the Exhibition Hall into a venue for collective feeling and cooperative thinking with a series of over 500 individually hand-sculpted, wall-mounted pieces produced in red clay and created during Salazar’s month-long residency at the Gardiner. The installation is presented in partnership with members of Workman Arts, a Toronto-based arts organization that promotes a greater understanding of mental health and addiction.

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Garniture Remix

Jul 21 2021 – Jun 30 2023

Garniture Remix captures the spirit of the historical garniture as a free, yet carefully orchestrated assemblage of objects. We delved into all areas of the Gardiner’s permanent collection to create our own, modern sets of vases and other forms united through colour, shape, ornament, or texture.

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Sheridan Graduate Show: Audax 8

Jul 21 2021 – Aug 29 2021

Meet the next generation of ceramic artists in this exhibition showcasing the work of Ceramics graduates from the Bachelor of Craft and Design program at Sheridan College.

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HEAVY SHINE

Jul 21 2021 – Sep 12 2021

HEAVY SHINE emerges from an ongoing collaboration between Toronto-based ceramic artist Dianne Lee and New Orleans-based visual artist Robyn LeRoy-Evans. The work is presented as a multimedia installation of collage, drawing, ceramic vessels, portraiture, still lifes, and arranged tableaus.

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Community Arts Space: Community Is Essential

Nov 28 2020 – Jan 3 2021

Established in 2016, Community Arts Space (CAS) is the Gardiner’s incubator for arts-based community projects that build community through clay making. This year, we invited Turtle House, FCJ Refugee Centre, and ArtHeart to engage youth, adults, and seniors in clay workshops in connection with the theme “Clay is Essential.”

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Sheridan Graduate Show 2020

Nov 13 2020 – Dec 27 2020

Meet the next generation of ceramic artists in this exhibition showcasing the work of graduates from the Ceramics Program at Sheridan College.

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RAW

Mar 5 2020 – Nov 8 2020

RAW features four newly commissioned installation-based works by leading artists working with unfired clay: Cassils, Magdolene Dykstra, Azza El Siddique, and Linda Swanson.

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The Gardiner Collects: Recent Additions to the Permanent Collection

Jan 18 2020 – Dec 31 2020

The Gardiner Museum is always adding to our collection of both historical and contemporary ceramics. This lobby exhibition brings together a selection of modern and contemporary works acquired since the arrival of Chief Curator Sequoia Miller in April 2018.

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International Ceramic Art Fair

Nov 22 2019 – Nov 24 2019

Last year, the Gardiner presented the first International Ceramic Art Fair featuring extraordinary works by Canadian and international artists. This year, we’re building on that success with a focus on outstanding Canadian women artists and the ways that they’re creating and innovating with clay.

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Nurielle Stern: Fable

Oct 17 2019 – Mar 31 2021

Nurielle Stern’s Fable is the first installation to be displayed in the new Joan Courtois Gallery, spanning the Museum’s soaring staircase.

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Savour: Food Culture in the Age of Enlightenment

Oct 17 2019 – Jan 19 2020

Food and dining were transformed in Europe during the age of Enlightenment. These profound changes continue to resonate today. What many of us eat, the way food is prepared, and how we dine continues to be influenced by radical changes that occurred in France between 1650 and the French Revolution in 1789.

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Cannupa Hanska Luger: Every One & Kali Spitzer: Sister

Aug 30 2019 – Jan 12 2020

The crisis surrounding murdered and missing Indigenous women, girls, trans, and queer community members continues, with thousands of documented cases in both Canada and the U.S. The Gardiner presents the Canadian premiere of artist Cannupa Hanska Luger’s Every One, a monumental social sculpture commemorating victims of the crisis, and Kali Spitzer’s photograph Sister.

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Community Arts Space: What we long for

Jul 9 2019 – Sep 4 2019

Grounded in the real and metaphorical ability of clay to transform, Community Arts Space is a platform for experimentation and socially-engaged art.

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Transformation Through Courage and Connection

Jun 19 2019 – Jun 23 2019

The Gardiner Museum and Radius Child & Youth Services invite you to witness and celebrate fearless work in the form of ceramic sculpture.

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Glenn Lewis: The Poetic Process

May 1 2019 – Aug 18 2019

Glenn Lewis: The Poetic Process is a conceptual work that opens a space for conversation between two media: ceramics and photography. Presented for the first time at the Gardiner Museum, this installation combines a series of five pots made during a residency at the Leach Pottery in St. Ives, England, and twenty large-scale photographs of roses taken in German and English gardens.

