Arabella Campbell is a Canadian artist based in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

in 1996, and a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students pursuing a professional education in the visual arts, Fine art, or performing arts. In some instances, it is also called a Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA). Background ...

from

Emily Carr University of Art and Design The Emily Carr University of Art and Design (stylized as Emily Carr University of Art + Design and abbreviated as ECU) is a public university of art school, art and design located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1925 as the Van ...

(renamed in 2008) in 2002. She attended the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...

from 1998 to 2000."New public art adds colour to city spaces," accessed March 14, 2017, http://vancouverpublicspace.ca/2011/02/02/new-public-art-adds-colour-to-city-spaces/ She has exhibited locally,"THE MONOCHROMATIC FIELD: WORKS FROM THE COLLECTION & THE MOLNAR COLLECTION: A VIEW OF EUROPEAN ART," Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, accessed March 15, 2017, http://belkin.ubc.ca/past/TheMonochromaticField"Everything Everyday," Vancouver Art Gallery, accessed March 15, 2017, https://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/the_exhibitions/exhibit_everything_everyday.html "By Invitation Only: Arabella Campbell's Frameworks for Perception," by Cindy Richmond for Artspeak, May 23, 2008, http://artspeak.ca/artspeak-wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Postscript-35-Cindy-Richmond-on-Arabella-Campbell.pdf nationally,"The Painting Project: A Snapshot of Painting in Canada," Galerie de l'UQAM, accessed March 15, 2017, http://galerie.uqam.ca/en/exhibitions/current/452-le-projet-peinture.html "TBD," past exhibitions, MOCCA, accessed March 15, 2017, http://museumofcontemporaryart.ca/exhibition/tbd/"Exhibitions," Dunlop Art Gallery, accessed March 14, 2017, http://www.dunlopartgallery.org/exhibitions/archives2014.html and internationally."This Is Not A Void," Galeria Luisa Strina, accessed March 15, 2017, http://www.galerialuisastrina.com.br/en/exhibitions/this-is-not-a-void-2008/"Cámara de Maravillas," Foto México, accessed March 14, 2017, http://centrodelaimagen.cultura.gob.mx/fotomexico/exposiciones/colecciones-internacionales/camara-maravillas.html"The Museum as Medium," Museum of Contemporary Art, Vigo, accessed March 15, 2017, http://www.marcovigo.com/en/content/museum-medium"When Attitudes Become Form Become Attitudes," Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, accessed March 15, 2017, https://mocadetroit.org/attitudes-became-form-become-attitudes/ She works out of a warehouse studio in False Creek Flats,

.Robin Lawrence, 'The rebirth of painting', The Georgia Straight, September 14, 2006. Physical Facts Series No

Early life

Arabella was born in Vancouver in 1973, Campbell grew up in remote

Loughborough Inlet Loughborough Inlet is one of the lesser principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. It penetrates the Coast Mountains on the north side of the Discovery Islands archipelago, running about from its head at the mouth of the Stafford River to C ...

, in coastal British Columbia. Campbell was homeschooled for ten years, she later graduated from

Shawnigan Lake School Shawnigan Lake School is a co-educational independent boarding school located on Vancouver Island in Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia, Canada. It was founded by Englishman Christopher Lonsdale, Christopher Windley "C. W." Lonsdale in 1916 and was p ...

. Campbell studied painting in

Southern France Southern France, also known as the south of France or colloquially in French as , is a geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi atlantique'', Atlas e ...

before returning to

to pursue a BA (with a focus on

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

) from the

."Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation awards its $3,000 Art for Excellence prize to a British Columbian," published March 5, 2002.

Artistic practice

Writing for Artspeak, Cindy Richmond has described Campbell's work as a "confirmation of

Minimalism In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...

's continued vitality. Her monochrome paintings, site-specific installations and sculptures allow her to explore issues implicit to a stripped-down aesthetic and examine the context in which art is experienced." However, Neil Campbell (no relation) of

has argued that while "Arabella's paintings concern themselves with conceptual or formal strategies, I find my main response is to the aesthetic character of the work. The surfaces of her monochromes are rendered carefully, step by step, through a reverential application of paint. It's that observance that affects me." This, Neil Campbell argues, is intended on Arabella Campbell's part.Campbell, Neil and Monica Szewczyk, "Fluid Means," PAINT (Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 2006), 59–68. Campbell's "Physical Facts Series #6" won the 2007 RBC Canadian Painting Competition, which is the largest award for Emerging Canadian Artists. "Physical Facts Series #6" acknowledges "the support structure of the actual canvas," in a manner typical of her exploration of "the colours of the gallery walls and the tools and methods of the painter." "Physical Facts Series #6" has been praised for achieving "intelligent results

hat A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...

both critique and glorify the medium of painting.""Vancouver artist wins emerging painter prize," CBC arts for CBC news, last updated September 26, 2007, http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/vancouver-artist-wins-emerging-painter-prize-1.656494 Campbell's work for "Painting After Poverty" reconsidered "what is held to be peripheral to a work of art...in her attempt to calibrate from memory the precise shade of white paint used by three art institutions upon their walls."

