Samantha Dickie

Detail: A Moment in Time gallery view at VAC gallery, Sep/Oct 2021.

Studio Visit with Ceramic sculptor Samantha Dickie (2013-2023)

Samantha Dickie began working with clay in 1996 and completed a Diploma in Ceramics from the Kootenay School of the Arts in 2001. After graduation, her unique talent with abstract sculpture and installations led to several artist residencies, grants and exhibitions. The artist has travelled widely, exploring and photographing dramatic vistas. In the Yukon, she found the contrast between wide open spaces and rugged terrain awe-inspiring. She seeks to express the tension of this juxtaposition in her work, alluding to the “restless space between stillness and movement”.

Art Openings proudly announces a decade of Studio Visit updates for Samantha Dickie.
A Studio Visit webpage provides free updates for clients as I follow and celebrate their successes.

The Sum of Our Parts 2023
September 29 - November 4 at The Commons,
at Royal Bay’s retail village in Colwood.
Exhibition hours: Friday 2:00-6:00 and Sat 12:00-6:00.
Opening night September 29, 5:00 - 8:00.

Anabella Alfonzo Raffalli, Art Consultant, Curator of
The Sum of Our Parts explains in her statement.

The works of three Vancouver Island artists: Samantha Dickie, Laura Dutton and Roberta Pyx Sutherland reflect the idea that many different parts can assemble to form a greater whole. The artworks remind us that each of us are formed by a multiplicity of experiences and ideas, yet can come together to form a greater, richer collective culture.

Untitled, components from All We Can Do Is Keep Breathing (2018)

2020-2021 Update: An exciting time for the artist with several projects and exhibitions.

Samantha Dickie presents A Moment in Time September 10 - October 31, 2021.
Victoria Arts Council, 1800 Store Street.

Drop was created for a group exhibition at Touchstones Nelson Museum of Art and History. (March-May 2020)
Due to Covid, the public did not attend, but an excellent video and catalogue were created.

The installation StillPoint was made for Holding Space, a solo show at the Art Gallery of Burlington. (Nov 2019 - Jan 2020) The seven-foot structure is a bisected sphere with a hollowed out centre featuring over 750 ceramic parts.

Drop exhibits at A Moment in Time, 2021

StillPoint exhibits at A Moment in Time, 2021

Malleable: Changing Notions of Women,
Italian Cultural Centre, Vancouver BC, October 18 - December 10, 2019

Hold, Being Held
Installation at Comox Valley Art Gallery, June - September 2019.

April 2019: two sculptural works installed in a permanent exhibit for France luxury retailer Louis Vuitton in Boston MA. For this commission, Dickie created two new sculptures from an original project called Stand, completed 15 years ago in the Yukon. Stand was a body of 11 towers, each four and a half feet tall. They were exhibited in the Yukon, Alberta and BC. A photo shoot followed on the Yukon tundra, documenting one winter of the towers falling and decaying on the land. The remnants of that project are currently in the artist’s backyard. The new sculptures from the Stand series are permanently bolted into the subfloor of the Louis Vuitton store in Boston.

Stand, carved stoneware, 6 ft. 2019

May 24-26: Fired Up! Ceramic Artists: Contemporary Works in Clay, present MONUMENTAL, Celebrating 35 Years in 2019.

Wires Crossed, Saggar fired stoneware, 36 in. 2019

2018 UPDATE: Samantha’s been working hard in 2018, preparing for exhibitions and presentations in Ontario and BC.

Then, Now and Next
Curator: Sheila McMath Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery Waterloo, Ontario April 8 - September 2, 2018

The Gallery's 25th Anniversary exhibition, Then Now and Next, is an invitational show featuring six Canadian artists: Samantha Dickie, Susan Edgerly, Irene Frolic, Zachary Logan, Audie Murray, and Peter Powning. The exhibition celebrates artists at various stages of their career. All are making their mark in contemporary ceramics and glass.

All We Can Do is Keep Breathing, 1350 porcelain components individually hung, 8' diameter sphere, 2018.
At the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo Ontario.

