Gardiner Museum
The Gardiner Museum unites people of all ages and backgrounds through the love of clay & ceramics.
The Gardiner Museum was founded in 1984 by George and Helen Gardiner to house their collection of ceramics. Today, visitors can explore the permanent collection, including pottery representing 47 cultures from the modern day geographical areas of the American Southwest, Mexico, and Central and South America; a world-renowned collection of porcelain from Europe, China, and Japan; and contemporary c
Can you identify this iconic pair of objects from our collection before the video ends? 👀
Plan your visit and see them in person in our first-floor galleries!
01/09/2024
New year, new you! Did you know that our mindfulness clay classes are led by a registered psychotherapist?
Moving with the malleability of clay, participants learn how to slow their breath, relaxing into the core of the body and focusing on the present moment. Classes take place in the evenings and range from two hours to four weeks. No previous mindfulness or ceramics experience is required!
Choose from the following sessions:
✨ Jan 16: CLAYming Interconnectedness: Here and Now
✨ Jan 23: CLAYming Love
✨ Jan 30 - Feb 20: Centering with Clay (4-week course)
✨ Feb 5: Re-claym Re-connect Re-member
✨ Feb 19: CLAYming Interconnectedness: Here and Now
Register now: https://bit.ly/43nmu26
Time to load up the KILN! 🔥
A kiln is a special kind of oven used for firing pottery. Clay is typically fired two times—the bisque fire and the glaze fire. The bisque fire transforms bone-dry clay into durable ceramic ready to be decorated. During the glaze fire, the glaze melts to form a glassy coat on the pottery.
We can't wait to see you in our studios this year!
Kick off the first weekend of 2024 with a visit to the landmark exhibition Magdalene Odundo: A Dialogue with Objects. ✨
The show brings together work spanning Dame Magdalene Odundo's illustrious career, including new pieces directly from her studio. Her work is presented in dialogue with art and artifacts from across time periods and cultures, including an ancient Mediterranean figurine and monumental Abstract Expressionist painting.
Swing by in the next few days and start 2024 with some incredible art!
Find more information here: https://bit.ly/4670yJD
01/04/2024
Opening January 19 in our lobby gallery, 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 in regions across Africa and the Black diaspora.
Curated by Gardiner Museum Curatorial Resident, Sarah Edo, the exhibition brings together ceramic installations and film by Chiedza Pasipanodya, Mallory Lowe Mpoka, and Zainab Aliyu, artists whose visual and conceptual strategies sew together threads of hybridity, abundance, and transformative imagination.
Join us on January 19 from 6 - 8 pm to celebrate the opening with a free reception and artist panel: https://bit.ly/3NQhFc2
The Gardiner Museum Curatorial Residency is made possible through the generous support of the Rebanks Family. The Residency supports the next generation of curators and promotes new approaches to the study and presentation of ceramics by offering an opportunity to conceive, research, and produce a small-scale museum exhibition.
The exhibition was produced with the support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.
Images: [1] Courtesy of Mallory Lowe Mpoka [2] Courtesy of Chiedza Pasipanodya. Photo: Rebecca Pedley [3] Courtesy of Mallory Lowe Mpoka [4] Courtesy of Zainab Aliyu
It's not too late for one final walkthrough of Soaking Wet and On Fire: Ceramics and Painting by Natalka Husar in our lobby gallery!
Explore Husar's artistic evolution from a series of early ceramic sculptures—on view for the first time in over 40 years—to a recent monumental painting. Discover Husar's irreverent depictions of food, clothing, and care packages, exploring themes of cultural identity and belonging in the Ukrainian-Canadian diaspora. Don't miss your chance to see the exhibition before it closes on January 7. 🎨✨
Get tickets: https://bit.ly/3LrY3tO
01/02/2024
A new year means new opportunities! If you're looking to incorporate more art and culture into your 2024, you've come to the right place. ✨
Explore our special exhibition Magdalene: Odundo: A Dialogue with Objects, wander through the permanent collection galleries, take a clay class, and discover local artists in the Gardiner Shop!
