Tanya Mars facts for kids

Tanya Mars (born in 1948) is a talented artist from Canada. She is well-known for her exciting performance art and video art. Her work often explores ideas about women and society, using humor to make people think. Tanya Mars lives and works in Toronto, Ontario.

About Tanya Mars

Tanya Mars was born in Monroe, Michigan, in 1948. She moved to Canada in 1967 and has lived there ever since. She also uses the name Tanya Rosenberg sometimes.

She studied at several universities, including the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She also attended Sir George Williams University and Loyola College in Montreal, which are now part of Concordia University.

Today, Tanya Mars teaches art at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She teaches performance art and video. She also works with students in the Master of Visual Studies Program at the main University of Toronto campus.

Tanya Mars's Art and Work

Tanya Mars has been a very active artist in Canada since 1974. She creates both performance art and video art. Performance art is like a live show where the artist uses their body, voice, and objects to create a unique experience. Video art uses moving images and sound to tell a story or explore an idea.

She has performed her art in many places, not just in Canada. She has shown her work in Chile, Mexico, Sweden, France, and Finland. Her art often focuses on topics important to women. She uses humor and satire (making fun of things to show a point) to get her messages across.

Helping Other Artists

Tanya Mars helped start Powerhouse Galleries (La Centrale) in Montreal. This was the first art gallery in Canada created specifically for women artists. She also worked as an editor for Parallelogramme magazine for many years. This magazine was important for artists.

For 15 years, she was very involved with The Association of National Non-Profit Artist-run Centres. This group helps support art spaces run by artists themselves. She was also a past president of FADO. FADO is a group in Toronto that supports performance art.

Currently, Tanya Mars is part of the 7a*11d Collective. This group organizes a big international festival of performance art in Toronto every two years.

Special Art Projects

In 2004, Tanya Mars created a unique performance called Tyranny of Bliss in Toronto. For this project, the audience traveled by car to 14 different scenes. These scenes represented the seven heavenly virtues (good qualities) and the seven deadly sins (bad qualities).

Tanya Mars has also helped create important books about art. With Johanna Householder, she co-edited Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women in 2004. They also co-edited a second book, More Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women, which came out in 2016. These books share the work of many talented Canadian women performance artists.

Video Art by Tanya Mars

Here are some of the video art pieces Tanya Mars has created:

• The Granny Suites, Part 1: Happy Birthday to You - 2006
• 7 Deadly Sins/ 7 Deadly Virtues - 2004
• Hot! - 1998
• Doom - 1996
• Bronco's Kiss - 1996
• Mz. Frankenstein - 1993
• End of Nature, The - 1991
• PURE HELL - 1990
• Pure Sin - 1990
• Pure Nonsense - 1987
• Pure Sin - 1986
• Pure Virtue - 1985
• 24 Postcards of Rage: No Man's Land - 1983 (with Rina Fraticelli)
• Picnic In The Drift - 1981

Performance Art by Tanya Mars

Here are some of the live performance art pieces Tanya Mars has created:

• Good Buy!, 2018
• Crone, 2017 (for FADO, part of MonoMyths)
• Homage to the City of Women: Leaves of Gold, 2016
• Rare Parity, 2015
• The Artist is A Present, 2015
• Vanitas for an Arctic Landscape, 2015
• Tyranny of Bliss, 2004
• Performance Art Starter Kit, 2000
• Pure Virtue, 1984
• Pure Sin, 1987
• Pure Nonsense, 1987
• Pure Hell, 1990
• Fat - 1978 (Thirteen Jackies)
• All Alone Am I - 1977 (Thirteen Jackies)
• Super Secretary - 1977
• Tanya-in-the-Box - 1976

Awards and Recognition

Tanya Mars has received several important awards for her art:

• 2008 - She won the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts. This is one of Canada's highest honors for artists.
• 2005 - She was named "Artist of the Year" at the Untitled Arts Awards in Toronto.
• 1981 - She received the Chalmers Award. This award recognized her creative teamwork on the performance Picnic in the Drift with Rina Fraticelli.

Artist Residencies

An artist residency is a special time when an artist lives and works in a new place. It gives them space and time to focus on their art.

• 2008 - Tanya Mars was an International Artist in Residence at [https://www.citedesartsparis.net/ The Cité internationale des arts in Paris, France.
• 2008 - She also had a residency at Lilith Performance Studio in Malmö, Sweden. There, she presented her work In Dulci Jubilo.
• 1993 - She was at the Western Front in Vancouver, British Columbia. During her six-week stay, she presented Mz Frankenstein with Judy Radul and Brice Canyon.
• 1984 - She also visited Western Front in Vancouver before, where she presented Pure Virtue.