Mina Totino

Mina Totino (born 1949) is a Canadian painter currently based in Vancouver, British Columbia.[1]

Life and Education

Mina Totino was born in Greater Sudbury, Ontario.[1] She obtained her BFA from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1982.[1]

Artistic career

Best known for her work in painting, Mina Totino has been exhibited widely, appearing in solo and group exhibitions in Montreal, Toronto and Berlin.[1] Her studio practice, teaching, writing, and curating are informed by her continued research into the history of art and painting. Totino first came to prominence in the 1985 Young Romantics exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Totino’s work is informed by contemporary criticism, especially literary and film criticism that have analyzed the position of the imaginary spectator.

Solo Exhibitions

Mina Totino, Charles H. Scott Gallery, 2010

Totino presented her solo exhibition Mina Totino at the Charles H. Scott Gallery in Vancouver. in 2010 curated by Cate Rimmer.[2] The exhibition included new work by Totino, namely a series of small canvases, each 40 by 40 centimetres, entitled A situation wherein some ideas about painting are furthered by means of a quantity of small squares.[3] Along this series were other works on canvas that continue Totino’s engagement with the history of painting, abstraction and the medium of paint.[3]

For this recent work, Totino claims “I’ve just continued the argument further and my interests further. I find that the actual dealing with the paint itself and the qualities that are inherent in paint have quite a bit of interest. And I enjoy the history of it.”[3]

The exhibition's opening was simultaneously a book launch for Totino's I Look Up, Volume One, 1997 – 2000, the first of three volumes presenting the artist’s Polaroid photographs of clouds taken from 1997 to 2010.[2] I Look Up is published by the Charles H. Scott Gallery and Publication Studio Vancouver.[2]

Mina Totino, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, 1997

Totino’s held her first solo exhibition at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery in Vancouver. in 1997. The exhibition brought together thirty-five works produced by Totino since 1991 curated by Scott Watson.[4] For this exhibition, Totino shifted her use of materials from large-scale expressive paintings to a practice that consciously adds and mixes things that would not normally be together.[4] Amongst these odd choices of materials, Totino used “purple boa feathers…, red beading, a faux fur puff, a nipple ring and chain”[4] alongside “optical illustrations and flowers, applied to unstretched canvas, drywall and polyvinyl chloride.”[4] Her paintings attempted to revisit and “old genres like flower-painting and still-life”[5] as well as draw connections between “Dutch still-life emblems and 1990s tattoos and body piercing.”[5]

An illustrated catalogue with essays by Clint Burnham, Judy Radul, and Scott Watson accompanied the exhibition.[5]

Mina Totino – PAINTINGS, Contemporary Art Gallery, 1944

Totino held her exhibition Mina Totino - PAINTINGS (1994) at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver.[6] Her flower paintings for this particular exhibition were described as challenging a painting practice “couched in metaphors of virility” through her choice of subjects and materials.[6]

Group Exhibitions

Vancouver Special: Ambivalent Pleasures, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2017

Totino was amongst the 40 local Vancouver-based artists, both emerging and established, chosen to exhibit at Vancouver Art Gallery’s inaugural show Vancouver Special: Ambivalent Pleasures curated by Daina Augaitis and Jesse McKee.[7] The show has been seen as “series of triennial survey of [Vancouver’s] contemporary art.”[7]

Vancouver Special: Ambivalent Pleasures is accompanied by a catalogue co-published by the Vancouver Art Gallery and Black Dog Publishing.[8] The book features texts and contributions from the exhibition curators as well as Andrew Berardini, William Gibson, Richard Hill, Steffanie Ling and Kim Nguyen.[8]

Young Romantics, Vancouver Art Gallery, 1995

Totino’s paintings were part of the Young Romantics (1995) exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery curated by Scott Watson.[9] She exhibited alongside Attila Richard Lukacs, Graham Gillmore, Angela Grossmann, Vicky Marshall, Philippe Raphanel, Charles Rea, and Derek Root.[9] The designation of ‘Young Romantics’ functions to group these eight artists within a particular style of painting.[9]

Curatorial Work

In 2014, Mina Totino curated Persian Rose Chartreuse Muse Vancouver Grey at Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, BC.[10] The exhibition proved significant in marking shifting attitudes and discussions around painting and abstraction.[10] The artists who she curated were for the show were Raoul De Keyser, Bernard Frize, Mary Heilmann, Tomma Abts, Elizabeth McIntosh, Silke Otto-Knapp, Laura Owens, Monique Mouton, and Rachelle Sawatsky.[10]

Writings

Mina Totino has an artist book, I Look Up, Volume One, 1997 – 2000, co-published by Charles H. Scott Gallery and Publication Studio Vancouver.[2]

Awards

Mina Totino alongside Skeena Reece received the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation VIVA awards on April 11, 2014.[11]

Collections

Mina Totino’s work is found in the collections of the Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, AB; the Vancouver Art Gallery; and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC.

References 

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Herzog Wins Audain, Reece & Totino Scoop Viva Awards - Canadian Art". Canadian Art. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Mina Totino -- Charles H. Scott Gallery". chscott.ecuad.ca. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
  3. 1 2 3 Laurence, Robin (2010-08-24). "Mina Totino and Derek Root exhibitions reveal lively abstraction in Vancouver". Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Gagnon, Monika Kin. “Mina Totino.” Review of Mina Totino by Mina Totino. Parachute 88, 1997, pp. 68.
  5. 1 2 3 "Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery | Mina Totino". belkin.ubc.ca. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
  6. 1 2 Watson, Scott. “Mina Totino.” Review. Canadian Art, Summer 1994. Accessed March 15, 2017. http://canadianart.ca/issues/summer-1994/
  7. 1 2 Laurence, Robin (2016-12-07). "Vancouver Special: Ambivalent Pleasures sparks delight in dark times". Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
  8. 1 2 "Vancouver Art Gallery". www.vanartgallery.bc.ca. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
  9. 1 2 3 Grahauer, Curtis (2015-06-08). "The Young Romantics are well represented in SFU’s art collection". The Peak. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
  10. 1 2 3 Turner, Michael. "A Look at Painting as Journey in Vancouver - Canadian Art". Canadian Art. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
  11. ↑ Parry, Malcolm. "Town Talk: Over-achieving, but modest, photog finds praise a bit unrecognizable". www.vancouversun.com. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
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