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Kathy Venter

biography

Kathy Venter was born in South Africa where she received her M.F.A. in Sculpture, Port Elizabeth School of Art and Design and immigrated to Canada in 1989.

She builds her life size ceramic sculptures by hand using the extended pinch method - similar to large vessel building. No molds are used as the hollow, completed wet clay sculptures are 15% larger than life size to shrink to the desired scale after firing.

An exhibition of 36 of her sculptures originated at the Gardiner Museum, Toronto from 30th May 2013 to 15th September 2013. This exhibition travelled to the Bellevue Arts Museum, Wa., U.S.A. in 2014; Sacramento State University; Deuthebank/Circa Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa; and IMA, San Juan Islands, Wa., USA. Part of this exhibition will be shown at the Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale 2014-2015.

Kathy currently lives and works on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, with her husband, painter Deon Venter.

where to see or read more

shows: On Salt Spring, visit the Venter Gallery, in Grace Point Square.

web: Visit Kathy's website www.kathyventer.com
            Visit the Venter Gallery website www.ventergallery.com
            View this 12 minute video with the artist www.kathyventer.com/video

press: Kathy's work has been published extensively. View her CV here.

contact the artist

address: Venter Studio, 315 Upper Ganges Rd., Suite 23, SSI, BC, V8K 2X4
phone: 250.537.4749
email: dkventer@gmail.com

artist statement


While doing my MFA at Port Elizabeth School of Art and Design in South Africa, I developed a method of building life-size figurative pieces, in clay. I began working from the ground up — initially creating a simple vessel-like figurative form in a coil and pinch technique, beginning at the feet — shaping the wall of the vessel to describe the ankles and calves, letting these stiffen to carry the weight of the next layers of wet coiled and pinched clay. This method developed when I saw the hollow interiors of the broken sculptures of the emperor Qin’s buried army of terracotta warriors. I refined this technique further by using small pellets of clay. This opened up the possibility of building more complex forms.

Kathy Venter, sculptor













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