Artist Bio
Anita Utas was born and raised in London, Ontario, and now resides in Ottawa. She received her honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History from the University of Western Ontario, where she studied under Paterson Ewen and Duncan de Kergommeaux, and she completed coursework toward her MA in Art History at Queen’s University in Kingston. In 1993, she completed her Bachelor of Education at the University of Western Ontario.
After working as an art teacher in London, Ontario, Anita traveled overseas and spent seven years teaching in international schools in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Venezuela. She has traveled extensively and draws upon these experiences as inspiration for her landscapes.
Anita is represented by the Orange Gallery in Ottawa, the Robert Macklin Gallery in Kingston, and she is a juried member of the Foyer Gallery, an artist run space in Ottawa. Her work has been shown in many venues in Ottawa and the surrounding area, and is part of corporate and private collections in Canada, the U.S.A., and Europe.
Artist Statement
“Through my work, I wish to offer a respite from our urban, tethered existence. We enter a work of art to divest ourselves of our physical limits; the closed spaces we have created in our lives and minds. A painting becomes a place where we can explore and experience what we are seeking, be it a communion with nature, or an inner dialogue that helps us come closer to an awareness of ourselves and our place in this world.
I am drawn to the calming forces of far off vistas and expansive skies; landscapes that are beyond simple visual identification. Blending luminous colour with expressive texture, I recreate the immediacy of nature, exploring the artistic realm between reality and abstraction. My landscapes seek to capture ephemeral moments recalled in nature; the brief period when the day moves from afternoon to dusk, the way the sun illuminates a mountain range, the lifting of a storm.
Selected Exhibitions
Orange Crush, Orange Art Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario
Genesis, Foyer Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario
Three Colourful Women, Green Door Restaurant, Ottawa, Ontario
The Barns of Wolfe Island and Other Landscapes, Robert Macklin Gallery, Kingston, Ontario
Great Big Smalls V, The Cube Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario
Celebration: Canadian Visual Artists of Slavic Heritage, Congress 2009, juried exhibition, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
Abiding Land, The Urban Pear, Ottawa, Ontario
Ebb & Flow, Gallery Farina, Ottawa, Ontario
Contact
613.558.6994
