Michelle Paterok

Biography

Michelle Paterok

Emerging artist Michelle Paterok was born in Edmonton, AB in 1994.  A recent graduate of Western University’s MFA program in 2022, she also has a BFA in Art and Design from the University of Alberta in 2016.

Since 2013, Paterok has presented her work in solo and duo exhibitions in Canada, Greece, and Japan and was the Canadian Artist in Residence at the Vorres Museum in Paiania, Greece in 2018.  More recently, she attended the Vermont Studio Centre artist residency in June 2023.

Her work has been supported by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant in 2023.

She lives and has an active studio practice in London, ON.

“My 2022 MFA thesis project, “At Dusk,” explored the poetics of colour and light in the context of domestic space, informed by philosopher Timothy Morton’s idea that our current historical moment is haunted by a sense of unreality: “Being in a place, being in an era, for instance an era of mass extinction,” Morton writes, “is intrinsically uncanny.” My newest body of work, “To Neither Quite Belonging,” expands on these ideas, but shifts from interior spaces to the landscape.

“To Neither Quite Belonging” takes its title from an excerpt of the poem At Sundown by Rainer Maria Rilke. Describing sundown, Rilke writes:

You watch how gradually the landscape’s contours change,
some rising heavenward as others downward fall;
leaving you alone, to neither quite belonging.

The basis of this project comes from my experience of getting lost in a forest last autumn. On a cold evening, surrounded by trees and off trail, I was without a reliable map and unsure of the path toward my destination. With sunlight growing dimmer and a dark blue haze cast over the trees, sounds I’m used to hearing—rustling leaves and cracking branches on the forest floor—found a new, more anxious tenor. In these circumstances, my ordinary surroundings took on an otherworldly tone. This feeling is encapsulated by a French expression for twilight, “entre chien et loup.” Translating as “between dog and wolf,” it denotes a time when lighting conditions are such that one can’t distinguish between a dog and a wolf—between what is familiar and unfamiliar, real and unreal, safe or threatening.

The environment, once familiar, suddenly turned mysterious, oneiric. Natural sources of light or reflective surfaces—moonlight through trees, dew on the foliage, fireflies—took on a particular significance. My new paintings explore this specific atmospheric effect, mining the invocations of the quality of light within this transitory period of time.” 

Selected Works

Exhibitions

Michelle Paterok

July 6 - July 29 - 2023

Michelle Paterok “To Neither Quite Belonging”

In our middle gallery for the month of July we are featuring Michelle Paterok's new poetic oil paintings and plein-air watercolours.

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Curriculum Vitae

BORN

1994, Edmonton, AB
Based in London, ON

EDUCATION

2022: MFA Visual Art, Western University, London, Canada
2016: BFA Art and Design, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
2013: Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan (Japanese language course)

COLLECTIONS

Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, ON
University of Alberta Students’ Union, Edmonton, AB
Contava Inc., Edmonton, AB
Edmonton Exchanger Ltd., Edmonton, AB
Members Print Exchange, Society of Northern Alberta Print Artists, Edmonton, AB

Private Collections

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023: UNTAPPED, Artist Project Toronto, Toronto, ON
2023: Imbolc, Purslane Art (online)
2022: betwixt and between, Project Gallery V, Brooklyn, NY
2022: Annual Juried Exhibition, Latcham Art Centre, Stouffville, ON
2021: Distance Makes the Heart Grow Weak, ArtLAB Gallery, Western University, London, ON
2020: Be Here, Be There, Forest City Gallery, London, ON
2020: Nengajo-ten, Nanto Fukumitsu Art Museum, Nanto, Japan
2019: The Art Thing, HOUSEHOLD Gallery, Himi, Japan
2019: Copper Prints, Mikando Gallery, Tonami, Japan
2017: Schmoozy, Latitude 53, Edmonton, AB
2016: Denouement: Bachelor of Fine Arts Graduation Show, Fine Arts Building Gallery, Edmonton, AB
2016: Fresh Prints, SNAP Gallery, Edmonton, AB
2016: Annotations, Rutherford Atrium, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
2016: Frame of Reference, Milner Gallery, Edmonton, AB
2015: Bridging Encounters, Latitude 53, Edmonton, AB
2015: The Marginal In Sight, Rutherford Atrium, University of Alberta
2014: The Book as a Weapon of Change II, Rutherford Atrium, University of Alberta
2013: The Book as a Weapon of Change, Rutherford Atrium, University of Alberta
2013: i see you pan, Latitude 53, Edmonton, AB

