2024
24 - 27 October 2024
Art Toronto 2024: Site Specific Installation
Booth of Cooper Cole Gallery
Sami Tsang uses clay and drawing to materialize internal questions and traumas. Weaving together domestic and psychological narratives related to the conservatism of her youth, Tsang references Chinese proverbs and uses humour, distortion, and whimsy. These stories are not presented didactically, but through a fantastical visual language that combines memories, internal dialogues, folklore and imagined futures.
Bloodless Wounds From Poisonous Roots (2024) is a site-specific installation that reflects Tsang's life experiences, and examines her struggles with the past and the present. Through her masterful understanding of ceramic media, and the intimate approach to the illustrative line work found across her body of artwork, Tsang captures a nuanced understanding of how to merge seemingly disparate emotions and thoughts.
For enquiry, please contact Cooper Cole Gallery at info@coopercolegallery.com
Press release | The Art Newspaper
By Hadani Ditmars
Visitors are greeted at the top of the escalators by an installation by the Toronto-based Chinese artist Sami Tsang (presented by the local gallery Cooper Cole)—a phantasmagorical piece that resembles a giant monster baby emerging from traditional pottery—and an accompanying large-scale painting depicting the same.
To view the full article visit The Art Newspapers
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/10/25/art-toronto-fair-canadian-art-sales-acquisitions
11 August - 11 September 2024, at AYE Gallery, Beijing, China
Personal Scripture — The Unexpected Collisions in Clay : Huang Gang & Sami Tsang
From AYE website:
AYE Gallery is pleased to present “Personal Scripture”, a joint exhibition of artists Huang Gang and Sami Tsang from August 11th to September 11th, 2024. The title’ Personal Scripture’ is a reflection of the deeply personal and cultural themes explored by the artists in their works. This will be the first time that both artists exhibit at AYE Gallery.
The exhibition’s theme, “Personal Scripture,” delves into the adage, “Every family has its own hardships.” Sami, who comes from a cross-cultural, inter-generational household, stacked paint and ceramic tiles to create shaman figurines that encapsulate the challenges faced in her journey to womanhood. Growing up in a cultural family in Beijing, Huang Gang has connected his knowledge of collecting Chinese antiques with his artistic creation, forming a unique visual language of symbols that is a testament to his cultural heritage and creative prowess. The re-conceptualization of the material itself has led the two artists to explore the visual realm beyond paint and ceramics. They examine the relationship between matter and time, humans and nature, as well as the interplay between chance and necessity in creation. “Personal Scripture” stands as a poignant reflection on the memories of two Chinese artists in disparate cultural milieus and epochs.
For enquiry, please contact AYE Gallery at lihuike@ayegallery.com
12 September - 29 December 2024
Bickers & Tsang : Emma Bickers and Sami Tsang
From Harbourfront Centre website:
Emma Bickers and Sami Tsang represent a continuum of storytelling on clay objects. They use illustrations, motifs and figures to express personal narratives and insight into their thoughts and ideas. Bickers and Tsang record the drama of daily life (both exterior and interior), exploring memory, emotion and imagination. Their works are instruments of storytelling and bearers of meaning.
For Bickers, her ceramic vessels are an expression of insatiable yearning with each piece carrying a different link to the many expressions felt when in a state of infatuation. With an emphasis on the female gaze, these pots celebrate the sweetness of queer desire while also admiring the similarities of a new crush blooming to the many flowers that pop up in spring.
Tsang resists her traditional Chinese role by gathering stories of struggles in domestic encounters and private narratives. When her heart allows, she converts these stories using cartoonish-like gestures and straightforward imagery to help make the memories bearable, revealing the raw emotional experiences we all share.
Curated by Melanie Egan.
Curatorial Statement: “Emma Bickers and Sami Tsang represent a continuum of storytelling on clay objects. They use illustrations, motifs and figures to express personal narratives and insight into their thoughts and ideas. Bickers and Tsang record the drama of daily life (both exterior and interior), exploring memory, emotion and imagination. Their works are instruments of storytelling and bearers of meaning.” – Melanie Egan, Director of Craft & Design, Harbourfront Centre
For enquiry, please contact Cooper Cole Gallery at info@coopercolegallery.com
Press release | Now Playing Toronto
https://www.nowplayingtoronto.com/event/bickers-tsang/
15 March - 25 May 2024, at Claire Oliver Gallery, Harlem, New York
Teetering on the Brink: Femininity, Inheritance, and Disaster
From Claire Oliver Gallery website:
Claire Oliver Gallery is pleased to present Teetering on the Brink: Femininity, Inheritance, and Disaster, a special group exhibition marking the New York City debut of work by artists Sami Tsang, Ebony Russell, and Suyao Tian. The exhibition spans media including figurative sculpture, watercolor on paper, sculptural vessels, and installation and explores the themes of memory, childhood, patriarchal societal values, and female identity through the lens of multiple cultures and vernaculars.
