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Mary Kavanagh

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Mary Kavanagh
RCA, FRSC
Born1965 (age 59–60)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
CitizenshipCanadian
Alma materUniversity of Guelph; University of Saskatchewan; University of Western Ontario
Known forVisual art; Interdisciplinary art
Websitehttps://www.marykavanagh.ca/

Mary Kavanagh is a Canadian visual artist and educator. She is a Professor and a Board of Governors Research Chair at the University of Lethbridge. Her work encompasses drawing, sculpture, photography, moving image installation, and archival practices.[1]

Biography

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Mary Kavanagh was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1965.[2] After completing her foundation training in Visual Arts at York University, she studied at the University of Guelph, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts - Honours in 1992. Kavanagh received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Saskatchewan in 1995, and a Master of Arts in Art History from the University of Western Ontario in 2003.[3]

Since 2000, Kavanagh has taught Art Studio in the Department of Art at the University of Lethbridge, where she is a Professor and Board of Governors Research Chair, Tier I in Fine Arts.[4] She has held senior administrative positions including Art Department Chair, and MFA/MMus Graduate Program Chair, School of Graduate Studies. In 2007 she was Visiting Professor at Hokkai-Gakuen University, Sapporo, Japan, and in 2018 she was appointed Associate Member of the Documentary Media Research Centre (DMRC), School of Image Arts, Toronto Metropolitan University.[5] She serves on the Board of Directors of the Southern Alberta Art Gallery.[6]

In 2021 Kavanagh was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy of Arts and Humanities.[7] In 2024 she was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.[8]

Work

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With a background in art history and critical theory, Kavanagh's art practice has been shaped by the aesthetic and social histories of representation and abstraction, by conceptual art and auto-ethnography. Her early work was largely concerned with embodiment and memory, with projects focused on the intersection of biographical, academic, and museological practices.[9][10]Significant projects from this period include prelude,[11][12] polish,[13][14]Shadow Archive,[15] and Seeking Georgia,[16][17] each of which addresses the material evidence of time and place. More recent projects involve immersion in sites with complex or difficult histories resulting in multi-faceted exhibitions that explore access to publicly held lands, institutions, and data. Atomic Suite documents the historic Wendover Air Force Base at Wendover, Utah;[18] The Expulsion addresses atmospheric degradation;[19][20] while Track of Interest captures a period of tri-national military collaboration between NORAD and RFAF. Her work was selected for inclusion in the Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art in 2007[21] and again in 2015.[22]

Kavanagh was Principal Investigator of a SSHRC Insight Grant for Atomic Tourist: Trinity, a research-creation project focused on the Trinity atomic bomb test site in New Mexico.[23][24] With projects in Canada, Japan, and the United States, Kavanagh’s interest in the veiled history of nuclear armament resulted in her immersive, multivalent exhibition, Daughters of Uranium (2019-2020). A publication of the same name features essays by cultural anthropologist, Peter C. van Wyck, and art critic, Jayne Wilkinson.[25] Her short film, Trinity 3, combines on-site interviews with archival footage directly related to the 1945 Trinity test,[26] and was presented as part of her solo exhibition, Daughters of Uranium.[27][28][29] In his catalogue essay, "Reading the Remains," writer and cultural anthropologist Peter C. van Wyck states:

Kavanagh’s work draws us toward an understanding of human entanglements with the earth that directs our attention not toward the past in obsessively seeking to place a spike or mark a calendar… but toward an understanding of the past as a record or archive of prior media, prior mediations—potentialities, shimmers maybe—that are always and already at work in the present.[30]

Artist residencies at the Center for Land Use Interpretation, Wendover, Utah;[31] the Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Bundanon, NSW, Australia;[32] and the Canadian Forces Artists' Program, Ottawa, Ontario,[33][34] have taken her to remote locations including active military bases, weapons testing and research facilities, and sites of industry, extraction, and remediation.[35][36]

Kavanagh was one of 51 Canadian artists interviewed in Voices: Artists on Art - Contemporary Art 50 years after Sculpture ’67, an archive of interviews first exhibited at Artport Gallery, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto in 2017, before travelling to Zayed University, Dubai and Abudhabi, UAE in 2019. Conceived and organized by Yvonne Lammerich and Ian Carr-Harris, the project resulted in a book of the same name.[37][38]

Collections

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Kavanagh's work is held in public collections including the Alberta Foundation for the Arts,[39] the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery,[40] and the Canadian War Museum.[41][42]

