Still from eighteen years and 57 seconds, a time-lapse animation about Sammy Yatim (2016)
About
I became an artist on May 1, 1969, the day I turned five. Like most birthdays (if you’re lucky, and I was), there was a sparkling specialness to everything. My mother was preparing the flower garden as I sat close by on the cool flagstone walkway that wove through a lilac grove.
I cannot recall that day without my mouth filling with the taste of lilacs, lilies of the valley and fertile earth. Such hopeful flavours.
We lived in a politely understated old Anglophone neighbourhood of Montreal-the single family, self-contained homes bordered on either side by absurdly delicate wire fences. As I slowly dissected lilies and lilacs between my fingers, I watched my mother chat with the neighbour. Just over the winter, my consciousness had expanded to include this older stout woman on the other side of the fence. She smelled of bread, warm honey and wool.
They were like bookends, the women, our neighbour as apparently settled into life as my mother was emerging---a fresh-faced hippy, optimistically jumping into adulthood with a brood of children and gardens equally bursting with life.
Trowel in hand, Mrs. Lipschitz pushed up her cardigan sleeve and dug deep into the soil. I caught a glimpse and instinctively looked away, embarrassed confused and terrified. Later that night, after the birthday treats and candles, I asked my mother about what I had seen on Mrs. Lipschitz’s arm and, while inhaling the lingering scent of cake and spring on my fingers, I learned about the Holocaust.
Since that day, I have tried to make sense of the inextricable bond between life’s simple yet exquisite beauty and horrific tragedies and acts of evil. Of course there is no sense to be made. These are riddles without solutions.
The ongoing contemplation of these mysteries led directly to me becoming an artist. When learning abstract concept in math, we use “manipulatives”; items that physicalize the conceptual. My manipulatives are the narrative structures that support enigmatic contemplation. At times, Little Red Riding Hood, Barbie and Ken have been cast as the key protagonists in my exploration of the collision of sexuality, spiritual faith and gallows humour. At others, I’ve employed pop-cultural motifs and historic design motifs to evoke era and social context while contemplating the nature of identity, family and loss. More recently, I’ve focused on portrait studies of individuals whose life narrative has buried them in tragedy while paradoxically revealing immeasurable compassion, dignity, and strength.
My goal is not to unravel these inscrutable truths, but rather to deepen my connection to them and, through my art practice, my connection to others.
Contact
Facebook or at sketchengretchen@gmail.com
CV
Education
1989/1993 BFA/MFA York University, Toronto, Ontario
1984-1986 University of Toronto, Toronto School of Art, Toronto, Ontario
1983 Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
Selected Exhibitions
2018 DRAWING 2018/2017, John B. Aird Gallery, Toronto
2017 Universal Loss, Gallery 101, Ottawa (Animation Premier)
2016 somebody’s baby, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto (solo/catalogue)
2014 Second Time Around, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto
2012 Paradise Now 1982-2012, Zweigstelle Gallery, Berlin
2010 Warm Ice, Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough
Slipstream, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto
2009 Time and Again, (solo) Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto
2008 The Tales We Tell, Lonsdale Gallery, Toronto
2006 Drawing 2006, John B. Aird Gallery, Toronto
Miami Art Fair, Palm Beach Art Fair, Ashley Gallery, Philadelphia
2005 I laughed so hard I cried, (solo) Rodman Hall, Brock University St. Catherines
Ghost Stories, (solo) Art Gallery of Cambridge, Preston
2004 Stitch, Robischon Gallery, Denver, Colorado
Cabinet of Curiosities, Cabinet, Toronto
2003 Stories without words, Rockefeller Arts Center, Fredonia, New York
Art @ Suite 500, York University Alumni Exhibition, Toronto
Dislocation, Edward Day Gallery, Toronto
2002 Thin Edge: Contemporary Canadian Drawing, (solo) Gallery Stratford
echo, (solo) Saw Gallery, Ottawa