Photo courtesy of Claire Oliver Gallery,
Elephant Leg Yee | Stoneware, glaze, colour slip, poly China silk, metal rod, grout, Red nylon cord | Comprised of 2 Piece | 72 x 24 x 24 in (182.9 x 61 x 61 cm) Piece 1 | 32 x 25 x 18 in (81.3 x 63.5 x 45.7 cm) Piece 2
Press release | METAL | GothamToGo
https://metalmagazine.eu/en/post/sami-tsang-on-chinese-proverbs-pandas-and-taking-up-space
https://gothamtogo.com/sami-tsang-ebony-russell-suyao-tian-in-the-group-exhibition-teetering-on-the-brink-femininity-inheritance-and-disaster-at-claire-oliver-gallery/
Press release | METAL | GothamToGo
https://metalmagazine.eu/en/post/sami-tsang-on-chinese-proverbs-pandas-and-taking-up-space
https://gothamtogo.com/sami-tsang-ebony-russell-suyao-tian-in-the-group-exhibition-teetering-on-the-brink-femininity-inheritance-and-disaster-at-claire-oliver-gallery/
2 March - 9 June 2024 at Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna, BC
Significant Forms
From Kelowna Art Gallery website:
Significant Forms pushes the boundaries of the traditional gallery, offering an immersive journey into the minds of seven influential contemporary Canadian artists whose work allows visitors to experience an unexpected, reimagined art space. Referencing the art and aesthetics theory introduced by twentieth-century critic and philosopher Clive Bell, the term “significant form” contends that the aesthetic merit of art is not contingent on its realistic depiction of the world but rather on the emotional quality of its form. The artists in Significant Forms highlight this nuanced and multi-faceted nature of artistic expression. Through the selected works of Wally Dion, Wanda Lock, Zachari Logan, Amanda McCavour, Samuel Roy-Bois, Andreas Rutkauskas, and Sami Tsang, the gallery transforms into a space of endless possibilities.
This selection of artists’ work defies the normal confines of the gallery space, with each installation pushing the limits of traditional shape and form. Through painting, drawing, embroidery, printmaking, photography, ceramics, and sculpture, each installation in this exhibition contributes to the gallery’s metamorphosis. Significant Forms invites visitors to engage with art beyond the conventional, encouraging contemplation, reflection, and a deep appreciation for the diverse range of aesthetic experience.
Exhibition catalogue
https://kelownaartgallery.com/significant-forms/
2023
5 - 9 December 2023
NADA Miami 2023
booth of Cooper Cole Gallery
Talking To You, Self-Betrayal | Stoneware, glaze, colour slip, poly China silk | 30 x 20.5 x 14.5 in (76.2 x 52.1 x 36.8 cm)
Saying Hi Is That Hard | Stoneware, glaze, colour slip, poly China silk | 25 x 11.5 x 15.5 in (63.5 x 29.2 x 39.4 cm)
My Ugly Destructive Shadow | Stoneware, glaze, colour slip, poly China silk, metal rod, grout, red nylon cord | 44 x 32 x 19 in (111.8 x 81.3 x 48.3 cm)
Detail | My Ugly Destructive Shadow
26 - 29 October 2023
Art Toronto 2023
booth of Cooper Cole Gallery
Installation View
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Detail| Parts of Me Had to Die | Ceramic, engobe, glaze, chain, resin, faux fur, acrylic | 58" X 24" X 15" (147.32cm X 60.96cm X 38.1cm)
22 June - 4 September 2023, at The Power Plant, Toronot, Canada
in parallel: Ella Gonzales, Micah Lexier, Matt Nish-Lapidus, Erdem Taşdelen, Sami Tsang, and Shaheer Zazai
From The Power Plant website:in parallel is a two-part group exhibition that presents the work of twelve local artists, evoking The Power Plant’s very first exhibition, Toronto: A Play of History (Jeu d’histoire), 1987. Both of the 2023 exhibitions will bring together tensions, hopes, and the transformative spaces artists create in the unfolding aftermath of settler colonialism. Specifically, in parallel highlights the intimate connections between land and body, while expressing each artist’s desire for changes that can lead to an intercommunal future.
