JANET MACPHERSON

Hybrids present us with two things happening simultaneously. They are in flux, one always alluding to and challenging the other. The borders between humans and animals, the manufactured and the natural, the spiritual and the visceral are distinct yet permeable, illustrating differences while creating spaces for wonder and uncertainty. Influenced by my Catholic upbringing, I investigate hybridity within the context of Christian ideology, which despite its ubiquitous use of the temporal body in all its messiness, tends to prioritize spiritual purity over the concerns of earthly existence.  

 

My complicated history with Catholicism has been a driving influence in the work I have made throughout my career, and I continue to investigate its impact in my most recent body of work. Christianity is boldly anthropocentric in its doctrine. Situating humans as the most important element of the universe has created a hierarchical structure that has prevailed across millennia. However, growing up Catholic carries an inherent shame for having a body, and for giving in to its base desires.  Embedded in this ethos is the assertion that humans are separate from, and have dominion over other life forms, while the prioritization of spiritual purity rejects the basic reality that we are in fact animals and part of an interdependent ecosystem. Catholic iconography shows the martyred body as grotesquely broken, yet the facial expressions always convey a serene indifference to the pain being inflicted, as if to negate the very notion of the physical body. The superiority of the spirit is constantly reinforced this way despite the corporeal nature of its visual culture. I am compelled to reference this paradoxical relationship, and the way it shapes my experience of the world. 

Biography | Artist CV

ABOUT JANET MACPHERSON

Janet Macpherson studied ceramics at Sheridan College and received her MFA at The Ohio State University in 2010. In 2012 she was granted an artist-in-residence position in the Craft Studios at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. Janet was the 2013 recipient of the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics, which funded a three-month residency at Zentrum fur Keramik in Berlin, Germany. She has also received several research and creation grants from the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.  Janet has exhibited her work extensively within Canada and the United States, most notably in the solo exhibition Janet Macpherson: A Canadian Bestiary, which was mounted by the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto in 2017. Janet’s work was included in the exhibition Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and in the Biennale Nationale de Sculpture Contemporaine, in Trois Riviere, QC.  Janet teaches mould-making in the ceramics department at Sheridan College, and she currently lives and works in Hamilton, Ontario.

JANET MACPHERSON CV

Education
2010    MFA Ceramics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
2002    The School of Crafts and Design, Ceramics, Sheridan College, Oakville, Ontario
1997    BA Philosophy, York University, Toronto, Ontario

Solo Exhibitions
Oct. 2025    I Saw All the Eyes Seeing, The Lyceum Gallery, Toronto, ON
2022    Escarpment, Public Mural, The Keddy Access Trail, Hamilton, ON
2021    Hybrid Land, Mary E. Black Gallery, Halifax, NS
2018    Tethered, Slate Fine Art Gallery, Regina, SK
2017    Bestiary, Yukon Arts Centre, Whitehorse, YT
2017    Janet Macpherson: A Canadian Bestiary, The Gardiner Museum, Toronto, ON
2015    Mirabilia, VERSO Gallery, Toronto, ON
2014    Processional, The Sculpture Centre, Cleveland, OH

Selected Group Exhibitions
2025    What Holds, Vessels and Sticks Gallery, Toronto, ON
        Art Gallery of Hamilton Annual Art Sale, AGH, Hamilton, ON
2024    Art Gallery of Hamilton Annual Art Sale, AGH, Hamilton, ON
2023    Familiar, curated by Gina Fafard, Slate Fine Art Gallery, Regina, SK
2020    Biennale national de sculpture contemporaine, Trois Riviere, QC
2019    Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
        This Land Like a Mirror Turns You Inward, collaboration with Magdolene Dykstra, Truckstop Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
        Terrestrial Beings, Esplanade Art Gallery, Medicine Hat, AB
2018    NCECA Emerging Artists Exhibition, Pittsburgh, PA
2017    2017 Canadian Craft Biennial, Art Gallery of Burlington, Burlington, ON
2016    The Second Virginia McClure Ceramics Biennale, curated by Linda Swanson, Galerie McClure, Montreal, QC
2015    Stopping by Woods, curated by Patrick Macaulay, Bill Boyle Artport, Toronto, ON
        NCECA Biennial, David Winton Bell Gallery, Providence, RI
        TBA, curated by Rebecca Harvey, Pawtucket Armory, Providence, RI
2014    Gather, collaboration with Lindsay Montgomery, Craft Ontario, Toronto, ON
        Show Off, Craft Corridor Vitrines, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON
2013    Animal Stories, curated by Karine Tsoumis, Gardiner Museum, Toronto, ON
        Monster(osities), Practice Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2012    RBC Emerging Artist People's Choice Award, Gardiner Museum, Toronto, ON
        Small Favors, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
        LOOKout, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON
2011    After the Pedestal, The Sculpture Centre, Cleveland, OH
        For The Person Who Has Everything, Roy G. Biv Gallery, Columbus, OH
2010    The Phenomenology of Time, Kuhn Gallery, Marion, OH
        Visions in Clay, LH Horton Jr. Gallery, Stockton, CA
        Vox VI, Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
        After the Pedestal, The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, OH
        2010 Masters of Fine Arts Exhibition: You and Me and Everyone We Know, Urban Arts Space, Columbus, OH

Grants, Awards
2020    Ontario Arts Council, Visual Artists Creation Project Grant
2018    Victor Spinsky Award for Emerging Artists, NCECA, Pittsburgh, PA
        Canada Council for the Arts, Exploration and Creation Grant
2016    Ontario Arts Council, Craft Projects Individuals Grant
2015    Canada Council for the Arts, Fine Craft: Grants to Artists and Curators
2014    Ontario Arts Council, Craft Projects, Individual Artist Grant
2013    The Winifred Shantz Award, Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo, ON
        Canada Council for the Arts, Project Grant to Visual Artists
2012    Nominated for RBC Emerging Artist People's Choice Award by Steve Heinemann
        Best of Category, Ceramics Award, 51st Annual Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition
2011    The David E. Davis Award for Artistic Excellence in After The Pedestal, The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, OH

Professional Experience, Residencies, Talks
2023            Panel presentation and discussion at Toward Future Bodies, part of ICAF at The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, ON
2015 - present  Part-time Faculty, Sheridan College, School of Crafts and Design, Ceramics Department, Oakville, ON
2018            Emerging Artist Talk, NCECA Conference, Pittsburg, PA
2015            Community art facilitator, Mabelle Arts, Etobicoke, ON
2014            Artist in Residence, Zentrum für Keramik, Berlin, Germany
2012            Visiting Artist/Faculty, Sheridan College, School of Crafts and Design, Ceramics Department, Oakville, ON
2011-2014       Artist in Residence, Craft Studio, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON
2008-2010       Instructor, Department of Art, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

Exhibition Catalogues, Books, Reviews
Bringing Art to the Trail, The Hamilton Spectator, Aug. 27, 2022
Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World, catalogue, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2019
The Beasts Came Marching One by One, Murray Whyte, Toronto Star, Feb. 11, 2017
Janet Macpherson: A Canadian Bestiary, catalogue, The Gardiner Museum, 2017
Episode, catalogue, Galerie McClure, 2016
Tame piglets and holy cows - The ceramics of the artist Janet Macpherson, New Ceramics, July/August 2015

Collections
Contemporary Ceramics Collection of the Art Gallery of Burlington, Burlington, ON
Contemporary Ceramics Collection of The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, ON