Marlene Creates was born in Montreal in 1952 and studied visual arts at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario (BAE, 1974). Since the 1970s her work has been presented in over 350 exhibitions and screenings across Canada, and in Austria, China, Denmark, England, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Korea, Scotland, and the USA. She has also presented over 200 guest lectures in Canada, Chile, Italy, the UK, and the USA. She has been the curator of several exhibitions, has taught visual arts (Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, the University of Ottawa, and Algonquin College, Ottawa) and she has worked in artist-run centres (SAW Gallery in Ottawa and Eastern Edge in St. John’s). Her work is in many public collections including The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Canada, and the National Gallery of Canada. She has received numerous honours and awards, including a 2019 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, and in 2021 she was invested into The Order of Newfoundland and Labrador. A touring retrospective of 40 years of her work, Places, Paths, and Pauses / Lieux, sentiers et pauses toured nationally from 2017–2019. Her work has been discussed in several books and has been the subject of several television productions. She was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2001. Marlene currently lives and works in Portugal Cove, Newfoundland.
