Joan Kaufman is a Toronto-based multi-media artist working in photography, video, sound and sculpture installation.  She has exhibited nationally and internationally in public, commercial, and artist-run galleries; is the recipient of Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and Manitoba Arts Council grants; and has works in major public and private collections. Her work is archived in the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art database.

Working in series, Kaufman produces constructed realities that explore aspects of the human condition. Personal and external events warn us daily of our fragility, yet we find ways of coping and resolving exigencies.  In tableaux-style scenes, her characters respond in primitive and makeshift ways – always determined, always inventive, even when the outcome is uncertain.

Her recent body of work, Suspended, explores recurring themes in which opposites conflate: freedom and confinement, determination and futility, bravery and crippling inaction. Individuals are confined to precarious and absurd situations with no beginning and no end, just endless and determined repetition with darkly amusing results.

For Kaufman’s portfolio, please visit her website www.joankaufman.com

Images:

Suspended 1.2, film-based digital output on archival media, 54.4 x 40.0 inches
Suspended 3.1, film-based digital output on archival media, 40.0 x 30.0 inches
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