Donna Brunsdale
Donna Brunsdale has had a diverse and evolving career as a photographic artist, filmmaker and teacher. She has exhibited art and films in galleries, artist-run centres and festivals throughout Canada.
She earned a BFA in Visual Art from the University of Victoria in 1989, and an MFA from York University (1991). Her early work in photography reflected her interest in making something of “the overlooked aspects of life,” often taking an ironic perspective. Mountains, a solo exhibit from 1998, was shown in the window of Mercer Union, Toronto. Brunsdale’s photographs constructed mini-landscapes, referencing the history of the genre, and the spectrum of attitudes towards mountains. Ambivalencia was another solo show, held at the Or Gallery in Vancouver (1995). A series of diptychs on Nature in a suburban environment, the work played with the Romantic conventions of beauty, landscape and suburbia, while exploring framing devices as context.
In 2015, Brunsdale returned to the exploration of landscape with Flexie! All the Same and All Different. This digital video, co-produced with Gary Burns, is an unconventional documentary on the life, and prolific series of landscapes, of artist Levine Flexhaug. Screened at Illingworth Kerr Gallery, ACAD, Calgary; Contemporary Gallery, Vancouver; the McKenzie Gallery, Regina, and the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, as part of A Sublime Vernacular, the documentary examines Flexhaug’s place within the art market, and the role of landscape painting in Canada.
Brunsdale has also branched into film, with acting roles in movies such as The Suburbanators (1997) and Waydowntown (2000). She has been the recipient of several film production grants, including one from the Canada Council (1997). She has been a screenplay writer and director of Cheerful Tearful (1999) and A Problem with Fear (2003), both in collaboration with Gary Burns. These quirky, often humorous, cross-genre films examine the contradiction of contemporary women’s lives.
Donna Brunsdale is a board member of Cinematheque Calgary. She has also lectured on media, art theory and practice at several post-secondary institutions, including the Universities of Victoria and Calgary, and York University.
She earned a BFA in Visual Art from the University of Victoria in 1989, and an MFA from York University (1991). Her early work in photography reflected her interest in making something of “the overlooked aspects of life,” often taking an ironic perspective. Mountains, a solo exhibit from 1998, was shown in the window of Mercer Union, Toronto. Brunsdale’s photographs constructed mini-landscapes, referencing the history of the genre, and the spectrum of attitudes towards mountains. Ambivalencia was another solo show, held at the Or Gallery in Vancouver (1995). A series of diptychs on Nature in a suburban environment, the work played with the Romantic conventions of beauty, landscape and suburbia, while exploring framing devices as context.
In 2015, Brunsdale returned to the exploration of landscape with Flexie! All the Same and All Different. This digital video, co-produced with Gary Burns, is an unconventional documentary on the life, and prolific series of landscapes, of artist Levine Flexhaug. Screened at Illingworth Kerr Gallery, ACAD, Calgary; Contemporary Gallery, Vancouver; the McKenzie Gallery, Regina, and the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, as part of A Sublime Vernacular, the documentary examines Flexhaug’s place within the art market, and the role of landscape painting in Canada.
Brunsdale has also branched into film, with acting roles in movies such as The Suburbanators (1997) and Waydowntown (2000). She has been the recipient of several film production grants, including one from the Canada Council (1997). She has been a screenplay writer and director of Cheerful Tearful (1999) and A Problem with Fear (2003), both in collaboration with Gary Burns. These quirky, often humorous, cross-genre films examine the contradiction of contemporary women’s lives.
Donna Brunsdale is a board member of Cinematheque Calgary. She has also lectured on media, art theory and practice at several post-secondary institutions, including the Universities of Victoria and Calgary, and York University.