Toronto-based visual artist, and pioneering urban screens curator

Sharon’s involvement with Cape Farewell began in November 2011 when she participated in the Carbon 14 workshop in Toronto. Multi-talented and highly active, Sharon has been working since then on a number of projects for Cape Farewell. Wearing her curatorial hat she was responsible for Ship of Fools, a multi-site urban intervention reminding us of the importance of addressing climate change. As an accomplished visual artist, her digital video project #crazyweather, was shown in our Carbon 14: Climate is Culture exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.

Biography

Sharon Switzer is an artist and curator. She has exhibited in Canada and internationally since the early 1990s. For the past seven years, her curating has focussed on bringing art to urban screens. She is founder of Art for Commuters and is the Arts Programmer and Curator for Pattison Onestop. She is represented by Corkin Gallery, Toronto.

Sharon Switzer has exhibited her media art in Canada and the U.S. since the early 1990’s. Major solo exhibitions of her video work have been presented at Corkin Gallery (Toronto) in 2006, 2009, and most recently in 2012. Her videos were a feature of the Canadian Film Center’s Media Lab presentation at Toronto’s Scotiabank Nuit Blanche in 2010. In April 2011 Sharon was the Visiting Artist at the Center for Art Tapes in Halifax, NS, and participated in the Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival with a large-scale public projection of her video animations. Her work has been showcased extensively at international art fairs including; Art Toronto, Art Basel, VIP online Art Fair 2011 and The Armory in New York.

Sharon Switzer is also the founder and Director or Art for Commuters, a collective that showcases the work of artists and filmmakers to over one million daily commuters. In addition to this, Sharon is also the Arts Programmer and Curator for Pattison Onestop, initiating year-round arts and cultural projects on various “public screens”, including those in the Toronto subway system, the Calgary airport, in shopping centers, and on digital billboards, right across Canada.

Sharon holds an MFA from the University of Western Ontario and is an alumna of the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab. She has taught at the University of Western Ontario, Brock University and the Ontario College of Art and Design.

About Carbon 14: Climate is Culture
#crazyweather – Sharon Switzer