Lynne Heller is a post-disciplinary artist, an educator and academic. Her interests encompass both material and virtual culture, performance, graphic novels and sculptural installation. Heller completed her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004 and her PhD in 2016 at University College Dublin, Ireland from the department of Gender, Culture and Identity in the School of Humanities and Arts, with a research focus on feminist practice in online culture. Her research was practice-based, with a specialty in Digital Media Arts. She is an Adjunct Professor at OCAD University, as well as co-director of the Data Materialization Studio and Reviews Editor of Virtual Creativity, Intellect Publishing. She is also an adjunct faculty member of SMARTlab, Ireland.
Heller has an extensive exhibition record both nationally and internationally and is the recipient of grants from the Social Studies and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Canada. Recent exhibitions include Slippage at the Robert Langen Art Gallery, University at Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Chelsea Girls, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON, Homeostasis Lab, The Wrong – New Digital Art Biennale, made and exhibited worldwide, Another Season: An International Exchange Project, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON (the exhibition travelled to the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing, the Detroit Centre for Contemporary Photography, and the Hippolyte Photographic Gallery, Helsinki) and Hysteria: Past, Present, Future curated by Anonda Bell, Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, USA. She has exhibited at WARC Gallery, Toronto, ON, ISEA2014, Dubai, UAE, touring - Salisbury, Leicester, Bristol, London and online. In the summer of 2018, her work, NAFTA – North American Free Trade Art, was exhibited at Instituto Cultural de León, MX. Recent publications include the chapter “Found Objects, Bought Selves” in New Opportunities for Artistic Practice in Virtual Worlds, ed. Dr. Denise Doyle and “One for Sorrow: A Handmade Virtual Reality Experience” in Contemporary Paths: Realities of Art, Science and Technology, ed, Dr. Pablo Gobira
Public and private collections of her work include York University, Toronto, ON, CA; Art Metrople, Toronto, ON, CA; The Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Artist’s Book Collection, OCAD University Toronto, ON, CA; Artists’ Health Centre Foundation, Canada, Sheila H. MacKay Foundation, Canada; External Affairs, Government of Canada, Tokyo Embassy; and private collections. Reviews include Re-Sculpt, the blog of the International Sculpture Center, NYC; ETC. Montreal, Canada; Art Papers, USA; The Globe & Mail, Canada; Canadian Art, Canada; Fiberarts, USA; The National Post, Canada and The Hamilton Spectator, Canada.
