Published Writing

The Forgotten Man - Reckoning the Past in the Present

in ,
The Forgotten Man - Reckoning the Past in the Present

“I had been reading some of my reflections on mine and my late father’s lived experience of race. My mother interrupted my monologue, “…of course there’s the time when your father was interviewed about his relationship with Perry over that race thing by Readers’ Digest …””

Image: Heidi McKenzie, “Power Structure (Detail),” hand-rolled paper-clay with ceramic decal, 8” x 3.5” x 0.16” each (actual size of computer punch card). Photos by Olivier Lamarre.

Read More

Linda Rotua Sormin’s Uncertain Ground at the Gardiner Museum

in
Linda Rotua Sormin’s Uncertain Ground at the Gardiner Museum

“What I felt was a sense of voyeurism into the subconscious mind of not only the artist, but the intergenerational trauma of the artist’s ancestors. It is messy, in parts it is ugly. In parts it is surprising in its brokenness, it’s seeming haphazardness, and yet, the marriage of experimental video collage with the visual collage of the ceramic installations laced with found objects work together in a unify the whole.”

Image: Linda Rotua Sormin: Uncertain Ground, Installation views, Gardiner Museum, Toronto, November 6, 2025 – April 12, 2026. Photos by Toni Hafkenscheid

Read More

Beacon reviewed by Heidi McKenzie

in
Beacon reviewed by Heidi McKenzie

“When I virtually sat down with Lantin, she spoke to me about wishing to honor the risk people were taking in being vocal and vulnerable about their political and/or social justice beliefs. She was interested in spotlighting artists who are taking a stand, pulling on the ties of the straitjacket of political correctness in which many of us tend to abide.”

Image: Adero Willard’s daydko, red earthenware, slips, underglazes, wax, 2025.

Read More

Walking the Talk: Sustainability in Ceramic

in
Walking the Talk: Sustainability in Ceramic

“Treading Lightly: Walking the Talk” was curated by the celebrated and prolific ceramics maker, facilitator, inventor, and educator, Lisa Orr. Orr showcased the work of fourteen artists who are all in their own way responding to the environmental crisis, global warming, and seeking innovative ways of creating in ethical and responsibly sustainable ways.”

Image: Yuliya Makliuk’s Goosebumps: The Great Meadow, 15 in. (38.1 cm) in height, wood-fired stoneware, 2024. 

Read More

Liminality: the work of Monica Mercedes Martinez, PJ Anderson and Habiba El-Sayed

in
Liminality: the work of Monica Mercedes Martinez, PJ Anderson and Habiba El-Sayed

The pervaseiveness of mainstream White racial superiority i North Americ today exists in the wake of the continent’s history: the colonization and genocide of its Indigenous peoples; slavery and its aftermath; and the subsequent exclusionary Whites only migration policies imposed by European settlers and lawmakers until the mid to late 1960s…

Read More