Katerina Atanassova is confirmed as Chief Curator of the
McMichael Canadian Art Collection
January 7, 2009 Kleinburg, ON –Thomas Smart, Executive Director and CEO of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, is pleased to announce the appointment of Katerina Atanassova to the position of Chief Curator.
“We are delighted to have Katerina join the McMichael and bring her superb expertise and talent to the curatorial projects we plan to undertake,” said Thomas Smart. “Her passion for art will be an asset to the beloved McMichael collection and will take us into new, exciting directions in the future.”
Ms. Atanassova has curated several exhibitions and written publications on twentieth century Canadian art. In the summer of 2004, in connection with the 210th anniversary of the arrival of the Berczy settlers in Markham, Ms. Atanassova curated the widely acclaimed exhibition William Berczy: Man of Enlightenment, accompanied by a publication under the same title.
In 2006, the exhibition, Artists’ Odysseys: The Arctic featured fifty artists and 115 works, from F.H. Varley to contemporary artists, who felt inspired by the arctic landscape. This show commemorated the 100th anniversary of the first successful crossing of Canada’s Northwest Passage.
Ms. Atanassova’s latest interests in the life and artistic career of Group of Seven artist Frederick Varley culminated in her 2007 exhibition, F.H. Varley: Portraits into the Light. This exhibition marked the Varley Art Gallery’s 10th anniversary and presented a unique selection of some of the artist’s best and rarelyseen portrait paintings and drawings created over four decades. This exhibition toured to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, The Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna and the Portrait Gallery of Canada Program of LAC, Ottawa. In December 2008, the last stop of the touring exhibition in Ottawa received the highest regard when the Ottawa Citizen named it the best show of the year in the country’s capital. Its accompanying book, published in 2007 by Dundurn Press, was selected as one of the 100 titles of Books for Everybody by The Globe and Mail and received the Canadian Publishers Association award in 2007.
Ms. Atanassova’s knowledge of medieval arts and culture manifested in the creation of Canada’s first major exhibition of icons, The Sacred Image of the Icon: A World of Belief, in the summer of 2008. Her most recent, completed exhibitions are Face Forward: Contemporary Portraiture: Curator’s Choice and Judith Livingston: 25 Years In Markham.
Ms. Atanassova has a B.A. from the University of St. Kliment Ohridski, Sofia, Bulgaria, with a double major in history and art theory; an M.A. from the Centre for Mediaeval Studies, University of Toronto; and a Junior Fellow of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto. Ms. Atanassova’s teaching and research interests lie within twentieth century Canadian and European art with a special interest in crosscultural and cross-disciplinary influences, such as in North American and European art movements, and in the genre of portraiture such as the development and history of portrait painting and portrait photography. She is an art historian, educator and curator, on staff at the Varley Art Gallery of Markham 2 since 1999. Ms. Atanassova has had an impressive career with a number of other arts and cultural organizations in Ontario, which include the University of Toronto Art Centre and Black Creek Pioneer Village.
“I am honoured and privileged to find myself taking on the responsibility of looking after such a prestigious and important collection pertaining to Canadian art and culture,” said Ms. Atanassova. “I look forward, with a great deal of enthusiasm, to joining the McMichael team and giving my best to the gallery.”
Ms. Atanassova will be leaving the Varley Art Gallery to assume her new role at the McMichael Canadian
Art Collection on March 16, 2009.
About the Gallery
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is an agency of the Government of Ontario and acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Culture. It is the foremost venue in the country showcasing the Group of Seven and their contemporaries. In addition to touring exhibitions, its permanent collection consists of more than 5,500 artworks, including paintings by the Group of Seven and their contemporaries, First Nations and Inuit artists.
The gallery is located on Islington Avenue, north of Major Mackenzie Drive in Kleinburg, and is open daily from 10 am to 4 pm.
For further information:
Stephen Weir, Publicist
Gallery: 905.893.1121 ext. 2529
Toronto Office: 416.489.5868
Cell: 416.801.3101
s1weir@aol.com or sweir5492@rogers.com
Cathy Lepiane, Communications Coordinator
McMichael Canadian Art Collection
905.893.1121 ext. 2210
clepiane@mcmichael.com
