Marlene Creates (born 1952) is a Canadian artist lives and works in

Portugal Cove Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it shares the longes ...

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...

. Born in

Montreal, Quebec 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 ...

, Creates studied

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

at Queen's University, then lived in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

for twelve years, moving to Newfoundland and Labrador in 1985. A major theme of her work is the relationship between human beings and the

land Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of Earth not submerged by the ocean or another body of water. It makes up 29.2% of Earth's surface and includes all continents and islands. Earth's land sur ...

; she often photographs subtle traces and marks of human presence in natural environments. Her work has been shown in over 300 exhibitions across the world. In 2001 Creates, was 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 ...

, and in 2013 she won CONTACT Photography Festival's BMW Prize for her exhibition ''Marlene Creates: selected works from 30 years, 1982-2012''. The exhibition "gently invites us to think about how we belong to the land, and how we leave our touch upon it." Creates was a 2019 recipient of the Canadian Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. In 2021, she was invested into the

Order of Newfoundland and Labrador The Order of Newfoundland and Labrador is a civilian Award, honour for merit in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Instituted in 2001, when Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador, Lieutenant Governor Arthur Maxwell Hous ...

, "the highest honour that the Province can bestow" and recognizes "individuals who have demonstrated excellence and achievement in any field of endeavour benefiting, in an outstanding manner, Newfoundland and Labrador and its residents." In 2024, she received an honorary

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or '), also termed Doctor of Literature in some countries, is a terminal degree in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In the United States, at universities such as Drew University, the degree ...

(D. Litt.) from

Memorial University Memorial University of Newfoundland, or MUN (), is a Public university, public research university in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's, with satellite campuses in Corner Brook ...

Education

Creates attained her bachelor's in art education at Queens University in

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, attending from 19701974."Artists with their Work" Art Gallery of Ontario Winter 1981 – 1982 She traveled to

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in 1973 as part of the university's Art and

Architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

Study. In 1975 she was selected as a Canadian delegate to France for an Architecture Study Program.

Artistic career

As part of 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 ...

Extension Services "Artist with their Work" Program, Creates exhibited a collection of thirteen

cibachrome Ilfochrome (also commonly known as Cibachrome) is a dye destruction positive-to-positive photographic process used for the reproduction of film transparencies on photographic paper. The prints are made on a dimensionally stable polyester base as o ...

photographs of landscapes on the east and west coasts of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

."Newsletter September - October 1983" Thunder Bay National Exhibition Centre and Centre for Indian Art September 1983 In describing the exhibit she says:

"The actions of nature may seem random or unpredictable; the way smooth stones sit naturally at the shore appears to have no organization. I have found though, that if I manipulate any of them, the interference is obvious. The kind of order I impose is unlikely to occur naturally. But the imposition is slight. The next high tide will disturb my arrangement and re-organize the elements again. Nature is never finished."

As a part of the exhibit, Creates also hosted an illustrated lecture and landscape art workshop with local participants in the

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario. Its population i ...

region. Creates also toured with the exhibit to

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places *Detroit–Windsor, Michigan-Ontario, USA-Canada, North America; a cross-border metropolitan region Australia New South Wales *Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area Queen ...

. Creates has centered her recent work around six acres of woods (owned by the artist) in

, NL. There she has established the Boreal Forest Poetry Garden, which sees annual thematic programming of live art, poetry readings and collaborations between artists, while making thematic links between art and science.^2] A major

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in software development, popular culture, and the arts. ...

of Marlene Creates’ work called ''Marlene Creates: Places Paths and Pauses'' toured across Canada from 2017 to 2019. Curated by Susan Gibson Garvey (independent curator; former Director/Curator, Dalhousie Art Gallery) and Andrea Kunard (Associate Curator of Photography,

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 ...

), and organized by The Beaverbrook Art Gallery and the

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus ...

Art Gallery, the exhibition was hosted by The Dalhousie Art Gallery (Halifax, NS), the Beaverbrook Art Gallery^{/sup> (Fredericton, NB), The Rooms

The Rooms is a cultural facility in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The facility opened on June 29, 2005 and houses the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Provin ...
Art Gallery (St. John’s, NL), Confederation Centre Art Gallery
The Confederation Centre Art Gallery (CCAG; ) is an art museum that forms a part of the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. The art museum pavilion forms the northeast portion of the Confederation Centre ...
(Charlottetown, PEI), and Carleton University

Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...
Art Gallery^{/sup> (Ottawa, ON). An accompanying catalogue presents the work from the exhibition, with text by the curators (published by Goose Lane Editions

Goose Lane Editions is a Canadian Publishing, book publishing company founded in 1954 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick as Fiddlehead Poetry Books by Fred Cogswell and a group of students and faculty from the University of ...
, Fredericton, 2017).

Awards

* Queen's University Bursary for study in Venice, Italy 1973−

Ontario Arts Council Grants

Canada Council Grants

*Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts
The Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts are annual awards for achievements in visual and media arts in Canada. Up to eight awards are presented annually, each with a prize amount of $25,000.

Created in 2000 by then Governor General ...
2019
* Order of Newfoundland and Labrador

The Order of Newfoundland and Labrador is a civilian Award, honour for merit in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Instituted in 2001, when Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador, Lieutenant Governor Arthur Maxwell Hous ...
(2021)
* Honorary Doctor of Letters

Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or '), also termed Doctor of Literature in some countries, is a terminal degree in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In the United States, at universities such as Drew University, the degree ...
(D. Litt.), Memorial University

Memorial University of Newfoundland, or MUN (), is a Public university, public research university in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's, with satellite campuses in Corner Brook ...
(2024).

Bibliography

*

References

External links

Artist's Website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Creates, Marlene
1952 births
Artists from Montreal
Artists from Newfoundland and Labrador
Canadian multimedia artists
Living people
Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
People from Portugal Cove-St. Philip's
Queen's University at Kingston alumni
20th-century Canadian women photographers
20th-century Canadian photographers
Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners
Members of the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador}}