Bonnie Devine (born April 12, 1952) is a Serpent River Ojibwa installation artist, performance artist, sculptor, curator, and writer from Serpent River First Nation, who lives and works in Toronto, Ontario.[ "Bonnie Devine." Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art. (retrieved 30 Nov 2010)] She is currently an associate professor at OCAD University and the founding chair of its Indigenous Visual Cultural Program.
Background
Bonnie Devine was born in Toronto and is a status member of the Serpent River First Nation.
[ In 1997 Devine graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design, with degrees in sculpture and installation,][ "About the Artist: Bonnie Devine." University of Toronto (retrieved 30 Nov 2010)] and she earned her Master of Fine Arts degree at York University in 1999.[ "Bonnie Devine Biography." University of Toronto (retrieved 30 Nov 2010)] She has taught studio and liberal arts at York University, Queen's University, and the Centre for Indigenous Theatre. She joined OCAD University as a full-time instructor in 2008["University offering new options for art students." Windspeaker, Feb. 2013, p. 14. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A319976795/AONE?u=usocal_main&sid=AONE&xid=2fa59d8b . Accessed 8 Mar. 2018.]
Artwork
As a conceptual artist, Devine works with a variety of media, often combining traditional and unconventional materials. At a 2007 solo exhibition, Medicine River, at the Axéneo 7 art space in Quebec, she created eight-foot long knitting needles and knitted 250 feet of copper cable to bring attention to the contamination of the Kashechewan water system.[ "Medicine River: Bonnie Devine." Axéneo 7. 2007 (retrieved 30 Nov 2010)] She has fashioned full-sized canoes from paper and works with natural materials such as reeds in her 2009 piece, New Earth Braid. She also created land-based installations.[Rubisova, Lena. "Faculty Profile: Bonnie Devine." Ontario College of Art and Design. 11 Jan 2010 (retrieved 30 Nov 2010)]
Devine's work is also primarily influenced by "the stories, technologies, and arts of the Ojibwa people."
Exhibitions
Devine's work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the U.S., South America, Russia and Europe.[Karlinsky, Amy. "Bonnie Devine." Border Crossings vol.29, no.2 (May 2010)] A solo exhibition of Devine's work, Bonnie Devine: The Tecumseh Papers was held at the Art Gallery of Windsor from September 27, 2013, to January 5, 2014.[ "Bonnie Devine: The Tecumseh Papers." Art Gallery of Windsor (retrieved 27 September 2014).] Her work is featured in the Art Gallery of Ontario's exhibition Before and after the Horizon: Anishinaabe Artists of the Great Lakes.[ "Before and after the Horizon: Anishinaabe Artists of the Great Lakes." Art Gallery of Ontario (retrieved 27 September 2014).]
Awards and recognition
Devine has received numerous awards, including 2002 Best Experimental Video at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, the Toronto Arts Awards Visual Arts Protégé Award in 2001, the Curry Award from the Ontario Society of Artists in 1999, a variety of awards from the Ontario College of Art and Design, as well as many grants and scholarships.[ She has been chosen for the 2011 Eiteljorg Museum fellowship.][ "Five artists named 2011 Eiteljorg Fellows." Eiteljorg Museum. 2010 (retrieved 30 Nov 2010)] She received a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2021.
Published work
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Devine, Bonnie, Duke Redbird, and Robert Houle. The Drawings and Paintings of Daphne Odjig: A Retrospective Exhibition. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2007. .
Notes
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Fox, Suzanne G. and Lucy R. Lippard, eds. Path Breakers: The Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, 2003. Indianapolis, IN: Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and West, 2004. .
External links
