Carolyn Campbell

Home: Edmonton, Alberta
Title: Keeping watch
Media: Pencil and acrylic on canvas / crayon et acrylique sur toile
Dimensions: 55 x 83 cm

Keeping Watch is a self portrait in a series of paintings over the last five years of my women artist friends depicted as icons or indices. I don’t think of these pictures purely as portraits, which is somewhat evident in the fact that the bodies and faces are hybrids. The specificity of the faces is important; I like that which is particular, exacting and ineffably communicative. The more precise and seemingly anachronistic my choices are, with respect to the Holbein costumes I’ve borrowed, or the colour field painting techniques employed in the negative space, or the art historical significance of the gaze – the more it seems questionable that one can ever know who it is we think we see. The movement between self documentation and social critique is rooted in the power of materiality, the heavy investment in the subject, and the understanding that what is real is often preferably, and beautifully unreal.

EDUCATION:

2004 University of Alberta, Master of Fine Arts Degree, Painting Division
1994 University of Alberta, Bachelor of Arts with Honours Degree, Art History
1987 University of Alberta, Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree, Art and Design

AWARDS:
2004 Province of Alberta Graduate Scholarship
2004 Alberta Learning Graduate Student Scholarship
2003 – 2004 Graduate Research Assistantship, Graduate Program Research and Review
2003 Alberta Foundation for the Arts Graduate Scholarship in Art and Design
2003 The Eva Toban Scholarship

EXHIBITIONS:
2008 Solo Exhibition, Peter Robertson Gallery, Alberta
2008 Colour Sense and Sensibilia, Triangle Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
2008 Lake Edith Painters, Jasper Yellowhead Museum, Alberta
2006 Group Exhibition, Peter Robertson Gallery, Alberta
2006 Neither Here nor There, Arts Hab, Alberta
2005 Satin Cast, solo exhibition, Harcourt House Arts Centre, Alberta
2005 All you can art, Harcourt House Arts Centre, Alberta
2005 Draw, Edmonton Art Gallery, Alberta
2004 December Group Show, Vanderleelie Gallery, Alberta
2004 Carolyn Campbell and Linda Lindemann, Vanderleelie Gallery, Alberta
2004 To Call me Ishmael, solo exhibition, University of Alberta FAB Gallery, Alberta
2003 Fast Forward, University of Alberta FAB Gallery, Alberta
2003 Open Field, The Works Festival, Stanley A. Milner Public Library, Alberta

PUBLICATIONS:
“Blurring lines for art’s sake”, Gilbert Bouchard, Edmonton Journal, October 3, 2008
CBC Radio Calgary, regional and national broadcast, June 23, 2008 for Colour Sense and Sensibilia Shaw TV Channel 10 Calgary, July 23, 2008 for Colour Sense and Sensibilia
“From Aristotle to Edmonton”, Anthea Black, FFWD Weekly, July 31- August 6, 2008
“Postmodern touches here and there”, Gilbert Bouchard, Edmonton Journal, Jan 27/2006
“Campbell’s portrait work combines classic and current”, Gilbert Bouchard, Edmonton Journal, Jul 22/05
“People person”, Christa O’Keefe, See Magazine, August 4 – August 10, 2005
Shaw Television, July 20, 2005, interview with Tamara San Martin
“Keeping a head of the class”, Agnieszka Matejko, Vue Weekly, July 21-27, 2005, pg 54
Following the Footsteps column, Shelagh Kubish, New Trails magazine, summer 2005, pg 47
“At least 26 ways to draw”, Allison Kydd, See Magazine, December – January 2004
“Drawing them in”, Susan Jones, St. Albert Gazette, December 18, 2004, pg 22
“Drawing is not child’s play for EAG artists”, Olenka Melnyk, Edmonton Journal, December 29, 2004
“Draw celebrates the return of pencil to paper as a genre”, Gilbert Bouchard, Edmonton Journal, Dec 3/04
“Draw”, Marna Bunnell, Take Part, October – December 2004, pg 8-9
“Memories make Campbell and Lindemann perfect gallery mates”, Bouchard, Edm Journal, Sept 24/04
“Ishmael and female”, Agnieszka Matejko, Vue Weekly, May 20-26, 2004, pg 48
“Campbell inspired by literature, Barzel by music”, Bouchard, Edmonton Journal, May 21, 2004