WORK
As artists we seek an authentic interpretation of our time and wish to contribute new ways of adding to the understanding of reality within which we live. Works of art prompt an engagement in a process of articulation, remembering and retelling, inciting intense reflection and persistent questioning.
Most of my works on paper and three-dimensional pieces are densely layered networks, drawing from art history, theory, philosophy, literature, the everyday, as a reflection of an emerging reality. They focus on language, evolving constructs of time and space, movement and sound, the subjectivity of perception, cultural hybridity and critical reception of art works.
A central body of work, an analysis of individual artists whose history exemplifies an unusually difficult acknowledgement of their oeuvre (among them David Milne, Meret Oppenheim, Robert Walser) draws attention to socially critical positioning of art works, atemporality, cultural and artistic forms of withdrawal and issues of incomprehension and misinterpretation.
BIOGRAPHY
Bolliger was born in Switzerland where she studied at the Schools of Visual Art in Bern and Basel. She currently resides in Toronto. She has taught in the School of Fine Art and Music at the University of Guelph, OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design University) Toronto and was a professor in the Art & Art History Program, a collaborative Program between Sheridan (Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning) and the University of Toronto at Mississauga, where she taught senior level drawing and sculpture courses.
Bolliger has participated on Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council juries. She has been a board member of Cold City Gallery, Mercer Union, The Toronto Sculpture Garden, Glendon Gallery (York University), the acquisitions committee of Oakville Galleries and the steering committee on public art for the city of Mississauga.
Bolliger’s work has been shown throughout Canada and internationally. Recent exhibitions include: REGIONALE (2025), REWILDING (2024), UEBERZEICHNEN (2015) KUNSTHAUS BASELLAND, Switzerland; TEXTOS, (2023), Mexico City;
VOICES, Harbourfront Gallery Toronto, University of Lethbridge, Zayed University Dubai, Al Faroun Gallery, Abu Dhabi (2019); SIMULTANEITIES, (2019), HYBRIDS, (2017), Christie Contemporary, Toronto; WHAT IS HERE HAS ECHOED, (2018) McLaren Art Centre, Barrie, ON; THE GREEN OF HER, (2016); FOUR ECHOES (2009), Oakville Galleries, Oakville, ON; CONSTRUCTION SITES, (2010), Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, BC; FRAY (2006) The Museum for Textiles, Toronto; TEN/THE COLD CITY YEARS (2005) The Power Plant, Toronto, ON; MASK AND METAMORPHOSIS, (2002), Art Gallery of Hamilton, ON.
Bolliger is the recipient of Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council awards.
APPROACH TO TEACHING
At the core of my teaching stands the belief that theory and practice should inform each other, that each of them should carry an equal weight. It is in the areas where the two meet that ideas are generated, that friction occurs, that discourses take place. I see the classroom as a safe place where a context can be created within which different ideas are articulated, tested, honed, revoked and re-articulated in the form of an ongoing process.