she/her

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Bio:
 

Zoë Pinnell is an award-winning full-time ceramicist working out of her communal studio, Squiggle the Studio, in Hamilton, Ontario. She is a recent a graduate of Sheridan College (2020) where she received a Bachelors of Craft and Design. 
Zoë has a deep passion for education in ceramics which has led her to teaching classes, leading panels, and workshops across the GTA and online. She also works closely with her North American based collective pop-up, Mud Ties, bringing yearly exhibition, sale, and community opportunities to emerging ceramic artists in Canada and the USA. Mud Ties has now grown a following large enough to continue communal support within ceramics year-round.
In 2024, Zoë and her good friend, Roshan, opened Squiggle the Studio, one of Hamiltons first, ceramic artist-focused studio spaces. Squiggle is a space designed by ceramic artists for ceramic artists and lovers alike. They host workshops and classes for beginner and intermediate students, as well as house artists and other types of makers, supporting their making journeys and careers. Squiggle is the first retailer in the Hamilton Niagara Region to supply materials such as clay, glazes, raw materials, and pottery made in house.
 

 

Statement:

Zoës personal body of work consists of illustrated sculptural and functional handbuilt objects that are decorated with colourful glazes, underglaze, and terra sigillata. Her work is handbuilt by pinching, coiling, and slab building using earthenware. She fires her work in an electric kiln to a hot Cone 03, creating more of a toastiness in the red clay. Earthenware is an honour to the earth that we walk on and grow our gardens with, using the deep terracotta to create warmth and depth in her surfaces, luring you into her narratives.

Zoë is heavily influenced by historical patterns, tchotchke objects, and floral motifs, creating her patterns and illustrations from memories of what something may look like, but not entirely be. Her highly decorative work will bring you on a journey through the growth and interaction of gardens we grow while meeting the creatures, from bugs to beasts, that reside in them.