Presently residing in Paris, Canadian artist Nadine Norman, originally from Toronto, holds a BFA from York University and an MFA from the University of Windsor. Relocating to Montreal, she was honoured as the first recipient of the Pierre Ayot Prize.
Influenced by her nomadic travels and international exhibitions, Nadine's artistic journey has been further shaped by her active participation in artist residencies at The International Studio and Curatorial Programme in New York, The Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, The International Studios in Pontoise, The Visual Arts Center on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, The Libeň 'Na Palmovce' Synagogue in Prague, and La Chambre Blanche in Quebec.
Nadine Norman’s interdisciplinary art practice encompasses ephemeral and site-specific installations and performance art. Her provocative projects have gained international acclaim, most notably her groundbreaking exhibition-performance titled "Call Girl," which offered appointment-based exchanges centred entirely around dialogue within the context of the sex industry and the diplomatic sphere at the Canadian Cultural Center in Paris. Renowned for her innovative and audacious performances, nonetheless the Canadian government launched a public outcry calling for censorship of this exhibition, leading to a parliamentary debate that was ultimately defended under the freedom of speech act.
Among other notable artworks is "Lick My Window!" an installation-performance that subverts the corporate image of the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art through a communal window-washing action using large languid silicone squeegees resembling cow tongues. Following this, her multi-platform solo exhibition "I'm Available. And You?" challenged viewers' perspectives, interpretations, and expectations, reflecting upon their own availability and communicative conditioning.
Her artworks have also been featured in various group venues, including "Innocence and Violence" at the Gallery Museum AR/GE Kunst in Bolzano, Italy; »Sex In The City" at the Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna; The performance art festival "Polysonneries II" at Les Subsistances in Lyon; in a series of performances "Tokyorama" inaugurating the Palais de Tokyo in Paris; "In All The Wrong Places" at the Ottawa Art Gallery in Canada; "Disquieting Strangeness" at the Center for Freudian Analysis and Research in London UK; "Panique au Faubourg" at the Usines Ephémère in Montreal, and "The Compulsion To Remember" at the Center for Curatorial Studies Museum, Bard College in New York; among others… Her works have also been showcased at art fairs such as Scope Miami and Barcelona.
During the height of her career while working on the "Invisible Woman" project, Nadine ventured into the realm of Embodied Arts; inspiring her to subsequently found a school in Montmartre, Paris. Reinventing her artistic practice, the artist reemerges through the looking glass with a new genre of moving images that combine performance action video with spoken word, a concept Nadine refers to as 'Performance Action Sonnets’. While this exploration is ongoing, an episode from this series, « (Re)volution" premiered in "Natura, ARTFEM II," The Women Artists International Biennial in Macau Republic of China.