Carole Itter

2017 Audain Prize for the Visual Arts

Carole Itter is a celebrated Canadian artist, performer, filmmaker and writer. She is best known for her large-scale sculptures and installations made from found, discarded and decomposed materials. As a statement of counter-consumerism, her work was often designed to intentionally destruct and decay over time.

Carole Itter was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1939. She attended the Vancouver School of Art in 1961 (currently Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design) where she later taught. She was a key figure in Vancouver’s art scene of the 60’s and 70’s. Most of her work was created in a cabin she shared with artist Al Neil in Dollarton, North Vancouver, British Columbia.

In Carole Itter’s 1972 piece, Personal Baggage, she removed a cedar log from Roberts Creek, disassembled and moved it to Nova Scotia where it was reassembled. Personal Baggage is widely considered influential in Vancouver’s art scene. Other key works include Euclid (1979), a photo series which documented Al Neil tracing geometric figures on the beach of Cates Park; Grand Piano Rattle: A Bosendorfer for Al Neil (1984), an assemblage resembling an antique piano; and Where the Streets are Paved with Gold: A Tribute to a Canadian Immigrant Neighbourhood (1994), acknowledging the community of elderly immigrants in the Strathcona neighbourhood of Vancouver.

Carole Itter’s art has been shown as part of group and solo exhibitions at various galleries across Canada. In addition to being an accomplished artist, Carole Itter is also a published writer. She collaborated with Canadian poet and novelist, Daphne Marlatt, to publish Opening Doors: Vancouver’s East End in 1979. The pair compiled and edited the book which documented the history of Strathcona, Vancouver.

Carole Itter was awarded the Vancouver Institute of Visual Arts (VIVA) Award in 1989. In 2017 she received the Audain Prize in Visual Arts. Her work are part of the permanent collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver Public Library, and the Surrey Art Gallery.