A Quiet Unfolding of Ideas by Pamela Ritchie

Artist list

Pamela Ritchie

This new exhibition aims at being both a retrospective and a tribute to a more than 35 years career artist, Pamela Ritchie, who is attending the gallery’s cases for the second time. The gallery represents the artist since 2005. She is the recipient of the prestigious Saidye Bronfman Award 2017, the foremost distinction in excellence in Canadian contemporary craft, one of the Governor General’s Awards.

Pamela Ritchie creates jewellery that explores linkages between traditional craft processes, contemporary ideas of science and culture, and the language of alternative materials. Her work celebrates the concentrating effect of detail, and the paradox that an abundance of ideas, form, and pattern can be encapsulated in very small objects. 
 Her studies include an MFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and postgraduate research work in Norway supported by a scholarship from the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada in conjunction with the Government of Norway. Ritchie’s work has been exhibited in over one hundred solo and group shows spanning three decades, throughout North America, Australia, Japan, Korea, and Europe, and has regularly been featured in books, catalogues, and periodicals. She has received numerous awards and support for her work from the Canada Council for the Arts, Nova Scotia Talent Trust, the Government of Nova Scotia and others. 
The Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Kunstindustrimuseum, Norway, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Nova Scotia Art Bank are among the major institutional collectors of Ritchie’s work.

As an advocate for Canadian jewellery, she has lectured in Canada, England, USA, and Korea, and has served as the Canadian consultant for several European exhibitions, including Jugend Gestaltet, Ornamenta I, Schmuckszene, and Schmuck. In addition to her art practice, Pamela Ritchie is currently Professor of Jewellery Design at NSCAD University. In addition to her art practice, Pamela Ritchie is currently Professor of Jewellery Design at NSCAD University.