Associate Curator of Photographs
National Gallery of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
Andrea Kunard has an extensive background in photography, both historical and contemporary, Canadian and international. She earned her PhD in 2004 from Queen’s University, and taught survey and seminar courses on the history of photography, Canadian Art (historical and contemporary), and museology for over a decade at Carleton University, Queen's University and Nova Scotia College of Art & Design University. She has published in numerous academic journals, magazines and books such as the International Journal of Canadian Studies, Early Popular Visual Culture, The Journal of Canadian Art History, Muse, BlackFlash, Encyclopaedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, and Photography: Crisis of History (edited by Joan Fontcuberta). She co-edited The Cultural Work of Photography in Canada (2011) with Carol Payne, Associate Professor, art history, Carleton University. Published through McGill Queen’s University Press, this volume of essays examines the role of photography in shaping Canadian identities. As curator at the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography and the National Gallery of Canada, Kunard explores the intersections of contemporary and historical issues in photography, focusing on cultural uses of the medium, and its capacity to challenge and reconfigure what are understood to be the norms of the public and private, subjectivity, memory (personal and communal), and knowledge. Exhibitions include “Clash: Conflict and Its Consequences” (2012), “Fred Herzog” (2011), “Scott McFarland: A Cultivated View” (2009), “Cheryl Sourkes: Public Camera” (2007), “Persona” (2006, co-curated with Pierre Dessureault), “Unbidden, Jin-me Yoon” (2006), and “Susan McEachern: Structures of Meaning” (2004). Other exhibitions investigate specific themes, such as Aboriginal representation, as seen in “Steeling the Gaze: Portraits by Aboriginal Artists” (2008-09, co-curated with Steve Loft), “Jeff Thomas: Scouting for Indians” (2003), “Shelley Niro: This Land is Mime Land” (2003), “People of the Dancing Sky” (2003 curatorial liaison with Woodland Cultural Centre), and “Peter Pitseolak” (2001-2002). Most recently, her exhibition “Michel Campeau: Icons of Obsolescence” (2013) reflects on the analogue-digital shift in photography, and how this immense change has affected not only the medium itself, but social practices, especially with respect to how we produce, preserve and share images. Other contributions in this area include an essay published in Robert Burley’s The Disappearance of Darkness: Photography at the End of the Analogue Era, published by Princeton Architectural Press and Ryerson Image Centre (2013), which examines the social and cultural impact of changing technologies in the histories of photography. Kunard has also curated exhibitions on historical Canadian photography such as “Early Exploration in Canada” (2013) and “Arctic Images From the Turn-of –the-Twentieth Century” (2013), in collaboration with Library and Archives Canada for the National Gallery. Other projects include contributions to past and upcoming NGC Canadian Biennales on Canadian photography, and the pictorial photography component of the NGC exhibition and catalogue “Artists, Architects and Artisans: Canadian Art 1890-1919” (2013-14), curated by Charles Hill. Kunard also co-curated the exhibition “Dominion Street” (2012) on the work of Moncton photographer Jaret Belliveau with Terry Graff for the Beaverbrook Gallery, and has spoken on photography in universities and art galleries across the country.