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Sheridan Graduate Show: AA16, You Know What I Mean

Apr 10 2019 – Apr 21 2019

Meet the next generation of ceramic artists in this exhibition showcasing the work of graduates from the Ceramics Program at Sheridan College.

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Mixed Feelings: Leaving Home, Finding Home

Apr 3 2019 – Apr 7 2019

To mark Refugee Rights Month, this lobby display features the works by newcomer refugee artists.

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Catharina Goldnau: 2018 Gardiner Museum Award Winner

Mar 22 2019 – Apr 21 2019

Ceramic artist Catharina Goldnau, Sheridan College graduate and recipient of the 2018 Gardiner Museum Award, presents recent work in this lobby display.

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Nurielle Stern: Unswept Floor (Tesserae)

Feb 28 2019 – Jun 9 2019

Toronto-based sculptor Nurielle Stern presents a response to Ai Weiwei: Unbroken housed in a display case outside the entrance to the exhibition.

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Ai Weiwei: Unbroken

Feb 28 2019 – Jun 9 2019

Ai Weiwei: Unbroken explores the breaking of boundaries, both physical and symbolic, and considers how the artist’s ceramic works form a basis for his ongoing exploration of social justice themes, including immigration and the repression of dissent.

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Best in Show

Jan 17 2019 – Mar 17 2019

Drawn from the Gardiner Museum’s permanent collection and local private collections, Best in Show brings together ceramic works of art highlighting the varied relationships between dogs and their owners.

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Feet on the ground: Freedom in my bones

Dec 5 2018 – Dec 11 2018

The Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic and the Gardiner Museum have partnered for 15 years to provide an expressive arts group for women survivors of violence.

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David R. Harper: Zodiac

Nov 16 2018 – Jan 13 2019

Toronto-born artist David R. Harper presents a museum-wide installation inspired by the twelve signs of the zodiac.

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Obsession: Sir William Van Horne’s Japanese Ceramics

Oct 20 2018 – Jan 20 2019

This exhibition reunites for the first time what survives of Sir William Van Horne’s collection of Japanese ceramics, alongside his exacting watercolors, elaborately annotated notebooks, letters, and related archival material. Together, these artifacts offer a remarkable case study in the history of collecting in late-19th century Montreal, highlighting Van Horne’s place in an international network of connoisseurs and the imperialist impulses behind his taxonomic acquisitiveness.

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Japan Now: Female Masters

Sep 7 2018 – Jan 13 2019

Discover the work of some of the most celebrated contemporary female ceramists of Japan.

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Community Arts Space: Recent Histories

Jul 5 2018 – Sep 17 2018

Inspired by the transformative aspects of ceramics, both real and metaphorical, the Community Arts Space is the Gardiner’s incubator for arts-based community projects and free programming all summer long.

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Shary Boyle: Kabuki

Jun 29 2018 – Jul 30 2018

This series of eleven miniature actor portraits by renowned Toronto-based ceramist Shary Boyle plays homage to the artists of Tokyo’s Kabuki-za theatre.

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Gardiner Radius Exhibition

Jun 21 2018 – Jun 25 2018

The Gardiner Museum and Radius Child & Youth Services invite you to witness and celebrate fearless work in the form of ceramic sculpture.

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Japan Now: Surface

Jun 7 2018 – Sep 3 2018

Surface showcases how contemporary Japanese artists are using the ceramic form as a canvas upon which to explore colour, texture, and pattern.

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Pam Purves: Ingenuity

May 1 2018 – May 31 2018

This multi-media series offers a reflection on humanity’s ingenious use of nature and our interaction with the basic building blocks of material design: sand, water, and clay.

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Ab ovo: Sheridan Ceramics Graduate Show

Apr 6 2018 – Apr 22 2018

Ab ovo features work by the first graduates of the Honours Bachelor of Craft and Design Ceramics Program at Sheridan College, the next generation of artists transforming the way we think about clay.

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YOKO ONO: THE RIVERBED

Feb 22 2018 – Jun 3 2018

The Gardiner Museum is pleased to present a three-part installation by Yoko Ono entitled THE RIVERBED. Yoko Ono is a forerunner of Conceptual art, who frequently involves collaboration, audience participation, and social activism in her artwork.

