Tiffany Wollman is a Calgary based artist expanding the idea of what a painting can be. Wollman grew up in Indus and graduated from Chestermere High School in 2002 and then went on to study at the Alberta College of Art and Design for five years majoring in painting.
Wollman was recently chosen as the regional winner of the BMO 1st Art! Awards, a national competition for emerging artists. As top entry for Alberta, she wins $5,000 and her artwork, titled Pipe, will go on display for the month of October as part of an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Arts (MOCCA) in Toronto.
Pipe is indicative of her current practice, which is full of play, an exploration of materials and an indirect inquiry about morality. This work is a cohesion of ideas both in terms of exploring the physicality of materials and personal interests, and also a continued progression to returning to a three-dimensional form. Tiffany finds her freedom working outside the frame of the traditional rectangular canvas.
As Canada’s only national graduating artist competition, BMO 1st Art! honours visual arts excellence in post-secondary institutions from coast to coast. This year’s winners were selected from 250 entries, the highest number submitted to date for the competition.
“The talent of this year’s winners is exceptional, ” said Gilles Ouellette, President & Chief Executive Officer, Private Client Group, BMO Financial Group. “We were extremely impressed by the submissions and the variety and scope of the work.”
For the competition, deans and instructors of undergraduate certificate, diploma, and degree arts programs are invited to select three graduating students who stand out from among their peers due to their skill and imagination. A panel of esteemed judges chooses an overall national winner and one winner from each eligible province and territory.
Through art, Wollman has found a way to put her creativity and idea’s into action. She is curious by nature and cares deeply about our planet which was the foundation for creating Pipe. The young artist wants to encourage important conversation by asking questions through her art and bringing to light several debates surrounding the sensitivity of Alberta’s ecosystem as well as the negative social impact that she fears tailing pipes have on community.
“I am concerned with social and environmental issues, in particular those surrounding the Alberta Tar Sands” says Wollman, “Pipe was made in reaction not only to the pipeline debates and spills, but also to tailing pipes, and I want us to ask ourselves if we are willing to sacrifice everyone’s water to obtain non-renewable resources.”
Wollman explains how she created the winning piece of art, “I built the steel pipe as a support for paint to spill out of, aged and discarded house paints were mixed and poured into sheets that were folded and draped, emerging like toxins and pollutants being released back into the ecosystem. ” It is estimated that the art piece weighs in excess of 300lbs.
According to Wollman, Pipe is only the beginning to a new body of work as she plans to continue with an ongoing series of art to heighten awareness regarding local environmental and social issues.
Wollman is planning an art exhibition at AVALANCHE! Institute of Contemporary Art in Calgary in January 2014. For more information on Tiffany Wollman’s art visit www.tiffanywollman.com
