Teresa Bergen
Teresa Bergen is a ceramic artist, living and working near Chester, Nova Scotia. Born in the West Coast of Canada, Bergen started her art education at Langara College in Vancouver and completed a Bachelor in Fine Arts from NSCAD University in Halifax (NS). With a flair for the whimsical and humour, Bergen creates intricate works of art, handbuilding each individual piece in clay.
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With a more is more approach to surface design, pattern colour and texture adorn her forms, Bergen makes figurative ceramic sculpture, impractical toys and kinetic art. A staple on her body of work is the use of movement and references to myth and folklore tell personal stories. She has a keen interest in the push and pull of emotions and their power over actions, be they creative or destructive. Influenced by her roles as a community member, friend, wife and mother, Bergen looks at how humans cope, cooperate, work against and depend on each other.
Looking for the beauty in human flaws and foibles, Bergen aims to create something extraordinary that evokes an emotional connection with others. Primarily a hand builder, the love for the ancient techniques of coils, slabs and pinching allow Bergen to create an infinite variety of complex forms bringing clay to life, and revealing the characters and stories as she masterly shapes them into place.
Life and movement invite interaction with her creations. Animated by the turn of a crank, Bergen stumbled her way into mechanical engineering making gears, pulleys, cranks and levers to invite the viewer to become part of the piece. Figures in her work take flight, perform banjo solos or spin in helpless circles surrounded by the chaos of Toddlers.
Bergen’s work was selected for the NS Art Bank Purchase award in 2022, is part of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s permanent collection as well as private collections around the world. Major commissions include Tea Train for the Kamm Teapot Collection, The Founder’s Tree for the Mental Health Foundation of NS, and a reinterpretation of a popular folk tale for a theme park in Tokyo. She was awarded creation grants from Canada Council for the Arts 2024 and Arts Nova Scotia 2023.
