BIO
valerie carew
canadian interdisciplinary visual artist
Valerie Carew, (she/her) is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist who explores human relationships with land using body based sculpture, installation, painting, fibre craft practice and performance. Immersive role-play is combined with sculptural rug making to express relationships with land, dwelling and identity. Valerie's sculptural works are designed for interplay and physical contact with the human body. Memories of land and home are harnessed for new world building, designed from a desire for connection and escapism. Carew hopes to re-wild and unsettle the colonial footprint through art, while designing a connection between inside and outside worlds.
Carew's east coast roots- the settler cultures of Newfoundland and New Brunswick, have influenced her experiences within the wilds of Canada as well as her art making. Traditional methods of hand hooked rug making, such as material reuse, pictorial storytelling and folklore are re-configured into contemporary, immersive wearables and three dimensional, mechanical sculptures.
Carew is an award winning graduate from the Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media and Design Program at OCAD University (2016) where she received two scholarships and the 2016 Outstanding Exhibition Award for her thesis Enclosure Movement: Comparative Dwelling and Embodiment. She is a recipient (2020) of grant funding from Canada Council For The Arts to attend Craft @ The Edge, and has exhibited and delivered art talks internationally. She was featured in Fibre Art Now Magazine (Summer/Fall 2021).
Carew references Canadian ecosystems such as fallow farmland in Ontario and costal areas in Newfoundland. These areas are the contemporary and ancestral territories of the Algonquin, Mississaugas of the New Credit, the Haudenosaunee, Annishnaabe, Huron-Wendat, Mi’kmaq and Beothuk Nations.
role-play, Dwelling and Embodiment
Land, Identity, Memory
C/V
EDUCATION
2016 Master of Fine Arts Degree- Interdisciplinary Masters in Art, Media and Design, OCAD University, Toronto, ON 2014 Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree- OCAD U, Toronto, ON
GRANTS, SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS
2020 Travel Grant, CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS
2016 Outstanding Exhibition Award, Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art Media and Design, OCAD University, Toronto, ON 2015 Ontario Graduate Scholarship, OCAD U, Toronto, ON 2014 Dean's Scholarship, OCAD U, Toronto, ON
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2024 Featured Artist, Craft Ontario Shop (April 12- May 11) 2024 Gather in The County, A Textile Sampler, The Royal Hotel, Picton, ON (April 6-28) 2024 Wildlife, Aird Gallery, Toronto, ON 2023 Unframed, Propeller Gallery, Toronto, ON 2022 Still Life Doesn’t Stand Still, Leslie Grove Gallery, Toronto, ON 2022 Portraits of Resilience Project, a Part of I AM HERE: HOME MOVIES AND EVERYDAY MASTERPIECES, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON 2021 Craft @ The Edge: A Handmade Future, Bonavista, NFLD 2020 MacLaren Arts Centre, Barrie, ON
2019 Elaine Fleck Gallery, Toronto, ON
2018 Catalog Exhibition, Elaine Fleck Gallery, Toronto, ON 2018 Gender and The Lens II, Ryerson Artscape, Toronto and Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland
2017 Dances at MuCCC, Festival of Contemporary Dance, Rochester, NY
2017 Laugh/Think, John B. Aird Gallery, Toronto, ON 2016-17 Hard Twist 11, The Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, ON
2016 Fly By Night: Nuit Blanche, The Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, ON
2016 MFA Thesis Exhibition, The Graduate Gallery, OCAD University, Toronto, ON
2016 Reconstructing Resilience Symposium and Exhibition, OCAD University, Toronto, ON 2015 F-generation: Feminism, Art, Progression, The George Paton Gallery, Melbourne, AU
2015 Feminist Art Conference Exhibition, Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto, ON
2014 Envelopment(s): Paths Taken and Not Taken, Robert Kananaj Gallery, Toronto, ON 2014 Thresholds, Graduate Gallery, OCAD University, Toronto, Ontario 2014 Yellow House Gallery, Toronto, ON
2014 Toronto Art Expo, Toronto, ON
2014 Homer Watson House and Gallery, Kitchener, ON 2013 The Eco Show, Gallery 1313, Toronto, ON
GUEST SPEAKING
2023 Guest Speaker, Hooking Up: International Rug Hooking Day, Georgetown, ON
2017 Guest Speaker, YORK UNIVERSITY, Toronto, ON Presenter for Law/Culture/Representation course: How Critical Issues Can Be Visualized Through the Arts
2017 Guest Speaker, OCAD UNIVERSITY, Toronto, ON
Undergraduate Drawing and Painting Course: Landscape: Garden of Earthly Delights
2017 Guest Speaker, ITP CAMP, NYU, New York, NY
The Body as Substrate: Possibilities for Wearable Sculpture in Art Making
CONFERENCES
2020 Exhibitor, Re-Crafted, Craft @ The Edge: A Handmade Future Conference, Bonavista, NFLD 2016 Exhibitor Reconstructing Resilience Symposium and Exhibition, OCAD University, Toronto, ON 2015 Speaker, Feminist Art Conference (Feminist Art Collective) at OCAD University, Artist
2015 Speaker, 20th Annual Philosophy Conference, Villanova University, Philadelphia, PA 2015 Residency, Artscape, Gibraltar Point, Toronto, ON
JURIES AND COMMITTEES
2019 Medal and Awards Juror, Annual Graduate Exhibition, OCAD UNIVERSITY
2015-16 Committee Member, Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media and Design Programming Committee, OCAD U, Toronto, ON
TEACHING AND RESEARCH
2017-18 Teaching Assistant, Faculty of Art, OCAD UNIVERSITY (Contract), Toronto, ON 2016-17 Graduate Research Assistant, Social Body Lab, OCAD UNIVERSITY (Contract), Toronto, ON 2017 Skills Share Instructor, ITP CAMP, NYU, New York, NY 2017-18 Instructor, CANADIAN CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL OF ART, Toronto ON 2015 In COLLABORATION with EVERGREEN BRICK WORKS, The Gall Pod Sculpture and Installation Project, Evergreen Brick Works Project URL: https://www.valeriecarew.com/installation, Toronto, ON
