Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident 2023
Jody Greenman-Barber studied ceramics at the University of Regina, receiving a BFA in1998, and MFA in 2016. With twenty-five years of history as a multidisciplinary ceramic artist, her professional practice is interdisciplinary combining dance, drawing, and collaborations in media arts. Her interest in performance and dance inherent in the making of ceramics has led to explorations and collaborations with photography and film making. In 2010, her short film Clay Play was screened with Ateliers d’Art de France 7th International Film Festival on Clay and Glass with additional screenings at the Centre de Ceramique Contemporaire de la Borne, and at Malicorne Espace Faïence in Malicorne-sur-Sarthe, France.
Greenman-Barber has made and continues to make important contributions to the expanding field of ceramics through her practice by interrogating and stretching the meaning, content, and material possibilities of the processes and forms integral to ceramic methodologies. She has received widespread peer and academic recognition for her work as demonstrated through numerous grants (regional and national), scholarships, and awards she received including the Saskatchewan Innovation and Opportunity Graduate Scholarship in 2014 and runner up for the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics (2014). Her works have also been included in significant exhibitions featuring Canadian Ceramics such as the Canadian Exhibition at the International 2021 Ceramics Conference and curated exhibition, Thrown, showcasing a selection of artists from across Canada at the Touchstone Museum and Art Gallery, Nelson, BC (2019). In addition to this, Greenman-Barber has also been selected into reputable international ceramic biennale competitions in Korea and Japan including the Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale in Icheon, Korea (2015 & 2019) and the International Ceramic Festival in Mino, Japan (2017).
Throughout her career, Greenman-Barber has participated in numerous residencies including the Medalta International Residency program in Medicine Hat, Alberta, and the International Research Centre for Ceramic Arts at the Guldagergaard in Skaelskor, Denmark. She has also held numerous teaching positions for community programming and post-secondary sessional at the University of Regina, First Nations University of Canada, and the Ottawa School of Art.
Early work in arts administration involved Greenman-Barber’s contributions to the development of the ceramic studio at the Last Mountain Lake Cultural Centre which eventually led her to acquiring the position of Program Coordinator in 2009. In this position, she worked on collaborative projects with artists and local communities, managed the art gallery, community arts programming, and acquired grant funding for special projects and operational support through the Saskatchewan Arts Board. In 2017, Greenman-Barber worked for the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils as the Visual and Media Arts coordinator assistant and in 2018, she was hired by SK Arts (formerly the Saskatchewan Arts Board) for the position of Program Consultant responsible for the Artists in School and Artists in Community grant programs.
Greenman-Barber currently works for SK Arts, Program Consultant overseeing the Independent Artist portfolio in the visual arts, and Artist in Schools program.
Her studio is situated on Treaty 4 territory at the Last Mountain Lake Cultural Centre and her home in Buena Vista, Saskatchewan, Canada.
My practice is grounded in the field of traditional and contemporary ceramics. Driven by risk and driven by innovative approaches working in clay, my work can be summarized as process-based and experimental with an interest in pursuing advancements in technique and expression. Inspired by contemporary dance, intuitive gestures, and improvisation, I create sculptures that record and convey the essential feeling of embodied sensations in forms that derive from pottery concepts and methodologies.
I incorporate activities such as dance, drawing, film, photography, etc., in support of creating abstract sculptures that are highly expressive and emotionally charged. Ultimately, I aim to create works that are technically and conceptually challenging, beautiful, chaotic, and wild.
These sculptures are made from porcelain and fired multiple times to capture the complexity and movement within each pottery form. They’re not literal representations of animated figures, but rather sculptural abstractions.