Local impact

Campbell's work is a part of the

Audain Art Museum The Audain Art Museum is a 56,000-square-foot private museum located in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, that houses the private art collection of Michael Audain. Designed by Patkau Architects and opened to the public in 2016, it holds a compr ...

's permanent collection of British Columbian art, and ''Square Process Paintings; Right Tilted, Left Tilted'' was featured as a part of ''Masterworks from the Audain Art Museum'', which seeks to highlight 57 works in the museum's permanent collection as representative of "two hundred years of British Columbia's remarkable visual art". Campbell has also been named as one of Vancouver's '7 New Painters' alongside Etienne Zack, Matthew Brown,

Tim Gardner Tim Gardner (born 1973 in Iowa City, Iowa) is an American-born Canadian painter known for his watercolors of his brothers and friends involved in youthful revels often set in nature. Gardner obtained his BFA from the University of Manitoba in 1996 ...

, Holger Kalberg, Elizabeth McIntosh, and Charlie Roberts. Campbell herself has embraced a "location-based identification" with Vancouver and British Columbia, its spirit of "rigour and frontier freedom," and the artistic freedom afforded by its isolation from "any other substantial art centre".

Solo exhibitions

* "Arabella Campbell", 25 March – 30 April 2011,

Catriona Jeffries Gallery Catriona Jeffries is an art gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, that has been in operation since 1994. It focuses on the post conceptual art practices which have emerged from Vancouver and the critical relationships between these practices an ...

, Vancouver,

. * "Taken from there to "here to where it came from and taken to a place and used in such a manner that it can only remain as a representation of what it was where it came from"", 2008, Artspeak, Vancouver,

. * "Arabella Campbell", 8 June – 7 July 2007,

, Vancouver,

Select group exhibitions

* "Poetics of Space," 2019, Kelowna Art Gallery, British Columbia * "Poetics of Space," 2018, Nanaimo Art Gallery, Nanaimo, British Columbia *
''Entangled: Two Views on Contemporary Canadian Painting''
" 30 September 2017 - 1 January 2018, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia * '
Kitchen Midden
'", 25 September 2016 - 14 January 2017, Griffin Art Projects, North Vancouver, BC * '
Readymades"
' Gordon Smith Gallery, North Vancouver, British Columbia * ''"Masterworks from the Audain Art Museum''," 2016
Audian Art Museum
Whistler, British Columbia * "Cámara de maravillas: últimos días en sala," 20 April – 26 June 2016,

Museo de Arte Moderno The Museo de Arte Moderno (MAM) is a museum dedicated to modern Mexican art located in Chapultepec Park in Mexico City. The museum is part of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura and provides exhibitions of national and internat ...

Medellín Medellín ( ; or ), officially the Special District of Science, Technology and Innovation of Medellín (), is the List of cities in Colombia, second-largest city in Colombia after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia Departme ...

, Colombia. Curated by

Jens Hoffmann Jens Hoffmann Mesén (born 1974 in San José, Costa Rica) is a writer, editor, educator, and exhibition maker. His work has attempted to expand the definition and context of exhibition making. From 2003 to 2007 Hoffmann was director of exhibit ...

. * "Cámara de maravillas," 7 October 2015 – 14 February 2016, Centro de la Imagen,

Ciudad de México Mexico City is the capital and largest city of Mexico, as well as the most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and financial centers in the world, and is classified as an Alpha world city according to the ...

, México. Curated by

.
''"Poetics of Space''"
31 January - 24 May 2015, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia * "''Gordon Smith Collection''," 14 March - 14 May 2015, West Vancouver Museum, West Vancouver, BC * "TBD," 6 September – 26 October 2014, Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (now the

Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA), formerly known as the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), is a museum and art gallery in Toronto, Ontario. It is an independent, registered charitable organization. ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario. Curated by Su-Ying Lee. * "Who's Afraid of Purple, Orange and Green?," 25 April – 20 June 2014,

Dunlop Art Gallery The Regina Public Library is the citywide public library system of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The Regina Public Library is established under the provisions of ''The Public Libraries Act'', 1996. The general management, regulation, and control ...

, Regina, Saskatchewan. Curated by Jennifer Matotek. * "Landscape Revised," December 2013, Kamloops Art Gallery,

Kamloops Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the North Thompson River, North and South Thompson Rivers, which join to become the Thompson River in Kamloops, and east of Kamloops Lake. The city is the ad ...

, British Columbia. Curated by Charo Neville. * "The Painting Project: A Snapshot of Painting in Canada," 7 June – 6 July 2013, Galerie de l'UQAM,

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Quebec. Curated by Julie Bélisle. * "When Attitudes Become Form Become Attitudes," 1 February – 31 March 2013,

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is a non-collecting contemporary art museum located in Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on th ...

