Provenance:

Purchased directly from the artist

Note:

WALTER OSTROM (1944 - ), O.C.

“A pot should never stop working. In use, it should function to contain, present and enhance both its content and its context.”

- Walter Ostrom -

Nova-Scotia-based Walter Ostrom has gained international recognition for reviving and making contemporary the ancient technique of low-fire majolica production. Walter was one of the first western artist/educators to begin traveling to Jingdezhen, China, to study, teach, and research Chinese Ceramics.

Walter Ostrom was born in 1944 in Binghamton, New York. After receiving his B.A. in Biology from Wilmington College, Ohio in 1967, and his M.F.A. from Ohio State University in 1969, Ostrom came to Canada in 1969 to teach at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. A pioneer in the use of Nova Scotia’s Lantz clay, Ostrom had his first show in 1976 at the Art Gallery at Mt. St. Vincent University. Ostrom has participated in over 100 group and solo exhibitions throughout Canada, the United States, Asia, and Europe. His art is also found in major museum collections, including the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Ostrom’s work and legacy as a teacher was the subject of the 1996 exhibition at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

Ostrom has also been recognized with the Jean A. Chalmers National Craft Award (1995), the prestigious Saidye Bronfman Award for Outstanding Creativity in Craft (2003), and was named to the Order of Canada (2006). He was visiting professor at the Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute Jiangxi, China, which awarded him an Honorary Professorship in 1997; quite fitting as this was the town where porcelain was discovered and developed. After 38 years of teaching at NSCAD University, Professor Emeritus Ostrom retired in 2008, with the Walter Ostrom Scholarship in Ceramics set up in his honor. In the fall of 2013, he was Visiting Artist with the West Virginia University China Ceramics Program in Jingdezhen, China. Ostrom lives in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia. In 2014, Ostrom was one of two ceramic artists bestowed with title of Regis Master, which donors senior artists who have had a major impact on the development of 20th and 21st century ceramics.

Selected Corporate, Private and Public Collections

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Burlington Art Center, ON

Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo, ON
Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau, QC
Claridge Collection, Montreal, QC
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Gardiner Museum, Toronto, ON
Mount St. Vincent University Art Gallery, Halifax, NS
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England

Selected Solo and Group Exhibitions

2014 2014 Regis Master: Walter Ostrom, Emily Galusha Gallery, Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, MN
2012 Go East: Canadians Create in China, Gardiner Museum, Toronto, ON
2006 Unique! 30 Years of Outstanding Crafts, Museum of Civilization, Gatineau, QC
2004 From the Garden: Forms, Images and Ideas, Northern Clay Centre, Minneapolis,
Minnesota
2002   FIRE+EARTH: Contemporary Canadian Ceramics, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, ON
Walter Ostrom: 120 Dessert Plates, Mount St. Vincent University Art Gallery, Halifax, NS
2001   FIRE+EARTH: Contemporary Canadian Ceramics, The Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, SK
2000   FIRE+EARTH: Contemporary Canadian Ceramics, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS
1998   FIRE+EARTH: Contemporary Canadian Ceramics, Itabashi Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan.
1997   FIRE+EARTH: Contemporary Canadian Ceramics, Burlington Art Centre, Burlington, ON
1995   Modern Majolica, Burlington Art Centre, Burlington, ON
1994   Containment: The Space Within, Canadian Clay and Glass 
 Gallery, Waterloo, ON
1991 The Painted Pot, Burlington Art Centre, Burlington, ON
1989 Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS
1987 Clay Today: The Inaugural Exhibition of the Permanent Collection, Burlington Art Centre, Burlington, ON
1984 Flowerholders, Prime Gallery, Toronto, ON
1982 Prime Gallery, Toronto, ON
1976 Pot de Fleurs, Mount St. Vincent University Art Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Selected Awards and Grants

2008 Portia White Award, Lunenberg, NS
2006 Named to the Order of Canada
2003 Saidye Bronfman Award for Outstanding Creativity in Craft
1995 Jean A. Chalmers National Craft Award