About -
Hannah Petkau grew up on a remote island off the west coast of Canada. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Art with Distinction at the Alberta College of Art + Design in 2015. She has exhibited in western Canada extensively and participated in a two-month residency and exhibition in Spain in 2019.
The surrounding environment is a stimulant and collaborator in her practice, navigating ideas of nostalgia and sense of place through materials and process. By combining objects that are found, transformed and constructed, automatic associations are interrupted. Some of what is gathered on walks through the landscape are familiar. Others materials will remain a mystery. Intimate gestures with graphite, thread, wire and clay construct façades of encountered and imagined objects. Industrial processes and mediations of her hands correspond with forces of the moon, tides and other natural systems. Negotiating these and other intersections with the landscape forward a dialog between human and natural actions, once and future.
Currently based in Calgary, Canada.
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Education
2019-22 MFA, University of Oregon, Eugene, USA
2015 BFA, Drawing with Distinction, Alberta College of Art + Design (ACAD), Calgary, AB, Canada
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Solo Exhibitions
2018 – 2021 between-ness, AFA Travelling Exhibition Program (TREX), Medicine Hat, AB
2018 ebb and flow, Untitled Art Society, Calgary, AB
2018 Objects of Ambition, The Goat Shop, Calgary, AB
2016 ambiguous implements, The Old Schoolhouse Gallery, Cortes Island, BC
2015 ambiguous implements, Marion Nicoll Gallery, ACAD, Calgary, AB
2015 Catching the Ephemeral, Stride Gallery +15 Window Gallery, Arts Commons, Calgary, AB
Duo Exhibitions
2019 Pooling, Old SchoolHouse Gallery, Cortes Island, BC (with Francesca Belcourt)
2019 Emergence, Estudio Nómada, Barcelona, Spain (with Carien Vugts)
Selected Group Exhibitions
2018 Members Show, The Old Schoolhouse Gallery, Cortes Island, BC
2018 When we come out of hibernation, Five Art & Merchandise, Calgary, AB
2016 Members Show, The Old Schoolhouse Gallery, Cortes Island, BC
2015 WE’RE 30 NOT TRUSTWORTHY - STRIDE ANNUAL FUN-RAISER, Stride Gallery, Calgary, AB
2015 Loose Leaves, Casa Gallery, Lethbridge, AB
2015 ACAD Graduating Student Show, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, AB
2015 Nature Unfound, The Wall Gallery, ACAD, Calgary, AB
2015 You Need To Be This Tall To View The Artwork, Main Mall, ACAD, Calgary, AB
2014 METAMORPHIC: Drawing Majors Exhibition, Gallery 371, ACAD, Calgary
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Bibliography
2017 “Hannah Petkau: Fictitious Objects” Erin Robinson, Kadenze Blog. (interview) March 31
2016 “Artist transforms Gallery with Ambiguous Implements” Richard Trueman, Tideline. (online review) August 6
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Awards + Scholarships
2015 Governor General’s Academic Medal
2015 ACAD Board of Governors’ Award, Calgary, AB
2015 Fourth Year Drawing Major Merit Scholarship, ACAD, Calgary, AB
2014 Third Year Drawing Major Merit Scholarship, ACAD, Calgary, AB
2013 Second Year Drawing Major Merit Scholarship, ACAD, Calgary, AB
2011 Entrance Scholarship, ACAD, Calgary, AB
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Residencies
2019 Mas Els Igols Artist Residency, self-directed residency, Torrelles de Foix, Spain (two months)
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Professional Experience
Artist Talk / Workshop, Assembled Artifacts, TREX & Fort Macleod Library, Fort Macleod AB, May 16, 2019
Studio Visits, Estudio Nómada, Barcelona, Spain, March 11, 2019
Artist Talk / Workshop, Assembled Artifacts, TREX & St. Patrick Fine Art Elementary School, Lethbridge AB, Oct 29, 2018
Volunteer (Special Event, Gallery Attendant & Public Programing), Esker Foundation, Calgary AB, 2017-2018
Instructor, Yearbook Elective, Calgary Waldorf School, Calgary AB, 2014-2016
Instructor, Collage Elective, Calgary Waldorf School, Calgary AB, 2016
Workshop, Convergence, Ambrose College & Rocky View School District, Calgary AB, May 26, 2016
Artist Talk, ambiguous implements, Old SchoolHouse Gallery, Cortes Island BC, Aug 12, 2016
Instructor, Drawing Elective, Calgary Waldorf School, Calgary AB, 2015
Workshop, Drawing from Life, Treehouse Collective, Cortes Island BC, 2012
Curator / Display Coordinator, Wild Cortes: Woods, Wetlands and Waters, Summer Fun!, Cortes Island Museum & Archives Society, Cortes Island BC, 2011-2012