, Detroit. Curated by

. * "Color Shift," 10 January – 9 February 2013, Mixed Greens, New York City. Curated by Jordan Tate. * "When Attitudes Become Form Become Attitudes," 13 September – 1 December 2012, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco. Curated by

. *
''Shore, Forest and Beyond: Art from the Audain Collection''
" 29 October 2011 - 29 January 2012, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver * "Everything Everyday", 2 October 2010 – 16 January 2011,

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Fr ...

, Vancouver,

. Curated by Bruce Grenville. * "''Stowaways''," 2009, CCA Wattis, San Francisco, California * "The Museum as Medium," 23 October 2008 – 3 January 2009, Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea, Donostia-San Sebastián,

Basque Autonomous Community Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous com ...

, Spain. Curated by Pablo Fanego and Pedro de Llano. * "The Museum as Medium," 20 June – 21 September 2008, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo,

Vigo Vigo (, ; ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of province of Pontevedra, Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest ...

, Spain. Curated by Pablo Fanego and Pedro de Llano. * "THIS IS NOT A VOID," 25 October 2008 – 22 January 2009, Galeria Luisa Strina,

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

, Brazil. * "''Past as Present''," 2008
York Art Gallery
York, England * "V''ery Abstract and Hyper Figurative''," 2007, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, England. Curated by Jens Hoffmann * ''"FOR SALE''," 2007, Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal. Curated by Jens Hoffmann. * "Painting After Poverty", 8 April – 14 May 2007,

, Vancouver,

. * "The Monochromatic Field: Works From The Collection", 12 January – 11 March 2006,

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the campus of the University of British Columbia. The gallery is housed in a building designed by architect Peter Cardew which opened in 1995 ...

, Vancouver,

. * "''A Modern Life: Art and Design in British Columbia 1945-1960,"'' 2004, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia

Public Art

In 2011, Campbell created ''Lines in Architecture and Art'', a landscape photomural which was installed at the

Canada Line The Canada Line is a rapid transit line in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, that is part of the SkyTrain (Vancouver), SkyTrain system. The line is owned by TransLink (British Columbia), TransLink and InTransitBC and is operated by SN ...

Vancouver City Centre Station Vancouver City Centre is an underground station on the Canada Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. The station is located on Granville Street, between West Georgia Street and Robson Street in Downtown Vancouver, and serves th ...

on the corner of Granville and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

streets. The work was commissioned by the City of Vancouver Public Art Program and was a part of Vancouver 125.

Permanent collections

Campbell's work can be found in the permanent collections of the Audain Art Museum

;

; West Vancouver Museum;, Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Ontario; Lodeveans Collection, UK; Rennie Collection, Vancouver; and the RBC Canadian Art Collection.

Awards and residencies

Glenfiddich Artist in Residence

Glenfiddich Distillery Glenfiddich distillery () is a Speyside single malt Scotch whisky distillery located in the Scottish burgh of Dufftown in Moray, Scotland. Is owned by William Grant & Sons. The name Glenfiddich derives from the Scottish Gaelic ''Gleann Fhiodhai ...

Dufftown Dufftown ( ) is a burgh in Moray, Scotland. While the town is part of the historic Mortlach parish, the town was established and laid out in the early 19th century as part of a planned new town settlement. The town has several listed 19th centur ...

, Scotland. (2009) * National Winner, 9th annual RBC Canadian Painting Competition. (2007)"Arabella Campbell wins 2007 RBC Canadian Painting Competition," last modified December 7, 2007, http://canadianart.ca/news/07/ * Art for Excellence prize,

Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation was a private, independent organization created by an act of the Parliament of Canada in 1998. It received an initial endowment of $2.5 billion from the federal government to provide awards annually fo ...

. (2002)

Gallery

File:3 Rectangles Make A Square.jpg, 3 Rectangles Make A Square, 2005 File:Physical Facts Series No. 7.jpg, Physical Facts Series No. 7, 2007 File:A Catalogue of its own content.jpg, A catalogue of its own content, 2011 File:Studies for an Incomplete work.jpg, Studies for an incomplete work, 2011 File:The window framed by a wall.jpg, The window framed by a wall, 2011 File:No Visible Means of Support.jpg, No Visible Means of Support, 2011 File:Lines in Architecture and Art.jpg, Lines in Architecture and Art, 2011 Location: Canada Line City Centre, Granville Street and West Georgia Street, Vancouver File:Folding Lines.jpg, Folding Lines, 2017 Acrylic on Canvas

Further listening

* The CIAC (Colección Isabel y Agustín Coppel) has produced apps (Android, Apple) for Cámara de maravillas/Camera of Wonders (2016) featuring interviews with curator Jens Hoffman, Wonne Ickx of PRODUCTORA, and artists from the show. Also available for viewing and listening are the relevant images, narrations, and texts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Arabella 1973 births Artists from Vancouver Canadian installation artists Canadian women artists Living people Canadian contemporary painters University of British Columbia alumni Shawnigan Lake School alumni