Kim Tomczak (born 1952) is a Canadian artist known for his work in

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

, photography and

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...

. Born in Victoria,

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 ...

in 1952, he graduated from the Vancouver School of Art (now the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design) in 1975. Tomczak has collaborated exclusively with his partner Lisa Steele since the early 1980s.

Work

Tomczak's work has been shown at the Paris Biennale, the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris, the Video Biennale in Vienna (where he received first prize for a tape co-produced with Lisa Steele) as well as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Documenta 8 in Kasel, Germany, and the

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

in Paris. His work is in many collections 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

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 ...

, the

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 ...

, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and the Oakville Galleries. Tomczak is a co-founder of Vtape, a Toronto media arts resource centre. Tomczak is a professor at

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 ...

's John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design.

Steele and Tomczak

Since the early 1980s Tomczak has worked exclusively in collaboration with Lisa Steele. Their individual and collaborative work was the subject of a major survey exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1989–90. In 1993, Steele and Tomczak were recognized with two awards: the Bell Canada Award for excellence in the field of Canadian video art and a Toronto Arts Award (the Peter Herndorf Media Arts Award). In 1996, their work ''The Blood Records: written and annotated'', received a world premiere at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

in New York. Their installation work ''We're Getting Younger All the Time'' has been installed in several locations in England, in Venice and was at the Fonds régional d'art contemporain Basse-Normandie in November 2002. In 2005, Steele and Tomczak won the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. In 2009, Steele and Tomczak were recognized with honorary doctorate degrees from the University of British Columbia (Okanagan)

Notes

References and further reading

* Ardenne, Paul. ''Lisa Steele, Kim Tomczak: Before I Wake.'' , 2003. * Ghaznavi, Corinna. "Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak." ''Canadian Art'' 17.4 (2000): 68. * Monk, Philip. ''4 hours and 38 minutes: Videotapes by Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak.'' Toronto:

, 1989. * Russell, Catherine. "The Lisa Steele Tapes: Investigation and Vision." ''North of Everything: English-Canadian Cinema Since 1980''. William Beard and Jerry White, eds. Edmonton: University of Alberta, 2002. * Steele, Lisa and Kim Tomczak. ''The Blood Records: written and annotated.'' Oakville: Oakville Galleries, 1999. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tomczak, Kim Canadian video artists Canadian art curators Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners Living people 1952 births Academic staff of the University of Toronto Artists from Victoria, British Columbia