Dust Evans Gallery: Featured Artist   

Get your hands dirty and explore your creativity at Gloucester Pottery School this year!

Gloucester Pottery School showcasing the work of six diverse professional artists a year in the Dust Evans Gallery.  Exhibitions are visible online and in person at the Shenkman Art Center, the gallery is locating on the lower level next to the City of Ottawa's Trinity Gallery.  In the past the gallery has had exhibitions by a a diverse range of artists and moving into our 30th year we will seek to give more Dust Evans Gallery exhibition opportunities to artists in equity-seeking communities.

Vanessa Villarreal

Artist Statement: 

I handbuild my ceramics using porcelain slabs that I roll thin, cut with templates, and fold into forms like sheets of paper or cloth. I enjoy leaving the seams of clay where the slab overlaps giving the object a folded, paper-like quality. For inspiration, I often look at contemporary collage and vintage folk art applique designs as I map out stories for my work. I use an applique technique of cutting handdrawn imagery from clay slabs, which I attach to the surface of my forms. My approach to art-making is intuitive as I research and experiment with symbolism of animals and flowers to create a charming narrative about spirituality, feminism and imagination. By using porcelain clay and decorating with a pastel colour palette, my work feels visually soft, like a watercolour painting. This dreamlike surface and imagery, combined with gold luster details bring out a whimsical poetry to this collection. 

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Biography: 

I am a ceramic artist based in Gatineau, Quebec. I received a Bachelor's of Fine Arts degree from the Oregon College of Art & Craft in Portland, OR in 2005. Since the early 2000’s I have been teaching and working in studios in California, Oregon, Arizona, Ottawa and Montreal. My ceramics have been sold and exhibited in local and international art galleries and private collections. I am an American living in Quebec, where I settled with my family in 2016.

Works From Current Exhibition Available for Sale

Upcoming Exhibitions

Vanessa Villarreal    June 11, 2021 – August 4, 2021

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2D 3D                         August 6, 2021 – October 6,2021

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Rosemary Swan       October 8, 2021 - December 1, 2021

(Retrospective)

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Tuile-Fionnuala          December 3, 2021 – February 2, 2022

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Marianne Chenard    February 4, 2022 - April 6, 2022

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Ayesh Kanani            April 8, 2022 - June 8, 2022

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Marissa Alexander   June 10, 2022 - August 10, 2022

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Colette Beardall        August 12, 2022 – October 5,2022

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Narrative Dish           October 7, 2022 - December 7, 2022

Future Exhibitions:

The Gloucester Pottery School intends to showcase the immense variety in the way the material can be explored.  It is very important to the school and the community that the Dust Evans Gallery represent the greater diversity in ceramics seeking to give more Dust Evans Gallery exhibition opportunities to artists in equity-seeking communities.

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Exhibitions are selected by the director, Kaitlyn Brennan. Please contact her directly at:  kaitlyn@gloucesterpotteryschool.com