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Japan Now: Form + Function

Jan 12 2018 – Apr 22 2018

The first of three remarkable displays of contemporary Japanese ceramics that will be on view in the Gardiner lobby in 2018. Form + Function features vessels created for floral display or referring, sometimes loosely, to that function.

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Gardiner Expressive Arts Group

Dec 6 2017 – Dec 12 2017

The Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic and the Gardiner Museum have partnered for more than a decade to provide an expressive arts group to women survivors of violence.

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12 Trees 2017: Let There Be Light

Nov 17 2017 – Jan 7 2018

This year’s 12 Trees exhibition will focus on light as a potent symbol of hope that many cultures share during the season.

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Steven Heinemann: Culture and Nature

Oct 19 2017 – Jan 21 2018

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The Canadian Odyssey of Lord Milton

Sep 14 2017 – Dec 31 2017

In 1862, two intrepid tourists, Viscount Milton and Dr. Walter Cheadle, undertook a two-year expedition across Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Two bone china dessert services were specially ordered from the Minton manufactory to celebrate their adventures. Thirteen pieces from Lord Milton’s magnificent service have been reassembled from public and private collections.

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Community Arts Space: Art is Change

Jul 4 2017 – Aug 31 2017

The Gardiner is collaborating with six cultural and community partners to consider how the form and function of institutional outreach can be re-shaped by local artists, curators, and architects. Looking to the Museum’s own local community of Yorkville—currently in the midst of rapid high-rise development—the projects in Art is Change consider how our unique local histories of social activism can be re-mapped for the present and future.

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Northern Visions: Contemporary Inuit Ceramics

Jun 8 2017 – Sep 10 2017

Northern Visions illustrates how the artists of Rankin Inlet draw upon tradition to create new works that embody the attributes of the Inuit people: interconnectedness, resilience, strength, and creativity.

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Deborah Samuel: ARTIFACT

May 1 2017 – May 31 2017

ARTIFACT by Deborah Samuel explores the narrative of transformation. While the individual images remain static, when the viewer moves, the photographs evolve in an almost cinematic manner.

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Finding Balance in a Topsy-Turvy World

Apr 20 2017 – Apr 23 2017

The Gardiner Museum and Radius Child & Youth Services invite you to witness and celebrate fearless work in the form of ceramic sculpture. These works have been created by young artists all of whom have experienced sexual abuse.

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Made In Canada: 2017 Sheridan College Student Show

Mar 31 2017 – Apr 17 2017

For Canada 150, a new generation of ceramic artists explores what it means to be making in Canada.

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A Brilliant Invention: Victorian Majolica from the Rosalie Wise Sharp Collection

Mar 3 2017 – Apr 23 2017

With brilliant colours and bold modelling, majolica enlivened the Victorian home. A low-fired earthenware decorated with bright lead-based glazes, it was first introduced by Herbert Minton (1793-1858) at London’s Great Exhibition of 1851. It was an immediate success and a number of manufacturers soon joined in its production.

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Janet Macpherson: A Canadian Bestiary

Feb 16 2017 – May 22 2017

Janet Macpherson: A Canadian Bestiary is an unprecedented group of installations where the artist uses her unique visual language to convey a very personal view of Canada. Through four immersive installations that include sound design by Justin Haynes and Janet Macpherson, and video projections by Renée Lear, Macpherson revisits moments in Canadian history and questions commonly-held conceptions about the North, identity, and our relationship to landscape.

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#WeBelieveSurvivors

Dec 6 2016 – Dec 13 2016

The Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic and the Gardiner Museum have partnered for more than a decade to provide an expressive arts group to women survivors of violence.

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12 Trees 2016: Good for the Earth

Nov 18 2016 – Jan 8 2017

The Museum presents a new crop of original trees, inspired by the theme “Good for the Earth”, and curated by internationally-renowned artist and environmentalist, David Buckland.

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True Nordic: How Scandinavia Influenced Design in Canada

Oct 13 2016 – Jan 8 2017

This landmark show explores more than seven decades of Nordic aesthetic influence on Canadian design. The first exhibition of its kind, True Nordic features over 100 works by more than 60 designers. The works reflect a simple yet vital Scandinavian aesthetic tied to natural forms, materials, and imagery, and a desire to create attractive, functional objects.

