Barbara Astman

Barbara Astman, RCA, is a Canadian artist who specializes in a hybrid of photography and new media, often using her own body as object and subject, merging art and technology.[1][2]

Barbara Astman
Born
Barbara Anne Astman

(1950-07-12) July 12, 1950
Rochester, New York, U.S.
EducationRIT (School for American Craftsmen), OCA
AwardsOntario Arts Council, Canada Council
Websitewww.barbaraastman.com

Early life

Astman was born in Rochester, New York, the second of three children of Bertha (née Meisel, a homemaker) and George Astman (an auto mechanic and salesman.) She received her associate degree at the Rochester Institute of Technology's School for American Craftsmen. In 1970, she moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada to study at the Ontario College of Art (now OCAD University,) and graduated with an associate degree (A.O.C.A.).

Artistic career

Astman's practice is partly composed of public art installations in Canada and abroad, including an installation at the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1987. Recently, she completed a project for the new Canadian Embassy in Berlin, Germany[3] consisting of a fritted glass tower wall. She joined the faculty of OCAD in 1975 and is a Professor in the Faculty of Art.

Early career

In the 1970s, she began exploring Polaroid technology and Xerography as a vehicle for art making. She moved to Toronto in 1970 to attend OCAD.[4] Wanting to explore the city she found inspiration in Kensington Market, Spadina Avenue and Queen Street West.[4] Her first successful solo show was held in 1973, at Toronto's Baldwin Street Gallery of Photography. Two years later, the Still Photography Division of the National Film Board of Canada now called the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa hosted her first museum show. Astman began the Colour Xerox Artist's Program at Visual Arts Ontario in 1977. She sat on the Board of Directors at the Art Gallery at Harbourfront (now called The Power Plant) from 1983-85. Since then, other board positions have included: the City of Toronto, Public Art Commission; the Curatorial Team for the International WaterWorks Exhibition in 1988. Her initial commercial venture was the creation of the album cover for the first Loverboy record for CBS Records.

Mid career

Liz Wylie curated Astman's mid-career retrospective, Barbara Astman: Person/Persona A 20 Year Survey Exhibition in 1995. It opened at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and then toured three other Canadian museums. The Art Gallery of Ontario reopened in 2008, after a year's redevelopment by architect Frank Gehry. Astman and AGO Assistant Curator Georgiana Uhlyarik were chosen to co-curate an exhibit focusing on Joyce Weiland and early feminist practice.[5]

Barbara Astman has been heavily inspired by stores, even creating her own as an art work: Dancing with Che: Enter Through the Gift Shop (2011–13).[4]Che Guevara's face appears on mugs, plates, and other novelty goods, though none are for sale.[4]

She also works with fabrics and in 2013 Astman worked with designer Jeremy Liang to create a line of limited edition silk scarves based on her Newspaper Series (2006-2008) for Jonathan and Olivia fashion boutique in Toronto.[4]

Awards

In 2000 she was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy.[6]

Public collections

Astman's work is held in the following permanent collections:

Critical reception

The Clementine Suite

"...a celebration of the human spirit."[17]

Dancing With Che

"...echoes across more than a century of technological innovation and evolution of the medium".[18]
"Audacious, humorous, improbable." [19]

Wonderland

"Intimate, personal, and quietly enthralling."[20]

References
  1. Enright, Robert. Border Crossings Issue #90, Vol. 23, No.1, May 2004, pp. 43-50
  2. Holubizky, Ihor; The Canadian Encyclopedia http://ccca.finearts.yorku.ca/c/writing/h/holubizky/hol004t.html%5B%5D
  3. Government of Canada http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/germany-allemagne/offices-bureaux/embassy_art_ambassade.aspx?lang=eng Archived 2013-06-04 at the Wayback Machine
  4. guhlyarik. "Barbara Astman: A Movie For One". Canadian Art. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  5. Murray, Joan; Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century, Dundurn Press, 1999, pp168-170
  6. The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-08-04. Retrieved 2010-01-16.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. "Contemporary Collection". Art Gallery of Hamilton. Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  8. "The Collection | Art Gallery of Ontario". Art Gallery of Ontario. Archived from the original on 2018-03-09. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  9. "Barbara Astman: personal persona : a 20-year survey | Art Gallery Collections". collections.burnabyartgallery.ca.
  10. "Barbara Astman". www.gallery.ca. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  11. Astman, Barbara. "Works in the Collection". rmg.minisisinc.com. Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
  12. https://collections.eastman.org/people/3168/barbara-astman/objects. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2019. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/69113/untitled-9?ctx=995c606531e832a6c258ec3f8e33b954a7b6cf73&idx=0
  14. "Barbara Astman". www.gallery.ca.
  15. "Barbara Astman | Works | eMuseum | UofT Art Museum".
  16. "The Art of Light".
  17. Dault, Julia; National Post, Jan. 12, 2006
  18. Liss, David and Rubenstein, Bonnie, Exhibition Curators, Still Revolution: Suspended in Time, the Museum for Contemporary Canadian Art, May, 2009
  19. Wylie, Liz; Canadian Art, Fall 2003, Volume 20, No. 3, p. 139
  20. Whyte, Murray, Toronto Star, Wonderland Nov. 16, 2009. http://thestar.blogs.com/untitled/2009/11/barbara-astmans-wonderland-at-jane-corkin.html Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine.
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