ANDREW WRIGHT
Multidisciplinary artist Andrew Wright creates conceptually informed works in many media. He has also been preoccupied with using photography in traditional and decidedly non-traditional ways for over 25 years.
Wright has exhibited widely in Canada and abroad with shows in the U.S., the U.K., the E.U., Korea, China, and others. He has exhibited at such venues as the London Gallery West, Polygon Gallery, Vancouver, the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Ottawa Art Gallery, the University of California, Berkeley, Oakville Galleries, and the Today Art Museum, Beijing.
His works can be found in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the X'ian Art Museum, China, the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, KWAG, the University of Toronto, the Ottawa Art Gallery, Canada House Canada’s High Commission in London, and private collections around the world.
He is the recipient of the 2019 Karsh Award for an “outstanding body of work and significant contribution to the artistic discipline in a photo/lens-based medium”. A multiple nominee for the Sobey Art Award, Wright was a semi-finalist in 2007. In 2011 Wright won the inaugural Gattuso Prize at Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival in Toronto. His work was also included in the the Milan-based magazine, Mould, curated by Joan Fontcuberta and he has shown alongside artists such as Michael Snow, Iain Baxter&, Wanda Koop, Ed Burtynsky, Rebecca Belmore, Robert Youds, Isabelle Hayeur.
Following Penumbra, a primary exhibition at the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival in Toronto and a mid-career survey, Selected Diptychs & Multiples at the Thames Art Gallery, and Pretty Lofty and Heavy All At Once at the Ottawa Art Gallery, a comprehensive catalog of Wright's work, with essays by scholars Carol Payne, Randy Innes, and curator Michelle Gewurtz, was published.
As an artist-in-residence, he has worked at the Banff Centre and Braziers International Artists Workshop (UK), and as a war artist, with the Canadian Forces Artists Program aboard Canadian frigate HMCS Toronto. He is the founding Artistic Director for Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area (CAFKA). He was the winner of the Ernst & Young Great Canadian Printmaking Competition (2001), and the recipient of grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Ottawa, and the Waterloo Regional Arts Fund. He has received critical acclaim for his work in publications such as Canadian Art, Border Crossings, The Globe & Mail, the Toronto Star, and Maclean's Magazine.
While photography feverishly promises to capture more, to remember more, and to substitute for more, it also continually points out its own failures. Wright exploits this contradiction by creating both conventional and idea-based works that seek to broaden ways of seeing, and to flexibly perceive the world around us.
Andrew Wright is a Full Professor of Visual Art in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Ottawa
All content © by Andrew Wright 1999-2022. Images may only be reproduced with permission
SOLO EXHIBITIONS (selected)
2020 Filmtrack 4 a Sound: Suite Kurelek de Fiala | Karsh Award | Karsh-Masson Gallery, Ottawa, Canada
2020 Apex Interloper | Corridor 45 | 75 | Rideau LRT Vitrines, Ottawa, Canada
2016 Data Trespass | London Gallery West, University of Westminster, London, UK. Curated by Michael Maziere
2015 VIZ. | Patrick Mikhail Gallery, Montréal
2015 Untitled Photographic Pictures | Patrick Mikhail Gallery, Montréal Gallery Launch
2015 Andrew Wright: Pretty Lofty and Heavy All at Once | Ottawa Art Gallery, Canada.
2014 Andrew Wright: Selected Diptychs & Multiples | Thames Art Gallery, Canada
2013 Andrew Wright: Penumbra | University of Toronto Art Centre, Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival Primary Exhibition.
2013 Andrew Wright: Cloud Images | Winchester Galleries, Victoria B.C., Canada
2011 Coronae | Patrick Mikhail Gallery, Ottawa
2011 Coronae | Peak Gallery, Toronto CONTACT feature exhibition. Gattuso Prize.
2011 Still Water | Patrick Mikhail Gallery
2009 Still Water | Peak Gallery, Toronto (CONTACT feature exhibition)
2008 Survey | Prefix Institute for Contemporary Art. Curated and text by Chantal Rousseau.
2007 Falling Water | Prefix Photo 16 (Commissioned series for Prefix Photo Magazine)
2007 Water’s Edge | Peak Gallery, Toronto (CONTACT feature exhibition)
2007 Passages | Cambridge Galleries, Andrew Wright & Lisa Klapstock (two person exhibition), Cambridge, Canada. Curated by Ivan Jurakic.
2007 Blind Man's Bluff | Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Canada
2005 Photographs | Peak Gallery, Toronto
2004 Blind Man's Bluff | Art Gallery of Calgary, Canada
2004 University of California, Berkeley | Worth Ryder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004 Skies | Presentation House, Vancouver, Canada. Curated by Helga Pakesaar.
