Carol Wainio (born 1955) is a Canadian painter. Her work, known for its visual complexity and monochrome color palette, has been exhibited in major art galleries in Canada, the U.S., Europe and China. She has won multiple awards, including the

Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts The Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts are annual awards for achievements in visual and media arts in Canada. Up to eight awards are presented annually with the prize amount is $25,000 Created in 2000 by then Governor General Adrie ...

Life

Born in

Sarnia Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes w ...

, Ontario, Wainio is the daughter of Finnish immigrants, she grew up in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. Wainio studied at the

Nova Scotia College of Art and Design NSCAD University, also known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design or NSCAD, is a public art university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university is a co-educational institution that offers bachelor's and master's degrees. The univ ...

and at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

and later completed a Master of Fine Arts at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. She lives in Ottawa and is an adjunct professor in visual arts at the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottaw ...

Painting career

Her paintings often reference a variety of sources from fairy tales, medieval manuscripts to the 2008 financial collapse. Wainio's canvases have been described by art critic Emily Falvey as "fairy-tale landscapes littered with the detritus of contemporary consumerism." Her body of work has been compared to such works by American painter

Jules Olitski Jevel Demikovski (March 27, 1922 – February 4, 2007), known professionally as Jules Olitski, was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor. Early life Olitski was born Jevel Demikovsky in Snovsk, in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( ...

. "The appeal her paintings had came from the same activity of looking that generated their strangeness." Wainio's first solo exhibition took place at the Yarlow/Salzman Gallery, in Toronto, Ontario in 1982. In 1990, her paintings were displayed in the "Aperto" exhibit at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

, in Venice, Italy. In 2010, Wainio's work was featured in a travelling exhibition, ''Carol Wainio: The Book'', curated by Diana Nemiroff and organized and circulated by Carleton University Art Gallery. This exhibition displays Wainio's interest in the evolution of fairy-tales, the art of the copyist, industrialization, and the narrative power of images. It was on display at Carleton University Art Gallery (2010), the

Varley Art Gallery Frederick Horsman Varley Art Gallery, or the Varley Art Gallery of Markham, is an art museum in Markham, Ontario, Canada. The museum is situated in a building on Main Street Unionville. The gallery was named after Frederick Varley, an artist from ...

(2011), the Kelowna Art Gallery (2013), the Dunlop Art Gallery (2013), the McIntosh Gallery (2013), and the Galerie de l'UQAM (2014). Wainio's large-scale canvases have also been exhibited in more than 40 museums and galleries, including the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the ...

, the

Shanghai Art Museum The Shanghai Art Museum () was an art museum in the city of Shanghai, China. In October 2012, the museum was rebranded as the China Art Museum when it moved to the China pavilion at Expo 2010 on the former Shanghai Expo 2010 lands. The Shanghai ...

in China and the Stedelijk Museum in the Netherlands. Her work is in such public collections as the

, the

Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (MACM) is a contemporary art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the Place des festivals in the Quartier des spectacles and is part of the Place des Arts complex. Founded in 1964, it is ...

and the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Bev ...

, among other institutions.

Awards

In 2004, Wainio became one of the few women elected to the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General ...

. Along with other eight Canadian artists, she received the

in 2014 for her outstanding achievements in contemporary visual and media arts.

Exhibitions

Solo

*S.L. Simpson Gallery, Toronto, 1991 *Galerie Chantal Boulanger, Montréal, 1990 *Galerie d'art du Centre Culturel de l'Université de Sherbrooke, 1989 *"Imagining the past/Remembering the Future", S.L. Simpson Gallery, Toronto, 1985 *Concordia University Art Gallery, Montréal, 1983 *Yarlow/Salzman Gallery, Toronto, 1982 *Eye Level Gallery, Halifax, 1980

Group

*"Aperto", Venice Biennale, 1990 *"Les Temps Chauds", Musée d'art contemporain, Montréal, 1988 *"Songs of Experience", National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1986 *"Appearing", Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, Halifax, 1983

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wainio, Carol 1955 births Artists from Ontario Canadian women painters Concordia University alumni Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners Living people NSCAD University alumni People from Sarnia Academic staff of the University of Ottawa 21st-century Canadian women artists Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts