Ingrid Baxter is a conceptual artist, a co-founder of

N.E. Thing Co. N.E. Thing Co. was a Canadian art collective created by married artists Iain and Ingrid Baxter to operate in a commercial-like format for producing work from 1967 to 1978. It was based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Seminal figures in the eme ...

and founder of Deep Cove Canoe and Kayak Centre in

Deep Cove, North Vancouver Deep Cove refers to the community in the easternmost part of the District of North Vancouver, in British Columbia, Canada, and is also the geographic name of the small bay beside the town. It is affectionately referred to as "The Cove" by loca ...

where she currently operates.

Life and career

Baxter was born in

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Cana ...

in 1938 under the name of Elaine (later changed to Ingrid). She studied classical piano performance at the

University of Idaho The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary research university,, and the lead university in the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. The Universit ...

and graduated with a Bachelor of Art in 1960. While studying she met artist Iain Baxter and they married in 1959. She then taught at

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant uni ...

in Pullman, Washington along with her husband. Iain, Ingrid and John Friel established the art group "IT" but it only lasted one year before Iain and Ingrid split off to form N.E. Baxter Thing Co. This was later changed and legally established in 1967 to N.E.Thing Co. to maintain anonymity. Ingrid and Iain went on to have two children, who would travel with them for art projects. After the couple split, Ingrid moved on to get her master's degree and founded the Deep Cove Canoe and Kayak Centre, which has been running for over 35 years. It has grown substantially with more than 60 employees facilitating the Deep Cove location.

N.E. Thing Co.

Iain and Ingrid Baxter worked collaboratively to form N.E.Thing Co. They set up their company with a research department, a projects department, a photo department, a things department and so on. The Baxters played upon

situationists The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

' ideas and incorporated

Henri Lefebvre Henri Lefebvre ( , ; 16 June 1901 – 29 June 1991) was a French Marxist philosopher and sociologist, best known for pioneering the critique of everyday life, for introducing the concepts of the right to the city and the production of s ...

's philosophies into everyday life. Their art practice often involved inviting other artists, curators, and officials over to their home and studio in North Vancouver for social gatherings or to stay for periods of time. Because their income was becoming more unstable, they built a restaurant called "Eye Scream" as a survival technique and art project. The project brought them into more debt and the two ended up splitting because of the trauma. When Ingrid and Iain divorced in 1978, the company also disbanded. Many years after the split of N.E.Thing Co. in 2018, the

MacKenzie Art Gallery The MacKenzie Art Gallery (MAG; french: Musee d’art MacKenzie) is an art museum located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The museum occupies the multipurpose T. C. Douglas Building, situated at the edge of the Wascana Centre. The building holds e ...

exhibited a response to one of the N.E.Thing Co. exhibitions "''Celebration of the Body" from 1976.''

Honours

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 ...

Bibliography

*Baxter, Iain and Ingrid Baxter. ''You Are Now in the Middle of a N.E. Thing Co. Landscape: Works by Iain and Ingrid Baxter, 1965–1971.'' Vancouver: The Gallery, 1993. *Baxter&, Iain, James Patten and Christophe Domino. ''Passing Through: Iain Baxter& Photographs, 1958–1983.'' Windsor, Ont.: Art Gallery of Windsor, 2006. *Knight, Derek, Iain Baxter and Ingrid Baxter. ''N.E. Thing Co: The Ubiquitous Concept.'' Oakville, Ont.: Oakville Galleries, 1995. *Mewburn, Charity. ''Sixteen Hundred Miles North of Denver.'' Vancouver: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, 1999.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baxter, Ingrid 1938 births Living people Canadian conceptual artists Women conceptual artists Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts 20th-century Canadian women artists 21st-century Canadian women artists