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2021


20 November 2021 - 23 January 2022, at the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Canada

Sami Tsang : Mooncake Party


From the Gardiner Museum website:
This lobby show features new work by Sami Tsang, the winner of the 2019 Gardiner Museum Prize, presented to a graduate of the Sheridan College Ceramics Program. The artist’s graphic, narrative sculptures negotiate her identity as a Canadian-born Chinese woman artist.


Exhibition View | Mooncake Party


Mooncake Party | Stoneware, slip, glaze, resin, ballpoint pen, jade, ceramic tiles

Unhanding Heritage | Rice paper, ink, nail art, stoneware, engobe, glaze, resin, clay epoxy, acrylic, chain

Detail | Unhanding Heritage

Bathtub Story 2 | Stoneware, engobe, glaze, resin, clay epoxy, acrylic, cement paste

Detail | Bathtub Story 2

Detail | Bathtub Story 2

Long-distance Battle | Stoneware, engobe, glaze



22 January - 26 February 2021, at Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto, Canada

Separate/Together


From Cooper Cole Gallery website:
COOPER COLE is pleased to present Separate/Together, a group exhibition of Canadian and international artists Gaëlle Choisne, Sharona Franklin, ektor garcia, Maureen Gruben, Raven Halfmoon, Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, Jennie Jieun Lee, Brie Ruais, Fin Simonetti, Eve Tagny, and Sami Tsang.

Separate/Together celebrates materiality. Materials are imbued with cultural narratives, and the artists included in this exhibition think deeply about diverse media, and the conditions they emerge from. Questioning how sculptural work can be utilized for political means, represent politicized identities, have activist potentials, and more, Separate/Together presents multiple critical dialogues that reflect on how material culture and our lived experiences are intertwined.

This exhibition coincides with Cooper Cole’s ten year anniversary. Presenting emerging, mid career, domestic and international artists, this exhibition reflects the continuing ethos of the gallery to embrace experimental artistic production and support artists at varied stages of their careers.

Exhibition View

Still We Rise | Stoneware, glaze, underglaze, resin, clay epoxy, polymer clay, ballpoint pen, pencil, fabric | 31" X 20" X 14 | 78.74cm X 50.8cm X 35.56cm

To view the full article visit The Globe and Mail

By Odessa Paloma Parker

[…] The last time I felt a rush (without the risk, mind you) was in January on the opening day of Toronto art gallery Cooper Cole’s latest exhibition, Separate/Together. While winding my way through the collection of pieces, I was taken aback by a ceramic work by Sami Tsang. Titled Still We Rise, it’s a female figure possessing a textile braid and boasting an assemblage of sketchbook-y drawings across her glazed frame; an assortment of faces protrude from various body parts as well.

It’s truly astonishing to gaze upon – I’d never seen anything like it – and I found myself circling around its plinth several times, gasping as each new detail came into my view. “My work talks about mystic encounters, private matters and inner struggle,” says Tsang, noting that her artistic practice deals with mental health. “These stories are drawn from myself or through intimate conversations with other people. And sometimes, [they’re] imaginary.”

Indeed, I recognized an element of fantasy permeating Tsang’s captivating sculpture. Coupled with the intimate tension she expresses, a haunting quality is exposed that lingers with you long after your eyes have left it. And what’s more, the sense of surprise the piece inspired in me – despite the fact I’d followed her work on Instagram for some time – roused such curiosity in Tsang’s art that I just had to know more about this young talent, who was the recipient of the Gardiner Museum Prize in 2019.

“I’m a pretty open person and I do share a lot of my personal story with people,” she says as we discuss the fact that while I couldn’t wait to see what my eyes came to next on her sculpture, I know other onlookers might not have that same zeal for examining the piece. But that doesn’t seem to bother Tsang.

“Over time, I’ve developed more of an instinct with what I want to share with people – who really cares, or if someone is listening but doesn’t really get it,” she says. “It’s similar with audiences of my work; some people will just walk past [it], and some people will really see it and what I’m trying to talk about with the piece without me having to suggest too much. When I find that connection, it’s so special.”