Valerie Carew

Valerie Carew (she/her) is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist working with body-based sculpture, fibre, installation,  performance and painting. Rooted in the settler cultures of Newfoundland and New Brunswick, her practice explores relationships between land, dwelling, and identity. Through immersive role-play and sculptural rug-making designed for physical interaction, Carew uses memory and touch as tools for world-building, seeking to re-wild land-based narratives and unsettle colonial frameworks.

 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 holds a BA in Drawing and Painting (2014), is a recipient(2020) of grant funding from Canada Council For The Arts, and has exhibited and delivered art talks internationally. She 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.

RECENT EXHIBITIONS

2026 Outliers: Artists Talking To The Archives, Wellington Heritage Museum, Wellington ON 2025 Off The Wall, Partial Gallery, Toronto, ON 2025 Flora & Fauna, Northern Contemporary Gallery, Toronto, ON         2024 Featured Artist, Craft Ontario Gallery and Shop, Toronto, ON                  2024 Gather in The County, A Textile Sampler, The Royal Hotel, Picton, ON    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, part of I Am Here: Home Movies And Everyday Masterpieces, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON                               2021 Re-crafted Exhibition, Craft @ The Edge: A Handmade Future Conference, 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, Toronto Metropolitan University Image Centre,Toronto, ON and Napier University Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
2017 Dances at MuCCC (Multi-use Community Cultural Center), 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 Master of Fine Arts 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 (Permanent Archives), 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, ON                    2014 Toronto Art Expo, Toronto, ON
2014 Homer Watson House and Gallery, Kitchener, ON   

Craft Ontario logo with a circular emblem made of blue and black mosaic tiles, and the words 'CRAFT ONTARIO' beside it.

SPEAKER ROLES, CONFERENCES AND ART RESIDENCIES

Keynote Speaker, Ontario Hooking Craft Guild (OHCG) 2025 Annual Conference, Victoria Hall, Cobourg ON, May 2025

Panelist, Art of The Possible, County Arts Lab, PEC Arts Council, Picton, ON, March 2025

Keynote Speaker Hooking Up: International Rug Hooking Day, Georgetown, ON, Dec 2023

Guest Speaker, Karen Millar Studio, Re-Crafting The Wild and The Everyday, May 2022

Guest Speaker, York University, Hosted by Professor Kimberley White. Law/Culture/Representation: How Critical Issues Can Be Visualized Through the Arts, Toronto, ON, March 2017

Guest Speaker, OCAD University, Hosted by Professor Laura Millard,

Undergraduate Drawing and Painting Course: Landscape: Garden of Earthly Delights, Toronto, ON, 2017

Exhibitor, Re-Crafted Exhibition, Craft @ The Edge: A Handmade Future Conference, Bonavista, NFLD, 2020

Online Residency and Exhibitor, Gender and The Lens II, Feminist Photography Network Napier University, Edinburgh Scotland and TMU Image Centre, Toronto, ON, 2018

Exhibitor, Impact Economy Research Hub (IERH) Reconstructing Resilience Symposium and Exhibition, OCAD University, Toronto, ON, 2016

Speaker, Feminist Art Conference (Feminist Art Collective), Artist Panel: Motherhood: Roles, Expectations, Identity. OCAD University, Toronto, ON, 2015

Speaker, 20th Annual Philosophy Conference, Villanova University, Subjugation, Agency and Discourse Series, Philadelphia, PA, March 2015

Art Residency, Feminist Art Conference Residency, Artscape, Gibraltar Point, Toronto, ON, May 2015

JURIES AND COMMITTEES

Medal and Awards Juror    2019                                                        Annual Graduate Exhibition, OCAD University, Toronto, ON

Programming Committee Member     2016                                             Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media and Design Programming Committee, OCAD University, Toronto, ON

PUBLICATIONS

Fibre Art Magazine Spring/Summer Issue    2021

Enclosure Movement: Comparative Dwelling and Embodiment Master’s Thesis 2016      OCAD University, Toronto, ON                                      

ACADEMIC RESEARCH

Graduate Research Assistant    Sept 2016- Jan 2017                     Social Body Lab, OCAD University, Toronto, ON                               Inquisitive DeviceDevelopment of wearable, body-based communication systems

The Gall Pod Public Sculpture and Installation (Graduate Research Project) June- Sept 2015                                                    Evergreen Brick Works, Toronto, ON

Logo of the Canada Council for the Arts featuring a stylized black tree with a circular base, and blue text to the right that reads 'Canada Council for the Arts'.