John Chalke RCA

Frequent exposure in the Rocky Mountain foothills to varying sun, wind, and snowy conditions … clays and glazes generate thoughts of glacial lakes, drying prairie sloughs, riverbanks, patterns of farming … intimate views or grand sweeps …

 

John Chalke was one of Canada's best known and celebrated ceramists, whose contributions to fine craft are wide ranging. While he taught part time at art schools and universities throughout his career, the focus of his energy was his studio, where he created enigmatic, ambiguous clay objects and had an alchemical relationship with glazes.

John's contribution to his craft, including intense, ongoing clay body research, formidable glaze experimentation and wood kiln design, has been recognized in over 30 books on ceramic art. Additionally, he was a contributor of articles himself, willingly sharing his knowledge of clay, glazes and kilns in major craft and ceramics journals. He also presented several lectures over quite a few years at the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) conferences, an annual U.S. event which draws up to 5000 ceramics practitioners internationally.

In 2000 John was the first recipient of the Governor General's Award in Media and Visual Arts for Fine Craft (Canada’s most prestigious award in the visual arts). In 2002 he was voted a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art (RCA). He was a member of the International Academy of Ceramics (Geneva) from 1975.  In 2005 he was awarded an Alberta Centennial Award for Excellence.

John Chalke's works have been shown in over 250 solo and group exhibitions in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia/New Zealand over the last 50 years and have been purchased privately and publicly throughout Canada and the United States, in the U.K., Japan, Italy, France, Germany and Australia. He is one of four Canadian ceramists to have had work purchased by the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, England)  In Canada, specifically, his objects are included in the collections of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Edmonton Art Gallery, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Collection, the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Glenbow Museum, the George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Nickle Galleries (University of Calgary), the Bronfman Corporate Collection, the Burlington Art Gallery, the Royal Alberta Museum and the Provincial Archives of Alberta.

In addition to exhibiting and formal teaching, John was a popular workshop presenter; in 2004, for example, he was invited to teach in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Peterborough, Ontario and Bloomington, Indiana. His jury duty was extensive: including being sole judge for the prestigious Fletcher Challenge Ceramics Award in Auckland (1996) and sole judge for the 2000 Sydney Myer International Ceramics Award in Australia.

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