Barbara Steinman

Barbara Steinman is known for her innovative artwork, sophisticated use of technology and inspired response to site. Her formative period was in Vancouver in the late seventies where she began as a video artist. After moving to Montreal in 1980, her early video sculptures and installations received international recognition and were included in major exhibitions and biennials in Tokyo (1985), São Paulo (1987), Venice (1988), Berlin and Cologne (1989) and Sydney (1990).

As in Vancouver, Steinman was involved with Montreal's video and alternate art production: she was co-director of Vidéo Véhicule and also a director of the artist-run Powerhouse Gallery. Recently, she served on the Advisory Board of PRIM, Centre d'arts médiatiques, devoted to the production of performance, new media and video art.

Steinman's art deals with issues of tolerance and the fragility of boundaries. In the 1990s, Steinman's work was shown at the Museum of Modern Art and The Jewish Museum in New York as well as in Amsterdam, Boston, Liverpool, Tokyo, Troyes, France, and was part of the Seoul Biennial in 2000.

In the late 1990’s, she expanded her practice to include large-scale, permanent, outdoor commissions, working with landscape architects to create “urban interludes,” contemplative green spaces in downtown Toronto and Vancouver as well as commissioned indoor works for public spaces including the new Canadian Embassy in Berlin awarded in 2002 and the new Canadian Embassy in Moscow awarded in 2010.

Recipient of the 2002 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.