Sensory Synapses
Ceramic, glaze, 22k gold lustre
29x19x15 inches
Announcing Falling Awake, an upcoming solo exhibition this summer at the Ferry Building Gallery in West Vancouver, BC.
Reception and Artist Talk dates and details forthcoming.
August 16 to September 4, 2022
Thank you once again amazing Danielle Krysa aka The Jealous Curator for featuring my work.
“Gasp! … and another one for good measure… GASP! Canadian sculptor Susannah Montague just turned the tables on this virus, and transformed it into the most gorgeous piece of art! I give you, “Saint Corona”
- Danielle Krysa
On a B.C. island, repetition helps this sculptor deal with her COVID-19 anxiety
Lise Hosein · CBC News · April 1, 2020
(CBC Arts)
In our self-shot video series COVID Residencies, we're checking out how artists are adapting their practices in isolation, whether it's diving into different processes or getting lost in their sketchbooks.
A while back, we brought you the story of ceramic sculptor Susannah Montague. On Bowen Island, B.C., Montague usually makes ornate (and sometimes dark) works, letting barnacles fasten to them when she submerges them in the sea.
Now, though, working in her usual way feels a bit overwhelming as she thinks about the resources available on her island and what to do if her family requires medical assistance. It's an anxiety-inducing series of ruminations, so Montague has shifted her art practice to help her cope with the realities of life during social isolation.
My work is featured with Danielle Krysa, AKA "The Jealous Curator", in her new amazing book A Big Important Artist: A Womanual. I am honoured to be a part of it.
First Where Women Create and now their sister publication What Women Create - so honoured to be included among the inspiring women in these pages.
Thanks to creator and Editor-in-Chief Jo Packham, editor Trivia Bridges and Lillie Louise for the always-wonderful photographs.
Such a fun podcast with @thriveartstudio. Jamie and Tara, I LOVED talking to you about barnacles, golden eggs and gallery dating.
Season 2, Episode 18. It can be streamed here.
G’ddy Up!
Newzones Gallery of Contemporary Art
Saturday, July 6 – Saturday, August 24, 2019
Media Release:
Newzones is pleased to announce the return of “G’ddy Up!”, an annual rotating group exhibition that coincides with the Calgary Stampede.
“G’ddy Up!” will survey how Newzones’ artists explore contemporary cowboy culture, and how they implement aspects of this culture in formal practices through painting, photography, mixed media and sculpture.
While “G’ddy Up!” is sure to please those looking for some good ol’ western iconography, it will also demonstrate that the ‘Wild West’ has changed – and has much more to offer these days than just the iconic cowboy.
“G’ddy Up!” will exhibit artworks by artists who diffuse the image of the ‘Wild West’ in a ‘West’ that is elegant, cosmopolitan and vibrant; a ‘West’ where contemporary artists live and work, while creating world class art.
The Calgary Stampede brings the city to life with pulsating cowboy culture, both new and old, and Newzones is no exception!
Artists included: Dianne Bos, Sophie DeFrancesca, Casey McGlynn, Susannah Montague, Don Pollack, David Robinson, Kevin Sonmor and Samantha Walrod
Exhibition runs from Saturday, July 6 – Saturday, August 24, 2019
Aphrodite
Porcelain, Glaze, Decals, Gold and Mother Of Pearl Lustre
18 x 10 x 6 inches
Excited!
My work will travel to Art Market San Francisco with Newzones Gallery for the weekend of April 25 - 28.
Art Market San Francisco is the Bay Area’s premier art fair. Now going into its ninth edition, Art Market San Francisco will feature seventy-five modern and contemporary art galleries from around the world. Following record breaking sales, city-wide partnerships, and attendance of over 28,000 visitors in 2018, the 2019 edition of Art Market San Francisco is pleased to present a significant selection of contemporary and modern artworks from returning Art Market exhibitors and exciting newcomers.
- Art Market San Francisco
Where Women Create - this beautiful publication - honoured to be a part of it.
Thanks to editor Trivia Bridges and Lillie Louise for the beautiful photographs.
