Dr. Michael Farnan
BFA, MFA, PhD
Professor, Honours Bachelor of Interior Design
Biography
Michael Farnan is a multidisciplinary artist and educator, living and working in Victoria Harbour, ON. Michael’s work addresses settler-based decolonizing strategies centred on disrupting and unsettling Canada’s history of colonialism and dominant Euro-centric ideologies of place and space.
Michael’s exhibitions, videos and performances have been shown throughout Canada, with presentations at PAVED Arts, Saskatoon, Doris McCarthy Gallery, Scarborough, and Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon. Recent exhibitions include his participation in the group show Gardenship and State at Museum London, and solo exhibition for Canoe Fight: From Reverence to Redress at the MacLaren Art Centre.
His work has been supported by the Canada Council of the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Michael holds a studio-based PhD in Art and Visual Culture from Western University.
As a new instructor in the department, and coming from the visual arts, I am really looking forward to working in the studio with Georgian’s design students to help realize their visions of place and space.
Dr. Michael Farnan
- Doctorate of Art and Visual Culture (PhD), University of Western Ontario (Western University), London ON, 2016
- Master of Fine Arts (MFA), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon SK, 2011
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Concordia University, Montreal QC, 2006
- Advisory Council, Midland Cultural Centre, Gallery of Indigenous Art
Recent exhibitions
- Gardenship and State. October 2021 to January 2022. Group exhibition. Museum London, London, ON. Curated by Jeff Thomas and Patrick Mahon. Contributing artists and scholars include Ron Benner, Lori Blondeau, Paul Chartrand, Sean Caulfield, Tom Cull, Michael Farnan, Amelia Fay, Joan Greer, Jamelie Hassan, Sharmistha Kar, Jessica Karuhanga, Mark Kasumovic, Mary Mattingly, Patrick Mahon, Quinn Smallboy, Ashley Snook, Adrian Stimson, Jeff Thomas, Andres Villar, and Michelle Wilson.
- Canoe Fight: From Reverence to Redress. Solo exhibition. MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie, ON. July 26 to Oct. 24, 2021.
Research interests
- Canadian representational history
- Discourses surrounding colonialism, wilderness, nature and nationhood
Featured publications
- Ekers, M, and Farnan, M., (2010). Planting the Nation: Tree Planting Art and the Persistence of Nationalism. Space and Culture, 13(1). 95-120.