Shanie Tomassini
Shanie Tomassini explores the relationships between matter, territory, and presence through sculpture, installation, and drawing. Her practice, marked by a deep reverence for life, pursues a search for meaning through the visible and invisible manifestations of existence. She approaches and selects her materials through philosophical, existential, and energetic perspectives, often tinged with a certain anxiety, yet in which wonder and hope persist.
In recent years, public art has taken on an increasingly prominent role in her practice, leading her to conceive of sculpture in terms of its integration into shared spaces. This collective dimension deepens her interest in the materiality of sites, their histories, and their transformations.
After completing her master’s degree in Texas, Tomassini developed a deep connection with the desert of the American Southwest, whose landscapes have informed her practice for nearly a decade. Nourished by land art, geology, and direct experience of the land, this connection has gradually given rise to an almost devotional practice of pilgrimage: wandering, crossing, returning, and contemplating become ways of generating meaning and engaging with the material world.
The artist’s studio was sponsored by the generous support of The Ouellette Family Foundation for the year 2025-2026.
Biography
Shanie Tomassini has exhibited her work in Canada, the United States, and Europe, including at the PHI Foundation, the Clark Center in Montreal, Tenerife Espacio de las Artes in Spain, the Arsenal in New York, and the UMLAUF Museum in Austin. She is a recipient of the Fonderie Darling’s Ateliers Montréalais 2023–2026 residency and holds a master’s degree in sculpture from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in visual arts from UQAM.
Recent exhibitions
| 2026 | Solar Lamentation, solo exhibition, Fonderie Darling, Montréal, CA |
| 2025 | Time Isn’t Real, group exhibition, Art Gallery of Burlington, Ontario, CA |
| 2024 | As Above, so Below, duo exhibition with Winniw Truong, Patel Brown, Montréal, CA |
| 2023 | Conditions d'utilisation, group exhibition, Phi Foundation, Montreal, CA Personal Allegories, group exhibition, Patel Brown, Toronto, CA |
| 2022 | COLAPSO, group exhibition, Tenerife Espacio de Las Artes (TEA), Santa Cruz de Tenerife, ES Material Knowledge, group exhibition, Arsenal Contemporary, New York, US Mortarium, solo exhibition, Rad’Art, San Romano, IT Mystic Toolkit, group exhibition, Artpace, San Antonio, US |
| 2021 | iPhone Rituel, solo exhibition, Centre Clark, Montréal, CA Le spectre des objets, group exhibition, Sporobole, Sherbrooke, CA Water Whispering Through the Drain, group exhibition, Courtyard Gallery, Austin, US |
| 2019 | The Cheetos Puff Experiment, Thesis Exhibit, Visual Art Center, Austin, US Outdoor Cat, group exhibition, Sweet Pass Sculpture Park, Dallas, US |
| 2018 | Slippery Clump, solo exhibition, UMLAUF Sculpture Garden & Museum, Austin, US A Witch is Born Out of the True Hungers of her Time, TAP Art Space, duo with Guillaume Adjutor Provost, Montreal, CA Les propriétés mathématiques d’un beigne, Group exhibition, CIRCA Art Actuel, Montreal, CA |