Walter Ostrow, Platter with Byzantine Flowers, 2006, Wheel-thrown and altered, local clay, Neo-majolica, cone 04, 40 cm

Walter Ostrom ǀ Regis Master

Walter Ostrom is a technical and academic expert in tin glaze, an ancient ceramic technique that he has tailored through innovations and decorative methods to reflect the geography of the places he has lived, whether Nova Scotia or the Far East. His work is held in many collections, including the Museum of Civilization, Ottawa; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In 1997, he was awarded an honorary professorship at the Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute in the Jiangxi province of China. In 2006, he was appointed to the Order of Canada. Recently, Ostrom was named professor emeritus by the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in Halifax, honoring nearly 40 years of teaching.

Here, he will reflect on his body of work and how it has developed, from experiments in high conceptualism in the 1970s to a contemporary focus on the exploration of the vast history, hybridization, and social foundation of ceramics.

Co-presented with Northern Clay Center.

Walter Ostrow, Platter with Byzantine Flowers, 2006, Wheel-thrown and altered, local clay, Neo-majolica, cone 04, 40 cm