An installation of ceramics by artist Gailan Ngan took centre stage at the Art Gallery of Evergreen March 3–April 22, 2018. Ngan set her experimental and innovative sculptures in a fictive environment for Chronicle, in which her whimsical and beguiling clay forms animated the gallery. Combined with collected objects, these bulbous ceramics rested precariously on colourful metal supports, sat atop each other and stood directly on the floor, arranged in playful, quirky vignettes. Through a series of contrasts, in this exhibition Ngan explored the softness of stone, the absence and presence of the body, the mixing of found and made objects and the creative space between science and fiction.
Gailan Ngan makes pottery and sculpture. She explores and exposes the material’s association with the body and its actions, and through bulges and cracks, thick drips and goopy glazes, she exaggerates this relationship. She forages her own clays, rock and combusted material for her ceramic work to further emphasize the connection between process and form. Ngan has shown in the US, at the San Diego Art Institute and Art Los Angeles Contemporary, and nationally, including exhibitions at the Nanaimo Art Gallery; Cooper Cole, Toronto; Centre A: International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Vancouver; and the Apartment, Vancouver. Her work is included in the Doris Shadbolt Collection at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver. She graduated with a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, and received the North-West Ceramics Foundation Award of Excellence in 2015. Ngan lives in Vancouver and is represented by Monte Clark Gallery.
All images: Installation view of Gailan Ngan: Chronicles, exhibition at the Art Gallery at Evergreen, 2018. Photography: Rachel Topham Photography.
