This retrospective exhibition explores the costumes, props, identities and stories of pioneering performance artist Colette Urban. Born in Denver, Colorado, Urban was among a generation of young Americans who came of age during the Vietnam War and made Canada their home. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in visual art from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Victoria. A long-standing London artist and teacher, Urban retired from Western University in 2007. The lasting legacy of her training, life and influences shaped a unique body of work that while critically engaged with the issues of its time, and were equally disarming in their highly original and humorous application.
Over the course of her lengthy and prolific career, Urban produced performance and installation works that referenced consumer culture and collecting. Often collaborative, her works celebrate the everyday combining mundane objects into a series of fun and fantastic works that question the role of the art-maker.