SOLO & 2 PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2023: To Neither Quite Belonging, Michael Gibson Gallery, London, ON
2022: At Dusk, McIntosh Gallery, Western University, London, ON
2021: Night on Earth, Satellite Project Space, London, ON
2020: Darkness, Light, Wind then Silence
in collaboration with Tomo Endo, Kosho Temple, Himi, Japan
2018: Unauthorized, Vorres Museum, Paiania, Greece (curated by Caterina Pizanias)

COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS

2017: Commissioned Mural, Room at the Top, University of Alberta Students’ Union
(in collaboration with Agata Garbowska)

SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS

2023: Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant
2023: Ontario Arts Council Visual Arts Creation Project Grant
2021: SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Master’s Scholarship, Western University
2020: Alberta Foundation for the Arts Visual Arts and New Media Individual Project Grant
2020: Chair’s Entrance Scholarship, Western University
2020: Graduate Research Scholarship, Western University
2018: Alberta Foundation for the Arts Visual Arts and New Media Individual Project Grant
2018: Edmonton Arts Council CIP Travel Grant
2016: Samuel James and Augusta Kreye Deans Award in Art & Design, University of Alberta
2016: Nomination for BMO 1st Art! Invitational Student Art Competition, University of Alberta
2015: Elizabeth Ann Burgess Award in Contemporary Art, University of Alberta
2015: Roger S. Smith Undergraduate Research Award, University of Alberta
2015: University of Alberta Non-Academic Staff Association Student Award
2013-15: Jason Lang Scholarship
2013: The Prince Takamado Japan Canada Memorial Fund Summer Travel Award
2012: Alexander Rutherford Scholarship

RESIDENCIES

2023: Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2018: Vorres Museum Residency, Paiania, Greece

PROFESSIONAL / VOLUNTEER ACTIVITY

2021-22: Teaching Assistant, Intermediate and Advanced Print Media, Western University, London, ON
2021-22: Treasurer, Visual Arts Graduate Students’ Association, Western University, London, ON
2020-21: Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Print Media, Western University, London, ON
2020: Research Assistant, McIntosh Gallery, Western University, London, ON
2018-20: Assistant Language Teacher through the JET Programme, Toyama Prefectural Board of Education, Toyama, Japan
2015: Program Volunteer, E4C’s ArtStart, Edmonton, AB
2015-16: Vice President Internal, University of Alberta Visual Arts Students’ Association
2014: Student Representative, University of Alberta Visual Arts Students’ Association

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Berardini, Adi. “Memory and Place: In Conversation with Michelle Paterok.” Femme Art Review, May 24, 2021.
Charkow, Brenley. “Denouement.” Curious Arts Magazine, April 2016.

PUBLICATIONS / CATALOGUES

2022: ArtMaze Magazine, Issue 28
2021: The Walrus, Special Winter Edition, 22 December 2021
2021: Distance Makes the Heart Grow Weak Exhibition Publication, ArtLAB Gallery, Western University
2020: Toyama TRAM Magazine, 2020 Spring Edition
2016: Denouement Exhibition Catalogue, FAB Gallery, University of Alberta
2015: Annotations Exhibition Catalogue and Collaborative Criticisms, University of Alberta Department of Art and Design

Press

Femme Art Review

Memory and Place: In Conversation with Michelle Paterok

May 2021

Interview by Adi Berardini

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Curious Arts Magazine

Michelle Paterok

Denouement

April 2016

Brenley Charkow

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Chantal Khoury
Niloufar Salimi
Michael Pszczonak