Artist

Rhonda Abrams

Rhonda Abrams is remarkable among Canadian video artists for her captivating use of song to drive the narratives of her tapes. Using the operetta and folkloric song form she creates allegorical investigations into our relationship to nature....Marilyn Burgess, 1998

Rhonda Abrams is an award winning independent film and video producer of 15 films and videos. Since 1984, she has experimented with the musical narrative form, creating a body of work that has been screened in over 60 galleries and festivals around the world. Her work is in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Museum of Modern Art, Art Bank, 49th Parallel, California Institute of the Arts, Concordia University, Trinity Square Video, Ed Video and Art Metropol. She has had solo shows at Oboro gallery, Video Pool, McMichael gallery, Art Metropol, Art Gallery of Southern Alberta, Ed Video, 4th Parallel, Gallery 101, Art Culture Resource Centre and Ten Foot Henry's.

She won commissions to produce two live performances: Lament of the Sugar Bush Man at John Workman Theatre and Myth of the Fishes at Dance Works. She was also commissioned to produce a video wall project, for Square One in Toronto. This year her work showed at the Art Gallery of Calgary retrospective, "Five Degrees of Separation", and at the Trivandrum Video festival in India. her work has been broadcast on WTN, SmartTV, and on Sound Calendar, an artist website. Abrams received her master of Fine Arts, Film and Video Production from York University and her Bachelor of Arts, with Honours in Visual Arts from the University of Ottawa. She received the Canadian Artist Scholarship from the Banff Centre of Fine Arts. Rhonda Abrams teaches at Ryerson University.


Artist Code: 126

Videography

Trailer Song

1998, 08:34 minutes, colour, English

Lament of the Sugar Bush Man

1987, 11:39 minutes, colour, English

The Myth of the Fishes

1985, 07:43 minutes, colour, English

Polar Plateau

1983, 05:05 minutes, colour, English

Geography is Destiny

1983, 15:18 minutes, colour, English

Critical Writing

Some Toronto Video: My work is not designed for a large audience...
by Su Rynard. Composition, Dec. 1996, v. 1, no. 3.
Mirror Machine: Video and Identity
by Janine Marchessault. YYZ Books, McGill University, 1995.
The Cool Glass Eye: An Evening of Video
Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1991.
Images '89
by Donna Lypchuk. Cinema Canada, Sept. 1989.
Bad Acting: Performing and Characterization on Screen
by Sara Diamond and Gary Kibbins. Trade initiatives; 3 programmes of Canadian video, 1988. Vancouver: Satelite Video Exchange Society, 1988.
Four Redheads: Four New Toronto Videotapes
by Andrew J. Paterson. Fuse, July 23 Fall, 1987, v. 11, no. 3.
New Video: A 698515 Inc. Presentation
by Dot Tuer. Vanguard, Nov. 1987, v. 16, no. 5.
International video award winners air on MuchMusic
by Tony Wong. The Sunday Star, June 28, 1987.
Video Culture
by Colin Campbell. Cinema Canada, Sept. 1987, no. 144.
Video Theatrics
by Daina Augaitis and Helga Pakasaar. Walter Phillips Gallery Exhibition Brochure, Aug. 4, 1987. Banff: Walter Phillips Gallery, 1987.
Video Theatrics
by Daina Augaitis and Helga Pakasaar. Video Theatrics, Aug. 4 Summer, 1987.
The 1986 New Work Show
by Geoffery Shea. Cinema Canada, Nov. 1986.
Performance Art Re-Visited: Rhonda Abrams: The Sugar Bushman
by Clive Robertson. Fuse, May 1986, v. 9, no. 6.
6 of 1001 Nights of Performance. My giant A Space activity book!:...
by Joanna Householder et al. 6 of 1001 Nights of Performance. My giant A Space activity book!, 1986. Toronto: A Space (Artists Space), 1986.
Film Video Plains
by Verne Hume et al. Calgary: EM/MEDIA, 1985.