You got me

I have been practicing ceramics since the 1980’s. I graduated from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks in 1996 with a degree in both Ceramic Sculpture and Theatre design and direction. For many years I worked as a professional theatre artist – and pottery as my ‘side gig’. During Covid, as the live performance industry collapsed, my side-gig became my main-gig. My ceramic work has been shown all over the lower mainland and the US. I have sold work and completed commissions from as far away as Germany, the UK, and Australia. I can be found most days either at my studio at the City Centre Artist Motel on Main Street, or at the Richmond Arts Centre where I am a teacher and studio technician.
please see my instagram for my most recent work and projects:
https://www.instagram.com/ilenaleecramer

Recent Solo exhibition: May 2023

Above, from Below

Paneficio Gallery + Studios

800 Keefer St., Vancouver

May 5 – 14, 2023

Opening Reception: May 5, 5pm – 7pm

Saturdays May 6 & 13, noon – 5pm

Sundays May 7 & 14, noon – 5pm

Ilena creates vessels using locally hand foraged clay and found objects, alongside archival information, maps and photos of historic brickworks to spin a tale of how this city was built and those who built it.

*This project was supported through a residency with St. Andrews Wesley United Church

Ilena (she/them) lives and creates on the unceded, ancestral, and occupied, traditional lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Səl̓ílwətaʔ, and Skwxwú7mesh Nations of the Coast Salish peoples (Vancouver, BC, Canada). A ceramic artist, teacher, writer, and theatre designer, she has been a lifelong student of ceramics and clay. Her current practice finds local landscape, environment and materials encountering myth, story and history.

A multi-disciplinary artist before it was a thing, Ilena has been an artist all of her life: a visual and theatre artist, teacher, bartender, traveler, writer, survivor and witch. She studied ballet in Russia during Perestroika, received an arts degree in Alaska, made pottery in the mountains of Mexico, and created many many plays around the world.

Recently honoured to be the Artist-in-residence at St. Andrews Wesley Cathedral in Downtown Vancouver, Ilena can be found most days at her studio at City Centre Artist Lodge, or sailing the waters of the Salish Sea and Sto꞉lo River in beautiful Vancouver, BC.

Instagram:     https://www.instagram.com/ilenaleecramer

Pinterest:     https://www.pinterest.ca/ilenabanana/