One of the most celebrated ceramic artists in Canada today, Greg Payce is known for remarkable vases and vessels. In our latest artist feature, learn how his inventive practice engages with the history of clay.
Greg Payce’s career is filled with achievements: he has participated in over 150 exhibitions; he taught at the Alberta College of Art and Design (today Alberta University of the Arts) for 27 years before becoming Professor Emeritus in 2015; and in 2013, he received the Saidye Bronfman Award, the country’s highest honour for artists working in a craft tradition. All these milestones reflect a lifetime of work with clay and a dedication to exploring the history of ceramics while taking the medium in new directions.
Payce’s fascination with clay began when he was a child growing up in Edmonton. “I used to go out beyond the backyard,” he recalls, “dig up clay and make these little things and paint them with those leftover oil paints from those paint-by-numbers sets. And then…I remember I was over at the neighbour’s house and I saw a guy throwing a pot on TV — and I have a strong memory of it — I thought, I have to learn how to do that.”[1] Payce went on to study at the University of Alberta, the Banff Centre, the University of Victoria, and finally the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, where he completed his MFA in 1987.
From the earliest years of his career, Payce was interested in the history of ceramic arts. Soon after completing his studies, he was drawn to ancient Minoan pottery from Crete and other islands in the Aegean Sea. “There’s no other culture that had such a fluid way of working with surfaces in relation to form,” he said.[2] He became interested in experimenting with forms and motifs favoured by Minoan artists, including octopuses (read about an octopus vase created by a Minoan potter c. 1500 BCE). Payce developed his Octopus Vase as a contemporary response, working with the sinuous forms of the sea creature but also with horizontal stripes, a feature inspired by the paintings of Calgary artist Chris Cran. Discussing his process, Payce noted, “I’m still using a lot of ancient techniques, modernized a bit, with modern ingredients”— including Alberta clays.[3] In effect, with works like Octopus Vase, Payce brought together ancient art history with contemporary art in Alberta and local ceramic traditions.
In the mid 1990s, Payce developed a new body of work inspired by his interest in experimenting with the use of space between ceramic forms. In a series titled Virtual Vases, he formed the lines of vases such that when they are arranged together, an image appears in the space between them. His first major project was Wake, created in 1997. In it, 15 black vessels sit side by side on a shelf. The shapes of the vessels are inspired by Italian Renaissance apothecary jars, but Payce has carefully manipulated their silhouettes so each pair of vases forms the shape of a man. Although the idea of displaying groups of vessels together as sets has a long history in European ceramics, Payce’s method of using the negative space in his overall composition was highly original.
In discussing the Virtual Vases series, Payce stated, “In my pottery, relationships between forms and images make connections between objects and ideas…these works utilize the negative spaces between pottery forms as apertures or images. The viewer’s gaze vacillates back and forth between the positive and negative components inviting them to determine possible relationships between the vessel forms and the images formed by the negative space between these forms. This oscillation between image and object creates an illusion of movement which references time-based art forms such as animation and music…. I see these works as three-dimensional manifestations of pottery decoration, not as sculpture.”[4] With works like Apparently (Little Boy), Payce challenges viewers to reflect on both the forms of the vessels and the image that emerges from their relationship to each other.
Over the past 20 years, Payce has continued to push the boundaries of what is possible with ceramic art. Working with porcelain rather than earthenware has allowed him to explore new forms and colours, developing a bright palette and dramatic contrasts. He has also chosen to work with video and lenticular photographs; as he explains, “Much of my ceramics grows from considering relationships between pottery form and human form. Large-scale and animated images heighten the physical and visceral relationship to the viewer’s own body scale.”[5] From the early responses to ancient pottery and the first illusions in the Virtual Vases to boldly colourful videos and images, Payce has continued to offer his viewers new relationships with pottery, committing himself to innovation and surprise as he transforms an ancient medium for contemporary audiences.
Below, learn more about Payce in a 2013 video about his work.
References
[1] Stephen Hunt, “Calgary Ceramic Artist Earns National Honour,” Calgary Herald, March 13, 2013, D2.
[2] Nancy Tousley, “Style from the Earth,” Calgary Herald (Sunday Magazine), May 19, 1991, 20.
[3] Tousley, “Style from the Earth,” 20.
[4] Glenbow Archives, Artist Statement, 2004.
[5] Greg Payce: Illusions (Toronto: Gardiner Museum, 2011), 10.
