Pleased to Meet You: Introductions by Gwyn Hanssen Pigott

November 3, 2012 - March 24, 2013 (The O'Brian Gallery)
In her own celebrated work, Australian ceramic artist Gwyn Hanssen Pigott nudges pale-glazed tableware forms into still-life groupings of bowls, bottles and cups. Individually familiar, the juxtaposed forms speak to one another and to the observer with surprising emotion. In this exhibition, Ms. Pigott has selected objects from the Museum’s permanent, world-wide collection and re-assembled them, with her own works, in surprising new relationships. The “introductions” have been made based on colour, form, and pattern, often featuring objects that are normally never displayed together. The pieces are not placed within any historical or cultural context; rather they are grouped to illustrate that, regardless of social or cultural background, makers share similar aesthetic choices when making decisions about the creation of their work. Gwyn Hanssen Pigott is recognized as one of Australia’s most significant contemporary artists and has exhibited extensively in Australia, America, Europe and Asia. In 2002 she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the arts as a ceramic artist and teacher. The exhibition is curated by MOA Curator Dr. Carol E. Mayer and Susan Jefferies, past curator of Modern and Contemporary Ceramics at the Gardiner Museum, Toronto.