Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery

New Fall Exhibits Opening at the CCGG:
Wheel of Time, Vessel-Essence and Layers

The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery opens three new exhibits on Sunday, September 11th from 2:00-5:00pm, with an artist's talk at 1pm. Wheel of Time: Historical & Contemporary Buddhist Art & Artifacts features several components, including an installation entitled The Compassionate One by Toronto artist Alex Yeung. Vessel-Essence by Anita Rocamura opens in the Dr. Douglas Wright Education Gallery while Layers by Peter Sloan will be on view in the Mutual Group Tower Gallery.

Wheel of Time includes exceptional works of Buddhist art, some of which come from the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and Tibet House Museum, New York City. The exhibit includes historical artifacts known as Tsha Tshas - small, press-molded tablets that served as portable shrines or reliquaries and were secretly used in China throughout the duration of the communist regime.

From October 13th until the 27th monks from the Namgyal Monastery will be creating a sand mandala of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, or the Wheel of Compassion. This mystical tantric art extends back more than 3,000 years to Buddhist India. Created by Buddhist monks and nuns, mandalas are part of secret initiation ceremonies that have only recently opened up for public viewing, and are seen both as a cultural offering and as a means to preserve Tibetan culture.

The contemporary aspect of Buddhist art will be represented by Toronto-based artist Alex Yeung's installation entitled The Compassionate One. Yeung, an award-winning ceramist, has created an homage to Kuan Yin. Known by various names - Avalokiteshvara (India), Chenresi (Tibet), or Kuan Yin (China), and Kwannon (Japan) - this Bodhisattva is an avatar of limitless compassion and is one of the most important in the Mahayana tradition. Customarily, the legion of arms is seen to protect, guide, receive supplications and provide blessings. The power of this installation comes from the expressive multiplicity of similar forms, as well as from the unique, individually expressive parts.

In conjunction with Wheel of Time, nominated high-school students will work with the Curator and Educator at the Gallery to learn the principles of Buddhist art while creating their own Tsha-Tshas, mandalas and other objects which, when completed, will be included as part of the contemporary component of the exhibition.

In Vessel-Essence, Saskatchewan artist Anita Rocamora continues her study of organic forms found in nature: seeds, pods, fruits and gourds, while exploring what she terms "the exquisite engineering of nature." She has dramatically increased the scale of the work with this new exhibit, although the larger forms remain intimate, animated and whimsical.

Layers is an exhibit of works by Peter Sloan, an award-winning artist living in rural Ontario. Sloan graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1979 and has been sculpting for over 25 years; his work is represented in galleries across the country. A lifelong amateur naturalist, he reflects the complexities of our relationship with nature in the different mediums he chooses to work with: plaster, clay, wax, bronze and silver.

Generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts
and the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple Buddha's Light Centre.

Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery · Galerie Canadienne de la Céramique et du Verre
25 Caroline Street North · Waterloo · Ontario · N2L 2Y5
519.746.1882 · Fax 519.746.6396

For further information contact Virginia Eichhorn, Curator, virginia@canadianclayandglass.ca or 519-746-1882, #230 or Kate Holt, Marketing Manager, kholt@canadianclayandglass.ca or 519-746-1882, #234.
www.canadianclayandglass.ca