Copp, Joanne
Item
Maker Name
Copp, Joanne
Biography
Joanne Copp is a celebrated and distinct artist of the late 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s. Stopped by Leukemia, she was gaining more and more recognition of her impeccably finished luminous vessels.
Joanne first encountered pottery at the Burnaby Arts Centre (now the Shadbolt Centre) during the 1970s. She went on to Capilano College, where craftsmanship was emphasized. General art studies at the University of Victoria (1975) convinced her that she wanted to make objects of beauty, and in 1988/89 she returned to Capilano to improve her skills. In the late 1990s Joanne received a Canada Council grant to explore the use of metallic finishes and her practice turned a corner.
Joanne’s work was featured on the cover of Artichoke, and in Ceramics Art and Perception, included in exhibitions like World Women in Clayworks, Baltimore and noticed across Canada and the USA,. It was the subject of a book ‘Joanne Copp’ in the Frye Canadian Ceramicist Collection series.
Her works were hand-built, burnished and finished to an extraordinary degree, and then underwent a pit-fire, where only a percent survived. Those that did had their interior surfaces gilded with gold or platinum. Her extraordinary impeccable burnished surfaces on the outside and glowing metallic surfaces on the inside hold equal importance to her sculpted shell-like forms. The vessels act as both ‘container’ and object that radiate her meditative devotion to each piece. Joanne’s was a disciplined process that enabled her to create a sculptural expression of her beloved environment on the Sunshine Coast.
Joanne first encountered pottery at the Burnaby Arts Centre (now the Shadbolt Centre) during the 1970s. She went on to Capilano College, where craftsmanship was emphasized. General art studies at the University of Victoria (1975) convinced her that she wanted to make objects of beauty, and in 1988/89 she returned to Capilano to improve her skills. In the late 1990s Joanne received a Canada Council grant to explore the use of metallic finishes and her practice turned a corner.
Joanne’s work was featured on the cover of Artichoke, and in Ceramics Art and Perception, included in exhibitions like World Women in Clayworks, Baltimore and noticed across Canada and the USA,. It was the subject of a book ‘Joanne Copp’ in the Frye Canadian Ceramicist Collection series.
Her works were hand-built, burnished and finished to an extraordinary degree, and then underwent a pit-fire, where only a percent survived. Those that did had their interior surfaces gilded with gold or platinum. Her extraordinary impeccable burnished surfaces on the outside and glowing metallic surfaces on the inside hold equal importance to her sculpted shell-like forms. The vessels act as both ‘container’ and object that radiate her meditative devotion to each piece. Joanne’s was a disciplined process that enabled her to create a sculptural expression of her beloved environment on the Sunshine Coast.
First name
Joanne
Last name
Copp
Career dates (start and end)
1989
2010
Date of Death
2010
Place of Death
Studio location
Formal Education
Major Exhibitions
2006 World Women, Clay Works, Baltimore.
2005 TransFormations, PGBC 50th Anniversary
2004 A Natural Progression, Johnathon Bancroft -Snell Gallery , Ontario
Affiliated organizations
Links to Further Resources
2013 ‘Joanne Copp’ in the
Frye Canadian Ceramicist Collection , by Jonathon bancroft-Snell
Frye Canadian Ceramicist Collection , by Jonathon bancroft-Snell
Craft and Perception, (date check) 'Vessel as Idea'
2007 North-West Ceramics Foundation, Oven and Kiln
2004 Artichoke Magazine.
late 1990s Canada Council for the Arts grant.
1998 Made of Clay, PGBC
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/11560222/may-potters-guild-of-bc, by Bettina Matzkuhn
http://gloriahickeycraftwriter.blogspot.com/2013/03/joanne-copps-ceramics-in-words-and.html
Source
Debra Sloan