Diana Thorneycroft

Birdmen (ranch hands and members of the selection committee)

2015

Diana Thorneycroft is a Winnipeg-based contemporary artist, born in 1956, in Claresholm, Alberta, Canada. She has exhibited various bodies of work across Canada, the United States and Europe, as well as in Moscow, Tokyo and Sydney. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2016 Manitoba Arts Award of Distinction, assistance to visual arts long-term grant from the Canada Council, several senior arts grants from the Manitoba Arts Council and a fleck fellowship from the Banff Center for the Arts. Her early work was the subject of national radio documentaries and a CBC national documentary for television. From 2000-02, Diana's photo-based exhibition, “The Body, its Lesson and Camouflage” toured to eight venues. Several images from this show were included in the 2002 Phaidon Press publication, Blink, which presents the work of 100 rising stars in photography. Diana is best known for her photographic work depicting facets of Canadian identity. Some of the work is humorous, sometimes dark, frequently both. From 2007-14, she completed four photography series, “The Canadiana Martyrdom Series," “Group of Seven Awkward Moments," “A People's History” and “Canadians and Americans (best friends forever... it's complicated).” Canadian Art Magazine selected the “Group of Seven Awkward Moments” as one of The Top 10 Exhibitions of 2008. Equally as dark, is her drawing series, “There Must Be 50 Ways to Kill Your Lover,” which is divided into three categories, Foul Play, Desperate Housewives and Failed Relationships. In 2013, Diana began working on a complex installation, entitled “Black Forest (dark waters).” The exhibition, which had its inaugural opening in 2018, is composed of three interconnected bodies of work and two sculptural installations that are presented as physical evidence of the cryptic narrative that unfolds in the suite of 19 photographs.