Our Next Speaker

548^th Meeting

9 March 2021

Leslie Reid

ARCTIC EXPERIENCE OF A SOUTHERN ARTIST

Leslie Reid has been travelling in the Arctic since 2013, when she was artist-in- residence with the Canadian Forces Artists Program. Her interest in the North grew from her RCAF father’s early mapping flights there. Her observations and experiences of military sovereignty activities, resource developments and burgeoning tourism have grown increasingly complex through meetings with the Indigenous peoples, especially during her voyage through the Northwest Passage on the Canada 150 C3 expedition. Issues of displacement, fragility, survival and resilience have become central to Leslie’s responses to the North and its histories. Sailing in Svalbard with an international artists and writers residency in 2018 provided a contrast with her Canadian Arctic involvement. The talk will focus on the experiences, images and works leading to an exhibition, Dark Ice, at the Ottawa Art Gallery in 2022.

Born in Ottawa, Leslie Reid studied at Queen’s University and continued her studies at art college in England. On her return to Canada, she taught Visual Arts at the University of Ottawa, where she is now Professor Emerita. Early exhibitions include the ground-breaking Some Canadian Women Artists, National Gallery of Canada, and the Biennale de Paris. She has had solo exhibitions in Canada, England, France and the USA. A retrospective exhibition was curated by Diana Nemiroff at the Carleton University Art Gallery in 2011. She is the recipient of numerous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Ottawa, as well as awards from the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. She received the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. Her work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and in public and private collections across Canada.

The meeting will be hosted by Prof. Chris Burn (Carleton University) on Zoom, beginning at 7:45 pm. It will be open to all members who pre-register. Registration is free, but an intention to attend must be indicated before 5 pm on March 9 by sending an email to: christopher.burn@carleton.ca. Please provide your name in the text of the email.  You will receive, by email, login instructions for Zoom, which will be an internet address for you to paste in your browser. On the night, you will be placed in a waiting room and admitted if your details have been received. We will not admit the general public in order to minimize the chances of sabotage. It is important that the managing host of the meeting should be able to recognize your name when you log in.

Next meeting:
Apr 13       Kathleen Tipton on architecture indigenous to northern latitudes

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thomas Frisch
Secretary
613-725-2221; tfrisch@sympatico.ca