Charmaine Lurch is an interdisciplinary visual artist whose work draws attention to human-environmental relationalities. Lurch’s paintings and sculptures are conversations on infrastructures and the spaces and places we inhabit. Working with a range of materials and reimagining our surroundings—from bees and taxi cabs to The Tempest and quiet moments of joy, Lurch subtly connects Black life and movement globally.
Lurch offers us materials that are seemingly simple and familiar. Figures marked in charcoal perform dynamic movements, allowing us to visualize active presence. Paint both pleases and jars vision to create new ways of seeing and knowing. Wire takes up space, is a drawing in space, wire moves through space. The formations cast shadows, trace landscapes, and act as a means to mark the inside/outside of things. These elements are her expressive and textural messengers. Bound together with research, they create signifying forms that seek to re-configure and rewire perception and ideas.
CHARMAINE LURCH | CV
EDUCATION
Continued Education at Al Green Sculpture Studio & School, 2020 - present
Masters in Environmental Studies, York University, 2015
Community Arts Practice Certificate, York University, 2012
Sculpture/Summer Program Halliburton School of the Arts, 2010
Arts Education Certificate, York University, Toronto, 2006
School of Visual Arts Summer Program, New York, 1990
Illustration, Ontario College of Art, 1987
Diploma of Applied Arts, Sheridan College, 1980
SELECTED SOLO/GROUP SHOWS
2021
Artifacts of the Horizon, Part 1: Rising from Place, Patel Brown Gallery, Toronto
Looking Down, Looking In, Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, Studio 106 Gallery, Toronto
Steps Create Residency, I Am Lucie I Am Thornton, Toronto
International Expo, Canadian Pavilion, Dubai - Online showcase HERE
Women of Resilience, Massillon Museum, Massillon, Ohio
Compounding Vision (solo show) Ottawa School of Art, Ottawa
Pollen Grains, Daniels Due East, Toronto
2020
Studio 106 Gallery
Women of Resilience, Ashland University Coburn Art Gallery, Ashland, Ohio
Compounding Vision, Riverbrink Museum, Niagara-on-the-Lake
2019
Compounding Vision, Riverbrink Museum, Niagara-on-the-Lake
Here We Are Here, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax
Green Olive Arts, Tetouan, Morocco
50th Anniversary, Sir George Williams Affair, Concordia University, Montreal
2018
Critical Mass, Art Gallery of Guelph, Guelph
Settling in Place, MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie
Nous Somme Ici D’Ici, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal
Tracing Absence and Presence, Durham Art Gallery, Durham
Here We Are Here: Black Canadian Contemporary Art, ROM, Toronto
Through the Material Landscape, Durham Art Gallery, Durham
2017
Visible Carriage, Every. Now. Then: Reframing Nationhood, Art Gallery of Ontario
Through the Material Landscape, Daniels Spectrum, Toronto
Together we Rise, Station Gallery, Whitby
Cogenetic, Baycrest Foundation, The Brain Project, Toronto
2016
BHM, Neilson Park Creative Centre, Toronto
Visible Carriage, Ontario Black History Society, George Brown College, Toronto
2014 - 2015
Conversations In Flux, Major Project, The Toronto Centre for the Arts, Toronto
Memory Box, Crossroads Space, with Anne Zbitnew, York University, Toronto
2013
Festival of Images & Words, Glendon/York University, Toronto
The Contemporary Urgencies of Audre Lorde’s Legacy, York University, Toronto
An (Other) Antilles. The Sir George Williams, Daniels Spectrum, Toronto
2012
National Biennial, The National Gallery of Jamaica, Jamaica WI
Things with Wings, Liu Institute of Global Issues UBC, Vancouver
2010 - 2011
Every Wych Way, Artscape Triangle Gallery, Toronto
From the Soul, Scotiabank Caribana, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
Association of African Canadian Artists, Oakville Town Hall, Oakville
2009
Things with Wings (sculpture installation), Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, Toronto
Savannah Festival of Arts, Brampton
Roots to Rhythm Caribana, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
2008
Café Society, Gallery 888, Toronto
Sangster International Airport, Jamaica
Caribana Festival, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
2007
Solo Show, Toronto Writers Centre, Toronto
Little Art Show, Juried Fundraiser for the Artists Network of Riverdale, Toronto
2006
Feminine Persuasion, Latitude Gallery, Toronto
Little Art Show, Juried Fundraiser for the Artists Network of Riverdale, Toronto
2005
Solo Show, The Lofts Gallery, Toronto
Little Art Show, Juried Fundraiser for the Artists Network of Riverdale, Toronto
