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Wayne Ngan (b.1937 Guangdong, China - d.2020 Hornby Island, BC, Canada) is recognized as one of Canada’s premier ceramic artists, whose lengthy career spanned over six decades. At the age of thirteen, Ngan experienced a destabilizing move from Guangdong, China to a vastly different British Columbia, Canada. His practice drew influence from traditional Chinese, Korean, and Japanese pottery, as well as Modernist painting, pre-Columbian and ancient Egyptian art. Ngan’s extensive knowledge of these historic precedents and his connection to the natural beauty of Canada’s Hornby Island informed his abstract sculptural forms.
Spirit and Form spotlights a selection of cornerstone works, created in the 1990s and the last decade of the artist’s life. -
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Wayne Ngan, Downes Point Studio, Hornby Island, BC, 1976. Photo by Robert Keziere.
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Squared Bottle, (c. 2000s) is a distinctive exploration for the artist. This gas kiln-fired stoneware piece was meticulously constructed by throwing clay and then using a paddle to compress and shape the neck and mouth. To achieve its checkerboard pattern, Ngan employed the technique of wax resist, blocking out the pattern by waxing over squares of color before dipping the work in a glossy glaze. Ngan appreciated the spontaneity of making, embracing the traces of white glaze that are speckled on the surface of the work.
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Wayne Ngan in front of his kiln, Ostby Road studio, Hornby Island, BC.
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Blue Tripod Vase is an angular vessel from the early 2000s, which takes its inspiration from the petals of a passion flower. Notably, it was salt-fired, as evidenced by the mottled and dotted blueish-black glaze along its surface. Ngan added decorative elements, such as linear grooves encircling its body, supported by three hollow “legs”. Watch Wayne Ngan explain his process by clicking here.
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According to Ngan, “There are two ways of looking at pots: one is the actual clay pot, but the real pot to me is all around me—the spirit of the pot.”
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Wayne Ngan in Japan, ca.1978-1979
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Sources:
Archival images courtesy of Wayne Ngan Studio.
With special thanks to the family of the artist.
Wayne Ngan: Spirit and Form
Past viewing_room