Press release | The Power Plant | NUVOhttps://www.thepowerplant.org/learn-and-explore/features/ella-gonzales-and-sami-tsang-reconciling-with-displacement-through-personal-narratives
https://nuvomagazine.com/daily-edit/sami-tsang-powerplant?srsltid=AfmBOoprhmgTpkiPsvifTK_GFTPndOZXScP2JRE0iy-pxaGA_OnqZyUO
27 May - 8 July 2023, at Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto, Canada
A Good Hard Look: Solo Exhibition
From Cooper Cole Gallery website:
COOPER COLE is pleased to present, A Good Hard Look, a solo exhibition by Sami Tsang. This highly anticipated solo exhibition marks the artists first presentation at the gallery and will feature a new body of ceramic sculptures, rice paper drawings, and an immersive installation.
Some days I am in the past.
Some days I am fighting the past
How do I merge the difference I feel within
Instead of competing which side I belong to, I feel confident to be as is.
Everyday battle, as usual as eating food.
It never fully goes away, it stays with me, I live with it.
It comes back stronger some days.
Some days I am able to fight it off before it fully develops.
A Good Hard Look, showcases a remarkable collection of sculptures and drawings that not only manifest Tsang’s artistic prowess but also reveal her deep-seated emotions and inner conflicts.
Tsang’s artworks are a reflection of her life experiences, and examine her struggles with the past and the present. Her sculptures are as heavy in emotion as they are in physical form. Through her masterful understanding of ceramic media, and the intimate approach to the illustrative line work found across her body of artwork, Tsang is able to capture a nuanced understanding of how to merge seemingly disparate emotions and thoughts. These artworks act as a tool of survival, and she encourages the viewer to take a good look at ourselves, to identify, pick up, eat, feel, live with, digest, and become a part of our pain.
Photo courtesy of Cooper Cole Gallery
Installation View | A Good Hard Look
Emerging Woman | Ceramic, engobe, glaze, shell chip, chain, resin | 45" X 27" X 17" | 114.3cm X 68.58cm X 43.18cm
Parts of Me Had to Die | Ceramic, engobe, glaze, chain, resin, faux fur, acrylic | 58" X 24" X 15" | 147.32cm X 60.96cm X 38.1cm
Panda for Dinner | Ceramic, engobe, glaze, faux fur, light bulb+socket, ribbon | 49" X 18" X 27" | 124.46cm X 45.72cm X 68.58cm
Detail | Panda for Dinner
A Tiger Mommy’s Path | Ceramic, engobe, glaze, acrylic, resin | 41" X 22" X 18" | 104.14cm X 55.88cm X 45.72cm
Back View | A Tiger Mommy’s Path
A Little Girl’s Life | Ceramic, engobe, glaze, chain, resin | 67.5" X 15" X 18" | 171.45cm X 38.1cm X 45.72cm
Find My Truth or Live Life I | Xuan paper, ink, colour pencil, gel pen, acrylic, thread, chain | 13.125" X 26.625" | 33.34cm X 67.63cm
Find My Truth or Live Life I | Xuan paper, ink, colour pencil, gel pen, acrylic, thread, chain | 13.125" X 26.625" | 33.34cm X 67.63cm
Find My Truth or Live Life I | Xuan paper, ink, colour pencil, gel pen, acrylic, thread, chain | 13.125" X 26.625" | 33.34cm X 67.63cm
Find My Truth or Live Life I | Xuan paper, ink, colour pencil, gel pen, acrylic, thread, chain | 13.125" X 26.625" | 33.34cm X 67.63cm
Find My Truth or Live Life I | Xuan paper, ink, colour pencil, gel pen, acrylic, thread, chain | 13.125" X 26.625" | 33.34cm X 67.63cm
Find My Truth or Live Life I | Xuan paper, ink, colour pencil, gel pen, acrylic, thread, chain | 13.125" X 26.625" | 33.34cm X 67.63cm
Find My Truth or Live Life I | Xuan paper, ink, colour pencil, gel pen, acrylic, thread, chain | 13.125" X 26.625" | 33.34cm X 67.63cm
Find My Truth or Live Life I | Xuan paper, ink, colour pencil, gel pen, acrylic, thread, chain | 13.125" X 26.625" | 33.34cm X 67.63cm
Press release | Art Viewer |
https://artviewer.org/sami-tsang-at-cooper-cole/
Press release | Art Viewer |
https://artviewer.org/sami-tsang-at-cooper-cole/
2022
27 - 30 October 2022
Art Toronto 2022 : Disgraceful Me | Special Project
Booth of Cooper Cole Gallery
Press release | CBC Arts | Now Playing Toronto
https://www.cbc.ca/arts/sami-tsang-q-a-art-toronto-1.6627494https://www.nowplayingtoronto.com/backstage/now-you-know/shaping-personal-and-universal-narratives/
27 August - 27 November 2022, at Art Gallery of Burlington, Canada
Sami Tsang: Know Your Place
Curated by Suzanne Carte
From Art Gallery of Burlington website:
What does it mean to know your place? Having grown up in a family with clearly defined gender and birth order roles, Sami Tsang utilizes the power of clay to push back against the foundational social systems that inform those positions and structures. Her paintings and sculptural forms become conductors for conversation, processing, and reflections that destabilize the roles within the complex, prescribed family hierarchy. The works unfurl narratives of personal trauma, and the painful negotiation of building new relationships.