12/31/2023
Cheers to a new year of clay and community! 🥂
We're looking back on an incredible 2023 and setting our sights on 2024. Here are some of our favourite memories from the past year, in no particular order:
✨ Dame Magdalene Odundo joined us for the opening of A Dialogue with Objects, her first Canadian exhibition
✨ Karine Giboulo: Housewarming gave us big feelings and sparked important conversations
✨ Pottery on the Plaza engaged families in clay making all summer long
✨ The International Ceramic Art Fair celebrated some of the most compelling recent ceramic art
✨ Empty Bowls made a sold-out return to the Terrace Room
✨ Zachari Logan Studio's The Flourishing Edge took root in our soaring glass stairwell
✨ Five members of VIBE Arts' Emerging Artists program worked alongside mentor Sharon Norwood to showcase their work as part of the Community Arts Space, presented by TD Canada
✨ Artist Heidi McKenzie illuminated the power, courage, and strength of Indo-Caribbean women
✨ Martina Lantin experimented in our studios as part of our first Gardiner Museum Artist Residency, generously supported by Pamela Goodwin
✨ Canadian-Ukrainian artist Natalka Husar exhibited her early ceramics for the first time in 46 years
Thank you to all our exhibiting artists, Gardiner Shop artists, staff, instructors, volunteers, donors, supporters, and visitors. We're looking forward to what 2024 brings!
Squish, squish, squish! Clay sounds are our favourite sounds. Enjoy this ASMR break to get you through the rest of your Friday.👂
Celebrated Kenyan British potter Dame Magdalene Odundo reacts to seeing her largest-ever exhibition in North America, A Dialogue with Objects, in which her vessels mingle with art and artifacts from across time periods and geographies.🏺
"When I first came into this room, I was taken by surprise. The enormity, the sense of mass of work was quite moving."
Plan your visit to see A Dialogue with Objects before the New Year!
https://ow.ly/6aXq50QkoRE
12/27/2023
Make one more visit to Zachari Logan Studio's site-specific installation, The Flourishing Edge, before the New Year, then come again in 2024 with fresh eyes! 🌾
"Although displayed within the vitrines of the Joan Courtois Gallery, these works challenge containment. The compositions and the materials chosen—glazed and unglazed ceramic, paper elements, and my own hair, as either root or flowering systems—suggest an inexorable q***r geography. They represent a flourishing edge that touches the eye to reveal q***r existence as both beautiful and essential to understanding society and the world as a whole."
Plan your visit today: https://ow.ly/fyrz50QkoHu
📸: Toni Hafkenscheid
12/24/2023
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy holidays from all of us here at the Museum and Gardiner Shop! ❤️
Please note our holiday hours from December 24 - December 26:
🎄 December 24: 10 am - 3pm
🎄 December 25: CLOSED
🎄 December 26: CLOSED
We'll reopen on December 27 with our regular hours.
Capturing the festive spirit in clay just in time for the holidays! 🎄
Watch Gardiner Museum instructor Hatice skillfully wheel-throw a Christmas tree, channeling the magic of the season! 💫
12/21/2023
The Gardiner Shop is your destination for last-minute gifts! 🛍
Find handmade ceramics, jewellery, glass, textiles, and more crafted by local and designers. The perfect one-of-a-kind present awaits!
Shop now: https://bit.ly/3RSs21K
We sat down with the world-renowned contemporary artist and potter Magdalene Odundo to discuss her largest ever exhibition in North America and what inspires her work. 🎙
In addition to the Gardiner Museum, Odundo's work can be found in the collections of Brooklyn Museum, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, among others.
Magdalene Odundo: A Dialogue with Objects places Odundo's work in conversation with art and artifacts spanning time periods and cultures to explore the connections that unite us as humans.