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Edmund de Waal: Rhythm in White

Sep 9 2016 – Jan 4 2017

Edmund de Waal is a renowned English potter and author, who for the past twenty-five years has been exploring rhythms in white porcelain. He uses Limoges porcelain clay with a small range of translucent glazes including a subtle, pale celadon which occasionally oxidizes, resulting in a creamy tone. This intimate lobby display features a grouping of works from two Toronto private collections, including a series of de Waal’s famed “cargo” vessels.

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Gardiner Community Arts Space: The Make it Real Project

Jun 28 2016 – Sep 1 2016

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Powder and Patches: Porcelain for the Boudoir in 18th-Century Europe

Jun 6 2016 – Sep 5 2016

This display visualizes the refined atmosphere of the boudoir along with the beauty and social rituals of the toilette.

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Clive Holden. Internet Mountains

May 1 2016 – May 31 2016
8:00 am – 5:00 pm

In this exhibition, Clive Holden juxtaposes his digital videos and prints with historical objects selected from the Gardiner Museum’s collection.

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Firing Silence; Moulding Change

Apr 21 2016 – Apr 25 2016

Radius Child and Youth Services SAFE-T Program and the Gardiner Museum invite you to witness the courageous work completed by children and youth breaking the silence of their experiences of sexual abuse by transforming their narratives into clay sculptures.

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Jordan Scott

Apr 1 2016 – Apr 24 2016
8:00 am – 5:00 pm

Jordan Scott, the winner of the 2015 Sheridan Ceramics Graduate Show, explores how a vessel can relate to both the past and the present.

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Curio: 2016 Sheridan Ceramics Graduate Show

Apr 1 2016 – Apr 15 2016

Curio presents the work of six graduate students from the Ceramics Program at Sheridan College, the next generation of artists transforming the way we think about clay.

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Beneath The Surface: Life, Death, Gold and Ceramics in Ancient Panama

Feb 8 2016 – May 29 2016
8:00 am – 5:00 pm

In 1940, a Penn Museum team excavated at the cemetery, unearthing spectacular finds—large golden plaques and pendants with animal-human motifs, precious and semi-precious stone, ivory, and animal bone ornaments, and literally tons of detail-rich painted ceramics.

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Reflections on Culture and Identity

Jan 5 2016 – Jan 12 2016
8:00 am – 5:00 pm

A collaborative project coordinated by the Gardiner Museum and funded by the US Consulate General of Toronto, this exhibition features works by students in the Sheridan College Ceramics Program and in both the Bead & Read Group and Indigenous Visual Culture Program at OCAD University.

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The Ink-Dark Moon

Dec 8 2015 – Dec 15 2015

The Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic and the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art are collaborating to raise awareness about violence against women as a critical community issue. Together they invited a group of women who have experienced violence to participate in an expressive arts project where women create sculptures and install an art exhibition.

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Across the Globe: The Anne Gross Collection

Nov 23 2015 – Mar 27 2016

In 1963, a young Janice Gross Stein chanced upon a trove of Chinese porcelain stored in the basement of a private home in Magog, Québec. So began the first of multiple visits to acquire a historic collection assembled by her mother Anne Romoff Gross. See these never-before-exhibited pieces.

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12 Trees 2015: The Joy of Creativity

Nov 12 2015 – Jan 3 2016

This year, Canada’s leading designers and artists have been invited to re-imagine the Christmas trees both aesthetically and conceptually for a bold, new direction for the Gardiner Museum’s 27th annual 12 Trees exhibition.

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Kent Monkman: The Rise and Fall of Civilization

Oct 15 2015 – Jan 10 2016

Kent Monkman’s site specific installation entitled The Rise and Fall of Civilization references the near extinction of the American bison in the 1800s when humans killed approximately 50 million, reducing their numbers to the hundreds.

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RBC Emerging Artists People’s Choice Awards

Jun 18 2015 – Aug 30 2015

Ceramics has been reborn in recent years as a contemporary medium, captivating a new generation of artists working in clay today. Discover the work of five up-and-coming artists from across Canada, nominated by a panel of practitioners, collectors and arts educators.

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Forging New Paths

Jun 3 2015 – Jun 8 2015

Forging New Paths is an exhibit of ceramic narratives created by children and youth ages 8 to 17 who share in their personal experience of sexual abuse. These young artists show great courage and compassion towards one another and to their peers globally who, like them, have broken the silence that often shrouds sexual exploitation

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Chris Curreri: So Be It

May 1 2015 – May 31 2015

During weekly classes at the Gardiner Museum, Chris Curreri photographed students’ wet and discarded projects. The resulting series of photographs, Untitled (Clay Portfolio), focuses on the material of clay as it shifts between states of form and states of formlessness.

