The Weight of Clay presents a broad selection of work in the collection, ranging from functional ware to sculptural installations that illustrate the intersection of technical proficiency and artistic expression, by artists from across the country. The exhibition is not an encyclopedic survey but a more intimate and personal approach to the collection’s history, told via 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.

At the center of the exhibition is the selection of forty works by forty artists representing each year in our forty-year 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 the rise of clay in the country.

The exhibition’s public programming series is a platform to investigate some of these questions, and more. The AGB is dedicated to contemporary craft discourse and remains an open space for critical dialogue on disentangling the binary of craft disciplines and contemporary art practices. We invest in our regional and national craft communities and support robust conversations that sustain academic and practical interdisciplinary systems through events, workshops, demonstrations, tours, and discussions on the collection’s dual preoccupation with contemporary art and craft. Together with Magdolene Dykstra, Rachel Gotlieb, Steve Heinemann, Bruce Cochrane, Jess Riva Cooper, Sami Tsang, Mariana Bolaños Inclán, Brian Kohl, and Linda Swanson we discuss the potency of clay pasts, presents, and futures. Find out more about these programs here.

At the AGB, learning is in the making. Through hands-on workshops and courses, clay artists can 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. This season we learn and make alongside artists Heather Kuzyk, Barbara Taylor, Nikola Wojewoda, Laura Hewson, Silvana Michetti, Karla Rivera, Michelle Lynn, Eiko Maeda, Nicole Levaque, Dana Dallal, Lindsay Montgomery, Chiedza Pasipanodya, and Danica Drago. Registration is required for public programs and studio events.

The weight of history is heavy, but the AGB’s collection is agile. We look forward to expanding the future possibilities of clay and our relationship to it.
The Contributing Sponsor for The Weight of Clay exhibition is RBC Dominion Securities Inc. The AGB is generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council, Ontario Trillium Foundation, and the Canada Council for the Arts. AGB’s learning programming has been generously supported by The Burlington Foundation and the incite Foundation for the Arts. The archival digitization was made possible by the Halton Region Heritage Services.

The collection digitization project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada through the Museum Assistant Program, the City of Burlington’s Burlington 150+ Fund, and the Ontario Trillium Foundation Resilient Communities Fund.