A quick glimpse at Soaking Wet and On Fire: Ceramics and Painting by Natalka Husar. ✨
Celebrated as a painter, it's been 46 years since Husar's early ceramic works were on public view, and we're thrilled to host their triumphant return. Husar's irreverent depictions of food, clothing, and care packages delve into themes of cultural identity and belonging in the Ukrainian-Canadian diaspora. When viewed alongside a recent monumental painting, her ceramics are revealed as instrumental to her development as an artist.
On January 3 at 2 pm, join the artist for a free tour in Ukrainian. No registration necessary.
See Soaking Wet and On Fire before it closes on January 7!
12/18/2023
Rather than being arranged chronologically, Magdalene Odundo's pieces are grouped to spur contemplation and encourage close looking at the subtle variations between them.
Plan your visit to see A Dialogue with Objects this holiday season! 🖤
https://bit.ly/4670yJD
Our collection of European Porcelain features a wide variety of teapots, tea cups, saucers, and other accessories. In the 18th century, porcelain from China and Japan, coupled with local production, redefined European dining and tea culture.
Why porcelain, you ask? Its resilience to thermal shock and durability made it the perfect choice for tea. Journey through time to explore the refined styles and princely patrons that elevated porcelain to an art form in Europe. 🫖
Discover the exquisite sculptural vessels of Dame Magdalene Odundo, one of the world’s most celebrated ceramic artists, in her Canadian debut and the largest ever exhibition of her work in North America. 🖤
The landmark exhibition A Dialogue with Objects features work spanning Odundo's career, including new pieces directly from her studio. Visitors are invited to draw connections between Odundo's work and objects from across time periods and geographies, selected by the artist from the permanent collection of the Gardiner Museum, as well as on loan from other Toronto institutions and private collections.
Plan your holiday outing today and experience the this transformative exhibition for yourself: lnk.bio/s/f7e75
Weeds and wildflowers have taken root in our stairwell. Discover Zachari Logan Studio's site-specific installation The Flourishing Edge! 🌿🌈
"Although displayed within the vitrines of the Joan Courtois Gallery, these works challenge containment. The compositions and the materials chosen—glazed and unglazed ceramic, paper elements, and my own hair, as either root or flowering systems—suggest an inexorable q***r geography. They represent a flourishing edge that touches the eye to reveal q***r existence as both beautiful and essential to understanding society and the world as a whole."
Plan your visit to see The Flourishing Edge today: lnk.bio/s/0a1d9
This pair of ceramic heads c. 1995 was the final work produced by French-Canadian artist Jeannot Blackburn before his death from HIV related causes in 1996. They illustrate the delicate balance he maintained between his vision of glamour and the stark reality of his condition. 🖤
Based in Montreal, Blackburn was a student of Léopold L. Foulem. He was among the group of artists influenced by Foulem to create overtly conceptual ceramics, often including explicit ho******ic content. Like Richard Milette, Paul Mathieu, and Foulem, Blackburn used figuration and q***r themes within strategic deployment of camp aesthetics. He often replicated the bright colors and shiny surfaces of industrial ceramics, drawing from "low" aesthetic sources such as kitsch figurines. Blackburn exhibited regularly before his death and left an indelible mark on the fields of contemporary ceramics and Canadian art.
'Two Heads,' Jeannot Blackburn, c.1995, White earthenware with glaze, Gift of Gregory Louden and Pierre Durand in Memory of the Artist, G19.4.5.1-2
We're in the studio with Gardiner Museum instructor, Hatice. Watch her whip up some festive ornaments out of clay! 🎄✨
Add a new hobby to your list of New Year's resolutions. Learn about our adult, kids, family, and drop-in clay classes: https://bit.ly/3pm1SZT
12/06/2023
Join us for a free evening of art and music on Wednesday December 13 from 6 - 8 pm co-curated by Coco Collective. 🎶
Ghanaian-Bermudian musician, performer, and composer, Kobèna Aquaa-Harrison will fill the exhibition Magdalene Odundo: A Dialogue with Objects with the sounds of the Balafon and Goje. Aquaa-Harrison will create a symphony of emotions and inspiration, drawing parallels between the themes that inspire Odundo’s work. No registration necessary!