Diving Into Interjection | Stoneware, Slip, Glaze
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Exhibition View
Rebellion From Tub | Stoneware, glaze, underglaze, glass, clay epoxy, plastic tube, tile grout, color pencil | 89 x 63.5 x 48.3 cm
Detail | Rebellion From Tub
Burn It | Stoneware, Slip, Glaze | 37 x 18 x 14 in (94 x 45.7 x 35.6 cm)
Detail | Burn It
To Panda's Rescue | Acrylic on canvas | 36 x 36 in (91.4 x 91.4 cm)
Detail | To Panda's Rescue
It's Thicker Than Blood | Stoneware, Slip, Glaze | 21 x 14 x 5 in (53.3 x 35.6 x 12.7 cm)
Detail | It's Thicker Than Blood
16 June 2022, at the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Canada
Organized by The Gardiner Museum’s Young Patron Circle
From fetechinoise website:
Tsang’s SMASH installation, A Night In The Bathtub (2022), will explore the bathroom as a nurturing setting – a space where we are enveloped, protected, and cleansed by water – highlighting how the environment nurtures and nourishes us, a gift we have the responsibility to return.
SMASH | Terra
Organized by The Gardiner Museum’s Young Patron Circle
From fetechinoise website:
Tsang’s SMASH installation, A Night In The Bathtub (2022), will explore the bathroom as a nurturing setting – a space where we are enveloped, protected, and cleansed by water – highlighting how the environment nurtures and nourishes us, a gift we have the responsibility to return.
Exhibition View | Smash | Absolvement | Rebellion From Tub
Exhibition View | Smash | Once Upon A Dark Hole | Dark Stoneware, glaze, underglaze, resin, chain, colour pencil, holographic nail flakes | 45h x 19 x 19”
Detail | Once Upon A Dark Hole
Absolvement | Canvas, acrylic, ceramic rod, shower curtain rings | 43.5 x 37 x 1.5 in (110.5 x 94 x 3.8 cm)
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Detail | Absolvement
Rebellion From Tub | Stoneware, glaze, underglaze, glass, clay epoxy, plastic tube, tile grout, color pencil | 89 x 63.5 x 48.3 cm
| At My Place 2 | Stoneware, glaze, underglaze, mirror, polymer clay, glitter glue, faux fur | 61 x 53.3 x 17.8 cm |
19 March - 6 June 2022, at Mayten’s (The Next Contemporary Gallery), Toronto, Canada
Earth Oracles
Chicken and Duck Talk | White stoneware, glaze, engobe, glass, fabric, tape, paper, resin, nail art | 18 x 15 x 8 in | 45.70 x 38.10 x 20.30 cm.
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.
Mooncake Party | Stoneware, slip, glaze, resin, ballpoint pen, jade, ceramic tiles
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
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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
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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.”
Press Release | Contemporary Art Daily | The Globe and Mail | Artoronto | Art Viewer
https://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/project/separate-together-at-cooper-cole-toronto-21746
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/article-narrow-scope-of-pandemic-life-has-meant-less-chances-to-be-surprised/ https://www.artoronto.ca/?p=48625
https://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/project/separate-together-at-cooper-cole-toronto-21746
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/article-narrow-scope-of-pandemic-life-has-meant-less-chances-to-be-surprised/ https://www.artoronto.ca/?p=48625