Fall 2024
“Lesbian and queer women artists often remain invisible within Canadian art history. Even when their artworks are included, their sexuality is often effaced, and no survey book has ever been written about Canadian lesboqueer artists. For my research residency at Artexte, I will delve into Canadian sapphic art and culture to explore the intersections between queer art and activism. My research will focus on photography, performance art, spoken word, text-based art, and video art created between 1988 and 2002. This residency is an extension of my work on the Vancouver lesbian art collective Kiss & Tell, who were holding exhibitions, creating performances, and publishing books during this period. I will be combing through Artexte’s collections in the hope of discovering underrepresented and little-known Canadian lesboqueer artists for inclusion in a documentary film, an online, open access book about Kiss & Tell, and an exhibition at Artexte. The book, titled Kiss & Tell: Lesbian Art and Activism, will be published by the Art Canada Institute in June 2025.”
— Kristen Hutchinson
Dr. Kristen Hutchinson (they/she) is a queer and gender-fluid visual artist, cultural critic, curator, writer, and editor, as well as an adjunct professor of art history, feminism, media studies, and popular culture. They received their PhD in the History of Art from University College London in 2007 and have taught courses on a vast variety of topics in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. Hutchinson has worked as a nationally syndicated columnist on art and popular culture at CBC Radio and is the author of three books: Kiss & Tell: Lesbian Art & Activism (Art Canada Institute, 2025), the forthcoming Monsters No More: How We Came to Love Denizens of the Dark (Leanpub, 2025), and Prairie Tales: A History (Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society, 2017). They were the editor-in-chief of Luma Quarterly from 2018 to 2021 and for the journal’s final issue of 2024. She is currently transforming her book about the Vancouver lesbian art collective Kiss & Tell into a documentary film, thanks to a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.