2004 Blind Man's Bluff | Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Canada
2004 Branching Out: Sylvia Safdie and Andrew Wright (two person show) | Roam Contemporary, New York
2004 Blind Man's Bluff | Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Canada. Organized by and circulated by KW|AG. Curated by Allan Mackay. Catalogue essay by Robert Enright.
2003 Blind Man's Bluff and Other Fictions | Peak Gallery, 23 Morrow Ave. Toronto. Text by Virginia M. Eichhorn
2002 Home & Garden | Oakville Galleries, Toronto (Oakville), Canada. Curated by Marnie Fleming. Text by Kim Simon.
2002 Mises-en-scène | The Redhead Gallery., Toronto.
2001 148 Clouds | Rotunda Gallery, Kitchener City Hall, Kitchener, Canada
2000 In Camera: The View from Here | Gallery 101, Ottawa, Canada. Brochure essay by Jen Budney.
2000 The Red Head Gallery | Toronto, Ontario.
1999 The Plausible Impossibility of the Here & Now (Moving Picture) | Cambridge Library & Gallery, Brochure essay by Gordon Hatt.
G R O U P E X H I B I T I O N S (selected)
2022 AIR25 | Homer Watson Gallery, Kitchener, Canada
2022 Karsh Continuum | (curated by Andrew Wright) Karsh-Masson Gallery, Ottawa, Canada
2021 Helloland! Art, War & the Wireless Imagination | The Rooms, St. John’s, Newfoundland. Curated by Melony Ward and Darryn Doull.
2021 A Wave in Other Words | KWAG Curated by Crystal Mowry
2020 Resolution: A Century of Photographic Art | Museum London. 28 Artists including Shelly Niro, Bill Vazan, Ed Burtynsky, Greg Staats, Sandra Semchuk, et al.
2019 Sex Life | SAW Gallery, Ottawa. A collaboration with Adrian Göllner.
2018 Kaleidoscope | 2018 Additions to the City of Ottawa Art Collection, Ottawa City Hall Gallery.
2018 Àdisòkàmagan Nous Connaître un peu nous-mêmes We’ll All Become Stories | New Ottawa Art Gallery.Inaugural Exhibition. Cat.2018
2018 Midnight Sun Camera Obscura Project, McMaster University Art Gallery, Hamilton
2017 Midnight Sun Camera Obscura Project, Yukon Arts Centre, Whitehorse, YT
2016 The Midnight Sun Camera Obscura Project, University of Lethbridge Art Gallery.
with Dianne Bos, Lea Bucknell, Ernie Kroeger, Donald Lawrence, Kevin Schmidt & Holly Ward, Carsten Wirth, Andrew Wright
2016 Taehwa Eco-River Art Festival in Ulsan Metropolitan City, Korea.
2016 University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Alberta, Canada
2016 Midnight Sun, Kamloops Art Gallery, British Columbia, Dianne Bos, Lea Bucknell, Ernie Kroeger, Donald Lawrence, Kevin Schmidt & Holly Ward, Carsten Wirth, Andrew Wright, Mike Yuhasz
2015 The World Inside, ODD Gallery, Dawson City, Yukon.
2015 Under-exposed: Photographers of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, Stewart Hall Art Gallery, Pointe-Claire (Montréal).
2015 The Transformation of Canadian Landscape Art: The Inside and Outside of Being, TODAY Art Museum, Beijing
2015 The Camera Obscura Project: Optics, Learning, and Play in Canada's Wilderness and the North: Donald Lawrence, Dianne Bos, Kevin Schmidt, Ernie Kroeger, et al. Dawson City, Yukon.
2014 The Transformation of Canadian Landscape Art: The Inside and Outside of Being, Xian Art Museum, Shaanxi Province, China.
Curated by Yan Zhou, Yang Chao; Assistant Curator Christine Platt. Michael Snow, Andrew Wright, Rebecca Belmore, Robert Youds, Iain Baxter&, Wanda Koop, JeanFrançois Côté,
Edward Burtynsky, Isabelle Hayeur, Ron Benner, Bonnie Devine, Andy Patton, Jamelie Hassan, Gu Xiong, Jin Hua, Ed Pien.
2013 View: Jessica Auer, Thomas Kneubühler, Andrew Wright | Patrick Mikhail Gallery
2013 RCA New Members Exhibition | Winchester Galleries, Victoria, B.C.
2012 Gwang Hwa Mun International Art Festival | Seoul, Korea
2011 Preternatural / Surnaturel | Canadian Museum of Nature and other venues. Ottawa, Canada. Artists include: Sara Walko, Mariele Neudecker, Anna Katrine Senstad, Marie-Jeanne Musiol,
Adrian Göllner, Shin Il Kim, Avantika Bawa, Curated by Celina Jeffery.
