Biography

Larissa Tiggelers holds an MFA from the University of Guelph and a BFA with distinction from the Alberta University of the Arts. Prior to beginning her graduate studies, she served in a number of positions within Calgary-based artist-run centres, culminating her service in 2015 as the Director of Stride Gallery. Since completing her graduate studies in 2017, she worked as a sessional instructor and is now a Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Regina on Treaty 4 lands.

Larissa Tiggelers’ paintings are deceptively formal and misleadingly flat, but through slow and sustained looking, their spatial ambiguity unfolds into perceptual richness. Her abstract work refuses traditional indicators of painterly authorship. By limiting the evidence of brush strokes these paintings accumulate soft surfaces and space for rumination. Tiggelers’ process embraces contemplation and respite from external concerns. By disregarding conventional colour theory’s efforts to standardize and rationalize colour, she refuses to present tonal assurances and, instead, the paintings affirm colour’s perplexity and vitality.

Tiggelers’ work has been exhibited at Norberg Hall (Calgary), Christie Contemporary (Toronto), Erin Stump Projects (Toronto), Galerie D'Este (Montréal), The Bakery (Vancouver) and Paniki Gallery (Batan, Philippines). Her works are included in many private and public collections, including the Royal Bank of Canada, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and Global Affairs Canada Visual Art Collection.