British Columbia-based Kathy Venter is internationally known for her life size ceramic sculptures.

-Sun, terra cotta, gypsum cement & wood, 50x20x32″

She is currently working toward a major exhibition in 2013 at the prestigious Gardiner Museum of Contemporary Ceramics in Toronto, building upon her long-standing reputation for the ingenious use of terra cotta.

This application of cement, plaster and color, then sand blasted, refers directly to the Tangara terra cotta figurines which were painted with white slip, colored and then left to the abrasion of being buried for thousands of years. This I have translated into the personal and contemporary idiom by adding texture but maintaining the colors as we see them today. Pale blue, pink, yellow and white. –Artist’s statement

-Suspended Between Two Points, 18x32x26″

-Tall Cotton: terra cotta, gypsum cement & wood, 53 x 23 x 42″

–Even Telling 43 x 21 x 34″, ceramic

These works evidence Venter’s great capacity as a sculptor who . . . engages in building a relation to history through the simple act of interpreting her model, over a period of a month, in various poses, at different times of day, in various moods. -Notes for the ‘Revision’ Exhibition, Buschlen Mowatt Galleries, Vancouver

Venter is half of a remarkable art couple who immigrated from South Africa and now work from a studio on Salt Spring Island, B.C.   Deon Venter is also well known internationally for his oil and mixed media works. (Above, Left: Deon Venter. Right: From Kathy Venter’s Immersion Series of floating figures.)

–Here and Here, ceramic, 54x20x28″

 Kathy Venter website, here.