Colleen Wolstenholme
Undercover
2011

About the Item

Colleen Wolstensholme can be said to have a certain fascination with repetition, the “female condition” and with the bio-medical. Her work, primarily three dimensional – ranges from large-scale sculpture to jewelry. Drawing on previous work, which commented on the way in which women are portrayed in popular culture and the prevalence of mood altering medication, Wolstensholme’s, new show is speaking about choice and our ability to choose how to present ourselves publicly and the ways in which this ultimately forces multiple readings. Wolstenholme received a Bachelor of Fine Art in 1986 from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax and a Master of Fine Art in 1992 from the State University of New York, The College at New Paltz. Her pharmaceutically inspired sculptures and jewellery gained notoriety internationally and her work has been widely featured in magazines and journals, namely Harper's, People, Newsweek, C Magazine, and the London Sunday Times, as well as being reviewed in numerous art magazines and journals. Wolstenholme's one person exhibitions include: AH, Saw Gallery, Ottawa, ON, 2002; Pharmacopoeia, Hamilton Artist's Inc., Hamilton ON, 1999; Pills, grunt gallery, Vancouver, BC, 1998; Patience, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS, 1996; The Persistence of Denial, College Art Gallery, The College at New Paltz, New York, NY, 1992. Her group exhibitions include: Container, Real Art Ways, Hartford, Conn., 2003/4; Gill/Wolstenholme, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS, 2002; Surface Tourist, 15 Cecil Park, Crouch End, London UK, 2002; Art and Music Memorabelia, Horse Hospital Gallery, London UK, 2001; The Time Machine, Sculpture in the 20th Century, The University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Lethbridge AB, 2001; Desire: Greg Forest, Lauren Schaffer, Colleen Wolstenholme, Confederation Centre, Charlottetown, PEI and St. Mary's University Art Centre, Halifax, NS, 2000-01. Colleen Wolstenholme is represented by Pari Nadimi Gallery, Torornto , ON.

Creator:
Colleen Wolstenholme (1963, Canadian)
Creation Year:
2011
Medium:
Porcelain
Movement & Style:
Contemporary
Period:
2010-
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Montreal, CA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU476692392
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Shop All Colleen Wolstenholme

Colleen Wolstenholme

Best known for the jewelry and figurative sculptures based on a range of pharmaceutical drugs that garnered her widespread notoriety in the late 1990s, prolific artist Colleen Wolstenholme has also created abstract drawings and other works over the years that continue to stimulate dialogue and attract attention.

Born in 1963 in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Wolstenholme became interested in visual arts while studying fashion design at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. After earning her bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 1986, she continued her studies and received her master’s degree from the State University of New York at New Paltz in 1992, where she specialized in metal and jewelry arts.

Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, Wolstenholme worked with a range of mediums such as jewelry, sculpture, digital collage, painting and embroidery to create art that served as social criticism. Beginning in the mid-1990s, she made oversized plaster-cast sculptures and silver or gold jewelry that took the form of antidepressant pills and capsules in order to address several issues, including the fact that drugs are prescribed at disproportionate rates to women versus men, that the healthcare industry is overly reliant on prescribing drugs, and that anyone in treatment and on a course of medication is generally made to feel less healthy than those who aren’t. Wolstenholme’s provocative work made headlines in the Guardian, the Los Angeles Times and Psychology Today.

Wolstenholme’s art has also seen her unpacking her interest in the human brain. This is demonstrated in such abstract sculptures as Deviant Grid, the “Matrix Index” series and Spatial Anomaly in which she depicts the brain’s neurons. In her “Hyperobjects” series, Wolstenholme also focuses on systems that “humans have little power over but control and constrain us.” These include figurative drawings and abstract drawings of wind patterns, titled with geographical coordinates.

Wolstenholme’s art is part of the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

On 1stDibs, find a range of Colleen Wolstenholme sculptures, drawings and watercolor paintings.