Penelope Stewart

Vanitas

The trans-disciplinary practice of Toronto artist Penelope Stewart encompasses architecture, in situ installation, sculpture, photography, drawing and print. In recent years, Stewart has created a series of installations exploring the beehive metaphor in utopian architecture.

Penelope Stewart

Born in Montréal, Québec, Penelope Stewart is a site-sensitive installation artist working across the varied media of sculpture, installation, photography, printmaking and architectural interventions. Central to her practice is an engagement with space and place; its architecture, history, politics, ideology and environment. Whether it is her large scale beeswax architectures or her trompe l’oeil photographs, Stewart brings a sensory intensification, a haptic quality to the encounter.

Stewart received an MFA from the State University of New York and in 2010 was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts (RCA). Her work has been exhibited at such notable institutions as Ganna Walska Lotusland, California; The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, New York; Musée d’Art de Joliette, Québec; Musée Barthétè, Boussan, France; Oakville Galleries, Ontario; Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Ontario; ACT Design Museum Canberra, Australia; Poimena Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.