Contact
connie@conniechappelart.com
Biography
Connie Chappel is a multidisciplinary artist living on Treaty 1 Territory in Winnipeg, Canada. She uses photography, sculptural assemblage and installation to unearth correlations between the natural world, human life and inanimate objects. Her work contemplates narratives about cycles of life and death, growth and decay. She holds a BFA - 1st class honours from the University of Manitoba School of Art, Winnipeg.
In 2019, Chappel had her first major solo exhibition, Embodiment, at aceartinc. gallery, Winnipeg. The following year, she participated in a three-person exhibition Through Distant Air at AllArtNow Lab, Stockholm, Sweden. In 2021-2022, she partnered with two scientists for an Eco-Craft research project on climate change sponsored by the Manitoba Craft Council, Winnipeg.
Also in 2022, Chappel's sculptural work was curated by Erica Mendritzki into the touring exhibition Worried Earth: Eco-Anxiety and Entangled Grief at Gallery 1C03, University of Winnipeg. The second and third iterations of the exhibition featuring her most current work were at Anna Leonowens Gallery, NSCAD University, Halifax, NS (2023) and at the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, AB (2024-2025).
In addition, Chappel's work has exhibited at World of Threads Festival, Oakville; Orillia Museum of Art and History, Orillia; Naval Historical Museum, Puerto Vallarta, MX; and, in Transitions: The New Biennial for Art and Architecture, Botkyrka Konsthall, Tumba, Sweden.
Artist Statement
In my studio practice, I have become aware of my intuitive exploration with art historical allegory and universal experiences. In view of that discovery, I am exploring human presence in the natural world as a study of adaptation, diversity, self-generation, the inescapability of physical death as well as the material evidence of time. I wish to emphasize human intervention in, as well as connection with, redeemed natural salvage through sculptural works that combine natural and artificial material into idiosyncratic objects and installation pieces. My work pays homage to the cycle of existence, plunging into its least uplifting phase and conveying it flourishing.
I am grateful for the opportunity to live, work and gather my materials on Treaty 1 Territory, the ancestral lands of Anishinaabeg, Ininiwak, Anishininwak, Dakota Oyate, and Denésuline, and the National Homeland of the Red River Métis. I am also grateful for the fresh water I drink and use that is sourced from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation on Treaty 3 Territory and electricity that comes from multiple Treaty Territories.