Jennifer Macklem

Jennifer Macklem is an Associate Professor of Sculpture in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Arts, where she also served as Director of the Graduate Program in Fine Arts in 2011. Originally from Montreal, she maintains an active international artistic practice while teaching at the university.

Education:

• Masters degree in Visual Arts (Sculpture and Painting), Université du Québec à Montréal (1991)
• Bachelors degree in Visual Arts, Parsons School of Design (1984)
• Diploma in Painting, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Paris France (1980)

Macklem's artistic practice spans installation, sculpture, painting, drawing, and video, with research interests focusing on transrationality, biodiversity, international exchanges, perception, embodiment, eco spirituality, and cross disciplinarity. Her work explores the mind-body relationship, subjectivity and objectivity, animals and natural history, and popular cultural ideas around psychology, spirituality, fiction, and narrative. She investigates connections between visual art and literature, music, and natural science, creating experimental works that engage with environmental themes and ecological consciousness.

Macklem has participated in 51 group exhibitions, 15 solo exhibitions, and 7 public art commissions internationally. Her work is included in permanent collections of the City of Ottawa, the Museum of Quebec, the Kelowna Art Gallery, and the New Brunswick Art Bank. She has presented 19 artist talks at universities and conferences across Canada, the United States, and India. Her large-scale public art projects include works for Moncton City Hall, Calgary International Airport, Kelowna Municipal Library, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, and Whistler Village BC. In 2014, she co-directed and wrote the documentary/fiction film 'A Sacred River' in Varanasi, India, a co-production between Banaras Hindu University and the University of Ottawa.