Permeable Skin

About Permeable Skin

This white ceramic vessel’s organic shape was inspired by nature.

The ethereal ceramic work of Paula Murray is valued for its timeless beauty. The Canadian artist’s work is often inspired by nature realized in the organic shape and color palette. Using her own recipe for clay, over multiple firings, Murray's hand forms her vessels employing a number of different techniques to infill, knit together, sandblast, or burnish the interior/exterior of her work. This creamy white piece displays her unique signature—fine craquelure or ruptures of the surface defined in a darker color inside, adding subtle texture and definition outside.

“Tested are the limits of endurance and resilience. I create works evocative of the precarious nature of existence. I look for beauty in the struggle.” Paula Murray

“For Paula Murray, the clay vessel is a canvas to explore the tensions of life’s many paradoxes: culture and nature, deliberation and chance, fragility and strength, and, most importantly, the individual and the collective.”
Rachel Gottlieb, Ceramics Curator

Paula Murray was born in Ottawa and studied science at the University of Ottawa and ceramics at Sheridan College. Elected to the International Academy of Ceramics (2017) and the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts (2006) she has based her full-time studio practice from Meech Lake, in Gatineau Park since 1980.

Exhibiting in prestigious exhibitions in Canada, Italy, China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Portugal, Romania, and the USA, she has received several awards and creation grants.

In 2021, Paula Murray was awarded one of the highest honours granted by the Quebec government in recognition of an exceptional career in the arts—the Prix d’excellence from le Conseil des métiers d’art du Québec.
Public collections include the World Korean Ceramic Foundation Museum, Yingge Ceramic Museum, Taiwan, Museum of Ceramics, Faenza Italy, Canada House, London, UK, and in Canada the Gardiner Museum, Museum of History, and Art Bank.