Penetrating Gestures Series
Artist Statement
For the past 35 years my work has focused on transitional states between material presence and the ephemeral. In an attempt to reawaken an understanding of our fundamental connections with nature, I am currently using images of glistening water and fragments of the human body. With the aid of the printed image, paper and ink, glass, light, shimmering pixels and fabric, I strive to give the viewer an experience that will tap childhood memories of the sensation of playing in water, and will celebrate the wonder of this endangered and essential substance. My recent works investigate feelings and memories of belonging, associated with sinking into water - perhaps into a fast flowing stream, or perhaps into a warm bath - and with our harboured desires for the safety of the womb. My work represents an attempt to re-awaken awareness of our fundamental oneness with nature, and of the elemental aspect of water to all life forms. The work is about vulnerability and strength, about a cycle of disappearing and emerging, about wonder and uncertainty.
Biography
Liz Ingram was born in Argentina in 1949 and grew up in New Delhi, Mumbai and Toronto. For 41 years she taught printmaking at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and is currently Distinguished University Professor Emerita. She participated for many years in juried international print exhibitions and received awards for her prints in Canada, Slovenia (Yugoslavia), Korea, Brazil, Estonia, India and Finland. In 1998 she was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. In 2008 she received the Kaplan Award for Research Excellence at the University of Alberta, and was inducted into the City of Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame. In 2009 she was elected into the Royal Society of Canada, and in 2011 she received the University Cup (highest academic honour). In 2017 she was appointed to the Order of Canada (Canada’s highest civilian honour). Exhibitions include: INTER•WOVEN / New Canadian Perspectives into Textile and Printmaking, Kobro Gallery, Academy of Fine Arts, Lodz, Poland; 2016, Canada and Japan, International Print Exhibition, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (curator and exhibitor); Liz Ingram: Print Encounters, Prince Takamado Gallery, Embassy of Canada, Tokyo, Japan, 2015; Liz Ingram: Transition and Transformation, Schwabenakademie, Irsee, Germany, 2013; The New World, MODEM Centre for Modern and Contemporary Art, Debrecen, Hungary, 2013; Perceptions of Promise, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, and the Chelsea Art Museum, New York, USA, 2011; Beyond Printmaking: Images in Objects, the Jesuits Gallery of Contemporary Art, Poznan, Poland, 2009; Imagining Science: An Artistic Exploration of Science, Society and Social Change, Art Gallery of Alberta, 2008; Human/Nature: Contemporary Canadian Installation, Doland Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China, 2004; Public commissions include: Touching Water: Anticipation and Memory, Edmonton International Airport, 2004; Confluence Through the Looking Glass, Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, Calgary, Canada, 2011; Water Ways, Sensing Connections, Fort McMurray International Airport, 2014.