Janice Gurney

Janice Gurney (born 1949) is a Canadian contemporary artist born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She graduated University of Manitoba in 1973 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours degree and later received a Master of Visual Studies degree from University of Toronto in 2007 with a collaborative degree in Book History and Print Culture. She went on to get a PhD in Art and Visual Culture at Western University in 2012. In her work, Gurney explores abstract concepts of human connection, meditation, and isolation using post-modernist art, collage, and visual meditation as methods of inspiration.

Career and life Janice Gurney was born 1949, in Winnipeg Manitoba. In particular, her experience pursuing a PhD at Western University pushed her towards the complex nature of her art which she has developed over the years.

Janice Gurney: Sum Over Histories includes writings by Shirley Madill, Suzanne Gilles, Gordon Lebredt, Richard Rhodes, and Barbara Fischer.

One aspect of postmodernism that is directly related to Gurney's work is the presence of multiple elements. Collage art is considered the practice of assembling many individual elements (often consisting of different media) to create one new, complete image. Gurney's artistic style mimics collage due to the elemental aspects of her work. While she doesn't always overlap images, Gurney often mixes media and plays with the boundaries of artistic abstraction to create works that resemble collage. Gurney also often arranges her pieces side by side to assume one overall meaning – a technique that is reminiscent of collage art, though more contemporary in form.

Gurney first learned about ANT in 2006, after conversing with Dave Kemp – a fellow student in the Master of Visual Studies program at University of Toronto. She often incorporates or manipulates pre-existing images in her work, even at times using the work of other artists directly in her own artistic practice.

Portrait of Me as My Grandmother's Faults (1982) In Janice Gurney, Sum Over Histories, Suzanne Giles discusses the historical reflections of Gurney's Portrait of Me as My Grandmother's Faults (1982). The exhibition featured and compared Gurney's earlier work to her recent reinventions of these installations at the time. According to Arlene Kennedy, the artistic director at McIntosh Gallery during this show, the exhibition offered viewers the opportunity to explore the connection between “experimental information” and memory. This piece is a 160-minute video created by Gurney from 2006 to 2007, wherein she recorded seven writers silently reading in an empty room. The installation featured seven photographic panels created by Gurney that were hung underneath a selection of works belonging to the museum's permanent collection. From 2013 to 2016, Gurney created pieces based on the same meditation: “My understanding of this meditation is fleeting. As a response to this sensation of instability, I dropped out the words of the meditation, leaving only red punctuation marks floating on a dark blue ground. The text becomes invisible—what remains is a structure provided by punctuation alone. These symbols of our breath reveal how the expression of our thoughts has changed over the centuries, and the shift in meaning that takes place in our bodies.” The exhibition featured the following artists in collaborative pairs: Janice Gurney with Kim Maltman, Richard Banks with Tom Dean, Therese Bolliger with Colette Whiten, Ian Carr-Harris with Patricia Homonylo, Robert Flack with Christian Morrison, and Oliver Girling with Roland Jean. This collaboration came together as all artists found they were at a similar place in their artistic journey, wherein they were revisiting and reinventing their previous works. The installation itself sought to explore how artists interact with space and time and alter their experiences within these dimensions. The works of these artists, including Gurney, challenge time and space as unproblematic and continuous.

Major works and exhibitions Source:

(2012) Credits (extended), Museum London

(2011) Outside Our Doors, Wynick/Tuck Gallery

(2010) Outside Our Doors, AGYU Gallery, York University.

(2008) Silent Reading & Thick Description, Wynick/Tuck Gallery

(2006) Punctuation in Translation, Wynick/Tuck Gallery

(2006) Meditation in Your Office, various offices at U. of Toronto

(2002) Portraits from Memory, Wynick/Tuck Gallery

(1999) Dark, McIntosh Gallery

(1998–1999) Not, A.L.L.M.

(1998) Cancelled, Wynick/Tuck Gallery

(1996) Not in Exhibition, Wynick/Tuck Gallery

(1995) States of Mind, Wynick/Tuck Gallery, Toronto, Ontario.

(1992–1994) Sum over Histories, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Power Plant, Mackenzie Art Gallery, London Regional Art and Historical Museums, Glenbow Museum.

(1992) Plots and Themes, Wynick/Tuck Gallery.

(1991) Plots and Themes, Laurentian Art Gallery.

