Violet Costello
Violet Costello moved to Canada as a child from England and now lives and works as an artist in Calgary, Alberta. She studied Graphic Design at the Alberta College of Art (now the Alberta College of Art and Design, 1975-1977) before transferring to the Emily Carr College of Art and Design (now Emily Carr University of Art + Design), where she earned an honours diploma in 3-Dimensional Studies (1988) and received the J.W. McConnell Memorial Fellowship upon graduation. She completed a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Concordia University (1991), where she taught sculpture during her last year. She has also taught sculpture at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, and has served as a visual arts instructor with Calgary’s Wildflower Arts Centre, North Mount Pleasant Arts Centre (Calgary), and Calgary Arts Partners in Education Society. From 2001-2006, she participated in the Artist in Schools Residency Program, funded by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.
A common thread in much of Costello’s work has been consideration of the children’s world of play—a realm where reality readily gives way to, and confuses with, imagination. Her work raises amusing and unsettling questions about the construction of identity and the nature of representation. Since 1985, her large-scale sculptural installations have been exhibited throughout Canada. She has worked with the City of Calgary Public Art Program to produce Walking on Orange, a signal box mural (2007), and the Jumping Trout Glenmore Trail retaining walls (2007), for which she won the Award of Excellence in Concrete (2009), administered by the Alberta Chapter of the American Concrete Institute. In 2001, her work Alberta Jamboree was shortlisted for consideration in the Calgary International Airport’s Themeworks public art call. Costello’s work has been supported by an Arts Smart grant, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Canada Council for the Arts, and is held in the collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.
A common thread in much of Costello’s work has been consideration of the children’s world of play—a realm where reality readily gives way to, and confuses with, imagination. Her work raises amusing and unsettling questions about the construction of identity and the nature of representation. Since 1985, her large-scale sculptural installations have been exhibited throughout Canada. She has worked with the City of Calgary Public Art Program to produce Walking on Orange, a signal box mural (2007), and the Jumping Trout Glenmore Trail retaining walls (2007), for which she won the Award of Excellence in Concrete (2009), administered by the Alberta Chapter of the American Concrete Institute. In 2001, her work Alberta Jamboree was shortlisted for consideration in the Calgary International Airport’s Themeworks public art call. Costello’s work has been supported by an Arts Smart grant, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Canada Council for the Arts, and is held in the collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.