Samantha is honored to be a main presenter at the annual Ontario Clay and Glass Association FUSION CONFERENCE at Sir Wilfred University, Waterloo Ontario, June 22-24, 2018. Info below.

The 34th annual show and sale of Fired Up! ceramic artists happened May 25-27, 2018 at Metchosin Community Hall.

Jan - April 2018. Dickie's work was juried into an exhibition at the TWO RIVERS PUBLIC GALLERY in Prince George B.C. alongside artists of all disciplines across BC responding to the curated theme of Fences. Artists were invited to consider the power 'fences' have over our behaviour and the different types of physical or metaphoric fences that exist politically, socially and personally.

May 4, 2018 Northwest Ceramics Foundation is a charitable organization dedicated to supporting education, appreciation, and excellence in the ceramic arts. Their Oven and Kiln Fundraising Gala and Auction was held on May 4, 2018 in Vancouver drawing donations and patrons from across western Canada.The artist donated part of her Urbanscape series (in banner photo).

2017 UPDATE Sept 23 - Oct 22: Samantha is honored to be juried into a national art exhibition, comprised of disciplines in all media, held on Salt Spring Island. The Salt Spring National Art Prize has selected 49 works of art from across the country that will be on exhibit September 23 - October 22, 2017. Opening Gala is this Friday September 22, and Closing Gala and awards is being held on Saturday October 21, 2017.

2017 UPDATE: March 10 - April 22 Dickie exhibits VIVEKA at the Seymour Art Gallery in Vancouver - her latest project funded by the BC Arts Council. She presents at the Canadian Clay Symposium on March 18, 2017. Between March 22-25 Dickie attends a conference by the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts in Portland. Fired Up! is part of a juried exhibition in the Skutt Kiln building. The conference theme is Future Flux and Fired Up! presented a diverse body of work titled Fractal Nature.
At Art Now, in the Atrium building May 20-25, 2017 awarded Best in Show for her 3D work from Viveka

Viveka: the radiance of discernment
With over 550 components in a carefully designed installation, Viveka invites the viewer to slow down and engage with the show. It is not just about quiet, but also about the pause, about the space between sounds and thoughts. “Hear the presence,” as Sound Ecologist Gordon Hempton writes. This concept is central to the exhibit; silence and stillness are highlighted as essential counterpoints to our modern-day rush of endless stimulus, distraction and constant motion.

In studio 2015

Fired Up! May 25, 2018

At Fired Up! 2015

Dickie began working with clay in 1996 and completed a Diploma in Ceramics from the Kootenay School of the Arts in 2001.
After graduation, her unique talent with abstract sculpture and installations led to several artist residencies, project grants and exhibitions. Each piece is a microcosm standing alone, she explains, but when placed with other sculptural components becomes part of an unfolding and dynamic narrative. During her twenties, the artist spent summers in the Yukon, on 30-60 day canoe and hiking trips. Dickie found the contrast between wide open vistas and intimate details of rugged terrain awe-inspiring. She seeks to express the tension of this juxtaposition in her work, alluding to the “restless space between stillness and movement”.

Imprint (below) was created during a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts in 2003.

Many influences percolate through the artist’s enigmatic forms: found objects, the cycles of emergence and decay, remnants of human habitation, the ebb and flow of oceanic life-forms, our personal passages and memories on the road of life. For Imprint Dickie hand carved 50 standing towers of various heights, between 12-32 inches.

The smoke fired forms resemble charred sticks, driftwood, sea shapes, animal horn and daggers. She spent a lot of time incising patterns into these forms and found the practice to be meditative and soothing. “This was the first time I included personal narrative in my work,” says Dickie, “so was curious to hear the feedback.” Her colleagues and guests at the Banff Centre exhibition made interesting comments. Some said that Imprint reminded them of a field of small totems or remains of a charred forest. Others mentioned hairs on a head, or walking through a miniature forest.

Stand was completed during a ten-week residency for the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture in 2004.

