Carol Wainio (born 1955) is a Canadian

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

. Her work, known for its visual complexity and monochrome color palette, has been exhibited in major art galleries in Canada, the U.S., Europe and China. She has won multiple awards, including the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts.

Life

Born in

Sarnia Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes, ...

, Ontario, Wainio is the daughter of Finnish immigrants, she grew up in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. Wainio studied at the

Nova Scotia College of Art and Design NSCAD University, also known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD), is a public university, public art school, art university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university is a co-educational institution tha ...

and at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

and later completed a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...

Concordia University Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...

in Montreal, Quebec. She lives in Ottawa and is an adjunct professor in visual arts at the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...

Painting career

Her paintings often reference a variety of sources from fairy tales, medieval manuscripts to the 2008 financial collapse. Wainio's canvases have been described by art critic Emily Falvey as "fairy-tale landscapes littered with the detritus of contemporary consumerism." Her body of work has been compared to such works by American painter Jules Olitski. "The appeal her paintings had came from the same activity of looking that generated their strangeness." Wainio's first solo exhibition took place at the Yarlow/Salzman Gallery, in Toronto, Ontario in 1982. In 1990, her paintings were displayed in the "Aperto" exhibit at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

, in Venice, Italy. In 2010, Wainio's work was featured in a travelling exhibition, ''Carol Wainio: The Book'', curated by Diana Nemiroff and organized and circulated by Carleton University Art Gallery. This exhibition displays Wainio's interest in the evolution of fairy-tales, the art of the copyist, industrialization, and the narrative power of images. It was on display at Carleton University Art Gallery (2010), the Varley Art Gallery (2011), the Kelowna Art Gallery (2013), the Dunlop Art Gallery (2013), the McIntosh Gallery (2013), and the Galerie de l'UQAM (2014). In 2024, she had her first solo show in New York at Arsenal Contemporary Art Gallery. Wainio's large-scale canvases have also been exhibited in more than 40 museums and galleries, including the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

, the Shanghai Art Museum in China and the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

in the Netherlands. Her work is in such public collections as the

, the

Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (, MACM) is a contemporary art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the Place des festivals in the Quartier des spectacles and is part of the Place des Arts complex. Founded in 1964, it ...

and the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; ) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street, Dundas Street West in the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up of phys ...

, among other institutions.

Awards

In 2004, Wainio became one of the few women elected to the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Victoria of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria on 16 ...

. Along with other eight Canadian artists, she received the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2014 for her outstanding achievements in contemporary visual and media arts.

Exhibitions

Solo

*S.L. Simpson Gallery, Toronto, 1991 *Galerie Chantal Boulanger, Montréal, 1990 *Galerie d'art du Centre Culturel de l'Université de Sherbrooke, 1989 *"Imagining the past/Remembering the Future", S.L. Simpson Gallery, Toronto, 1985 *Concordia University Art Gallery, Montréal, 1983 *Yarlow/Salzman Gallery, Toronto, 1982 *Eye Level Gallery, Halifax, 1980

Group

*"Aperto", Venice Biennale, 1990 *"Les Temps Chauds", Musée d'art contemporain, Montréal, 1988 *"Songs of Experience", National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1986 *"Appearing", Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, Halifax, 1983

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wainio, Carol 1955 births Painters from Ontario Canadian women painters Concordia University alumni Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners Living people NSCAD University alumni People from Sarnia Academic staff of the University of Ottawa 21st-century Canadian women artists Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts