Biography
Pamela Speight has lived and studied visual art in Canada and the US, and exhibited her work in public and private galleries in various cities, including: Vancouver and Victoria, BC; Seattle, WA; Boston and Worcester, MA; Washington, DC; and Gainesville and Tampa, FL. In addition, she has curated exhibitions in Victoria, BC and Boston, MA, as well as at the Vancouver Island University campus gallery. She currently teaches studio courses in VIU’s Art and Design Department.
Speight’s art practice consists of painting, drawing, mixed-media and photography. Her work is included in numerous private and public collections including the Canada Council Art Bank, the Richmond Art Gallery and the Burnaby Art Gallery. She has participated in several artist residency programs, the Banff Centre among them.
While growing up in Victoria, BC, Speight’s interest in visual art was greatly influenced by family members who are or were artists living in diverse parts of the world (including sculptor Henry Moore in the UK). She was also fortunate to spend her childhood in close proximity to lakes and intact forests, from which she often draws inspiration for her ideas. Through many hours of quiet observation she developed a keen awareness of the interrelation of plant and animal species visible on land and in water, or invisible underground. This has led to a recent focus on what occurs beneath the surface of things, literally as well as metaphorically.
As an adult Speight’s connection with nature in its entirety remains unwavering. Her work references the ways we think about (or ignore) the living world, and cycles of growth and decay. She shares a profound disquiet felt by many of us over the frenzy of industrial resource extraction, our invasion and irrevocable destruction of habitat, and consequent species loss.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2017
Blood, Love, Trouble (group), Burrard Arts Foundation, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
2017
Mobile Photography and Art Showcase (group), The App Whisperer Online Gallery, London, UK
2016
Process: the Faculty Show (group), The View Gallery, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo,
British Columbia, Canada
2012
In Place/Displaced (group), Comox Valley Art Gallery, Courtenay, British Columbia, Canada
2011
Animal Other (group), Nanaimo Art Gallery, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
2010
Vancouver Island University Art and Design Department Faculty Exhibition, Nanaimo Art Gallery,
Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
2008
Arts of Momentum: Contemporary Works by Chinese and Canadian Artists (group),
Conference Centre, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
2006
Reliquary (solo), Grand Forks Art Gallery, Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada
2004
Reliquary (solo), Art Gallery of the South Okanagan, Penticton, British Columbia, Canada
2003
The Red Show (group), Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
2002
The Notion of Skin (solo), Comox Valley Art Gallery, Courtenay, British Columbia, Canada
2002
To Remain at a Distance (group), Open Space Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
2001
Artropolis 2001 (group), Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
1998
Uncovering (solo), Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
1997
Body Archaeology (solo), Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
1996
Reservoirs of Memory (solo), New City Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA
1994
Palindrome (group), Commonwealth Artists Exhibition, Xchanges Gallery, Victoria,
British Columbia, Canada
1994
Remainders (solo), Winchester Public Library Art Gallery, Winchester, Massachusetts, USA
1994
Women’s Caucus for Art Exhibition (group), Boston, Massachusetts, USA
1994
New Artists, New Works (group), Atwood Gallery, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
1994
All Media Exhibition (group), Galerie Triangle, Washington, DC, USA
1993
Young Artists (group), Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, Massachusetts, USA
1993
New Florida Artists (group), Florida Center for Contemporary Art, Tampa, Florida, USA
1993
Pamela Speight: Recent Works (solo), University Gallery, Gainesville, Florida, USA