HUMBOLDT — On March 1, the Humboldt and District Gallery will open a new exhibit celebrating how raw clay can be transformed into everyday domestic ware.
The exhibit comes from the Saskatoon Potters Guild (SPG), an independent non-profit organization formed in 1962. The guild’s membership typically includes 50 to 60 potters annually, ranging from academically trained, professional potters to those just beginning their explorations in clay.
The 2024 exhibition, Shapeshifter, celebrates how raw clay can be transformed into everyday domestic ware, an object of rare beauty and inspiration, or a combination of both. Members provided the imagination, creativity, and "magic" to shape and transform clay into the works in this exhibition.
Some chose to shift their forms by reshaping angles or curves, while others explored new concepts and techniques in their work.
Each year, the SPG invites its members to submit work for an annual exhibition. The exhibition follows a different theme every two years and is juried by an artist who is not a guild member. The work exhibited at the Humboldt and District Gallery is from two exhibitions: From Our Hands (2023) and Shapeshifter (2024). The exhibit features 65 works created by 20 SPG members, along with contributions from the two jurors, Monique Martin (2023) and Jody Greenman-Barber (2024).
Greenman-Barber holds a bachelor of fine arts and a master of fine arts in ceramics from the University of Regina. Inspired by contemporary dance and improvisation, her expressive and animated ceramic sculptures "record and convey the essential feeling of embodied sensations in forms that derive from pottery concepts and methodologies," according to her bio.
Martin is an internationally recognized multidisciplinary artist from Saskatoon with a 25-year exhibition history. She has exhibited her artwork in more than 280 solo, invited and juried group exhibitions across 13 countries.
The public is invited to the Humboldt and District Gallery on Saturday, March 1, at 1:30 p.m. for a welcome reception and artist talk with Paula Cooley. There is no cost to attend, and everyone is welcome.
The exhibit will run from March 1 to 22.