See the whole article PDF at this link: Issue 6, 2019
Whether it’s art, music, written works, or choreographed dances, extraordinary women know that the process of creating is as important as what ultimately gets created. That is why extraordinary women pay attention to the details of their work spaces… making sure that they surround themselves with visually stimulating inspiration and unique organizational systems. WHERE WOMEN CREATE invites you into the creative spaces of the most extraordinary women of our time. Through stunning photography and inspirational stories, each issue of this bi-monthly magazine will nourish souls and motivate creative processes.
- Where Women Create
Lucid Dreams
Newzones Gallery of Contemporary Art
March 17 - April 27, 2019
Media Release:
Newzones is pleased to present “Lucid Dreams”, a solo exhibition by leading Canadian female sculptor, Susannah Montague.
Susannah Montague’s ceramic figurative sculptures are finely detailed, hugely intricate, and loaded with religious and mythological imagery. Montague draws her inspiration from mysticism and esotericism, touching on daydreams and the fantastical elements that haunt our nights. Within the eerie beauty of these ceramic sculptures is an exploration of the intersection between dreams and reality, while at the same time, fusing innocence and corruption in the flowers, dolls, lizards, toys and skulls that fervidly explode in these contemporary baroque compositions, asking us to revel in the beauty of the absurd.
Montague is based on Bowen Island, BC. She received her BFA from Emily Carr University and OCAD University.
Montague’s sculptures can be found in private collections all over the world. Her work was the subject of a CBC Arts Documentary in August 2018.
Thank you amazing Danielle Krysa aka The Jealous Curator for featuring my work.
“I have to share a story Susannah told me about the final piece above … “The piece with the gold halo is my daughter. She was born “unresponsive”. The necklace – with the arms – is from Mexican religious iconography which symbolizes “embrace and touch”, because after 36 hours of labour, I fought to keep my twins together, close with me and out of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit by doing “Kangaroo care”. The artichoke at the core has a heart, symbolizing love – and, throughout history, artichokes have represented hope, peace and a successful future.” I’m not crying, you’re crying. A beautiful story from a beautiful person {And, I’ve met her twins. They are creative, kind and amazing … just like their mama.}
- Danielle Krysa
Deck the Walls
November 29, 2018 to January 12, 2019
Newzones Gallery of Contemporary Art
730 Eleventh Avenue Southwest, Calgary
“Ever evolving, Deck the Walls! will present itself as an entire wall of small-to-medium sized artworks, perfect for gift-giving this holiday season. This salon-inspired exhibition will aim to entice viewers to give the spectacular gift of art for the holidays."
Milena Salazar · CBC News · August 22
(CBC Arts)
When Bowen Island, B.C.-based artist Susannah Montague was growing up, her family would travel to Scotland to visit relatives who owned an antique shop. She would spend those summers studying vintage objects like Dresden dolls and blue and white porcelain in the shop — an experience that now deeply informs her intricate ceramic work.
Using these traditional methods but with a contemporary twist, her pieces combine natural and fantastical elements to conjure a whimsical world of cherubs, dolls, butterflies, skulls and animals. "I think my style is influenced by my childhood and watching my children grow up," she says. "It's full of the daydreams that we have as children, and the nightmares of a childhood, captured in the scary and the beauty of these pieces."
On Bowen Island, artist Susannah Montague explains why she's been giving her sculptures to the ocean.
For her latest project, Montague is stepping out of her studio and collaborating with the ocean. She's submerging new ceramic pieces in crab traps in the intertidal zone, allowing barnacles to grow on them. Barnacles are small crustaceans that build a "house" around them made of calcium carbonate — which happens to be the most common source of calcium in ceramic glazes. "I was sculpting barnacles in porcelain and I thought, 'Why not let nature do its thing?' I love the thrill of working so hard of making a piece and just surrendering it and leaving it in the ocean for months. It's sort of like opening the kiln. You hold your breath and open it up."
(CBC Arts)
In this video, Susannah Montague talks about the process of letting outside forces step in to her work, and how it's allowed her to let go of her perfectionism and let nature use its own creative power.
