Form Follows Fancy: Wayne Ngan at the James Cohan Gallery

Partial installation, of “Wayne Ngan- Spirit and Form”, at the James Cohan Gallery, Manhattan.

 

By JOHN DRURY December 14th, 2025

In conclusion a trifecta of coincidences, of sorts, I found myself flush, in opportunities to better familiarize myself with the great variety in the ceramic works of Wayne Ngan. Three, is a magic number. 

I had flown to Vancouver from NYC, in July, as made possible by a grant from the Jenni Crain Foundation to document the works and studio of the artist George Sawchuk, on Vancouver Island (see my “Deep in the Dark, Damp Woods with Vancouver Island’s George Sawchuk”, here at Whitehot), and had decided to overshoot that destination by an island or two and then backtrack to George’s property. I’d taken the three ferries required to reach Hornby Island, with a Vancouverite buddy, whom is also a friend of Gailan Ngan (who alongside Goya, manage their father’s estate and who is a talented potter, in her own right). Gailan was kind to allow us access to Wayne’s studio and manicured grounds, allowing an eyes-on understanding Ngan’s connection to the natural world. His was an ocean-front, artist-built home and studio built in communal partnership a very rustic place - that remaining yet centered around a single supermarket (less than “super”, frankly), a “working hours” ferry, one gas station and views to kill for - replete with whales and eagles. A destination however, many an artist in the 1960’s and 1970’s…and lingering perfectly yet, unspoiled. Gifted the book entailing Wayne’s life story, written by a childhood and life-long friend, my tutorial on his life and works had begun with a punch.

Wayne Ngan (2014) “Thin Vase with Cast Iron Glaze”; Stoneware, 13 3/8 x 4 3/8 x 3 1/2 inches.

Returning then to Vancouver the following week, and the obligatory visit – when in town - to the Vancouver Art Gallery, found exhibited Written in Clay: From the John David Lawrence Collection, an exhibition of 200 collected works, presented as a history of those made in British Columbia from 1930, until the early 2000’s. Here, the included Ngan pots were less adventurous than those I’d seen, in the studio of this maverick potter – largely symmetrical and pre-dating his move to Hornby from Vancouver in the late-1960’s, though allowing a hint to the vast variety of glazing techniques which would follow, in his later years. Few it seems in the crafts, seem to move beyond a handful of formal applications their medium of choice; locked into a kind of trans-fixation, the pursuit a perfection so often mired in quest over regeneration…true growth, and change. In flattery the possibilities inherent clay, ceramic sculptor Wayne Ngan chose instead to hunt for a sensibility, as varied, any substance in the hands of an artist.

Wayne Ngan (2017) “Vase with Rust Circular Design”; Stoneware

Had I not been to Ngan’s studio, those works made earlier in his career and as exampled at the VAG, would have left me ill-prepared for the virtual variety gathered together, here in my hometown, at the James Cohan Gallery’s exhibition of Ngan’s work, Spirit and Form; a group, stunning in their perplexity of thrown and combined configurations and an adept understanding glazing techniques, now regularly matte, less-often glossy and sometimes absent in spots – to reveal the core material, in painterly understanding. With inspiration ancient Asian ceramics, pre-Columbian and ancient Egyptian art, Modernist painting and his beloved Brancusi, Wayne Ngan examples in these works at James Cohan (almost entirely made during the last decade of his life), a near-futuristic look to production attached to place, insatiable inquiry and groundbreaking methodologies; Ngan’s Thin Vase with Cast Iron Glaze, a commanding and yet elegant example the masterful throwing of Stoneware…his Clam Form Vessel, an example his reception the influence the sea and surroundings…and his Vase with Rust Circular Design, a Modernist masterwork. Included here in Manhattan, are specimens, Canada’s perhaps most important potter-cum-artist.