Irene F. Whittome
Irene F. Whittome’s artistic career spans close to fifty years. Born in Vancouver in 1942, the artist took up residence in Montreal in 1968 where, alongside her creative activities, she pursued a career as a professor in Fine Arts at Concordia University until 2007. The recurrent themes that emerge in her work are collection, exhibition, the museum, duration, time and traces. Over the years she has produced a considerable body of work using a great variety of techniques such as printmaking, photography, painting, drawing, sculpture and installation. Her work has been widely exhibited in Canada and abroad, including, among others, her solo exhibitions at the CIAC – Centre international d’art contemporain de Montréal (1995), at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (1997), at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (1998), the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (2000) as well as at the Art Gallery of Bishop’s University (known today as the Foreman Art Gallery) (2004). Irene F. Whittome has received numerous awards for her artistic excellence: the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts (1991), the Gershon Iskowitz Prize, Toronto (1992), the Prix Paul-Émile Borduas awarded by the Government of Quebec (1997), and the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts (2002). In 2005, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. Her works are included in the collections of Canada’s most important museums. Since 2005, she has been represented by the Galerie Simon Blais in Montreal. [Source : VOX, 2013]
