Ceramic Artist in Residence

Carlee Thompson (b. 1999 Victoria, BC) is an emerging artist working as a guest on the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. Thompson received their BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2022 and has been the recipient of Renée Van Helm + Pietro Widmer Graduation Award for Visual Arts (2022), the Jessie Allan Forsyth Memorial Scholarship (2019) and, the Clay Foundation Visual Arts Award (2018). Thompson has participated in nine group exhibitions in Canada.

Carlee Thompson’s interdisciplinary practice incorporates multiple mediums, including ceramics, photography and painting. Working as a production potter, Thompson uses both wheel throwing and slip casting methods to create functional wares, emphasizing repetition and uniformity. Creating wares for clients such as Celsia Floral and Barter Design.

In contrast to utilitarian design their practice explores the interaction between shape and space, investigating the physicality of objects through texture, colour and fragmentation. Connective forms, vibrant color palettes, and sharp-edged shapes, create decisive action within a visual language. These recurring motifs of materiality intersect with digital documentation to question and exaggerate contemporary experiences. Often starting from photographs taken while cycling around North America, the images are then broken down or abstracted into layers which are painted onto the surface of large fragmented vessels. Melding a painting practice to ceramics through the use of clay as canvas.

Website: carleethompson.com
Social Media: @icaarlee