BIOGRAPHY

Deborah Bennett-Kagan is an artist based in Toronto, Georgian Bay and Miami.

Always a painter, she studied piano and violin and worked as a classical musician and music teacher for many years, before devoting herself full-time to visual arts. Her studio practice is centered around painting, found objects and consumer waste, and painted collages, as well as photography and video art. Deborah’s work explores the paint medium and collage process in relation to the built and natural environment. Through her artwork, Deborah explores how environmental realities affect our experience. She intends to elicit an emotional, cathartic and spiritual reflection for the participant.

CV

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022 Vastus, multi-media collage, presented by Zelaya Art Framing, One World Gallery, Miami, Florida

2014 Land Under Sea, oils on canvas and multi- media on paper, Gallery 345, Toronto

2004 Mystic Rocks, digital photographs printed on mylar, polyethylene light boxes, ic-ci, Toronto

2002 Legend, latex and oils on canvas, acrylics on paper, video installation, loop, Toronto

2001 Landscape and Memory, latex and oils on canvas, acrylics on paper, loop, Toronto

1999 Identity/Identite, video exhibition in collaboration with Janeil Engelstad, Oboro gallery, Montreal

1994 Present Tense, acrylics on paper, Seven Continents, Showroom, New York City

1991 Recent Paintings, multi-media on paper and oils on canvas, Gallery Ma2, Toronto 1987 Portraits, oils on canvas, Rendezvous Gallery

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023 Sha’ar; Song of the Gate, The Baycrest Foundation, in collaboration with Andrea Simon and Samantha Goldman, Toronto

2020 Collector’s Circle, The Baycrest Foundation, virtual art show featuring multi-media on paper and oils on canvas, Toronto

2015 The Watershed Art Show, oils on canvas and multi-media on paper, Bala, Muskoka

2001 Annual X-Mass Show, oils on canvas, loop, Toronto

1999 Identity/Identite, performance and video teleconferencing event in collaboration with Janeil Engelstad; Obobro Gallery, Montreal, University of Toronto, Toronto, and Gertrude Stein Repertory, New York City
1999 Identity/Identite, video exhibition in collaboration with Janeil Engelstad, Georges Laoun, Montreal

1999 Identity/Identite, video exhibition in collaboration with Janeil Engelstad, Oakwood Library and Arts Centre in Association with the ‘1999 ArtsWeek Festival’, Toronto
1999 Identity/Identite, video exhibition in collaboration with Janeil Engelstad , Molotov Cocktail, Toronto

1994 Gallery Artists, oils on canvas, Scheider and Associates Gallery, Toronto

1990 Group Show, oils on canvas, Gallery Grey Matter, Toronto

1990 Dual in the Sun, oils on canvas, Galaxy Gallery, South Beach, Miami

1990 The Armadillo Show, oils on canvas, Idee Gallery, Toronto

1987 Gallery Artists, oils on canvas, Gallery 306, Toronto

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Curator and Organizer

The Watershed Art Show, Bala, Muskoka, 2015

Curated and organized a group exhibition of Canadian Artists featuring the works of Max Streicher, Tracey Thompson, Shelagh Bennett, Casey Hare and Catherine Gillespie to raise awareness of the regional watersheds. 10% of all proceeds went to the Watershed Council of Muskoka.

Collaborating Artist

Identity/Identite, Montreal, Quebec and Toronto, Ontario, November 1998 through November 1999 in collaboration with Janeil Engelstad. Created and managed a six month national art program. Participants explored and documented the relationship between language, cultural identity and nationalism. The work produced through this project has been exhibited in galleries and public venues in Montreal and Toronto.

Co-Curator and Coordinator
University of Toronto Thesis Exhibition, 1997

GRANTS

Sony Canada, 2002

Oboro Gallery, Montreal, Quebec, artist residency, 1999

Gotlieb’s Investments, Materials Grant, Toronto, 1998

Upper Canada Brewery, Toronto, 1997

Grants awarded for projects and exhibitions with non-profit art organizations:

Identity/Identite, Montreal, Quebec and Toronto, Ontario, 1999

City of Montreal, ITIF Inc., Magna International Inc., Birger Christensen Incorporated, Canada, Umbra Incorporated, Oboro Gallery, Montreal, Exposure New York

EDUCATION

University of Toronto 2012

Completed additional minor in Art History

University of Toronto 1997

BFA in Fine Arts

University of Toronto 1984
BMUS in Music

STATEMENT

My task as an artist is to artifice my world — the textures of my experiences, the colours of my emotions, and shifting landscape of my psyche. My primary medium, paint, brings me closest to a singularity with the phenomena I endeavour to capture in my works and “Whatever self it had” in the words of Wallace Stevens – “The Idea of Order at Key West.” In this series, I was the artificer of the feelings, experiences, and emotions of love — a phenomenon much like the sea in its ebbs and flows, divine femininity, and wild nature.

I paint with my hands — I feel the paint seep on and between my fingers and create textures and depth with it on surfaces. In many ways, this experience is one of love: like the experience of embracing someone you love, doing something you love, or feeling a feeling of love for all that is and all that ever will be.

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