Artist: Marissa Alexander
Marissa Alexander,
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ARTIST BIO
Marissa Y Alexander is a ceramic artist based in Toronto, Ontario. She holds a BA in Sociology from McMaster University, an Advanced Diploma in Craft and Design (Ceramics) from Sheridan College, and an MFA in Ceramic Art from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. She is a former full-time Artist-in-Residence at Harbourfront Centre. Her practice moves between functional and sculptural ceramics, where surface and glaze are used to build imagery, pattern, and form. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in museums, galleries, and public institutions, and is included in several public collections as well as private collections.
STATEMENT
My ceramic practice moves between functional vessels and sculptural work, made through hand-building. I work with clay as it shifts through resistance and responsiveness, building pieces that develop gradually through attention, repetition, and time. I work primarily through coiling and pinching. These processes slow the work down and keep me close to its making, allowing pieces to shift while they are still in progress. Surface plays a central role. I treat each form as a ground for glaze, where colour is applied in adjacent, extruded bands rather than layered. These sit beside one another, building fields of colour and mark that resolve into pattern, structure, and drawn imagery. I often return to flowers, leaves, and figures, forms that come from memory, especially of gardens and imagined spaces, appearing across both functional and sculptural pieces. At times they read clearly, at other times they drift toward abstraction. The work is shaped through internal imagery and remembered environments, built slowly through making rather than description. The pieces sit between function and fiction, where use, image, and form remain intertwined.
EDUCATION
2017–2019 MFA, Ceramic Art, Alfred University, Alfred NY2011
2014 Advanced Diploma, Craft and Design (Ceramics), Sheridan College, Oakville ON
FEATURED SOLO PROJECTS
2025 Retail Feature, Gardiner Museum Shop, Toronto ON
2021 (Window Gallery) Gardiner Goes Outside, Gardiner Museum, Toronto ON
2021 The Dancers, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto ON
2020 swim with me, Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo ON
2019 MFA Thesis Exhibition: looking in dimmed light, Fosdick Nelson Gallery, Alfred University, Alfred NY
2016 Abandoned Intentions, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto ON
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Favours: Canadian Clay, NCECA, Detroit MI, USA
2025 What Holds, Vessels and Sticks, Toronto ON
2024 Elaborate, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto ON
2024 Flower City Pottery Invitational, Flower City Arts Centre, Rochester NY, US
2024 International Ceramic Art Fair, Gardiner Museum, Toronto ON
2023 Chasm, McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton ON
2023 Révélations, Empreinte (Galerie Collection), Paris, France
2023 Spring Tour, Artstream Nomadic Gallery, Carbondale CO, USA
2022 Earth Oracles, Maytens, Toronto ON
2020 Fall Forecast, dianna witte gallery, Toronto ON
2020 Altered Elements Biennale, Carnegie Gallery, Hamilton ON
2019 CCX3, Assembly Gallery, Hamilton ON
2019 Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, Toronto ON
2018 Forty Four, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto ON
2015 Artist Project (Emerging Artist), Better Living Centre, Toronto ON
RESIDENCIES
2014–2017 Artist-in-Residence, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto ON
2016 Intensive Workshop Residency with John Gill and In-Chin Lee, Alfred University, Alfred NY, USA
AWARDS
2020 Emerging Artist Award, Toronto Outdoor Art Fair
2019 Best of Ceramics Award, Toronto Outdoor Art Fair
2018 Haystack Summer Conference Award
2014 Artist-In-Residence Scholarship, Harbourfront Centre
2014 William & Mary Corcoran Craft Award, Sheridan College
2014 Graduate Exhibition Honorable Mention, Sheridan College
2014 Work Study Award, Sheridan College
TEACHING + PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2025 Juror, Toronto Potters Guild, Toronto ON
2024 Juror, Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics, Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo
ON
2023 Juror, Exhibitions, Craft Ontario, Toronto ON
2023 Juror, Canada Council for the Arts (Chalmers Arts Fellowship Committee)
2021–2024 Part-Time Faculty, Ceramics, Sheridan College, Oakville ON
2022–2023 Assistant Professor, Ceramics, NSCAD University, Halifax NS
2022 Workshop Lead, Inspiration Studios, Toronto ON
2021–2022 Pottery Instructor, Dundas Valley School of Art, Dundas ON
2020 Juror, Ontario Arts Council – Craft Projects Program
2020–2021 Lead Ceramic Studio Technician, Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre, Oakville ON
2014–2017 Instructor + Technician, Ceramics Studio, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto ON
TALKS + DEMONSTRATIONS
2025 Presentation/Demo, New Clay Conference, Ottawa ON
2021 Presentation/Demo, Art Gallery of Burlington, Burlington ON
2021 Demo Talk, Gardiner Museum, Toronto ON
2021 Presentation/Demo, Ceramic Congress, The Ceramic School (online)
2019 Artist Talk, Potters Guild of Hamilton and Region, Hamilton ON
2019 Artist Talk, Sheridan College, Oakville ON
2019 Cultural Exchange Panels + Presentations, Bogotá & Medellín, Colombia
2018 Grand Valley State University Ceramics Forum, Allendale MI, USA
PUBLICATIONS
2025 “Countertop Candy: Salt Cellar,” Pottery Making Illustrated
2024 “Provocations: Shadow Archives and Legacies of Creative Material Practice,” Studio
Magazine
2017 “Clay Culture: Toronto City Guide,” Ceramics Monthly
2014 “Nurielle Stern: Eyes of Metal and Agate,” FUSION Magazine for Clay & Glass
COLLECTIONS
Gardiner Museum, Toronto ON
McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton ON
Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo ON
RBC Art Collection, Toronto ON
Alfred Ceramic Art Museum, Alfred University, Alfred NY, USA