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Double Take: 2015 Sheridan Ceramics Graduate Exhibition

Apr 2 2015 – Apr 16 2015

Twelve graduates from Sheridan College’s Ceramics program present an extraordinary collection of new work.

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Rhoni Clarke: My Work My Anxiety

Mar 17 2015 – Apr 26 2015

Having grown up in a society and culture that often assigns shame and sloth to those suffering from mental health, Clarke’s recent work is an invitation to an open and honest discussion.

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Women, Art & Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise

Feb 5 2015 – May 18 2015
10:00 am – 6:00 pm

Women, Art & Social Change tells the inspirational story of a group of women in the Deep South who achieved economic independence through making and selling pottery, and by establishing Newcomb Pottery, one of the most iconic arts and crafts brands of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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But Still, Like Dust’, I’ll Rise

Dec 12 2014 – Dec 17 2014

The exhibition tells a story, educates, and creates an experience through the experience of others. It heightens our awareness as a community of violence against women, cultivates a deeper understanding of abuse, and is a call for prevention.

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12 Trees of Christmas 2014: The Toronto Edition

Nov 12 2014 – Dec 14 2014

Toronto’s favourite neighbourhoods come to life in this year’s edition of 12 Trees at the Gardiner Museum, a holiday exhibition where one-of-a-kind Christmas trees glitter throughout the galleries.

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Clare Twomey: Piece By Piece

Oct 4 2014 – Jan 3 2015
8:00 am – 5:00 pm

Internationally-renowned for her interactive interventions in prestigious British and American museums, Clare Twomey creates a spectacular commissioned installation about making and collecting, viewed through the lens of the Gardiner’s 18th-century European porcelain galleries.

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RBC Emerging Artists People’s Choice Awards

Sep 2 2014 – Oct 14 2014

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Camp Fires: The Queer Baroque of Léopold L. Foulem, Paul Mathieu and Richard Milette

May 29 2014 – Sep 1 2014

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Spring Awakening: Gardiner in Bloom

Apr 25 2014 – Apr 27 2014

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A Tribute to George & Helen Gardiner & the Joy of Collecting

Mar 6 2014 – Jan 11 2015

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Ron Thom & The Allied Arts

Feb 13 2014 – Apr 27 2014

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Amber Zuber

Jan 9 2014 – Mar 2 2014

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A Space For All Voices

Dec 12 2013 – Dec 19 2013

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12 Trees Of Christmas 2013

Nov 23 2013 – Dec 15 2013

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Nurielle Stern

Nov 14 2013 – Jan 5 2014
8:00 am – 5:00 pm

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Animal Stories

Oct 10 2013 – Jan 12 2014

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AN TE LIU: Mono No Ma

Sep 7 2013 – Nov 11 2013

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RBC Emerging Artist People’s Choice Award 2013

Sep 3 2013 – Oct 15 2013

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The Art of Everyday: Faience In 17th And 18th Century France

Aug 22 2013 – Jan 5 2014

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Sheridan Ceramics Intervention

Jul 8 2013 – Sep 29 2013

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Kathy Ventor – Life

May 30 2013 – Sep 15 2013

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A Bit Of Clay On The Skin: New Ceramic Jewelry

May 16 2013 – Aug 11 2013

A Bit of Clay on the Skin: New Ceramic Jewelry explores the appeal of ceramics, especially porcelain, in jewelry. Organized by the Fondation d’Entreprise Bernardaud and curated by the renowned German-born goldsmith and jewelry artist, Monika Brugger, the exhibition showcases the versatility and allure of the medium, which can be modeled or cast, used alone or with metal, wood, and stone, and vary in color and texture.

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Spring Awakening: Gardiner in Bloom

May 3 2013 – May 5 2013

For one weekend only, spectacular floral installations by ten of Toronto’s top floral designers will be displayed throughout the Museum to celebrate the arrival of spring in the city. Each designer will create a stunning floral installation inspired by a particular piece in our permanent collection.

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Sheridan Ceramics Graduate Show

Apr 14 2013 – Apr 18 2013

Discover the next generation of Canadian ceramic artists. The Gardiner presents its annual showcase of work by this year’s graduating class of the Sheridan College’s Ceramics, Crafts and Design Program.

