Zimra Beiner
March 5 - April 22, 2022
Reception: Friday, April 22 from 6-9pm
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen Street West, Toronto
‘Moving in Circles’ is a solo exhibition of sculptural ceramic works exploring the global movement of goods, the complexity of ceramic production, and material hierarchy by Toronto-born, Calgary-based artist Zimra Beiner. Using the form of the vessel, Beiner’s sculptural works are assemblages of ceramics made in various clay bodies – porcelain, stoneware, and unknown commercial clays – intermixed with found objects collected from thrift stores, garden stores, and small-scale pottery factories. The components are glued and fastened together with obvious seams and provisionally repaired fractures.
Integral to the exhibition is its display: a structure built in-situ by Beiner primarily using cardboard boxes. With ceramic works nested inside, the installation brings to mind the international transit of artworks between galleries and collectors, as well as a U-Haul box of thrifted dinnerware en route to a new home. It’s as if the two boxes – the Art and the dinnerware – collided in transit and the casualty is context, setting adrift any indicators of value. Beiner’s installation also exposes some of the other labours of artistic production: the packing, shipping, unpacking, repairing, storing, and displaying, among others. Which activities are valued? Which materials and forms? ‘Moving in Circles’ is a self-reflexive look at ceramic production and its role within both personal and global systems of value and influence.
Zimra Beiner received a BFA from NSCAD University in 2009 and an MFA from Alfred University in 2012. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and Canada, including exhibitions at The Hole NYC, Present CO, Cross Mackenzie Gallery, and the Gardiner Museum. Recent awards include The Winnifred Shantz Award, The NCECA Emerging Artist Award, nomination for The RBC Emerging Artist Award in Ceramics, and recent residencies include The Berlin Ceramics Centre, Private Studio Jingdezhen, China, and The Center for Contemporary Ceramics at California State University Long Beach. He is currently Assistant Professor in Ceramics at the Alberta College of Art + Design in Calgary, Canada.
zimrabeiner.com
