Works from blast hole pond road: 2002-2020

Marlene Creates

September 16 - november 11

Grenfell Art Gallery is pleased to present a retrospective of new and recent work by Order of Newfoundland and Governor General award winning artist Marlene Creates. Featuring photos, drawings, and videos by Creates which focus on the six-acre patch of old-growth boreal forest where she lives—at the edge of the 920-acre Blast Hole Pond Conservation Area—in Portugal Cove. Curated by Matthew Hills, the exhibition explores Create’s photo based conceptual practice and her unique way of working in collaboration with land. A pioneering artist and advocate in Newfoundland and Labrador, Creates work centres the idea of place as a layered process that involves memories, experiences, narratives and knowledge. Marlene Creates is an environmental artist and poet who lives in Portugal Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador, surrounded by an expanse of old growth boreal forest that has been the focus of her work since 2002. For over 40 years her art has been an exploration of the reciprocal relationships between human experience, memory, language and the land. Her work has been presented in over 350 exhibitions and screenings across Canada and internationally, and she has held over 40 site-specific, multidisciplinary events in The Boreal Poetry Garden. She has curated several exhibitions, worked in artist-run centres, and taught visual arts at colleges and universities. Marlene Creates was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2001; in 2019 she received a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts for “Lifetime Artistic Achievement,” and in 2021 she was named to the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador.

This exhibition is made possible by the support of Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts.