Virtual Exhibition and Curatorial Essay Instructions
In this Curatorial Essay you will pull together or ‘curate’ an exhibition of six (6) works of art by one
(1) Canadian artist from the list below. These works of art can be found after doing some online
research about the artist.
Please look at ALL of the following artists before choosing which one you will curate:
As one might fnd if one visited a real life gallery, art exhibitions are usually accompanied by an
exhibition catalogue that discusses at length the work in it. For your virtual exhibition, you must
choose and discuss six (6) images by one artist. After selecting the work to include in your virtual
exhibition, you – the curator – will then write a catalogue essay of 1200 words in which you will
discuss the ideas that link them all together as a thematic group. Unfold the artist’s ideas based
on the research you have done about the artist and her/his work using the artworks as examples
of what you are saying.
THIS IS NOT TO BE A CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE ARTIST’S WORK. Neither IS IT TO BE
A BIOGRAPHY or AN ANALYSIS OF THE WORK IN FORMAL AESTHETIC TERMS. Instead, you
should attempt to fnd an ‘umbrella’ theme or two that allows you to place all the works you have
chosen under it. THUS, ALL IMAGES SHOULD BE THEMATICALLY RELATED. (However, they
need not be visually related.) Remember that the images the artist has created throughout his/her
career are ‘evidence’ of the ideas and issues the artist is interested in. Your job is to tie together’
the images you have chosen via your curatorial essay. As each work will be diferent image to
image, you should discuss each image individually but you also must discuss how it fts under the
‘umbrella’ you have chosen. That is, discuss the theme and then discuss how the works ft into or
are examples of the theme/idea.
*Please use MLA formatting for this essay. See numerous sources on the web for information
about how to do this. Here is one such website:
For instructions on how to use the CCCA website to search, click on “How to Use CCCA”
available under “Resources for Assignments” on the course homepage.
• External research must be done for this assignment.
• The essay MUST be 1200 words, minimum. This does not include the REQUIRED
bibliography and footnotes. You MUST include a bibliography of sources you consult or
quote for your essay.
• Every single image you refer to must be HYPERLINKED (in brackets) when specifcally
referring to it in the body of your essay.
• You also must include a list of all your hyperlinks (in the of order frst to last as mentioned in
your essay) as an appendix after the body of the essay.
