Margie Kelk

Margie Kelk's artistic practice reflects contemporary concerns about cultural history and politics. She takes an exploratory and experimental approach as she appropriates and reconstructs visual fragments of ideas through diverse artistic media, which include ceramic sculpture, drawing and painting, video and photography.

Kelk has traveled extensively in China and Latin America, and much of her earlier artistic production revolved around the cultures of these two regions. Concerned with alienation, which affects so many people in today's world of social media networks, she has directed her attention to the plight of disconnected individuals living on the edge of society and more recently to the environment. Although the world is full of virtual connections, interpersonal relations are often reduced to a minimum. Kelk has produced several series of ink on encaustic drawings, alcohol based ink drawings and ceramic heads - individuals without bodies - which stand in tension with the environment surrounding them. Of her two stop-motion videos about these subjects, the first garnered numerous international awards.

Kelk has exhibited her artwork in over 25 solo exhibitions since 1984. She was Board Chair of the Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts (Toronto, Ontario) for 8 years. Since 2009 she has been an active member of Red Head Gallery (Toronto), including as Gallery Chair. Her China-based books and drawings were represented by Headbones Gallery in 2006-7 and she subsequently has been showing in Canada, the United States and Europe. She has received prizes for several of her works and been awarded grants by the Ontario Arts Council. Margie is a graduate of Wellesley College, Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D.), and the Toronto School of Art.