In a surprise announcement this evening in Toronto, National Gallery of Canada director Marc Mayer stated that Toronto artist Shary Boyle had been chosen to represent Canada at the 2013 Venice Biennale.
Boyle is a multidisciplinary artist who has produced everything from home-bound books and zines to collaborations with musicians to finely crafted porcelain miniatures to oil paintings to large-scale installations. Throughout her oeuvre, she has melded the expression of emotional truths with a tendency to fantastical, somewhat mythic imagery.
Boyle was chosen by a national selection committee whose members included Gaëtane Verna, director of the Power Plant; Timothy Long, head curator of the MacKenzie Art Gallery; Sarah Fillmore, chief curator at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; Josée Drouin-Brisebois, curator of contemporary art at the National Gallery of Canada; and Marc Mayer.
Canadian representation at the Biennale is organized in partnership between the National Gallery of Canada and the Canada Council. The next Venice Biennale opens to the public on June 1, 2013.
