Zimra Beiner
An interview with the Assistant Professor, Ceramics, at the Alberta University of the Arts.
What is your job title and description?
Assistant professor. I teach ceramics primarily, within the School of Craft and Emerging Media at the Alberta University of the Arts (formerly ACAD). I maintain an active career as an artist, teaching undergraduate and graduate students, contributing to the institution as a whole through committee work and community engagement, and supporting students however I can.
What does a typical day look like for you?
I often spend a couple of hours preparing for my class in the morning, which involves making slide shows, editing or creating assignments, managing the complex ceramics schedule of the class relative to how the kilns are being used by the rest of the department, and organizing tasks for the class. I also often check in with my colleagues and try to do an hour of my own work before teaching in the afternoon. Teaching often involves giving an hour-long slide show and talking to students individually to help them solve any challenges or technical problems.
What career/educational path did you take to get here?
I started in ceramics by taking a pottery class with Toronto artist Ken Gangbar (who I then worked for) before going to Sheridan College, then NSCAD, and then getting an MFA from Alfred University, N.Y. One thing organically led to the other — I didn’t plan on getting an MFA or teaching, but I did admire the path of my teachers, and I constantly wondered how I could build ceramics into a sustainable career for myself. I was lucky enough to get a full-time teaching job right out of graduate school, and that started me on the path of bouncing between teaching and working as an artist. After about 10 years of full-time teaching, I’m starting to feel a greater harmony between teaching and the work I’m making.
What is the most exciting part of your work?
One very rewarding aspect of teaching is when students trust you. While every student has a different personality, I’ve found most are capable of being honest if you can model honesty first. This generally comes in the form of my being honest with my own doubts as an artist, the challenges I’ve faced that have affected my work, and the stamina required to persist. Of course, I also enjoy making discoveries in the studio and it’s particularly exciting when curators and gallery owners support me, and therefore give me the agency and confidence to continue to grow as an artist.
What is your biggest challenge?
My biggest challenge right now is finding time to make my own work. I have a two-year-old boy who demands a lot of my attention, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I was asked once about the three roles a professor takes on, and how those positions exist relative to authority: the teacher is the authority, the artist should question authority, and the member of the institution should respect authority. The difficulty is you have to bounce between these states every day, and it’s something that I still find very challenging.
Tell us a brief story about an object you have worked with.
I worked in Jingdezhen (which is a mecca for ceramics) during the summer of 2017, and I shipped back a couple hundred ceramic objects I made or collected. Of these, I have developed a strong attachment to a series of stacking ceramic painting palettes that I think were intended for painting cobalt on porcelain, but that I use for watercolours. They are incredibly simple and straightforward in to use, and yet have an elegant beauty when stacked.
Anything to add (especially for artists/makers/craftspeople whose work you work with)?
I’m really interested in artists who have found ways to diminish the gap between art and life — like Andrea Zittel or Gabriel Orozco — and I’ve always been attracted to the ceramics community because it always felt like my teachers’ home was an extension of their job, which was connected to their work as an artist. I’m so grateful to my teachers Bruce Cochrane, Walter Ostrom, Neil Forrest, Anne Currier, Linda Sikora, John Gill, and Wayne Higby for being great models of generosity and serious devotion to their art and life.
Zimra Beiner received a BFA from NSCAD University in 2009 and an MFA from Alfred University in 2012. His work has been exhibited internationally, including exhibitions at The Hole NYC, Present CO, Cross Mackenzie Gallery, and the Gardiner Museum. Recent awards include The Winnifred Shantz Award, The NCECA Emerging Artist Award, nomination for The RBC Emerging Artist Award in Ceramics, and recent residencies include The Berlin Ceramics Centre, Private Studio Jingdezhen, China, and The Center for Contemporary Ceramics at California State University Long Beach. He is currently Assistant Professor in Ceramics at the Alberta University of the Arts (formerly ACAD) in Calgary, Canada.
This article was published in the Fall/Winter 2023-2024 issue of Studio Magazine.
