A recent graduate of our Exchange Arts Incubator program, Solange Roy is a Francophone, Indigenous ceramic artist living and working in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Solange obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours from the University of Manitoba in 2022. She won the People’s Choice award at the BFA Honours exhibition and her cake sculpture “You Want a Piece of Me?” won the provincial prize for the BMO 1st Art! National Competition. Solange specializes in hand-building methods to create intricate, colourful and unique sculptures.
Solange will be an artist-in-residence at the Shaw International Centre for Contemporary Ceramics at Medalta in Alberta from September 2024 to January 2025 to create a new body of work for her upcoming solo exhibition in 2025.
How did you start your creative practice? Were there any key experiences that influenced the direction of your work?
I became interested in the arts at a very young age, but I started my creative practice back in high school where I discovered ceramics. My late high school teacher Roberta Decock was, and continues to be, a source of inspiration. She was the reason I decided to pursue a career in the arts and enroll at the University of Manitoba for a Bachelor of Fine Arts.
What is your creative process? What does an average day look like?
My creative process starts with detailed planning and trial and error. When creating large-scale sculptures and/or highly detailed work, the creation does not always go according to plan, especially with ceramics. By doing thorough testing of the different elements of my sculptures, when I start on the final work I can be much more confident in the final product.
An average day typically starts with answering my emails, followed by deciding what my priority is for the day. Depending on the commissions I am currently working on, or what projects are in progress, I will work on different things. For commissions or sculptures, there’s planning, building or glazing to do. General studio maintenance is also an important part of my work, tasks such as recycling clay, cleaning, and organization.
What artistic or career goals have you set for yourself?
One of the career goals I have set for myself is to have a solo exhibition. I have been incredibly lucky and helped by my community to secure my first solo exhibition next year at the CCFM in March 2025 where I will be exhibiting my work for three months. A long-term goal I have for my career is to go back to university for a Master’s of Fine Arts since I hope to one day become a professor of Fine Arts and inspire students like I was inspired by my favourite professor Grace Nickel.
How has Creative Manitoba been able to support your career?
Creative Manitoba has been supporting my career by offering a large variety of informative workshops about everything an early-career and emerging artist could need. I participated in the Exchange Arts Incubator program and found countless resources there. The sense of community that the program brought was also very helpful with the weekly meetings and Discord channel. Creative Manitoba also offers many one-evening workshops on specific topics that I have found helpful. Their newsletter also provides topical information about current events in the arts in Winnipeg and deadlines for grants and applications.
What aspect of your work brings you the most joy?
In my practice, the process of glazing a complex sculpture, taking hours upon hours to paint it perfectly and seeing the final result come together after the final firing brings me the most joy. Glazing in ceramics is very relaxing and therapeutic, as I enjoy the process of painting but also the planning aspect of glazing since I often decide early on which colours I will be using due to the complexity of my sculptures.
What are you working on now?
I am currently working on finalizing current projects and commissions in preparation for my upcoming artist residency. I will be an artist-in-residence at the Shaw International Centre for Contemporary Ceramics at Medalta in Alberta from September 2nd, 2024 until January 31st, 2025. During my five months at Medalta, I will be creating new sculptures for my upcoming solo exhibition in 2025. I will be sharing my progress during the residency on my Instagram and Facebook.
Creative Manitoba encourages you to see more of Solange’s outstanding work at her website www.solangeroy.com
To get in touch, visit her website or social media via the links below: