Mimi Cabri, RCA

A recognized icon in Canadian ceramics, Mimi Cabri creates exuberant, expressively decorated forms.

Born in South Africa, Mimi studied in Paris and immigrated with her husband to Canada in the early 1960s.

Mimi has exhibited internationally and been published widely. Her subject matter derives from the joys and passions in her own life, mythology, historical figures, and her vivid imagination for storytelling. She constructs small and large vessels and sculptures of coil-built red earthenware clay, decorating them gesturally with slips, sgraffitio and colourful glazes.

“Experience as a painter gave new impetus for clay work and sculpture.  Nothing has such “go” as working with clay.  I love it!  I’ve always sensed this urgency with clay and have spent most of my life working with it in my studio at our home in Ottawa.

Drawing to me is an essential way of thinking, and permeates my work in clay.  It would make me so happy if my enjoyment in the process of making my sculptures and other clay pieces was sensed by those viewing the work.” – M.Cabri

Mimi Cabri has been working as a ceramic artist professionally since participating in the founding of the Ottawa Potters Guild in 1973.  She was elected Academician to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2003 and has pieces in the collections of the Canada Council Art Bank, City of Ottawa, Art Gallery of Burlington, Claridge (Bronfman) Art Collection, and the Canadian Museum of History.  In 1990 she was commissioned to create a large-scale tile installation for the City of Ottawa Heritage Champagne Bath renovation project.