2004
The Art of Watercolour, Mutual Gallery, Jamaica
The Red Show, Eastern Front Gallery, Toronto
Little Art Show, Juried Fundraiser for the Artists Network of Riverdale, Toronto
2003
An Artist’s Showcase, Pegasus Studios, Toronto
Group Show, Wagner Rosenbaum Gallery, Toronto
The Millennium Artists Auction, Fundraiser for Sunnybrook Hospital, Toronto
2002
Riverdale Art Walk, Toronto
The Little Art Show, Eastern Front Gallery, Toronto
McMichael Gallery Autumn Art Show, Kleinberg
Power of Expression, Works by Contemporary African Canadian Artists, Toronto
2000-2001
Contemporary African Canadian Artists, Kathleen Gormley McKay Centre, Markham
Riverdale Art Walk, Toronto
Power of Expressions Auction, Toronto
1999
Group Show, Wagner Rosenbaum Gallery, Toronto
Curated Works by Contemporary African Canadian Artists, YYZ Artist’s Outlet, Toronto
1998
Canadian Imagine Association, Toronto
1997
Dance Immersion, duMaurier Theatre, Toronto
Black Artist’s Showcase, Harry Jerome Awards, Toronto
Contemporary Arts by African Canadian Artists, Joseph D. Carrier Art Gallery, Toronto
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Nuances of Blackness, University of Ottawa, part of several chapters, 2021 (upcoming)
Charmaine’s Wire (chapter) in Dear Science and Other Stories, Katherine McKittrick, Duke University Press, 2021 (upcoming)
Katherine McKittrick’s Top 10, Artforum, 2020
Cover Illustration and Chapter 5 in The Black Shoals: Offshore Formations of Black and Native Studies, Tiffany Lethabo King, Duke University Press, 2019
Settling in Place: Aylan Couchie, Martha Griffith, Charmaine Lurch, MacLaren Art Centre Exhibition Curator Andrea Fatona, MacLaren Curator, Emily McKibbon, 2018
Every. Now. Then: Reframing Nationhood, Book, 2017
Aim to get diversity down to a fine art, The Metro, Catherine Kustanczy, 2016
Writings on Dionne Brand, TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, Illustrated cover, 2015
Bees of Toronto, City of Toronto Biodiversity Book Series, 2016
When Ackee Meets Codfish, Table top book, Jamaicans in Canada, 2014
Rites of the Healer, Sumach, Press Book Cover Illustration, 2006
Mela & the N’anga, Sumach, Press Book Cover Illustration, 2005
Looking Out Looking In, Text Book, Thompson Nelson, 2003
SELECTED AWARDS
STEPS CreateSpace BIPOC Public Arts Residency, 2021
Chalmers Arts Fellowship, 2019
Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant, 2017
Dian Marino Award, April 2015, York University
Canadian Museum of Nature/Nature Inspiration Award nominee. 2014
Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant. 2012/2013
Ontario Arts Council, Artist in Education Grant. 2006/2007
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
Creativity Within Revolt - Revolt in the Black Shoals and Progressive Dystopia Charmaine Lurch, Natasha Shange, Vanessa Argard-Jones, Tiffany Jeanette King, October 2021
The Role of Theory in Education, Arts Education: Concepts, Contexts and Frameworks, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, October 2021
Black Portraiture, Curatorial Perspectives II, Wedge Curatorial (studio visit/talk), October 2021
Naturalized Encounter, ArtSciSalon, York University, October 2021
Creative Ecologies: A Roundtable on Textuality and Visuality, presenting with Dr. Tiffany King, moderated by Cathy Thomas, Ph.D, Caribbean Studies Alliance Conference, Georgetown, Guyana (online)
Early Childhood Pedagogy Network Exposure, In Dialogue with Contemporary Art, Western University, July 2021
TDSB Summer Learning School, July 2021
Black Studies Summer Seminar, Drawing a Practice, University of Toronto Scarborough, June 2021
Protest and Pedagogy: The Legacies of Caribbean Student Resistance and the Sir George Williams Affair (Montreal, 1969), Concordia University, 2019
Doing Our Thing, Harbourfront Theatre, Toronto, 2019
The Sunday Scene, Charmaine Lurch on Thomas J. Price, The Power Plant, 2019
Here We Are Here: Black Canadian Contemporary Art, Panel, Royal Ontario Museum, 2018
Tracing Black Experience, Present and Past – a conversation with Naomi Norquay, 2018
Triangle Trade Conversations, Gallery TPW, talk with Yania Lee and Tau Lewis, 2017
Every. Now. Then: Reframing Nationhood, Panel, Art Gallery of Ontario, 2017
Judge for The Science Centre Innovation Award for Toronto Caribbean Carnival, 2017
Re-Imagining Subversion in/through Black Graduate Scholarship, York University, 2015
Refusing the Image of Fungability: The Black Female Body in Flux, Dalhousie University, 2015
Congress, Black Graduate Scholarship, panel presentation, Ottawa University, 2015
Body/Institution/Memory, University of the West Indies, Trinidad, 2013