Pamela Edmonds is a Canadian visual and media arts curator focused on themes of decolonization and the politics of representation. She is considered an influential figure in the Black Canadian arts scene. Since 2022, Edmonds has been the Director and Curator of the Dalhousie Art Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Pamela Edmonds | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Art History |
| Alma mater | Concordia University (BFA & MA) |
| Thesis | The politics of belonging: Positioning black identity in contemporary African-Canadian Art (2007) |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | McMaster Museum of Art, McMaster University |
| Website | www |
Career
editPamela Edmonds is a visual and media arts curator concerned with the politics of representation and influential in the Black Canadian arts scene.[1][2][3] She is the former Senior Curator of the McMaster Museum of Art, in Hamilton, Ontario.[4][5] Originally from Montreal, Quebec, she earned both her BFA and MA in Art History from Concordia University.[6]
Edmonds began her career in Halifax in 1998 with the exhibition Skin: A Political Boundary, co-curated with Meril Rasmussen at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Since, Edmonds has remained a key player in the Black Canadian art scene.[7][8] In 2019, she joined forces with other prominent Black Canadian curators Julie Crooks, Associate Curator of Photography at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Montreal based independent curator Dominique Fontaine and Gaëtane Verna, then Director of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery to organize the inaugural Black Curators Forum.[9][10] After working many years in Toronto, Ontario at the Thames Art Gallery[11][12] of the Chatham Cultural Centre, Edmonds was promoted to senior curator at McMaster Museum of Art, becoming one of the few Black curators working in senior curatorial positions in Canadian museums and galleries.
Her collaborative curatorial work has yielded some of the most important exhibitions of Black Canadian art in the 2000s.[12] Working with the Sister Visions collective Edmonds organized Through Our Eyes at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax.[13] She subsequently worked at A Space Gallery in Toronto, Ontario where she was the exhibitions coordinator, and in the Art Gallery of Peterborough where she became the curator/director. In 2009, Edmonds co-founded Third Space Art Projects, a curatorial collective which she co-directs with Sally Frater.[14]
In 2014, Edmonds served as mentor in the Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG). Her work continues to focus on decolonialism and Black Canadian art practices.[15]
Curated exhibitions
editNew-Found-Lands, Eastern Edge Gallery, St. John's, 2016
Liminal: Lucie Chan & Jerome Havre Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario, 2016
Skin Deep: Reimaging the Portrait, Project Gallery, Toronto, 2015
Confluence: Shifting Perspectives of the Caribbean, Artist in Transit, 2014
Tracings: Recent Work by the W5Art Collective, Women's Arts Resource Centre Gallery, Toronto, 2014
Bounty: Chikonzero Chazunguza, Gallery 101, Ottawa 2013
Erika DeFreitas: Deaths/Births/Memorials, Centre 3 for Print and Media Arts, Hamilton, 2013
Screening Alterity, Art Gallery of Peterborough, 2012
28 Days: Reimagining Black History Month, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery/Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto, 2012
Publications
editThroughout her career, Edmonds has published texts about Black Canadian art histories. She has also served as editor for cultural publications, including MICE Magazine (Moving Image Culture Etc.) with Mark V. Campbell, and the Black cultural journal Kola (based in Montreal).[16]
References
edit- ^ "Pamela Edmonds". Mice Magazine. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
- ^ Joachim, Joana (2018). ""Embodiment and Subjectivity:" Intersectional Black Feminist Curatorial Practices in Canada". RACAR: Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review. 43 (2): 34–47. doi:10.7202/1054381ar. JSTOR 26530766.
- ^ Ebony roots, northern soil : perspectives on blackness in Canada. Nelson, Charmaine. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars. 2010. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-4438-2604-4. OCLC 828424765.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ "OAAG online: Ontario Association of Art Galleries website". oaag.org. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
- ^ "McMaster Museum of Art welcomes new senior curator, Pamela Edmonds". Daily News. April 30, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
- ^ "About". Pamela E. Curates. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^ Joachim, Joana (2018). ""Embodiment and Subjectivity": Intersectional Black Feminist Curatorial Practices in Canada". RACAR: Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review. 43 (2): 34–47. doi:10.7202/1054381ar. ISSN 0315-9906. JSTOR 26530766.
- ^ Desire change : contemporary feminist art in Canada. Davis, Heather, 1979-, Mentoring Artists for Women's Art. Montreal. June 26, 2017. p. 294. ISBN 978-0-7735-5077-3. OCLC 973044174.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ "United we stand". Art Gallery of Ontario. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
- ^ "The Power Plant – News & Press Releases – About Us – The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery – Harbourfront Centre". www.thepowerplant.org. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
- ^ "Chatham Cultural Centre – Thames Art Gallery – eriestclairhealthline.ca". www.eriestclairhealthline.ca. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
- ^ a b Lee, Yaniya. "The Women Running the Show". Canadian Art. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
- ^ Lee, Yaniya. "The Women Running the Show". Canadian Art. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^ "Pamela Edmonds". Mice Magazine. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^ Sivanesan, Haema; Day, Pip; Rice, Ryan; Fisher, Jennifer; Drobnick, Jim; Edmonds, Pamela; Marsden, Scott; Burisch, Nicole; Bélidor, Eunice (2018). "What is critical curating? / Qu'est-ce que le commissariat engagé?". RACAR: Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review. 43 (2): 102–123. ISSN 0315-9906. JSTOR 26530771.
- ^ "Pamela Edmonds". Mice Magazine. Retrieved November 9, 2019.