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Transformation By Fire: Women Overcoming Violence Through Clay

Feb 7 2013 – Apr 28 2013

For the last ten years, the Gardiner Museum and the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic have partnered to offer an engaging series of art therapy groups for women who have experienced violence. In 2013, these art therapy groups have culminated in a landmark exhibition, Transformation by Fire, designed to raise public awareness about violence against women in a sensitive, informed, and compelling way, and to provide accessible and inspiring real life role models for anyone who has either experienced or witnessed violence.

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Susan Low-Beer: Fragments Of Self

Feb 7 2013 – Apr 28 2013

This installation within the exhibition Transformation by Fire features sculptural ceramics by artist Susan Low-Beer, and reveals how her psychological investigations underscore and intersect with her collaboration with the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic and Gardiner Museum through their therapeutic arts program.

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Consciousness Blooms

Dec 11 2012 – Dec 12 2012

Each year, clients from the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic participate in a unique trauma informed art therapy group for women survivors of child sexual abuse/incest, adult sexual assault, and intimate partner abuse.

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12 Trees of Christmas 2012

Nov 17 2012 – Dec 9 2012

Journey around the world with some of Toronto’s favourite designers! Featuring twelve one-of-a-kind decorated trees inspired by twelve different countries.

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Kate Hyde: Harlequinade

Nov 14 2012 – Jan 27 2013

Ontario-based artist Kate Hyde explores the theme of the Harlequinade in a series of colourful tableaux about the onstage and backstage world of theatre. Visitors are invited to follow some of these playful characters into the Museum’s collection of Commedia dell’arte figurines that inspired the artist.

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The Vase Project: Made In China, Landscape in Blue & Go East: Canadians Celebrate China

Oct 11 2012 – Jan 13 2013

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Joanne Tod: Invited Invasion

Sep 7 2012 – Nov 11 2012

Toronto artist Joanne Tod is best known for her paintings of people and places. Tod will present new work that responds to the Gardiner’s historical collections including painted plates and paintings.

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RBC Emerging Artist People’s Choice Award

Sep 4 2012 – Oct 7 2012

The second annual RBC Emerging Artist People’s Choice Award recognizes the artist whose work receives the most votes from the participating public with a $10,000 cash prize.

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Rule Britannia: Four Centuries Of British Style, Power & Taste

May 31 2012 – Sep 16 2012

Rule Britannia! celebrates the union of artistry and craft that symbolizes and captures the social history, ingenuity, aspirations, and sensibilities of one of the world’s greatest empires.

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Connections: Canadian And British Studio Ceramics

May 31 2012 – Apr 14 2013

This exhibition of 30 works from the 1960s to the present highlights Canadian ceramicists’ strong ties with the British studio pottery movement.

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Recent Acquisitions

May 14 2012 – Aug 31 2012

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Spring Awakening: Gardiner in Full Bloom

Apr 26 2012 – Apr 29 2012

For one weekend only, spectacular floral installations by some of Toronto’s top designers celebrate the arrival of spring in the city

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Greg Payce: Illusions

Feb 2 2012 – May 6 2012

This exhibition showcases one of Canada’s most innovative and productive ceramic artists, demonstrating his ongoing commitment to expanding the expressive and conceptual range of ceramic art.

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The Tsar’s Cabinet: The Luxury and Romance of the Romanovs

Jan 8 2012 – Oct 13 2012

The Tsars’ Cabinet presents more than 200 examples of decorative arts, including objects with Fabergé mounts, gilded dinner services, imperial porcelain eggs, and historic court photographs that document the extravagance and sumptuousness of life in palaces and yachts during the Romanov era.

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Breaking The Silence Through Clay

Dec 14 2011 – Dec 20 2011

The Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic and the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art are collaborating to raise awareness about violence against women as a critical community issue.

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12 Trees Of Christmas 2011

Nov 19 2011 – Dec 11 2011

A favourite Toronto holiday tradition, this exhibition of Christmas trees designed by the city’s top interior designers and architects will dazzle you and your family! This year’s trees will be adorned to the theme of “All Creatures Great and Small.”

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Jun Kaneko

Jun 30 2011 – Sep 18 2011

This exhibition presents a survey of 39 works by Kaneko ranging in date from the early 1980s to the early 2000s.

