Ruth Chambers (born 1960) is a Canadian installation artist, based in

Regina, Saskatchewan Regina ( ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province, and is a commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. As of the 2021 Canadian census, ...

. She works with a wide range of media, and her art has incorporated everything from unfired

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

, ceramics and found objects to the latest in audio-visual media.

Biography

Chambers was born in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

and in 1983 she graduated from the

Ontario College of Art Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD U, is a public art university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its main campus is located within Toronto's Grange Park and Entertainment District neighbourhoods ...

as an Associate of the Ontario College of Art. From 1983 to 1984 she worked in the Ceramics Department of the Sun Valley Centre for the Arts and Humanities in

Sun Valley, Idaho Sun Valley is a resort city in the western United States, in Blaine County, Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum in the Wood River valley. The population was 1,783 at the 2020 census. The elevation of Sun Valley (at the Lodge) is above se ...

. She obtained her MFA from the

University of Regina The University of Regina is a public university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatchewan as a j ...

in 1994. Chambers' work has also explored a number of themes. Some of her sculptures have depicted elements of the human body, while other works by her have combined elements of classical design (such as

Tuscan order The Tuscan order (Latin ''Ordo Tuscanicus'' or ''Ordo Tuscanus'', with the meaning of Etruscan order) is one of the two classical orders developed by the Romans, the other being the composite order. It is influenced by the Doric order, but wit ...

columns) with natural imagery, such as fluttering oak leaves. Writing in 2006, Chambers said of ceramics and installation: "Ceramics is a medium traditionally associated with craft production and defined by its material qualities rather than its expressed content. Installation on the other hand, usually takes the form of a temporary environment specific in both look and meaning to its location, it employs a range of media, and the materials are often non-traditional and secondary in importance to the idea expressed." Chambers's more recent installation art explores both natural and architectural themes. Recent pieces feature unfired clay objects placed in darkened space; the pieces are then activated by dramatic lighting and visual projections. According to Chambers, her contrasting style is intended to disorient the viewer, as "these installations are intended to intervene into compemporary architecture with the intent of inserting a different kind of aesthetic into spaces that are usually unornamented and designed to be quite neutral." Chambers has exhibited throughout both Canada and the United States. She is a founding member of Petri’s Quadrille, a Regina-based artists’ collective (1997–2006). She has exhibited at institutions such as the

Burlington Art Centre The Art Gallery of Burlington, founded in 1978, is the seventh largest public art gallery in Ontario. The gallery collects and maintains Canada's largest collection of contemporary Canadian ceramics. It is located on the City of Burlington water ...

, the

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS) is a public provincial museums of Canada, provincial art museum based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The art museum's primary building complex is located in downtown Halifax and takes up ...

, the

Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery (CCGG) is a public art gallery located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It is the only Canadian art gallery exclusively dedicated to exhibiting and collecting contemporary Canadian ceramic, glass, enamel and stain ...

, and the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan. She has also exhibited at the Gallery 1.1.1 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 2007 she co-authored a book with Amy Gogarty and Mireille Perron titled ''Utopic Impulses: Contemporary Ceramics Practice'', published by the Ronsdale Press, which includes ten essays on ceramics as a socially responsible practice.

References

External links

2007: ''Utopic Impulses: Contemporary Ceramics Practice'' (ed. with Amy Gogarty and Mireille Perron) Sandra Alfoldy.
Allied Arts: Architecture and Craft in Postwar Canada.
' McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP, Mar 28, 2012. pp. 126–7. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chambers, Ruth 1960 births Living people 20th-century Canadian women artists 21st-century Canadian women artists Artists from Regina, Saskatchewan Artists from Toronto Canadian sculptors OCAD University alumni University of Regina alumni Academic staff of the University of Regina