2011 Viva Voce: 40th Anniversary of the Art & Art History Program | Blackwood Gallery | Curated by Shannon Anderson. Artists include: Dorian Fitzgerald, Alison Kobayashi, Richie Mehta,
Johnson Ngo, Betty Spackman, Denyse Thomasos, Carolyn Tripp, Jessica Vallentin, Rhonda Weppler & Trevor Mahovsky, Andrew Wright, Robert Zingone
2007 WintergARTen–Vogelfrei 7- | Art Discoveries in Private Gardens, Darmstadt, Germany
2007 WoodLot: The 3rd KW|AG Biennial | Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Curated by Sally McKay
2007 Image & Apparatus | Museum London: Andrew Wright, Dianne Bos, Donald Lawrence, & Arnold Koroshegyi
2007 Flourish | University of Windsor Alumni Works by: Andrew Wright, Suvi Kuisma, Mark Laliberte, Alana Bartol, Windsor, Canada
2006 Photo Miami | International Contemporary Art Fair For Photo-Based Art, Video & New Media
2006 Equinox: Tom Dean, Layla Curtis, Andrew Wright, Valerie Salez and Hannah Jickling, Max Streicher | Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto.
2006 Two Degrees of Separation | University of Waterloo Art Gallery, Canada (cat.)
2005 ARCO | Madrid International Art Fair, Madrid, Spain (cat.) Toronto International Art Fair | Metro Toronto Convention Centre (cat.).
2003 In The Light Of: Six Contemporary Artists Explore the Legacy of William Henry Fox Talbot Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery. Brochure essay by Dianne Bos.
2001 Commute | ARC Gallery, Chicago.
2001 Chronicles | Edward Day Gallery, Toronto.
2000 Braziers International Artist’s Workshop | Oxfordshire, UK. (catalogue)
2000 Redrospective: 10 years of The Red Head Gallery | Toronto. Catalogue essay by Jenifer Papararo.
1999 Welcome to Mitchell: 1999 Southwest Triennial | London Regional Art & Historical Museum, London, Canada. Curator: Andrew Hunter. (catalogue)
1999 PROOF6 | Gallery 44, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Toronto. (brochure)
1997 Public Order: 1997 Southwest Triennial | Art Gallery of Windsor, Canada. Curator: Robin Metcalfe. Catalogue essay by Robin Metcalfe.
HONOURS & AWARDS
2019 The Yousef and Malak Karsh Award
2017 CAO (Council of the Arts Ottawa) Mid-Career Artist Award Finalist
2016 Nominated for the Premier's Award for Excellence in the Arts
2016 Ontario Art Council Mid-Career Grant to Professional Visual Artists
2015 CAO (Council of the Arts Ottawa) Mid-Career Artist Award Finalist
2014 Canada Council for the Arts Travel Grant
2013 CAO (Council of the Arts Ottawa) Mid-Career Artist Award Finalist
2013 City of Ottawa Grant for Mid-Career Artists (jointly with Adrian Göllner)
2012 Elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
2011 Gattuso Prize, Most Outstanding Exhibition Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival,
2011 Canada Council for the Arts Mid-Career Grant to Professional Visual Artists
2011 Ontario Art Council Mid-Career Grant to Professional Visual Artists
2011 Nominated for the Sobey Art Award
2010 Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Leaders Opportunity Fund Grant (with Catherine Richards & Lorraine Gilbert)
2009 Nominated for the Sobey Art Award
2008 Nominated for the Sobey Art Award
2008 Kitchener-Waterloo Arts Awards Nominee
2008 Ontario Arts Council: Spotlight Grant
2007 Sobey Art Award Semi-Finalist
2007 City of Waterloo Arts Sesquicentennial Award
2007 Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance Grant
2006 OAAG (Ontario Association of Art Galleries) Award, Multi-Media, for the publication Blind Man’s Bluff
2005 Nominated for the Sobey Art Award
2004 Ontario Volunteer Award, Ontario Honours and Awards Secretariat
2003 Nominated for the Sobey Art Award
2003 Canada Council Creation/Production Grant to Professional Emerging Artists
2002 Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance Grant
2001 Canada Council Creation/Production Grant to Professional Emerging Artists
2001 Winner Ernst & Young Great Canadian Printmaking Competition
2000 Ontario Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant to Professional Visual Artists
2000 Canada Council Travel Grant
2000 Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance Grant
1999 Ontario Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant to Professional Visual Artists
1999 Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance Grant
1998 Canada Council Creation/Production Grant to Professional Emerging Artists
1997 Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance Grant
1997 University of Windsor Summer Research Scholarship
1997 University of Windsor Tuition Scholarship
1993 Paul W. Fox Award, University of Toronto
1993 Margaret Laidlaw Scholarship, University of Toronto
1992 Hammerson Canada Inc. Scholarship, University of Toronto
1991 D.L. Stevenson Award in Painting, University of Toronto
1990 Kingston Arts Council Award
