Dana Claxton, Cultural Belongings, 2016. LED Firebox with transmounted chromogenic transparency. Collection of Rosalind and Amir Adnani.
A new book highlighting 425 women artists from around the world includes several prominent artists from Vancouver, Toronto and other parts of Canada.
Great Women Artists, to be released by Phaidon on September 25, includes major international figures both historical and contemporary, like Mexican modernist Frida Kahlo, Japan’s Yayoi Kusama and 17th-century Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi.
It also features Vancouver-based artist Dana Claxton, Toronto-based artist Rebecca Belmore and Ontario-born, Berlin-based artist Janet Cardiff.
The advance materials for the book note Claxton in particular as an influential teacher. Claxton co-founded the Indigenous Media Arts Group for training artists in 1998 and continues to teach today as an associate professor at the University of British Columbia. Other artists listed in the “Influential Teachers” category include Bauhaus artist Anni Albers, recent Turner Prize–winner Lubaina Himid and Bard MFA co-chair Amy Sillman.
Historical Canadian art figures such as Emily Carr (1871–1945) and Agnes Martin (1912–2004) are also highlighted in the new book. So is Miriam Schapiro (1923–2015), a Toronto-born artist who lived most of her life in the United States.
