Colleen Wolstenholme

Colleen Wolstenholme (born May 31, 1963) is a Canadian sculptor. She attended Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) from 1982 to 1986, and again in 1989, finished her Master of Fine Arts in 1992 at the State University of New York at New Paltz, and her PhD from York University in 2019. Her practice, while largely sculptural, also includes collage, drawing, jewellery, painting, photography, textiles, and video in a variety of literal and abstract approaches. Wolstenholme's earlier work makes analysis and commentary on the relationship between of women and medication, while her more recent works bring themes of neuroscience and human motion.

Life and career Wolstenholme was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, in 1963. She studied at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) from 1982 to 1986 before moving to New York in 1987. There, she was exposed to a variety of works and artists, influencing her approach to art. In 1989, Wolstenholme returning to Halifax and NSCAD to complete a jewellery major, then continuing her jewellery in a Master of Fine Arts at the State University of New York at New Paltz in 1992. After graduation, Wolstenholme worked for Dia Art Foundation as an art installer for the next two years.

In 1996, she exhibited a handcrafted wooden wardrobe and fabric female genitals, as well as Patience (1996), a seven-foot-tall pentagonal padded cell. Both works comment on the treatment of women and mental health, locking women away through religion, mental institution, or medication, to subdue unwanted or undesired emotions, reactions, and attitudes. During this time, Wolstenholme also worked three semesters at NSCAD as an instructor before her first solo exhibition Patience (1996) in Anna Leonowens Gallery.

Wolstenholme's practice continues her exploration of women’s health and pharmaceuticals in jewellery-making, casting antianxiety, antidepressant, and psychostimulant pills into accurately-sized charms and accessories. In 1997, Wolstenholme moved to Vancouver for the next three years. There, she was invited by friend, Sarah McLachlan, to sell her jewellery-work at Lilith Fair rock festival. Here, Wolstenholme broke through into mainstream media and national critique as pharmaceutical companies threatened lawsuits over the use of their trademarked names. While no lawsuits ended up being filed, Wolstenholme continued her drug charms and her commentary on prescription drug dependency, substance abuse, and disproportionate effects on women under media pressure. In 1997, Wolstenholme also co-wrote a song for McLachlan’s multi-platinum album, Surfacing.

Wolstenholme to Nova Scotia in 1999, specifically to Hantsport, for the following years of her career. There, she created large-scale medication replications including Dexedrine, Paxil, Valium, Xanax, and Zoloft. Much like her drug jewellery, these sculptures critique the history of medication used against and for women as means of staving off hysteria and other undesirabed emotions, behaviours, and disorders.

In the early 2000s, Wolstenholme work addressed the relationship between clothing and the female body. Each made in 2005, Wolstenholme's sculptures Shrouded Figure, Triad, and Suffrage and her paintings Camoucash and Camouflesh series depict women in burqas and camouflage motifs. The use of both elements critique the Western distaste towards veils and shrouds while simultaneously fetishizing them, objects of both protection and oppression of women and gendered clothing. In 2002, Wolstenholme is nominated and shortlisted for the Sobey's Art Award. Later, Hyperobjects (2016) examines the unfathomable as Wolstenholme attempts to deconstruct and humanize understanding of the universe and society on a micro- and macro-scale.

In 2019, Wolstenholme earned her PhD from York University and, also hired in 2019 as an assistant professor at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick, for visual art.

From 2022 to 2024, Wolstenholme has shown a collection of oil paintings, ink drawings, light projection, and wire sculptures of sea-life: octopus, sea jellies, anemones, and other invertebrates. The series, In the Deep Blue Sea (2024), reflects her isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, comparing it to the deep loneliness and peace of the deep ocean, meditative and floating through time and space. the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the National Gallery of Canada, as well as her own collection.

Publications Cronin, Ray. Colleen Wolstenholme: Complications, Gaspereau Press, 2022

Clement, Eric. « Art Mur: 25 ans et toutes ses dents ! », La Presse, March 18, 2021

Cronin, Ray. "Representing Women: Colleen Wolstenholme's "Triad"," National Gallery of Canada Magazine, April 17, 2020

Cronin, Ray. "Damn Control: Colleen Wolstenholme's Sculpture of Resistance," Espace 120, Fall 2018

Cronin, Ray, Randolph, Jeanne, Wendt, Pan, "Sugar and Spice", Canada: Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2008

Cronin, Ray. "Sculpture and Other Provocations: The Artful Subversion of Colleen Wolstenholme", Border Crossings, issue 102, May 2007

Eichhorn, Virginia. "Colleen Wolstenholme, Iconophobia", Espace 77, Fall 2006

Millar, Joyce. Contemporary Canadian Sculpture, the Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Foundation of Canada, 2006

Jurakic, Ivan. Iconophobia, exhibition catalogue essay, Cambridge Galleries, 2006

Peck, Robin. "Endless Columns", Espace 73, Fall 2005

Ward, Holly. Placebo/ Helen Cho, Colleen Wolstenholme, exhibition catalogue essay, Artspeak Gallery, 2004

Halicks, Richard. "Prescription for Trouble", Atlanta Journal Constitution, September 19, 2004

Genocchio, Benjamin. "It May be Minimal but it Challenges the Intellect", Art Review, The New York Times, 30 November, 2003

Cronin, Ray. "New Sculptural Realism: Rethinking Objectivity", Sculpture, Vol. 22, No. 9, Nov. 2003

Cronin, Ray. "Everything Changes" Gill/Wolstenholme, exhibition catalogue essay, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Fall 2002

Wendt, Pan. "Desire: Greg Forrest, Lauren Schaffer, Colleen Wolstenholme", exhibition review, Arts Atlantic, #67 Summer/Fall 2000

Peck, Robin. "The Time Machine: Sculpture in the 20th Century", the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Summer 2000

Cronin, Ray. Desire: Greg Forrest, Lauren Schaffer, Colleen Wolstenholme, exhibition catalogue essay, Confederation Center Art Gallery, Spring 2000

Johnson, Andrew. "One Pill is Larger, One is Small..." Lola, winter 1999–2000 Spitzer, Helen. "Medicating Resistance", Lola, winter 1999–2000

Hogshire, Jim. Pills-a-go-go, California: Feral House, 1999 Childerhose, Buffy. "Pills, Trick or Treat", Shift Magazine, summer 1999

Peck, Robin. "Scattered Across the Floor", C Magazine, #61 February-April 1999

Wilson, Carl. "Art Goes on The Pill", Globe and Mail, February 6, 1999

Auld, Alison. "Pharmaceutical Giant Mulls Legal Action..." Canadian Press, Aug. 18, 1998

Leigh, Wendy. "A Hard Pill to Swallow", London Sunday Times, Style, March 15, 1998

"Harper's Index", Harper's Magazine, January, 1998

"Mood Rings", People Magazine, November 10, 1997

Bibby, Patricia. "One Artist's Prescription for Jewellery", Associated Press, August 18, 1997