(1990) The Last Tasmanians, Wynick/Tuck Gallery.

(1989) Name, 49th Parallel.

(1989) Interview, Embassy Cultural House.

(1988) The Surface of Behaviour, Gairloch Gallery.

(1988) Janice Gurney, Powerhouse Gallery.

(1988) Ashes and Diamonds, Wynick/Tuck Gallery.

(1986) For The Audience, Mount Saint Vincent Art Gallery.

The Damage is Done, Struts Gallery, Sackville, New Brunswick.

The Damage is Done, Wynick/Tuck Gallery, Toronto, Ontario.

(1984) Reparations, YYZ, Toronto, Ontario.

(1981) The Battle of the Somme, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax. N.S. The Battle of the Somme, YYZ, Toronto, Ontario.

Group exhibitions Source:

(2012) Conspiracies of Illusion: Projections of Time and Space, McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, Ontario.

The Embassy Cultural House, 1983 to 1990, Museum London, Ontario.

(2011) Where Will You Be In Eternity?, Thielsen Gallery, London, Ontario. 2010 Ampersand”, ArtLAB, UWO, London, Ontario.

(2009) The Artist and the Crowd in History, Museum London, Ontario.

Art:Wave: A Walk Through Sixties London, ArtLAB, UWO, Ontario.

“Production Still”, ArtLAB, UWO, London, Ontario.

(2008) Lynn Donoghue: Art and Artists, David Mirvish Books, Toronto, Ont. 2007

Silent Reading and Thick Description, 1 Spadina Ave., University of Toronto.

Titles, Balfour Books, Toronto, Ontario.

(2006) Janice Gurney/Dax Morrison, Forest City Gallery, London, Ont. 2003–04

Blind Stairs, MSV University Art Gallery, Halifax; Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge; Nickle Art Museum, Calgary; Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston. (catalogue)

(2003) Portrait of the Artist as..., Blackwood Gallery, U. of T., Mississauga, Ont. 2002

Collage, Wynick/Tuck Gallery, Toronto, Ontario.

Artists against the Occupation, Forest City Gallery, London, Ont.

My Rolodex, Blackwood Gallery, U. of T., Mississauga, Ont. 2001

The Way Up and the Way Down Are One and the Same, 5 Grafton Ave., Toronto, Ontario.

(2000) Time, Wynick/Tuck Gallery, Toronto, Ontario.

Odd Bodies, Nickle Arts Museum, Calgary, Alberta, and Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Ontario. Typecast, Wynick/Tuck Gallery, Toronto, Ontario.

(1999) Still Life, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Ontario

Reviews - Mass Media and Imagery, Art & Culture, Mercer Union, Tor.

Face, York Quay Gallery, Harbourfront Gallery, Toronto, Ontario; Atelier Circulaire, Montreal, Quebec; Whitby StationGallery, Whitby, Ontario

(1998) Texte/Counter-Text, Thielsen Gallery, London, Ontario.

The Word in Contemporary Canadian Art, Art Gallery of North York, Toronto.

(1997) The Exquisite Corpse in Lotusland, Presentation House Gallery, Van. Odd Bodies, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

(1996) Limousine, Free Parking, Toronto, Ontario.

Bereft, Hallwalls, Buffalo, New York and Spaces, Cleveland, Ohio

(1995) Rates of Exchange: The Changing Value(s) of Art, Innis College, U. of T.

Milieu: of the Order of Presentation, S.L. Simpson Gallery, Toronto,

(1994) Rob-O-Rama: Radiating Circles of Everlasting Love Magic, YYZ, Toronto.

The Cabinet Project, The Power Plant, Toronto, Ontario.

(1993–94) Bookends and Odd Books, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, Alberta

(1993) Visual Evidence, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, Sask.

(1992) Unlocked Grids, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Man.

CIAE International Art Exposition, Chicago, Illinois.

Brief Window, Glendon Gallery, Toronto, Ontario

Travelling Theory, Jordan National Art Gallery, Amman, Jordan; McIntosh Gallery, London, Ontario.

(1991) Union Language, Mercer Union, Toronto, Ontario.

(1990–91) MemoryWorks: Postmodern Impulses in Canadian Art, London Regional Art and Historical Museums, London, Ont., Mississauga Civic Centre & Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta.

