Biography
Tracy McMenemy is a multi-disciplinary artist who bridges painting, photography, installation and sculpture, and incorporates a range of techniques such as fumage, objet trouvé, and photographic transfer. She integrates artistic residency, field research, and work with museums through an investigative revealing and retelling of our historic and cultural narratives. Her work is compelled by the social dimension of art objects, from painting and sculpture to architecture and design, and from intensive research and the archival documents, images, and materials it uncovers.
McMenemy’s ongoing work with museums and archives is increasingly central to her paths of inquiry. She initiates her practice through site-specific travel and field research in context with investigations into historical images and stories that inform her understanding of places that captivate her. From here, her creative response starts with found objects – ship parts, blueprints, historical photographs, even debris from deteriorating buildings. As these infiltrate her studio they inspire a space for innovation and experimentation, a workshop to examine their physical and conceptual limitations.
The growing scope of McMenemy’s materials work to blur lines not only between established media such as photography and painting, but between artistic and non-artistic materials themselves. The utility of sailcloth is both reflected and distorted in its use as a projection surface. The symbolism of a wedding dress turns on itself through its tearing, painting, and fumage. Her work elicits an ongoing conversation between media: presenting their distinctions and similarities, and reflecting on their function in innovative ways.
Her early merging of media and materials focused on photography and painting.
“Photographs absorb, while paintings produce. My photographs absorb the detail, while my paintings produce an abstraction. By pushing these realities together within the same frame, I attempt to create a powerful tension between the two.”
McMenemy distresses the photograph itself to emphasize its materiality. Transferring the image onto a readymade surface, she begins this painstaking process by first removing the photographic paper using steel wool – strategically leaving behind selections of the paper to create a variance in texture. Paint, graphite and ink are then applied with the same mark-making techniques practiced in traditional painting.
More recently, she has used the tools of the maritime and its industry to create layers of social commentary in paintings, photographs, projections and sculptures. Her handling of physical sails reflects deep meditations on displacement and restoration, levity and weight, power and vulnerability. The symbolism of a bride’s wedding dress contrasts aspiration with confinement, hope with disappointment, and self-determination with oppression. As her historical investigations deepen, so does the poignancy of the interaction with her materials.
Beyond her work with museums and archives, Tracy McMenemy has a variety of private and corporate collectors in Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, and Vancouver.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
1992 BA Film Studies, Queen’s University, ON Canada
Solo Exhibitions
2023 Folded Earth, Fortune Gallery, Victoria BC
2021 Folded Earth, Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival and United Contemporary, Toronto ON
2019 The Girls Are Coming!, Vancouver Maritime Museum, Vancouver, BC
2017 Songs of the Smoke, South Main Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2016 Ghost Passages of the McKenzie Shipyards, Vancouver Maritime Museum, Vancouver, BC
2016 Arts in View, Blueshore Financial, North Vancouver, BC
2015 Arts in View, Blueshore Financial, North Vancouver, BC
2013 Drive By, Tartooful Gallery, North Vancouver, BC
Group Exhibitions
2023 Answering the Feminist Call: Collecting Women Artists, ArtRow, Victoria, BC
2021-2022 Canadian Pavilion at World Expo, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2021 Cayman Art Week, IDG, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
2018 Spaces, Places and Traces: Culture Crawl Preview Exhibit, Vancouver, BC
2017 Arts in View, Blueshore Financial, North Vancouver, BC
2017 Winter Showcase, South Main Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2012 Fire, Kay Meek Centre, West Vancouver, BC
2011 The Space In Between, Atta Glanz Productions and Emmanuelle Renard, Vancouver, BC
Film and Television (Art on Set)
2023 The Retirement Plan, Tim Brown (Director), cast: Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Ernie Hudson, Ashley Greene, Jackie Earle Haley, Lynn Whitfield, Rick Fox, Joel David Moore, Grace Byers
Press
2019, March 9. Griffin, Kevin. 99 days at sea: Art exhibition explores the haunting bride ship Tynemouth, Vancouver Sun
2019, March 6. Lederman, Marsha. The Vancouver Maritime Museum kicks off International Women's Day with The Girls Are Coming!, The Globe and Mail
2019, March 6. Smith, Janet. Vancouver Maritime Museum art exhibit conveys horror and hope aboard a bride ship, The Georgia Straight
2019, March 5. Mang, Lauren. This Exhibit Salutes Women Brought to Victoria, B.C. Aboard Bride Ships, Gray Magazine
2019, March 1. Carlson, Paula. Maritime Museum exhibit explores history behind Victorian Brideship, North Shore News
2017, November 17. Parry, Malcolm. Town Talk: SEAFORTHS SEEN, Vancouver Sun
2017, November 9. Lyon, Christie. Tracy McMenemy explores our collective memory of war, North Shore News
2016, January 8. Cluff, Rick. McKenzie Shipyard in North Vancouver subject of art exhibit, CBC News
2016, January 6. Cluff, Rick. McKenzie Shipyard, closed in 2014, subject of art exhibit, CBC Player
2015, December 1. McPhee, Tracy. Artist Tracy McMenemy resurrects the bygone McKenzie shipyard, North Shore News
Professional Experience
2012–2014 Artist in Residence, Four Seasons, Vancouver, BC
2011–2013 Art Teacher, Coast Resource Centre, Vancouver, BC
2011 Artist in Residence, Artemis Gallery, Deep Cove, BC