gervais.steph@gmail.com
Stephanie Gervais is a multidisciplinary artist who works with writing, painting, sculpture, and photography; exploring language, border spaces, and trauma. Her current project, ¿Hay alguien que ame su lengua materna? (Does anyone love their mother tongue?), is an artist book written in Spanish and incorporating French and Portuguese. It combines poetic experimentation, lived experience, and critical analysis to reflect on belonging in relation to the distinct sensibilities of different languages, the de-mothering of mother tongues and their instincts as a desirable, transformative process; and the potential of innovative flight/escape when embodying languages from the position of an outsider. It analyzes the artist’s practice across countries in relation to research in art history and literature and the poetics of representing violence and trauma.
Her multilingual artist book, entitled There is no repair, there are Light-Wounds, was published through her exhibition at the European Cultural Center in Venice, Italy. Her one-person exhibition Gulalhi––a multimedia installation and portrait of border zones and camps between France and the UK––was shown at the Reed College Art Museum. Her work has been exhibited in the UK, the United States, France, and Brazil. Her writing has been published by TEXTILE Cloth & Culture, Oregon Visual Arts Ecology Project, and Reed College. She holds an MFA from Goldsmiths University in London. She speaks Portuguese, Spanish, French, and English. She lives in Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro.
EDUCATION
2016 MFA in Fine Art, Goldsmiths University, London, UK 2009 BA in Art, Reed College, Portland, OR, USA
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2022 Transitions and Transformations: The Constant Flux of our Personal
Structures, The European Cultural Center, Venice, Italy
¿Hay alguien que ame su lengua materna?, AADK Centro Negra, Blanca, Spain
2018 Gulalhi, Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Portland, Oregon, US
2017 Memories from Syria, Manchester Museum, Manchester, UK
Odai 2: We Fought Them With the Truth, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
Chameleon, Sensei Gallery, London, UK
2016 Europe, The Land of Generosity, Goldsmiths University, London, UK
2014 Jeune Création, Le Centquatre Cultural Center, Paris, FR
Aberturas: The Independant Program of Escola São Paulo, Casa do Povo
Cultural Centre, São Paulo, Brazil
MANIFEST! Choreographing Social Movements in the Americas, Concordia
University, Montréal, Canada
Abre Alas 10, A Gentil Carioca Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2013 Installation, Performance, Documentation, Feldenheimer Gallery, Reed College,
Portland, Oregon, US
Photographs, Photo Lucida Month at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland,
Oregon, US
From Art to Public Policy: Love Letters from Communities, São Camilo
University, São Paulo, Brazil
2012 The Invisible Leader, Les Territoires Gallery, Montréal
AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2022 Career Opportunity Grant Awardee, Oregon Arts Commission Grant
RACC Arts3C Grant Awardee, Regional Arts & Culture Council, Portland,
Oregon, US
Resident, AADK Spain Centro Negra, Blanca, Spain
Resident, Fábrica Bhering, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2019 Resident, Guest Projects Artist Space, London, UK
Professional Development Grant Awardee, Regional Arts & Culture Council,
Portland, Oregon, US
2018 Resident Instructor, MFA in Craft, Oregon College of Art and Craft, Portland,
Oregon, US
Resident, The Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Galley, Reed College, Portland,
Oregon, US
Resident, Rethink Rebuild Society, Collaborating Artist for Memories of Syria
Project Grant Awardee, Building a Stronger Britain Together Award
2017 Resident, Rethink Rebuild Society, Manchester, UK
2014 Grantee, The Independent Program of Escola São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
PUBLISHED WRITING
“Shields, Open Wounds, and New Landscapes: An Artist’s Account of Creation,” Conditions, The Ford Family Foundation's Arts Writing Journal, July 2022
Le Parfum du Feu | Tentativas | There is no repair, there are Light-Wounds | Cada palabra es un templo, artist book published on the occasion of the exhibition Transitions and Transformations, Venice, Italy, June 2022
“In Conversation: Stephanie Gervais and Stephanie Snyder on Gulalhi,” TEXTILE: Cloth and Culture, Volume 18, issue 2, July 2019
“Shields, Open Wounds, and New Landscapes,” Oregon Visual Arts Ecology Project, July 2019
“Excerpts from Writings,” The Cooley Gallery, November 2018
“Lida Abdul, White House and Gulalhi,” The Cooley Gallery, November 2018
“The Jungle: Calais––Britannia,” Archipelago Magazine, Edition: Boundaries, Department
of Politics, Goldsmiths University, July 2015
“The Invisible Leader: Reflections on Rocinha,” A Gentil Carioca Abre Alas catalogue, February 2014
RELATED EXPERIENCE
2022 Panelist, “Transitions and Transformations,” The European Cultural Center,
Venice, Italy
Visiting Lecturer, “Installation and Social Practice,” Reed College, Portland,
Oregon, US
2020 Visiting Artist Lecturer, “Decolonial Art Methodologies and Peace Education,”
Pan-African Development Education and Advocacy Programme, London, UK
Catalogue contributor, Connective Conversations: Curator and Critic Tour, The Ford
Family Foundation
2018 Visiting Lecturer, “The Artist as Researcher,” Oregon College of Art and Craft,
Portland, Oregon, US
Visiting Lecturer, The Cooley Gallery, Reed College, Portland, Oregon, US
Visiting Lecturer and Film Screening, “Lida Abdul, White House, and Gulalhi,” Reed
College, Portland, Oregon, US
2017 Visiting Lecturer and Film Screening, Rethink Rebuild Society, Manchester, UK
2014 Panelist, “MANIFEST! Choreographing Social Movements in the Americas,”
Concordia University, Montréal
2012 Panelist, “Juvenile Delinquency, Urban Violence and Social Justice: Comparing
Experiences in France and Brazil.” São Camilo University, São Paulo