Varied Editions Featured Artist

Varied Editions Online Exhibition: Jennie Suddick

Jennie Suddick is a multi-­disciplinary artist based in Toronto, Canada. Her work has been exhibited in Canada, the U.S., Europe and Asia. Her work deals with issues of identity, place and meditated relationships to nature. She earned her Masters of Fine Arts from York University and holds both a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Advanced Visual Studies Certificate from OCAD University. Suddick has participated in The Woodn’t Bees Residency Program (Berlin), The Open Studio Visiting Artist Residency (Toronto), The Elsewhere Collaborative Artist in Residence Program (North Carolina) and Spark Box Studio (Prince Edward Country) under the Winter Residency Award. Her solo projects have been featured at The Art Gallery of York University (agYU), Harbourfront Centre and as part of Land|Slide: Possible Futures at The Markham Museum and The Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi­‐city Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture. She is currently an Assistant Professor at OCAD University where she is also Associate Chair, Contemporary Drawing and Print Media.

Suddick’s work reflects on the relationship between individuals and their environments, as well as the role these connections and/or divides have in the development of autonomy and identity. Multidisciplinary works explore the desire to develop relationships to and make an imprint on ones surroundings. Both her conceptual and material choices create a critical dialectic around nostalgia and heritage, often in connection with the iconic use of the landscape in Canadian art. Increasingly, community engagement and interactivity are predominant considerations in her practice and research.

A reoccurring theme is the mediated relationships with nature that is a common contemporary condition, evident in growing suburban areas where there is a need to feel personal connections to the manufactured or easily accessible. This resonates with Suddick’s own personal experiences, as her hometown of Markham, Ontario is Canada’s fastest growing city. This once rural town has developed into predominantly suburban sprawl, indicative of trends evident throughout other rural areas on the outskirt of major North American cities.

At the core of Suddick’s work is the acknowledgement of seeking a personal bond to something that is shared, repeated, and accessible, while often artificially manufactured or reproduced. She acknowledges the imprint these entities leave on individuals (or vice‐versa) while accessing and investigating these concepts through the use of printmaking materials and processes, which share and have the ability to exemplify these principles.

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