Quick Pick — Carl Beam and Family Featured in Show at Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery

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Ann Beam, “The Medicine Ravens,” 2004, stoneware, slip, underglaze, glaze, 19" x 7.7" (photo courtesy of the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery)

Ceramic works by the renowned Beam family from M’Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island are featured in a new exhibition at The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ont. 

Co-curated by Elka Weinstein and Anong Migwans Beam, Painting with Clay features pottery works created by Anong, her late parents Carl and Ann Beam, and her two children, Riel and Lux. 

Born Carl Edward Migwans, Carl Beam was a multimedia artist who was the first artist of Indigenous ancestry to have work (North American Iceberg) bought by the National Gallery of Canada. A major retrospective of his work was shown at the National Gallery in 2010. 

Ann Beam was a multimedia artist who taught at the Art Gallery of Ontario in the late 1960s and 1970s. She held a bachelor of fine arts from State University of New York at Buffalo and later in her career, managed the Neon Raven Art Gallery. Her work has been shown across North America including the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art and the Royal Ontario Museum. 

An advocate for the preservation of Indigenous ceramics, Anong Migwans Beam has work in the permanent collections of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Royal Ontario Museum and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, among others. She also wrote the book Carl Beam: Life & Work, which was published by the Art Canada Institute. ■

The Beam family, Painting with Clay, is at The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ont., through May 25, 2025

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