(1990) Trans-positions, Transit System, Vancouver, B.C. Telling Things, Art Metropole, Toronto, Ontario.

Connected Voices, Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough, Ont.

Re-enactment: Between Self and Other, The Power Plant Gallery, Toronto.

Fault Line, Art Gallery of Northumberland, Cobourg, Ont.

(1988) Identity/Identities, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Art, Sight and Language: a Reading/Writing of Some Contemporary Canadian Art, Art Gallery of Algoma, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

(1987) Toronto Exchange Show, Hallwalls, Buffalo, New York. Cut, Wynick/Tuck Gallery, Toronto, Ont.

An Active Process: Artists' Books Photographic and Contemporary, Presentation House, North Vancouver, B.C.

At the Threshold, S.L. Simpson Gallery, Toronto, Ontario. Acknowledgements, Mercer Union, Toronto, Ontario.

Two Person Show, Coburg Gallery, Vancouver, B.C.

(1986) Art Cologne `86: 20th Annual International Art Fair, Cologne, Germany.

Je, Tu, Elle, Powerhouse Gallery, Montreal, Quebec

YYZ World Tour 86, Embassy Cultural House, London, Ont.

In a Different Voice, YYZ and The Funnel, Toronto, Ontario.

(1985) Photographic Memory, Coburg Gallery, Vancouver, B.C.

Urban Circuit, (N)On-Commercial Gallery, Vancouver, B.C.

Production/Reproduction, Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina.

She writes in white ink, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, Alta.

(1984) Sensations of Reading, London Regional Art Gallery, London, Ont. Subjects in Pictures, 49th Parallel, New York, NY; YYZ, Toronto, Ont.

(1983) International Women's Coalition, Embassy Cultural House, London. Photographic Sources, S.L. Simpson Gallery, Toronto, Ont.

Grain, A.K.A., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Production/Reproduction, A Space, Toronto, Ontario. Parisian Laundry, Women in Focus, Vancouver, B.C. Department for the West, Eye Level Gallery, Halifax, N.S.

(1982) Representation as a Kind of Absence, Open Space, Victoria, B.C.

YYZ Monumenta, YYZ, Toronto, Ontario.

Published work Source:

Website: janicegurney.ca

(2008) “Evidence of Activism in the Greg Curnoe Archives”, Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, 20, York University, Toronto, 2008.

(2002) “ I Am Not You”, from “We are not Greg Curnoe”, Open Letter, 11th series, #5, 2002.

(2002) “Leaves”, artist's postcard, Blackwood Gallery, U. of Toronto, Mississauga, Ont., 2002.

(2002) “Panya Clark Espinal and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun”, Lola 12, Summer, Tor., 2002.

(2000) “Speculation (Blue Chip, Red Dot)”, Capital Culture, ed. by Berland, J. & Hornstein, S., McGill-Queen's University Press, Mtl. & Kingston, 2000.

(1997) “Hopeless Misrepresentation: An Interview with FASTWURMS”, Lola 1, Toronto, Dec 1997.

(1994) “The Tremor of Forgery”, The Windsor Review, Vol. 27, No. 1, Spring, 1994 University of Windsor, Ontario.

(1992) “A Flow of Information”, Harbour, Vol.2, No.1, Fall, 1992, Montreal, Quebec.

(1992) “The Salvage Paradigm”, pamphlet, YYZ & Wynick/Tuck Gallery, Toronto, 1992.

(1989) “Morality, the Body, and Death”, Artviews, Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto, March/April/May 1989.

(1988) “The Taking of Photographs is Strictly Prohibited”, Parachute #50, Mtl., 1988. “The Surface of Behaviour”, Photo Communique, Spring, Toronto, 1988.

(1987) Cover, Artviews, Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto, Fall Issue, 1987.

(1986) “Foreword”, The Interpretation of Architecture, (catalogue) YYZ, Tor., 1986.

(1985) “Emphasis Mine”, C Magazine, No.5, 1985, Toronto.

(1984) “Jamelie Hassan: London Regional Art Gallery”, Parachute, Fall, Mtl., 1984.

(1983) “Fig.1”, Grain, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, November 1983.

Books (2006) One Meditation, Book 9, #15, self-published, Toronto, Ontario

(1984) Moveable Wounds (An Essay in Composition), Art Metropole, Toronto.