Nancy Friedland is a painter investigating narrative, the family album, landscape and light in her work. After moving away from her roots in photography, Friedland began exploring these preoccupations through paint. Sometimes she conjures a romantic fairytale from whole cloth, but mostly she works with her own photographs or family snapshots as source material. She is drawn to the magic that happens in the flawed translation from one medium to the next.
After studying photography at the Ontario College of Art and Design, Friedland completed her MFA at the Rochester Institute of Technology as a Sir Edmund Walker Scholar. She has received grants from the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts, and has exhibited across Canada, the US and internationally. She lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
Darkness allows the mind to wander, but it is given shape by light. I paint to delineate the edges of that darkness, to carve out little patches of light, bursts of joy and moonlight, that help give shape to the night.
. 1971, Toronto, Canada
EDUCATION
2001 Rochester Institute of Technology, MFA, graduated with honours 1999 Ontario College of Art & Design, AOCAD, graduated with honours 1993 University of Toronto, BA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Everything We Broke Today Needed Breaking Anyway, pm/am Gallery, London, UK 2024 I Wish I Had a River, smoke the moon gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2024 Heavy Weather, La Loma Projects, Los Angeles, California. 2023 Daybreak, Tyger Tyger Gallery, Asheville, North Carolina 2022 Highway of Diamonds, smoke the moon gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2021 Wolf Moon, Lyceum Gallery, Toronto 2020 Between Dog and Wolf, Samara Contemporary, Toronto 2019 Paintings, Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto 2016 Constellations, Circuit Gallery, Toronto 2012 Vigil, Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto 2009 The Pity of Lost Things, Satellite Gallery, Okayama, Japan 2005 The Pity of Lost Things, Katharine Mulherin ContemporaryArt Projects 2003 Life Boat, Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto 2001 Sixes and Sevens, Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto 2000 Safe, Bus Gallery, Toronto 1998 A land, alone. Bus Gallery, Toronto
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND ART FAIRS
2025 A Forest, Hexton Gallery, Aspen, CO. 2024 NADA Miami with La Loma Gallery, Miami, FLA 2024 Weighted Blanket, Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL. 2024 Goth in a Landscape, Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK 2023 A Room with a View, Vardan Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2023 New Paintings, Sonya Gallery, New York City, NY 2023 I’m Looking Through You, La Loma Projects, Los Angeles, CA 2023 Art Toronto, Toronto 2023 Meeting at Night, Gold Montclair, Montclair, NJ 2023 Les Canadiennes, Gallery b, Castine, ME 2022 Art Toronto, Toronto 2022 NADA Miami, Miami, FLA 2022 Flower Shop, smoke the moon, Santa Fe, NM 2021 Postcards, Curated by Brit Pruiksma, Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Sweden 2021 Chrysalis * Metamorphosis, smoke the soon, Santa Fe, NM 2021 Mothspell, Two person show with Kristin Sjaarda, Lyceum Gallery, Toronto 2021 High Desert High, smoke the moon, Santa Fe, NM 2020 Under the Radar, Dupont Rail, Toronto 2019 A Change in the Light, Two person show with Johanna Reynolds, Lyceum Gallery 2019 Artful Reunion: MFA Alumni Triennial, William Harris Gallery, RIT, Rochester, NY 2012 Summer Invitational Kathryn Markel, New York City, NY 2012 Fresh Faces, Newzones Gallery, Calgary, AB 2006 New Works, Trinity Gallery, Atlanta, GA 2005 Blame Canada, Harvey Levine Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2005 Inside/Outside, Miller Block Gallery, Boston, MA 2002-2004 The Found and The Familiar, The Snapshot in Contemporary Canadian Photography, Curated by Sophie Hackett and Jennifer Long, Gallery TPW, Toronto, Toured across Canada: Confederation Centre Art Gallery, P.E.I.; Gallery Connexion, New Brunswick; Art Gallery of Bishop’s University, Quebec 2003 Landing Case Studies, York Quay Gallery, Toronto 2002 Body of Water, Luft Gallery, Toronto 2001 New Works Bus Gallery, Toronto 2001 His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales: Celebrating Works of Canadian Artists, Gooderham and Worts Historic District, Toronto 2000 Renegotiating Space, Photo Passage, Harbourfront, Toronto 1999 Travelling Light, Jane Corkin Gallery, Toronto 1999 Life-like, with Nick Ostoff, Bus Gallery, Toronto 1999 Instamatic, Bus Gallery, Toronto 1999 The Photography Lesson Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
REVIEWS & PUBLICATIONS
Trabant by Stefan Sommer, cover art, published by Otto Muller Verlag, 2024 New York Review of Books, cover art for October 5th 2023 edition Harper’s Magazine, illustration for The Return, a short story by Joyce Carol Oates, 2023 There Was a Time for Everything by Judith Friedland, cover art, Uof T Press 2023 New York Review of Books, illustration for A Theology of the Present Moment by Marilynne Robinson, December, 2022 New York Review of Books, illustration for article on protection of animals by Martha C. Nussbaum, March, 2022 En Route Magazine, illustrations for article on Canadian Fiction, March, 2006 The Address Book by Steven Heighton cover art, House of Anansi Press, 2004 Fotopost Connecting with Contact, by Jack Liang, June 1, 2003 The Globe and Mail, N. Ostoff, N. Friedland at Katharine Mulherin, by Gary Michael Dault, Saturday, April 5, 2003 Lola, Something from nothing, by Sophie Hackett, Summer 2000 National Post, Looking for Lerski in all the wrong places, by Thomas Hirschmann, Saturday, May 6, 2000 Eye Magazine Bus shelters new and youthful artists, by R.M. Vaughan, 1999 Visceral edited by Iza Mokrosz, OCAD press The Globe and Mail, Life Like at Bus Gallery, by Gary Michael Dault, 1999 The Globe and Mail Nancy Friedland at Bus Gallery, by Gary Michael Dault, 1998.
GRANTS SCHOLARSHIPS & AWARDS
Canada Council for the Arts: Emerging Creation/Production Grant, 2003 Ontario Arts Council: Mid-Career Creation/Production Grant, 2003 Best Photography: Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibit, 2003 Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi: Rochester Institute of Technology, 2001 Honourable Mention for Best Photography: Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibit, 2001 Graduate studies Scholarship: Rochester Institute of Technology, 1999, 2000 Society for Photographic Education Student Scholarship: 2000 Sir Edmund Walker Scholarship: Ontario College of Art and Design, 1999 The First Light Scholarship for Emerging Talent in Photography: Ontario College of Art and Design, 1999 Corkin-Reeves Award for Photography: Ontario College of Art and Design, 1998 Nora E. Vaughan Award for Photography: Ontario College of Art and Design, 1997
