Biography

Katharine Harvey participated in the 22 nd Annual Symposium international d'art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul Québec in 2004, as well as residencies at The Banff Centre in Alberta (2003) and Pouch Cove in St. John's, Newfoundland (1999).   She was on the Board of Directors at Mercer Union Gallery in Toronto from 2001 to 2004.   Having received her BFA from Queen's University and her MFA from the University of Victoria, she lives and works in Toronto.

Artist Statement

By emphasizing the physicality of the painting medium, I articulate the experience of submersion in a waterscape. I apply up to 60 layers of acrylic and gel, each coat building up on the one beneath, resulting in paintings up to half an inch thick. Near the surface, I repaint sparkling highlights so they leap forward from the thick accretion of gel, creating a three-dimensional effect. Light bouncing off the overlapping transparent brushstrokes causes the paint underneath to shimmer and glow. The fluid, organic attributes of the glossy medium further suggest water.

Water is an ambiguous element constantly morphing into myriad forms both solid and transparent. It is a substance at once suffocating and beautiful, sustaining and destructive. I am interested in portraying water as a mirror-like object that can become the very object it reflects. As I dive below the ocean surf taking photographs with a disposable underwater camera, I discover exploding galaxies in outer space, or sparkling mountain ranges seen from the air. These images can be dizzying, as it is unclear whether they are aerial views or storm clouds in the sky. My paintings become elusive, like fragile dreams submerging and emerging from watery streams of the subconscious.

CV

Selected solo exhibitions  

2004   Durham Art Gallery (Ontario)
2003   Cambridge Galleries (Preston, Ontario)
2001   Stride Gallery (Calgary), Pari Nadimi Gallery (Toronto), Lynnwood Art Centre (Simcoe, Ontario)

Selected group exhibitions  

2005   Tatar Gallery (Toronto)
2004   Le Centre d'exposition (Baie-Saint-Paul, Québec)
2003   YYZ Gallery (Toronto), Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery (Owen Sound), James Baird Gallery (Saint-Jean, Terre-Neuve)
2002   Painting Center (New York)

Collections 

Colliers Macaulay Nicolls Inc.
Colonia Treuhand Limited
Famous Players Media
Osler Hoskin & Harcourt
Royal Bank of Canada

Grants 

Bourse en arts visuels du Conseil des arts du Canada
Bourse en arts visuels du Conseil des arts de l'Ontario
Bourse en arts visuels du Conseil des arts de Toronto
Bourse d'études des Services culturels de la Colombie-Britannique

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