Maura Doyle is an artist who works in ceramics, sculpture, printed matter, printmaking, drawing and video. Her recent focus is on ceramic sculpture and publishing. Over two decades of her work is included in mid-career survey exhibition Dear Universe, which is currently touring Canada. To date, it has been presented at Gallerie Axeneo7, Gatineau, QC (2023) and Audain Gallery, Vancouver, BC (2024). Her recent work Hallow Recoil is a series of CT-scanned pots with interiors that do not reflect their outside forms exhibited at Central Art Garage, Ottawa (2023). Her recent publications include printed matter work Gone published by Ottawa Art Gallery, (2018); and a series of self-published oversized letters, Fool’s Cap Letters (2019).
Between 1993 and 2004, Doyle published 10 annual Mail Order Catalogues with Annie Dunning. Her erratic boulder sculptural works are permanently installed in Toronto and Vancouver. Solo and group exhibitions include Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver, 2020), Carleton University Art Gallery (Ottawa, 2016), YYZ Artists’ Outlet (Toronto, 2014), Dalhousie University Art Gallery (Halifax, 2026), Paul Petro Contemporary Art (Toronto, 2019), Remo (Osaka, 2006), Power Plant (Toronto, 2005), Toronto Sculpture Garden (2004), White Columns (New York, 2004), Passagen Art Center (Linköping, Sweden, 2004) and Art Metropole (Toronto, 2003). She participated in residencies at Open Studio (Toronto, 2019), Banff Centre for the Arts (Banff, AB, 2017) and Carleton University Art Gallery (Ottawa, ON) where she worked with the gallery’s ceramic collection (2017). Also in 2017, she received the K.M. Hunter Award for Visual Art.
Maura Doyle is from Ottawa, Ontario, which is Anishnaabeg (Algonquin) Aki.
Interview with Robert Dayton, White Hot Magazine here.
Video tour of my work by curator Kimberly Phillips The Artist’s Studio is Her Bedroom (2020) here.
Exibition review by Josh Thorpe, Canadian Art (2014) here.
mauradoyl3 [at] gmail.com
IG doyle.maura
Expanded catalogue of works / archive available by request.
Upcoming projects:
Sept 2025: A republished and reconsidered edition of my 2009 artist book Beaver Architecture: Sticks and Mud Reconsidered. Updated edition commissioned by SFU Galleries, Vancouver, BC.
Sept 2025: Dear Universe, Exhibition at Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, BC.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS selected
2024 Dear Universe, survey exhibition, Audain Gallery / SFU Galleries, Vancouver
2023 Hallow Recoil, Central Art Garage, Ottawa
2022 Dear Universe, survey exhibition, Gallerie Axeneo7, Gatineau, QC
2019 Dear Mother, Open Studio, Toronto
2019 Overcoat of Clay, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto
2016 the vessel that with fugitive articulation answer’d, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa
2015 Pot Diction, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Ottawa
2014 Who the Pot? YYZ Artists’ Outlet, Toront
2012 Garbologic Objects, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto
2011 Bone Dump, Scotia Bank Nuit Blanche, commissioned by City of Toronto
2009 New Age Beaver, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto
2005 The Mail Order Catalogue: Forest Fantasy, Paul Petro Multiples, Toronto
2005 Monument to all Boulders, public sculpture, Or Gallery & City of Vancouver
2004 There’s a New Boulder in Town, Toronto Sculpture Garden, Toronto
2003 The Mail Order Catalogue, The Add-on Edition, Art Metropole, Toronto
2003 Chip Bags 2004, Pantry Gallery, Vancouver
2003 “2003”, Skol Gallery, Montreal
2002 Maura Doyle 2002, Or Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2001 The Mail Order Catalogue: Double Issue, Gallery Le Deco, Tokyo
GROUP EXHIBITIONS selected
2022 Conveyance, Central Art Garage, Ottawa
2022 ICAF International Ceramic Art Fair, Gardiner Museum, Toronto
2020 The Artist’s studio is her bedroom, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver
2018 Garden of Skin, Angus-Hughes Gallery, London UK
2018 We’ll all become stories, Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa
2015 Anatomica, Dalhousie University Art Gallery, Halifax, NS
