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Carol Wainio
Born 1955 (age 69–70)
Education Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, University of Toronto, Concordia University
Known for Painter
Awards George Gilmour Award (1985), Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Academician award (2004), Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts (2014)

Carol Wainio RCA (born in 1955) is a famous Canadian painter. Her artwork is known for being detailed and often uses a single main color. Her paintings have been shown in big art galleries in Canada, the U.S., Europe, and China. She has won many awards, including the important Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts.

About Carol Wainio

Early Life and Education

Carol Wainio was born in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, in 1955. Her parents were immigrants from Finland. She grew up in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario.

Carol studied art at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She also attended the University of Toronto. Later, she earned a special degree called a Master of Fine Arts from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. Today, she lives in Ottawa and teaches visual arts at the University of Ottawa.

Her Art and Career

What Her Paintings Are About

Carol Wainio Season's End KWAG
Wainio's Season's End (2012) on display at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery as part of the 2016 exhibition Stilled Lives: Works from the Permanent Collection.

Carol Wainio's paintings often mix different ideas. She gets inspiration from old fairy tales and medieval books. She also includes ideas from modern life, like the 2008 financial crisis.

One art critic described her paintings as "fairy-tale landscapes filled with things from today's shopping world." Her art makes you look closely and think about what you see.

Major Exhibitions

Carol Wainio had her first solo art show in Toronto in 1982. In 1990, her paintings were shown at the "Aperto" exhibit in the Venice Biennale in Italy. This is a very important international art event.

In 2010, a special traveling exhibition called Carol Wainio: The Book featured her work. This show explored her interest in how fairy tales change over time. It also looked at how images tell stories and how things are copied or made in factories. This exhibition traveled to several galleries across Canada until 2014. In 2024, she had her first solo show in New York City.

Her large paintings have been displayed in over 40 museums and galleries. These include the National Gallery of Canada, the Shanghai Art Museum in China, and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Her art is also part of important public collections. These include the National Gallery of Canada, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, and the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Awards and Recognition

Carol Wainio has received many important awards for her art. In 2004, she was chosen to be a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. This is a special honor for Canadian artists.

In 2014, she received the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. This award is one of Canada's highest honors for artists. She was one of nine Canadian artists to receive it that year for her amazing achievements in visual arts.

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