You can follow Susannah Montague and her adventures with the ocean here.
(CBC Arts)
(CBC Arts)
My Of Things I Can't Unthink show will be at one of my favourite galleries, The Elissa Cristall Gallery from June 7 – June 30, 2018. I will be giving an Artist Talk at the gallery on June 16th at 1:00 pm to coincide with the South Granville Art Walk. I'd love to see you there if you can make it!
"Susannah Montague’s art is as humorous as it is subversive. Her pieces are a daydream in clay, wryly communicating the intransience of the human condition. Stepping into her studio is like discovering an Eighteenth-Century Cabinet of Curiosity. Her art is a collection of shamanistic characters which imbibe the peculiar, scientific and mythical qualities involved in creation. Rollicking, cherubic figures wearing masks and antlers frolic among symbols of decay, in a world that is equal parts shadowy and lighthearted. Combined the images evoke a whimsical narrative of folk tales, childhood fantasies, dreams and nightmares."
Susannah Montague is a British born, Bowen Island-based ceramic sculptor. She earned her BFA from Emily Carr University and Ontario University of Art and Design.
June 7 – June 30, 2018 | Reception and Artist Talk: Saturday, June 16, 1 p.m. |
I'm excited to have an exhibition Of Things I Can't Unthink at the Seymour Public Art Gallery from March 3 – April 14, 2018. I will also be hosting a Hands-on Workshop on Sunday March 18. For full details and to register go here.
"Ceramic sculptor Susannah Montague’s highly symbolic and eerily beautiful sculptures at once draw you in and repel you. In each of Montague’s surreal porcelain sculptures, there is narrative to be discovered. Using a combination of hand building, press molds, and slip casting to build her sculptures, she also references traditions from ceramic fine-craft and art history. In her most recent body of work, Montague uses symbols such as fading flowers, bubbles, skulls, and insects to represent death and the transient nature of life. These symbols, interspersed with casts of toys including dolls, helicopters, and bunnies, take on a slightly sinister feeling in their modern compositions. Montague’s exhibition examines the cycles in our lives and asks us to revel in the beauty of the absurd.
Susannah Montague is a British born, Bowen Island-based ceramic sculptor. She earned her BFA from Emily Carr University and Ontario University of Art and Design.
March 3 – April 14, 2018 | Reception: Saturday, March 10, 2 – 4 p.m. | Artist Talk and Tour: Sunday, April 1, 2 p.m.
Hands-on Workshop with Susannah Montague: Sunday, March 18. Full details and to registration here."
- Seymour Public Art Gallery
My sculptures were featured with Danielle Krysa, AKA "The Jealous Curator", an incredible source of inspiration through her books, podcasts and blog. She has a rich and wonderful talent.
A wonderful blog from France! Merci Le Blog Du Kitsch!
"L’artiste Susannah Montague crée des superbes sculptures en céramique. Avec comme sujet récurrent l’enfant, sorte de poupée chérubin étrange, elle développe dans ses œuvres des histoires où viennent se mélanger des aspects mignons et horrifiques. Susannah Montague vit et travaille à Vancouver."
- Le Blog Du Kitsch
The American Craft Council was founded over 75 years ago by a true visionary, Aileen Osborn Webb, and they have been championing for the arts and artists ever since. It is a true privilege to have been featured in The American Craft Council's weekly publication.
Dimitris Manolas has created a beautifully curated collection of inspiring work on his site TheVanderbild.
"theVanderbild.com is a manifestation of the Vanderbild himself, Athens based admirer, curator, and sometimes engineer, Dimitris Manolas. It is a fresh collection of contemporary aesthetic directions; an ode to the lovers, makers, and shapers of art in all its forms.
Let your curiosity drift and your senses be assailed as your eyes feast upon handpicked creations found in ateliers, notebooks, museums, and galleries from around the world. It is our sincerest hope that through your perusing of theVanderbild inspiration will beget inspiration. Spread the love"
- Dimitria Manolas