Learn more: https://bit.ly/3RvsUcg
12/05/2023
Journey through Natalka Husar's artistic evolution in Soaking Wet and On Fire. 🎨
This exhibition in our lobby gallery offers a rare glimpse into Husar's creative development. It features her irreverent depictions of food, clothing, and care packages, including early ceramics and a recent monumental painting, which speak to cultural identity and belonging in the Ukrainian-Canadian diaspora.
See it before it closes on January 7, 2024!
https://bit.ly/3LrY3tO
WINTER CLAY CLASSES ❄️
Stay warm this season while creating in our studios. We offer classes for every age group, skill level, and interest, including stoneware, wheel throwing, hand building, decorating, and more!
Classes are on sale now for Gardiner Friends! Registration opens to the public on Wednesday December 6 at 10 am.
Learn more: https://bit.ly/3pm1SZT
Many cultures have historically regarded horses as symbols of power and conduits between the physical and spiritual realms.
This masterpiece by Montreal-born artist Jean-Pierre Larocque was created using a basic clay framework built up using smaller pieces of clay applied in layers and fixed with multiple firings. This process gives the sculpture an organic quality that suggests the forces of both growth and decay. It's as if the horse is an archaeological artifact from a mysterious civilization. 🐴
This piece is currently on view on our third floor. Check it out during your next visit!
Jean-Pierre Larocque, Horse with Baggage #1, 2005 - 2006, Stoneware with glaze, The Diana Reitberger Collection, Gift in Honour of Edmund and Renate Reitberger, G14.11.5
11/30/2023
Magdalene Odundo: A Dialogue with Objects features 21 vessels and 4 works on paper from throughout the artist's career. They're displayed alongside objects selected by Odundo from several Toronto-based collections, including the Gardiner Museum's permanent collection! 🖤
These objects span geographies, time periods, and media, bringing Odundo's work into conversation with work by Robert Motherwell, Josef Albers, Helen Frankenthaler, Oluseye, Richard Milette, Eddy Firmin, and others.
Plan your visit to see this incredible exhibition now: https://bit.ly/4670yJD
11/29/2023
Ceramics storytime! 📖
In 1701 Augustus the Strong, elector of Saxony and king of Poland, had the brilliant young alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger seized and brought to Dresden. He was soon diverted from his quest to create gold to experiment with porcelain. In 1707 Böttger discovered a high-fired red stoneware, seen here.
Two years later, he produced the first glazed hard-paste porcelain in Europe. It was one of the most important scientific achievements of the era. The Arcanum—the secret formula for porcelain, the methods for producing it, and crucial designs for high-temperature kilns—was guarded closely to prevent its theft.
Visit our European Porcelain Galleries to learn more about the history of ceramics, including tales of intrigue, innovation, and discovery.
Above: Model of a Child's Head, Germany, Meissen, c. 1711, Red stoneware. Gift of George and Helen Gardiner, G83.1.586
Below: Tea Bowl and Saucer, Germany, Meissen, c. 1711-13, Polished red stoneware, Gift of George and Helen Gardiner, G83.1.565
Things in our clay studios that just make sense:
✨ Moulds everywhere you look
✨ Different sized paint brushes
✨ Colour swatches
✨ Jars of glaze
✨ Unfired pieces
Take one of our clay classes and explore the studios for yourself. Drop-In Classes run three times a week and Winter Clay Classes will be announced soon!
More info: https://bit.ly/3pm1SZT
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Celebrating the art of clay
The Gardiner Museum is an inviting destination that inspires and connects people, art and ideas through clay, one of the world’s oldest art forms.
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Address
111 Queens Park
Toronto, ON
M5S2C7
Opening Hours
| Monday | 10am - 6pm |
| Tuesday | 10am - 6pm |
| Wednesday | 10am - 9pm |
| Thursday | 10am - 6pm |
| Friday | 10am - 6pm |
| Saturday | 10am - 5pm |
| Sunday | 10am - 5pm |
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