The current exhibition at the Evergreen Art Gallery in Coquitlam features two ceramic artists. Gloria Jue-Youn Han and Grace Han (not related) have both worked as ceramic technicians at PoMoArts, and Gloria Han was also an artist-in-residence in the clay department after she graduated from Emily Carr U. She then attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for her MFA. After returning home she was hired as the ceramic technician and instructor at PoMoArts.
When it was time for Gloria to move on, Grace Han was hired as her replacement and that is when the two met. Grace earned her BFA from Dankook University, Seoul and then worked for a ceramics company in Korea. She already had received her MFA from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg when she started working in Port Moody.
Grace is now teaching in the School of Art at U of Manitoba, and Gloria teaches at Langara College in Vancouver. I’m pleased that Port Moody Art Centre’s clay programme proved to be a stepping stone for these two artists.
We were invited to listen to a conversation with the show’s curator Katherine Dennis and Gloria and Grace, and then enjoyed a reception in an adjacent studio.
We learned that Han-soom can be roughly translated to mean ‘sigh’ and here it can evoke exasperation or relief. The title has us consider issues the two Korean/Canadian artists face and the beauty they find in their work.
I was captivated by these delicate floating, patchwork moon jars. Grace explained that they illustrate the darkness and loneliness of her arrival in Manitoba on the left, moving to the change and light that represent her life now. I would have liked to ask her whether they were formed inside a bisque form and how on earth she transported them here from Winnipeg!
Gloria’s work celebrates traditional Celadon and the influence from her time with local Korean master potters Clay Jung Hong Kim and Sylvia Kim. We were pleased that Clay Kim attended the opening. He and Sylvia will have a show at PoMoArts in January.
This show will be up until February 5th 2023 so stop in the gallery when you stroll around Lafarge Lake to see the Christmas light display.
