Provenance:

Private Collection, Toronto

Literature:

Thornerycroft, Diana. “Group of Seven Awkward Moments.” Accessed February 20, 2015. http://dianathorneycroft.com/collection-seven-awkward.php.

Note:

Diana Thorneycroft’s quirky photographs surge with humour and creativity. In her 2008 work Group of Seven Awkward Moments (Beavers and Woo at Tanoo), Thorneycroft presents us with a peculiar scene compiled by appropriating various mass media subjects such as plastic figurines, paper cutouts and painted backdrops. Here the artist pays tribute to the famed group of Canadian landscape painters by exploring the relationship between the landscape and our national identity. The backdrop of the work is a recognized painting by the group, fronted by a dreary scene of chaos. Thorneycroft describes her intent, “By pairing the tranquility of traditional landscape painting with black humour, the work conjures up topical and universally familiar landscapes fraught with anxiety and contradictions.”

Thorneycroft received her BFA from the University of Manitoba and her MA from the University of Wisconsin. She has exhibited across North America and Europe, including the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto and the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris. Her work can be found in the collections of the Canadian Museum for Contemporary Photography in Ottawa, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Winnipeg Art Gallery among many others.