2011 So Many Letdowns Before We Get Up, Platform Centre, Winnipeg
2009 The Frontier is Here, Inverness County Centre for the Arts, Cape Breton, NS
2007 Goin Postal, Art Metropole, Toronto
2006 Sometimes we make it, Remo, Osaka, Tokyo
2005 Dedicated to you, but you weren’t listening, Power Plant, Toronto
2005 A Delicate Kinship, hpgrp (HaNNa Gallery), Ginza, Tokyo
2005 +Video Awards, Plus Gallery, Nagoya, Japan
2004 The Cave and the Island, White Columns, New York; and Kunstbuero, Vienna
2004 Important Canadian Art, ZieherSmith Gallery, New York
2004 Confidence, Passagen Art Center, Linköping, Sweden
2002 Small World, Gallery Le Deco, Tokyo, Japan & Sis Boom Ba, Toronto
2000 Sound Separation, Western Front, Vancouver
1999 Lost, Annaleonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS
EDUCATION
2006-2008 MFA University of Guelph, studio art
1994-1998 BFA Emily Carr Institute, Vancouver, studio art
AWARDS selected
2022 / 2020 / 2018 Explore and Create, Canada Council for the Arts
2021 / 2018 / 2016 Visual Art Project Grant, Ontario Arts Council
2020 / 2015 / 2014 Creation and Production Fund for Artists, City of Ottawa
2017 KM Hunter Award, Ontario Arts Council
2007 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, master’s scholarship
RESIDENCIES selected
2019 Open Studio, Toronto
2019 Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, AB
2015 Collection Invitational, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa
ARTIST PUBLICATIONS selected
2019 Fool’s Cap Letters, self-published poster series
2018 Gone, fold-out map/poster, commissioned by Ottawa Art Gallery
2009 Guide to Beaver Architecture: Sticks and Mud Reconsidered, artist’s book, co-published with Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto
2005 Geologic Time Capsules Revealed, artist’s publication, Or Gallery & City of Vancouver
2004 There’s a New Boulder in Town, artist’s book, commissioned by Toronto Sculpture Garden
1994-2005 The Mail Order Catalogue (9 issues), self-published in collaboration with Annie Dunning
ARTISTS TALKS / PRESENTATIONS
2024 SFU Galleries, Vancouver
2022 Gallerie Axeneo7, Gatineau, QC
2022 Gardiner Museum, as part of ICAF, Toronto
2020 Contemporary Art Gallery round table, Vancouver
2016 Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa
2012 University of Ottawa, Fine Arts Dept. Ottawa
2011 Art Metropole/Arts Librarians Society of North America, Toronto
2005 Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver
2005 University of Guelph, School of Fine Art and Music, Guelph
2004 Crac, Stockholm, Sweden
REVIEWS / INTERVIEWS / EXHIBITION CATALOGUES
Agrell, Siri. “Gneiss boulders” National Post Oct 2, 2004: TO12
Connor, Kevin. “This is Art?” Toronto Sun Nov 15, 2011: Cover story.
Dyment, Dave. “Maura Doyle’s Art Services”. C- Magazine 74 (Summer 2002): 46
Doyle, Maura. Interview by Rosemary Heather, Millions Magazine. Issue 5 (June 2014):3-8.
Heather, Rosemary “Who the Pot? Why so Primitive?” YYZ Artists’ Outlet: Home: Essays. May 2014.
Heath-Rawlings, Jordon. “A boulder approach” Toronto Star Nov 14, 2004:B2
Johnson, Paddy. “In Praise of Beavers” The L Magazine: Columns: Art Fag City. June 10 2009.
“Maura Doyle: Castor Craftsmanship” Canadian Art: Home: Online: See It. May 21, 2009.
Milroy, Sarah. “Exploring collaboration”. Globe and Mail April 5, 2004:R3
Morellie, Didier. “Dear Canada do better”. Vie des arts: Aug 22, 2022.
Osborne, Catherine. “A Sly Comment on Hype”. National Post Nov 1, 2003: TO7
Plotnikoff, Sandy. “The Mail Order Catalogue”. Mix Magazine 25.3 (Spring 2000): 11
Reinhart, Anthony. “The Boulder and the Beautiful” Globe and Mail Oct 9,2004:M5
Reinhart, Anthony. “INTELLIGENCE: A case of boulderdash” Globe and Mail June 18,2005:M2
Thorpe, Josh. “Maura Doyle’s Pots Recast Perception” Canadian Art: Home: Reviews. June 27, 2014.
COLLECTIONS
City of Toronto / City of Vancouver / City of Ottawa / Fidelity Investments / TD Bank Group / RBC / Ottawa Art Gallery / Global Affairs Canada
RELATED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2014 – 2023 Adjunct Professor, Dept. of Visual Art (Sculpture), University of Ottawa