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About
the Artist
Matthias
Ostermann was born in Germany. A ceramist since 1974, he lives
and works in Montreal. He has lived and worked in Toronto,
and in Australia, Germany, and Ireland, and has lectured and
taught in all these places as well as in Brazil, Eastern Europe,
France, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, New Zealand, the UK
and the USA. He has exhibited internationally, and his work
can be found in such permanent collections as the Baden-Würtenbergisches
Landesmuseum in Germany, the Canadian Clay and Glass Museum,
the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Royal Ontario
Museum and The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto,
Canada.
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Since
1981 he has specialized in low-fire, tin-glaze techniques
in the realm of narrative vessels, sculpture and architectural
wall tile. He is the author of The New Maiolica: Contemporary
Approaches to Colour and Technique (1999), The
Ceramic Surface (2002) and most recently The Ceramic
Narrative (2006); publishers: A&C Black Publishers
(London, UK) and University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia,
USA). He is an elected member of the International Academy
of Ceramics in Geneva, Switzerland.
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Personal
Statement
I was
initially trained as a production potter in high-fired stoneware,
with small forays into drawing and painting on the side. In
the early 1980s, my desire to combine my drawing with clay
surface led me to explore the brighter colour palette of low-fire
maiolica (tin glaze), which became an important vehicle of
expression. It is, to me, a painting medium in its own right
with unique inherent qualities of colour-blending and light
refraction. More recently I have been using copper sgraffito
techniques combined with low-fired vitreous engobes, as well
as using dry-point etching techniques for works on paper.
German
expressionism and the works of such artists as Chagall, R.
B. Kitaj, Mimmo Paladino and Louise Bourgeois have, to some
degree inspired my own work, which is largely narrative and
figurative. I draw on mythology, dreams, human relationships
and dilemmas, or any story that I can visualize that allows
me to create a dialogue with the viewer. |
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