Wherever he travels, Rob Froese is always happy to be back at the Mann Art Gallery.
The internationally celebrated ceramics artist officially opened ‘Tone Poems’, his third show at the Prince Albert gallery, on Thursday. Froese said Prince Albert is fortunate to have such a great space for artists to come together.
“It’s quite a remarkable place and it’s shown some really good work,” Froese said. “It’s a really important venue here and I just hope people support it…. We need art in life. We don’t exist without it. Our lives are full of design, and design usually comes from innovations in art, so it’s important to have a good gallery.”
‘Tone Poems’ features a dozen of Froese’s pieces from 2018 to the present. They draw on Froese’s musical side, with cups, plates, vase forms, and wall works assembled to create musical notes and jazz compositions.
Froese began thinking about the project roughly eight years ago during graduate studies in Calgary. He wanted to create something that combined his piano studies with his work in ceramics.
“I just needed something new, and this was a good chance to just wipe the slate clean and start with new ideas,” Froese explained.
“(It’s) very quick, direct movements, making resolutions, like you do in music.”
The exhibits are spread out over four movable walls in the main exhibit hall. There is also a prelude series featuring pieces from the Mann Gallery Collection that echo the musical themes present in ‘Tone Poems’.
Froese selected the pieces in conversation with Mann Art Gallery artistic director Rebecca La Marre. They focused on artists who made important contributions to Saskatchewan arts, but had fewer opportunities to exhibit their work in a gallery.
Froese described the creation process as “exhausting, but very enjoyable.”
“It’s a lot of work that I enjoy, but it pushes me,” he said. “It’s good to get to … your physical limits. Physically, it’s a lot to make the work in the first place, but then to bring it all in, it’s kind of like having a bunch of notes to play with, but then each gallery’s setting is different.”
Froese began training in pottery at the University of Regina in the 1980s, where he learned from national and international award winning ceramics artist Jack Sures. Froese then apprenticed in Japan for 15 years before returning to Canada.
He said clay is a medium with endless possibilities, and that’s what’s kept him working with it for years.
“It’s so elemental,” he said. “It’s been with us forever. We all hear about ancient civilizations who are known through what’s left of their ceramic work. Nothing’s really changed in 10,000 years in terms of spinning clay on a wheel, making pots, and yet there’s endless possibilities from the material.”
‘Tone Poems’ runs from July 11 to Oct. 18 at the Mann Art Gallery in Prince Albert.