References

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  1. ^ Cuthbertson, Christina (2020). Mary Kavanagh: Daughters of Uranium. Lethbridge, AB: Southern Alberta Art Gallery; Founders' Gallery, University of Calgary; Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery. pp. 101–112.
  2. ^ Brandon, Laura (2021). War Art in Canada: A Critical History. Toronto: Art Canada Institute Institut de L'Art Canadien. pp. 142–143, 196–197, 247. ISBN 978-1-4871-0271-5.
  3. ^ "University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Fine Arts, Mary Kavanagh". Retrieved 2025-05-14.
  4. ^ "Board of Governors Research Chairs, University of Lethbridge". Retrieved 2025-04-03.
  5. ^ "BOMBHEAD Lecture Series: Mary Kavanagh – Kelowna Art Gallery". Retrieved 2025-03-09.
  6. ^ SAAG. "Board of Directors". Retrieved 2025-04-24.
  7. ^ "Professor Mary Kavanagh elected to the Royal Society of Canada". ULethbridge News. 2021-09-07. Retrieved 2025-04-04.
  8. ^ "News". RCA/ARC. Retrieved 2025-02-20.
  9. ^ "Trinity, Then and Now". University of Waterloo, Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement. 2023-09-05.
  10. ^ Dymond, Anne (2006). "Mary Kavanagh". BorderCrossings. 25 (2): 109–110.
  11. ^ Warland, Betsy (1998). Ruth Chambers, Mary Kavanagh : Pneuma & Prelude. Saskatoon, SK: Mendel Art Gallery.
  12. ^ Legris, Sylvia (1999). "Suspended Memory: Suspended Breath". BorderCrossings. 18 (1).
  13. ^ Smith, Heather (2002). polish (Brochure). Moose Jaw, SK: Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery.
  14. ^ Warland, Betsy; Pearson, Miranda (2003). Mary Kavanagh: polish. Medicine Hat, AB: Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery.
  15. ^ Ghaznavi, Corinna (2005). ReCollect: Mary Kavanagh, Carol Sawyer (Brochure). Toronto: A Space.
  16. ^ Moray, Gerta (2006). "An Archaeology of Desire". Seeking Georgia: Mapping O'Keeffe Country. Lethbridge, AB: Southern Alberta Art Gallery. pp. 54–120.
  17. ^ "Seeking Georgia – Mary Kavanagh". SAAG. Retrieved 2025-04-02.
  18. ^ O'Brian, John. "Mary Kavanagh: Atomic Suite". BorderCrossings. 31 (4): 101–102.
  19. ^ Sharman, Lindsey V. (2020). "Flu War Breath Cloud". Daughters of Uranium: Mary Kavanagh. Canada: SAAG; University of Calgary; KWAG. pp. 133–136.
  20. ^ Brandon, Laura (2016). Group 6: Canadian Forces Artists Program 2012–13. Diefenbunker: Canada’s Cold War Museum.
  21. ^ "2007 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art: Living Utopia and Disaster | Banff Centre". www.banffcentre.ca. Retrieved 2025-04-02.
  22. ^ Trinier, Kirsty (2015). Future Station: 2015 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art. Edmonton, AB: Art Gallery of Alberta. pp. 62–63, 117.
  23. ^ "Artist Mary Kavanagh examines atomic legacies". ULethbridge Stories. 2020-07-13. Retrieved 2025-02-20.
  24. ^ "The Centre Cannot Hold: Labourious Memories". Art Museum at the University of Toronto. Retrieved 2025-03-09.
  25. ^ University, Communications and Public Affairs Advancements Services Western. "Trinity3: Screening & Discussion with Mary Kavanagh and..." Events Calendar - Western University. Retrieved 2025-03-09.
  26. ^ "Trinity 3". Canadian Art. Retrieved 2025-02-20.
  27. ^ "Daughers of Uranium - Mary Kavanagh". SAAG. Retrieved 2025-04-02.
  28. ^ Stewart, Tyler J. (March 25, 2019). "Daughters of Uranium: Mary Kavanagh Looks at the Atomic Age's Lingering Residue on Humanity". Galleries West.
  29. ^ Fitzpatrick, Blake (2020). "Mary Kavanagh: Embodied Politics / La politique incarnee". Ciel Variable (115): 35–41.
  30. ^ van Wyck, Peter C. (2020). "Reading the Remains". Daughters of Uranium. Southern Alberta Art Gallery; Founders' Gallery; Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery. p. 47.
  31. ^ "Wendover Report | The Center for Land Use Interpretation". clui.org. Retrieved 2025-02-20.
  32. ^ "Mary Kavanagh". Bundanon. Retrieved 2025-02-20.
  33. ^ Canada, Service (2015-10-13). "Artists in the Canadian Forces Artists Program". www.canada.ca. Retrieved 2025-02-20.
  34. ^ MacFarlane, John (2014). "The Canadian Forces Artists Program" (PDF). RACAR – Revue d'art canadienne/Canadian Art Review. 39 (2): 100–109.
  35. ^ Lauzon, Claudette; O'Brian, John (2020). Through Post-Atomic Eyes. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press. pp. 107–109, 32–33. ISBN 9780228001393.
  36. ^ O'Brian, John (2020). The Bomb in the Wilderness: Photography and the Nuclear Era in Canada. Vancouver: UBC Press. pp. 55–56. ISBN 9780774863889.
  37. ^ Lammerich, Yvonne; Carr-Harris, Ian (2020). Voices: Artists on Art. Toronto: TfT Works. pp. 184–185, 295.
  38. ^ "Voices: Artists on Art (2017)". Yvonne Lammerich. Retrieved 2025-04-02.
  39. ^ "Alberta Provincial Art Collections". Retrieved 2025-05-08.
  40. ^ Mowry, Crystal (2021). "a wave in other words". Retrieved 2025-05-08.
  41. ^ Conley, Christine (2017). "Material, Trace, Trauma: Notes on Some Recent Acquisitions at the Canadian War Museum and the Legacy o the First World War". Canadian Military History. 26 (1): 17–18.
  42. ^ Sharman, Lindsey V. (2017). "Constituent Parts: Recent Portraiture in Canadian Military Art". Canadian Military History. 26 (1): 22–24.
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