Thrown

Thrown is inspired by the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery's ground breaking exhibition Thrown: Influences and Intentions of West Coast Potters. Selected by Matthew Higgs as one of the "Top 10 shows of 2004" (Artforum International) for its unconventional and compelling approach to the studio pottery movement, the exhibition featured over 600 pots by John Reeve, Glenn Lewis, Michael Henry and Ian Steele - the four Canadian apprentices of English potter Bernard Leach - and their like-minded contemporaries Tam Irving, Charmian Johnson and Wayne Ngan. Fresh from their studies at the Vancouver College of Art, each of the four travelled to St. Ives in Cornwall, England and completed a two-year apprenticeship: Reeve, 1958 - 61; Lewis 1961 - 63, Henry 1963 - 65; and Steele 1963 - 65. When they returned to Vancouver, they found themselves in the experimental of the 1960s Vancouver art scene.