The North-West Ceramics Foundation is pleased to present a talk by Quebec ceramist Gilbert Poissant, “Forty Years of Practice: From Object to Mural.” The lecture will be held on Wednesday, October 23, at 7:30 pm, in Room 245 in the North Building of Emily Carr University of Art + Design (1399 Johnston Street, Granville Island, Vancouver). All are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Born in Iberville, Quebec, in 1952, Gilbert Poissant lives and works near Montreal. His work has been shown in Quebec, Canada and abroad. A ceramist by training, he has spent his professional life exploring all aspects of the discipline, placing it fully in the universe of contemporary art. He is recognized for his contributions to public art, having produced around thirty architecturally integrated works, which are closely tied to his personal artistic production, as evinced in gallery, artist-centre and museum exhibitions. From the start, he has put every effort into broadening the scope and depth of his investigations.

Poissant’s work is trans-disciplinary and includes ceramics, stone, wood, found objects and digital techniques. He is concerned with the passage of time and with time’s representations and measurements, from sun dials and water drops to lunar cycles and the growth of trees. The images he creates are “imbued with sensuality.” Architecture remains an important source of inspiration for his work, “lending structure to its spatial poetics.”

In 1999, Poissant won a national competition for the realization of a work to adorn Quebec City’s École national d’administration publique. His many murals produced since 1988 include the Outremont Metro station, the murals of the Lakeshore General Hospital, those of the department of veterinary science at Université de Montréal in Saint-Hyacinthe, and a large scale ceramic mural for the L’École de technologie supérieure in Montreal. His work is part of many public and private collections, including those of the Canadian Clay Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ontario, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. He was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2003.

His exhibitions include Arrêt sur espace, presented at Plein Sud and the Musee des beaux-arts de Mont-Saint Hilaire in 2001; Intimate Architecture transposed at the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina and at the Surrey Art Gallery in Surrey, BC in 2007; and Variations on Disks, Spirals and Xuanjis, a solo exhibition at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, ON, in 2009. In 2007, he created a permanent work on location at the FuLe International Ceramic Art Museums (FLICAM) in Fuping, China.

Gilbert Poissant will discuss his practice and architectural ceramics in Quebec and elsewhere at a free public lecture Wednesday, October 23, at 7:30 pm. The lecture will be held in Room 245 in the NB of Emily Carr University. We look forward to seeing you there.

Note: For further information about Gilbert Poissant, please visit his website at www.gilbertpoissant.com