BIOGRAPHY

Katherine Knight is nationally recognized for her photographic and installation works, which often incorporates black and white stills, text and archival material. Her work explores the intersection of private and public experience through landscape-based approaches.

Professor Knight has exhibited extensively in solo and group shows across Canada and in the United States, and her works are held in many public and corporate collections including the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Banff Centre for the Arts and The Canada Council Art Bank. She was awarded the Canada Council’s Duke and Duchess of York Prize in Photography in 2000 in recognition of the excellence of her work.

Exhibition highlights include Marguerite, which tells the story of Marguerite Bourgeoys, Canada’s first uncloistered teaching nun and founder of the Congregation Notre-Dame, using photography and narrative to interpret history and contemporary experience, and I Became Unconscious, which combines references to an 1883 London, Ontario shipwreck and Hurricane Hazel, developing the image of water as a metaphor for unconscious choices of will.

In 2006, Professor Knight founded Site Media Inc to produce documentaries on creative individuals in extraordinary places. Site Media has produced six documentaries on Canadian artists: Annie Pootoogook; Kinngait: Riding Light into the World; Pretend Not to See Me: The Art of Colette Urban, which received Special Mention at the 2010 Ecofilm Festival in Rhodos, Greece; and KOOP – The Art of Wanda Koop, which premiered as the gala night selection at the 2011 Reel Artists Film Festival, Toronto (see story); Spring & Arnaud, a top ten audience award at Hot Docs 2013 and Strange and Familiar; Architecture on Fogo Island.

Professor Knight joined York University’s Department of Visual Arts in 2000. Her previous academic appointments include a four-year stint as dean of the Faculty of Art at the Ontario College of Art and Design, where she spearheaded the renovation of the media arts wing. She also taught at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, NS and Georgian College in Barrie, Ont. and was a resident artist in the photography program at the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Websites:

Photography
www.katherineknight.ca

Films on Artists with Site Media Inc
www.sitemedia.ca
Interview about KOOP on ARTSYNC TV

Research Projects:

A database of 19th century needlepoint mottos from Caribou Harbour, NS
www.cariboumottos.ca

Memory Factory – Narratives from Caribou Harbour
www.memoryfactory.ca