..my work is influenced by looking at historical objects, understanding ceramic traditions and exploring contemporary ideas…

Jim Etzkorn creates stoneware, porcelain, and other pottery evoking the aesthetics of the daily Roman Catholic rituals of his childhood, and of the classical Japanese ceramics he encountered during his overseas voyages as an adult.

Born in Edmonton, Etzkorn pursued his diploma with a speciality in ceramics at the Alberta College of Art + Design (1978), before undertaking residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts (1979 – 1981), the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana (1982 – 1983), the North Mount Pleasant Studio in Calgary (1986), and eventually at Medalta in Medicine Hat (2004). He has taught across Western Canada since 1980, including at the University of Manitoba, Red Deer College, Alberta College of Art + Design, and the Kootenay School of the Arts.

Nature, Catholicism, and Japanese artistry are profound influences on Etzkorn’s work, which is both functional and decorative, often ovaled or squared, and sometimes asymmetrical. While he was in Japan in 1987, Etzkorn took influence from tea ceremony cast iron kettles; he employed bronze glazes stamped with rope to approximate ancient Japanese pottery techniques.

Etzkorn’s work dwells in public and private collections in the Canada and the U.S., across Europe, and in Japan and Taiwan. The 2003 G8 Summit in Kananaskis commissioned a dinner set from him. He won a merit award at the Taiwan Invitational International Show, and his solo exhibitions, including Soulstice, Sojourn of Fire, and Re-Orient, have met audiences in Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver, with group exhibitions in Waterloo, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Trois-Rivières, across the U.S., and in Taiwan and Japan. (courtesy of AFA Collection website)