"I think that art is about ideas and about abstraction... it's very important to me that my objects are not useful. They are about function but they are not functional."
Léopold L. Foulem, CBC 2008
Léopold L. Foulem is internationally renowned in the contemporary ceramic world. Born in Caraquet, New Brunswick, he received his MFA from Indiana State University in 1988. He currently divides his time between Caraquet and Montreal.
Foulem creates works that are meant to address our knowledge and understanding of ceramics, while challenging our presumed stereotypes, and exploring the fringes of respected traditions. A technical wizard, Foulem's pieces combine erudition and humour to create a vocabulary which is indisputably his own, playing on semantic reversals that force us to question the role of ceramics.
Foulem is a world authority on Picasso's ceramic work, and has collected considerable documentation on the subject over the past 25 years, with his research resulting in a number of publications. In addition, Foulem taught in the ceramics programme of the CEGEP de Vieux Montréal, and more recently has been teaching at the CEGEP St-Laurent in Montreal's north end. In 1999, he received the Jean A. Chalmers National Craft Award, in recognition of his more-than 30-year history in ceramics.
Selected works