Moving Pictures, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
Wild Life, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
2001 Flotilla, (solo) V. MacDonnell Gallery, Toronto
The Spirit of Ontario, Ontario Legislature Building, Toronto
www.23rdroom.org, Cyber Exhibition
2000 Some of the parts, Agnes Etherington (solo) Queens University, Kingston
Picturesque, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
1999 It, and all the rest of it (solo) Mercer Union, Toronto
Trans- (two-person) Lonsdale Gallery, Toronto
1998 Anatomical Permutations, Museo del Pueblo, Guanajuato, Mexico
25, King Street West, Toronto
Graphic Knowledge, Women's Art Resource Centre, Toronto
The Edge of Everything, Koffler Centre, Loggia Gallery, Toronto
Dreadsville, Kenderdine Art Gallery, Saskatoon
Within the world without (solo) Saidye Bronfman Centre, Montreal
1997 there, here and there (solo) Tableau Vivant, Toronto
1996 Duke u menta '96, Duke of Connaught Tavern, Toronto
BEYOND: AKA Artist-run Centre, Saskatoon (Touring)
1995 Shadow of Doubt, Paul Petro, 100 Yonge Street, Toronto
JUICY FRUIT, Koffler Centre, Toronto (Catalogue)
1994 Duke u menta '94, Duke of Connaught Tavern, Toronto (Catalogue)
Young Contemporaries 1994, Lake Galleries, Toronto
Dreaming of You, Garnet Press Gallery, Toronto
1993 Facing the Nineties, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
London Life Young Contemporaries '93, London Regional Art and Historical Museums, London, Ontario (Touring Nationally, Catalogue)
Excerpts from the Life and Times of Little Red Riding Hood (solo) MFA thesis exhibition, Art Gallery of York University
Honours and Awards
2005/2010 Ontario Arts Council Mid-Career Grant,
Framework Foundation Purchase
2002 Toronto Arts Council Mid-Career Grant,
Ontario Arts Council Mid-Career Grant
2001 Canada Council Mid-Career Grant,
Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance Grant
2000 Ontario Arts Council $5,000 Grant
1999 Toronto Arts Council Grant
1998 Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance Grant
1997 Canada Council Emerging Artists' Grant
Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance Grant
Ontario Arts Council $3,000 Grant
Ontario Arts Council First Film and Video Grant
1996 Ontario Arts Council $3,000 Grant
1995 Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance Grant
Ontario Arts Council $3,000 Grant
1994 Special Project Grant, Ontario Arts Council, for Duke-u-menta (23rd Room)
Exhibition Assistance Grant, Canada Council, Duke-u-menta (23rd Room)
1992-1993 Ontario Graduate Scholarship
1991 York University Scholarship, York University Graduate Assistantship
Interim Cultural Grant, Toronto Arts Council, for 7 rooms ... (23rd Room)
1988 Jack Bush and YUFA Foundation Scholarships, York University
C.B. Cragg Prize for Excellence in Science, York University
1987 Jack Bush Scholarship, York University
Teaching/Guest Artist
2008-2016 Course Director: Interpretive Drawing, Sculpture, Project X Sheridan College
2010-present Fulltime Professor, Faculty of Animation, Arts and Design, Sheridan College
2006-2008 Course Director: Drawing, Visual Strategies University of Toronto
2005 Instructional Drawing DVD produced, Firebrand Interactive, Art appreciation lessons developed, Lives of the Artists Series, HBO
1995-2010 Course Director: Advanced Life Drawing, Intermediate Drawing, Fundamental Drawing, Toronto School of Art, Course Director: Drawing, Koffler Centre, Toronto
Course Director: Drawing Principles, Ontario College of Art and Design Course Director: Drawing, AGO, Toronto. Visiting Artist: Dundas Valley School of Art, York University, Queens University, University of Waterloo, State University of New York, Fredonia
2000 MFA Advisor, Norwich University, Vermont, Course Director: Perspective Drawing, OCAD 1996-1997 Program Coordinator: Toronto School of Art
1996-1999 Independent Studio Programme Committee, Student mentor, Toronto School of Art
1995-1996 Instructor: Sketching, Royal Ontario Museum, Visiting Artist: Sheridan College, Department of Art and Art History
1994 Course Director: Foundation Drawing, Ontario College of Art
1992-1995 Studio Instructor: Drawing, York University, Toronto, Tutorial Leader: Critical Issues in the Studio, Toronto School of Art