Material Deposits
Kevin Conlin and Lin Xu
October 2–November 6, 2026 | Teaching Gallery
Opening reception: October 2, 4:00–7:00 p.m.
Artist talk with Kevin Conlin: October 2, 4:10–4:30 p.m.
Material Deposits brings together ceramic artists Kevin Conlin and Lin Xu, whose practices share a sustained engagement with process and environmental change. Presented in conjunction with the School of Art's hosting of this year's 1000 Miles Apart Ceramic Conference, the exhibition considers how two very different approaches to clay engage questions of accumulation, extinction, waste, and the material traces of human activity. For both artists, these concerns are inseparable from clay itself, a material formed over geological time yet readily shaped by human hands.
Conlin, who has taught ceramics at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba for nearly three decades, draws on his parallel work as an amateur paleontologist. For Material Deposits, he presents five large-scale ceramic murals he calls "mortality plates." The term comes from paleontology and describes deposits containing the fossilized remains of many organisms that died in a single catastrophic event. Suggesting geological strata, the murals are built from impressions cast from actual ammonite fossils, interrupted by contemporary objects such as tin cans and plastic lids. By placing traces of the present within geologic time, Conlin considers what contemporary society will leave behind.
Xu approaches accumulation through the rhythms and material waste of the classroom. Her Sediment Series reclaims discarded clay, glazes, and other residues that settle at the bottom of studio waste buckets. Through repeated firings in the electric kiln, these materials harden into layered, irregular discs that resemble barren landscapes. With the addition of tiny human figures, the works oscillate between ceramic sculpture and geologic terrain, transforming studio waste into imagined landscapes of the future.
About the artists
Kevin T. Conlin
Kevin T. Conlin is a Manitoba ceramic artist and sculptor whose work explores the relationship between clay, fossils, geology, and deep time. For more than three decades, he has used ceramics to investigate themes of transformation, extinction, impermanence, and the traces left behind by life. Conlin received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics with a minor in Sculpture from the University of Regina in 1987, where he studied with Canadian ceramic artists Jack Sures, Victor Cicansky, and Franklin Heisler. He established Cypress Ceramic Studios in Wawanesa, Manitoba, in 1996 and has maintained an active studio practice that encompasses mold making and fossil replication. Conlin’s ceramics have been exhibited extensively across Canada and are held in public, institutional, and private collections nationally and internationally. His practice reflects a lifelong convergence of art, paleontology, field research, and education, asking what survives, what disappears, and what humanity might leave behind.
Lin Xu
Born in China, Lin Xu holds an M.F.A. from Washington State University, a B.V.A. from the University of Sydney, Australia, a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from Brandon University, and a B.Sc. in Packaging Engineering from Jilin University, China. Lin’s work has been exhibited throughout Canada and internationally, including in the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, France, Spain, Taiwan and China. Lin recently retired as Associate Professor of Visual Arts at Brandon University and has relocated to the Greater Vancouver area in BC. During her 22-year tenure at Brandon University, Lin played a leading role in developing the Visual Arts program, particularly in establishing the ceramics studio facilities and shaping the ceramics curriculum.
Image: Kevin Conlin, Mesozoic Ammonite Mortality Plate #1 (detail), 2025