Dickie decided to enlarge the figures from Imprint for the installation Stand, completed one year later. Ten hand built, richly carved totems or towers suggest formations in a mysterious forest. Ranging in size from two to seven feet, Stand presents the macro experience of mark-making in clay conceived in Imprint. Stand received a Research/Creation grant from the Alberta Foundation of the Arts.

In 2005, Dickie created works for an exhibition called Elusive Containment
funded by a Creation Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.

In Elusive Containment Dickie showed with painter Janet Moore at the prestigious Yukon Arts Centre Public Art Gallery in Whitehorse. The concept of boundaries, seen and unseen, inner and outer, was the theme.
At Right: Exhibited at the Nanaimo Public Art Gallery in 2008. Three Tall Vessels now resides in their permanent collection.

While living in Whitehorse (2004-2006) Dickie taught ceramic courses and exhibited in several shows.
The artist continues to teach and exhibit. She received Best Ceramic Award at Sooke Fine Arts Show in 2012. The artist teaches mold making at MISSA and Camosun College.

In June 2013, Dickie attended an artist-in-residence program at the Sculpture Factory in Jingdezhen China. Jingdezhen is a cultural city of 1.5 million called Porcelain Capital for its extensive production.

Established in 1956, the Sculpture Factory houses over 400 professional potters on a 24 acres site. Over 100 on site shops showcase ceramics made in the back from a variety of techniques: mould making, press molding, casting, pinching, carving, and glaze painting. Ceramic artists in Jingdezhen focus on one procedure only, and work in a piecemeal factory mode. In Canada, a sculptor completes each step in the creative process. “I found this difference very interesting,” Dickie says, “and engaged in much dialogue about ideas and working methods. An expert mold maker instructed Dickie’s group during her Chinese residency. He made plaster molds of her Urbanscape forms then Dickie used slip casting to produce identical multiples. The photo-transfers on the multiples come from Dickie’s own photographs.

Simple Forms from Sculpture Factory

Urbanscape series with photo-transfers.

Above left: Dickie stands with a grouping of simple forms made at the Sculpture Factory that appear to have a metallic finish. Other shapes in this series have various colours and textures from salt and soda firing.
Above right: Widely travelled, her extensive photo collection depicts skylines from major world cities. Diverse images include decaying salt flats in Peru, abandoned mines, carved patterns on a wooden door in Italy and the forest overtaking temple ruins in Angkor Watt, Cambodia. After digital manipulation by the artist, the images moved from a contact sheet into a ceramic photo transfer printing press.

Dickie is represented by several galleries who offer comments below:

Madrona Gallery presents both historic and contemporary fine art by Canadian artists to local and international clients. Michael Warren, owner and Teresa McFarland, collection manager, celebrate five successful years in June 2015. Madrona hosted the Fired Up! preview show in April, and continues to sell Dickie's artworks at the gallery. Michael says: "Samantha has a unique style that defies traditional expectations of the ceramic medium. Viewers can interact with her sculpture on different levels; her finishes are raw not glazed, adding textural and tactile interest. Her contemporary art practice includes ever-changing and energetic installations, as well as selected pieces for collectors."

The Jonathon Bancroft-Snell Gallery, located in London Ontario, was established in 2000.

The spacious gallery showcases the work of over 125 Canadian ceramic artists, and draws clients from around the world.
Jonathon comments: "Dickie is an artist with exceptional technical skills activated by a keen imagination. Her ability to conceptualize installations with multiple parts and animate these concepts is impressive. Dickie forms are exciting and unusual, yet have an architectural simplicity and modernity that compliment many different settings."

The Apartment Gallery was located at 1016 Fort Street.

Owner Ellen Manning connected emerging artists with new collectors by offering affordable prices for original art. In 2013, Manning exhibited Dickie’s installation The Living Road in her gallery. Ellen praises the artist by saying: "Samantha is a strong, independent and disciplined artist, who’s received many well-deserved grants and residencies. She has a deep connection to nature and a sophisticated sensitivity to forms. I appreciate her eloquence at translating structures from the natural world into timeless and thoughtful installations." Manning is now a Marketing Specialist at the AGGV.

More info on artist: see Pennellolane Interview, Modern Home Victoria Magazine: Home Studio Tour