Monica Tap (born 1962) is a Canadian painter, artist and educator. She lives in

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 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 ...

, and teaches at the

University of Guelph The University of Guelph (abbreviated U of G) is a comprehensive Public university, public research university in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 after the amalgamation of Ontario Agricultural College (1874), the MacDonald I ...

. She is known for engaging and challenging conventions concerning

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

and still-life painting.Tousley, Nancy ''Monica Tap: Painting and Perception'' Monica Tap Paintings ed. Susan Harrison. Montreal: ABC Art Books Canada, 2004. 11-21 Exhibition Catalogue

Biography

Tap was born in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

. She attended the Alberta College of Art,

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

(1986), and

NSCAD University NSCAD University, also known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD), is a public art university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university is a co-educational institution that offers bachelor's and master's degrees. The unive ...

for her BFA (1990), and MFA (1996). She studied Fine Arts with

Gerald Ferguson Gerald Ferguson (January 29, 1937 – October 8, 2009) was a conceptual artist and painter who lived and taught in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Born in Cincinnati he was both a Canadian and US citizen. After receiving his MFA from Ohio University, ...

. Tap is also a professor at the University of Guelph in the School of Fine Art and Music.

Artistic career

Tap often uses photographs and video stills as source material for her paintings. For instance, in her work for the exhibition ''Running on Empty'', she peered out of window of a car, and used a digital camera to record the landscape ("at the Mpeg standard format of 15 frames per second" as Heather Nicol, the author of the catalogue, said). The resulting images are blurred and though not abstract, are toward abstraction. Barry Schwabsky has noted that "her art offers one of the richest and most original revisionary instances of how the temporality of the act of looking can continue to keep painting in motion today". She has exhibited her work across Canada and abroad, and is currently represented b
MKG127
in Toronto an
Peter Robertson Gallery
in Edmonton.

Selected awards and honours

*2008

Banff Centre for the Arts Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (formerly Banff Centre) is an arts and culture educational institution in Banff, Alberta. It offers arts programs in the performing and fine arts, as well as leadership training. It was established in 193 ...

, "Artist in a Mountain Landscape" *2005-2009

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC; , CRSH), often colloquially pronounced 'shirk' (), is a Canadian federal research-funding agency that promotes and supports post-secondary research and training in the humani ...

, Research/ Creation Grant in Fine Art "Translation as a Strategy of Renewal in Painting" *2005 Warren Goldring Scholarship, Banff, Optic Nerve Residency *2005 Open Studio Print Residency, Toronto, Ontario *2002 Banff Centre for the Arts, "New Works"

Collections

Monica Tap's works are included in many public and private collections including the

Art Gallery of Alberta The Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) is an art museum in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The museum occupies an building at Churchill Square (Edmonton), Churchill Square in downtown Edmonton. The museum building was originally designed by Donald G. Bittor ...

, the

Art Gallery of Guelph The Art Gallery of Guelph (AGG), formerly the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, is a public gallery and adjoining Sculpture garden in Guelph, Ontario. Its collection consists of over 9,000 works. The AGG is a nonprofit organization which focuses on r ...

, the

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS) is a public provincial museums of Canada, provincial art museum based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The art museum's primary building complex is located in downtown Halifax and takes up ...

, the Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (NYC, Berlin), Canada House (London, UK), Bank of Montréal, TELUS, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, Four Seasons Hotel & Resorts, ESSO Imperial Oil Canada, CIBC Mellon,

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 ...

, Würth Collection (Germany), and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

Publications

* 2004 ''The Princess and the Paint box''. In Jane Fine, (invited essay for exhibition catalogue). Peirogi, Brooklyn, New York, p. 24 * 2002 ''Hungry Eyes'' in ''Hungry Eyes: New Abstract Painting in New York and Toronto'' (curated by Monica Tapp). Dalhousie Art Gallery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tap, Monica 1962 births Living people Artists from Edmonton NSCAD University alumni Academic staff of the University of Guelph 21st-century Canadian painters 21st-century Canadian women painters