About the artist and the work
Bio
After retiring from a lengthy career as clinical psychologist, Lyn studied visual art at Thompson Rivers University. In 2019 she was awarded a TRU Undergraduate Research Experience Award Program scholarship, and in 2020 completed a BFA. Lyn exhibits paintings, drawings, collage, photographs, sculpture and installation art at galleries and community venues. Two of her works have been acquired by Thompson Rivers University’s Permanent Collection.
Statement
I choose strategies and materials opportunistically, melding freely the mediums best suited to any project. My strategies encompass not only the traditional avenues of expression that have been travelled by our species for more than 30 millennia — drawing, painting and sculpture — but also more recent approaches as photography and installation. Similarly, I may marry ancient fibre art techniques such as wool felting and knitting with electronic microcontrollers and programmable LED strings, while a life-sized paper-mâché pig might be the front man for a video about factory farming and rain forest destruction.
Much of my work revolves around social and ecological justice issues. My work points to the ways that Earth homes us with abundance and also the ways in which, as participants in capitalist economies, our rapacious approach to the riches Earth offers contributes to the despoliation of our planet home. A related thread in my work is the destruction of social harmony and human lives by failure to fairly share wealth and the burden generated by our rapacity that falls disproportionately on those who have contributed least to the resulting climate emergency.
My aesthetic expression of this critical social stance intends to offer the solace of beauty and the delight of the unexpected in works available to the public. I understand art as social action that leavens life with meaning, beauty and surprise.
Curriculum Vitae
Lyn Richards lyn@starshade.org 651 St. Paul Street 250-320-1481 Kamloops, BC https://lynrichards.trubox.ca Canada V2C 2K1 @lynrichards5
residing & working on unceded traditional lands of Tk’emlúps te Secwépmec
EDUCATION
2020 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Thompson Rivers University (TRU), Kamloops, BC
1979 Master of Arts (Psychology), Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC
1972 Bachelor of Arts (Anthropology), Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC
Other Studies
2021 to present ScholarswithoutInstitutions, Kamloops, BC
1978—1983 Doctoral Studies (Psychology), Simon Fraser University Burnaby, BC
AWARDS
2020 TRU Fine Arts Medal, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC
2019 Undergraduate Research Experience Award Program Scholarship, Thompson Rivers University,
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 FireWild. Salmon Arm Art Gallery. Curator: Tracey Kutschker. Salmon Arm, BC
2021 Omnium Gatherum: a collection of miscellaneous things. The Cube, Kamloops Art Gallery. Curator: Craig Willms. Kamloops, BC
2018 Public vs Private. REpublic Gallery. Curators: Monica Martha McGarry and Robin Hodgson. Kamloops, BC
Life Drawing. TRU Art Gallery. Curators: Elizabeth Sigalet, Lea Bucknell, Kamloops, BC
Chahal Priddle/TRU Exhibition. Chahal Priddle Law Office. Curator: Donald Lawrence, Kamloops,
Formation Inspiration. Salmon Arm Art Gallery. Curators: Kazia Gueho, Christyn Rebmann and Tracey Kutschker. Salmon Arm, BC
2017 No Time to Say, “Hello, Goodbye”. TRU Art Gallery. Curator’s Invitational Group Exhibition. Curator: Terryl Atkins. Kamloops, BC
2016 An Interrogation of Ignorance and Folly. Salmon Arm Art Gallery. Curators: Susan Miller and Tracey Kutschker. Salmon Arm, BC
2015 Plein Air & River(s) Run. Chazou Gallery. Curator: Tricia Sellmer. Kamloops, BC
CURATORIAL ACTIVITIES
2019 From the Selfie to the Self: Photographic Works. Curated in collaboration with Sophia Dodic. TRU Art Gallery. Kamloops, BC
COMMISSIONS
s/laughter song, 2017 (oil on panel). Cover image for Sing . . . despite (chapbook), Pete Smith, above/ground press, Toronto, Canada, 2020
Present Harm, 1998 (ink on printer paper). Cover image for Harm’s Length (chapbook), Pete Smith, Wild Honey Press, Cork, Ireland, 1998
COLLECTIONS
eye to eye seeing/not seeing, 2019 (photographic mural print). Acquired 2020: Permanent Collection of Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC
. . . crows and goldfish everywhere, 2016 (oil on canvas). Acquired 2020: Permanent Collection Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC
MEDIA INTERVIEWS
Michelle Young, “Learning their lives to the fullest,” June 2020, Thompson Rivers University Newsroom. Kamloops, BC
Jill Sperling, “Kamloops senior receives award upon graduation from TRU,” June 2020, CFJC TV, Kamloops, BC
Robin Phelan, “Never too late to paint,” March 2017, Thompson Rivers University Newsroom, Kamloops, BC
Shelley Joyce, “No Time to Say ‘Hello, Goodbye’ — Exhibition at Thompson Rivers University”. September 2017, CBC Daybreak, Kamloops, BC
Shelley Joyce, ” Plein Air & River(s) Run — Exhibition at Chazou Gallery”, September 2015, CBC Daybreak, Kamloops, BC
PUBLICATIONS: EXHIBITION REVIEWS
“Kelly Richardson: Using beauty — and technology — to tell dystopic tales about environmental collapse.” Galleries West, 10 March 2022.
“Jin-me Yoon: Hauntings of Self and Migration”, Galleries West, 20 May 2022.
PRESENTATIONS
Philosophy, History and Political Science Conference, January 2020, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC
“The Uses of Beauty: Evoking Forest Ecosystem Relationships in a Visual Art Installation in the Context of a Climate Emergency”
“Not Just Bread and Circuses: Spectator Sport in the Era of Mass Media as a Potent Tool to Enhance Viewer Support for the Permanent Wars of Late Capitalism”
ARTS COMMUNITY
White Rabbit Gaze (artist collective). 2017 to present. Kamloops, BC
Arnica Artist-Run Centre. Board member: 2018-2019: Vice-president: 2016-2018. Kamloops, BC