| ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | Amy Gogarty earned a diploma in Painting from the Alberta College of Art, AB (now Alberta
University of the Arts) in 1980, and an MFA in Painting from the University of Calgary, AB in
1990. Following her four years there as a student, she served the Alberta College of Art for three
years as a textile technician, and for sixteen years as an instructor of visual art history, theory, and the
history of ceramics. As a result of her early training, and the fluidity and equality she has come to perceive among artistic disciplines, Gogarty now identifies as a painter who makes pots—and more recently ceramic
sculpture as well. She paints her clay vessels plein air style with underglaze, focusing on landscapes
where humans, animals, and plants live together in diverse and overlapping habitats; she views her
pots as archaeological records of urban sites rapidly transforming at the hands of globalization and
consumption. Her practice encapsulates simultaneous explorations of space and containers of space;
it indicates the importance of Gogarty’s own creative and personal relationships to land and
landscape; and it carries messages to audiences and users of her work about the fragility of the
universe that supports our lives, routines, and rituals.
Gogarty has exhibited installations of her work across Canada, co-edited two volumes of essays, and
authored over 100 critical essays, reviews, and presentations on issues of visual art and craft practice.
In 2006, she relocated from Calgary to Vancouver, where she taught for three semesters at Emily
Carr University and now works as an independent artist, researcher, and writer. |