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Creamware

Jun 27 2011 – Dec 4 2011

This exhibition showcases a collection of creamwares that were donated to the Gardiner Museum in 2008 by long-time members Jean and Ken Laundy.

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Betty Woodman: Places, Spaces & Things

Mar 3 2011 – Jun 5 2011

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Sugar & Spice

Jan 28 2011 – Apr 24 2011

Sugar and Spice showcases works from the Gardiner Museum’s permanent collection in a fresh and exciting way—through the themes of food and flavour.

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Breaking Boundaries: Four Young Canadians Re-Imagine Ceramic Art

Oct 7 2010 – Jan 30 2011

Breaking Boundaries features the work of four Canadian artists under the age of 40 whose work illustrates a variety of cross-disciplinary approaches to contemporary ceramic art.

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Current Exhibitions

In Search of Imperfection: The Macdonald Collection of Japanese and Japanese-Inspired Ceramics

Jul 10 2025 – Jun 30 2026

Upcoming Exhibitions

Femme Fatale: The Art of Jeannot Blackburn

Nov 6 2025 – Jan 11 2026

Linda Rotua Sormin: Uncertain Ground

Nov 6 2025 – Apr 12 2026

Past Exhibitions

Test Kitchen: A Museum Project

Oct 18 2024 – Aug 24 2025

Collecting Memories: 40 Years of Ceramics and Community

Oct 9 2024 – Jun 22 2025

International Ceramic Art Fair 2024

May 23 2024 – Jun 2 2024

Mariana Bolaños Inclán: As Told by a Hummingbird

May 18 2024 – Jun 27 2024

Sheridan Graduate Show: Method, Matter, Moment

Apr 5 2024 – Apr 21 2024

Genealogies of Sustenance

Jan 19 2024 – May 12 2024

Radius Child and Youth Services: No Mud, No Lotus

Dec 7 2023 – Dec 11 2023

Magdalene Odundo: A Dialogue with Objects

Oct 19 2023 – Apr 21 2024

Soaking Wet and On Fire: Ceramics and Painting by Natalka Husar

Sep 9 2023 – Jan 7 2024

Mark Making: Narrating Our Histories

Aug 11 2023 – Sep 4 2023

Zachari Logan: The Flourishing Edge

Jul 12 2023 – Jun 28 2024

International Ceramic Art Fair 2023

Jun 8 2023 – Jun 18 2023

Reclaimed: Indo-Caribbean HerStories

May 4 2023 – Aug 30 2023

Sheridan Graduate Show: Until Next Time

Apr 6 2023 – Apr 23 2023

Mel Wright: Love of Strangers

Mar 22 2023 – Apr 23 2023

Replicas and Reunions: Ancient and Contemporary Ceramics from Ecuador

Nov 10 2022 – Mar 12 2023

Karine Giboulo: Housewarming

Oct 20 2022 – May 7 2023

Crafting Narrative

Sep 10 2022 – Oct 30 2022

Fragments and Fictions

Aug 12 2022 – Sep 5 2022

International Ceramic Art Fair

Jun 9 2022 – Jun 19 2022

Sharif Bey: Colonial Ruptures

May 14 2022 – Aug 28 2022

Pippa Samsworth: Tannery Park

Apr 8 2022 – May 8 2022

Sheridan Graduate Show: continuum

Apr 8 2022 – Apr 24 2022

Shary Boyle: Outside the Palace of Me

Feb 24 2022 – May 15 2022

Gifted: Recent Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection

Feb 18 2022 – Apr 3 2022

Sami Tsang: Mooncake Party

Nov 20 2021 – Jan 23 2022

Renaissance Venice: Life and Luxury at the Crossroads

Oct 14 2021 – Jan 9 2022

Knowing Histories, Building Futures

Oct 1 2021 – Dec 31 2021

Shannon Weston: African Identities

Sep 19 2021 – Nov 14 2021

Forever (Bird-Botanicals)

Aug 21 2021 – Aug 31 2021

Garniture Remix

Jul 21 2021 – Jun 30 2023

Sheridan Graduate Show: Audax 8

Jul 21 2021 – Aug 29 2021

HEAVY SHINE

Jul 21 2021 – Sep 12 2021

Community Arts Space: Community Is Essential

Nov 28 2020 – Jan 3 2021

Sheridan Graduate Show 2020

Nov 13 2020 – Dec 27 2020