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Janet Read

Artist member since 2021
Innisfil , Ontario

Janet Read is a painter, musician, and poet, whose childhood was spent near Lake Simcoe. The artist has sought the water’s edge ever since. Her roots go back to the Ottawa Valley Irish, Belfast, and county Wexford in Ireland: explaining a fondness for fiddle music, poetry, and the sea.

Residencies in Newfoundland and Ireland; and travels in the high Arctic, Norway, Iceland, and Scotland sparked a a lifetime’s investigation of water as metaphor for strength and fragility with special reference to the North Atlantic rim where climate change is accelerating at an unprecedented pace.

Read studied graduate philosophy and education at U of Toronto. Art studies at York and OCADU inform her practice of largescale paintings, book works, works on duralar and photo installation.

Exhibitions in commercial and public galleries, include the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, with a catalogue essay, the Varley Gallery of Markham, Art Gallery of Peterborough, Art Gallery of Northumberland, and the Whitby Station Gallery. Paintings can be found in public and private collections and internationally in Australia, England and the US.


Work


Inside the Studio


Q+A

Best season of the year in Toronto

autumn

Beverage of choice

coffee, strong, with milk

Favourite movie

About Time

Favourite musical artist / band right now

Yo Yo Ma, Alison Krauss, Robert Plant, Wailin' Jennies, Oliver Schroer

What places do you hang out in Toronto?

Riverdale, Danforth

Favourite book

Louise Penny series of Inspector Gamache novels

Upcoming Exhibitions
2024-09-01

Kent Farndale Gallery, Port Perry, ON
North by Northwest

2024-10-02

Clark Centre for the Arts, Toronto, ON
The Water is Wide

2025-01-03

Miles Nadal JCC, Toronto, ON
Northern Seas

Select Past Exhibitions
2022

Heliconian Club, Toronto
High Arctic Light

2021

Miles Nadal JCC, Toronto
High Arctic Light

2020

Propeller Art Gallery, Toronto
High Arctic Light

2023

Alliston, Gibson Art Centre
High Arctic Light

2023

Niagara Pumphouse Arts Centre, Niagara on the Lake, ON
High Arctic Light

2023

Dignam Gallery, WAAC, Toronto
High Arctic Light

Accolades
2020

Juror's Award
Carmichael Landscape Exhibition

2016

Eleanor Besen Award
Ontario Society of Artists

OAC grants
Exhibition Assistance

OAC grant
Writer's Reserve

Press
2023

NOTLocal https://www.janet-read.com/blog/
Arctic Influence evident in Pumphouse exhibit

Residencies
2008

Dingle, Ireland
art

2004

Pouch Cove, NFLD
art

Education
2010

University of Toronto
M.A.

University of Toronto
Dip.C.S.

University of Toronto
B.A. [Hon]

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