Michaele Jordana
Born
Michaele Jordana Berman

1947
Winnipeg, Manitoba
EducationB.F.A. University of Manitoba School of Art (1969)
SpouseDouglas Pringle

Michaele Jordana, whose birth name was Michaele Berman, (born 1947 in Winnipeg, Manitoba)[1] is a Canadian artist and musician.[2]

Career

After graduating from the University of Manitoba School of Art with her BFA in 1969,[3] Jordana started her career in the 1970s as a super-realist painter of life-size airbrush paintings of slaughtered whales in Northern Canada. Her first show in 1976, Oceans of Blood, was exhibited at the Isaacs Gallery[4] in Toronto, Ontario, as was her show in 1977, Carnivore.[5][6] Through these works, she meant the viewer to sense her feeling of involvement with the destiny of the whales and the extermination of these animals, as she was quoted as saying in an article in the Toronto Star, "Provocative Whale Paintings Point Out Artist`s Obsession", January 14, 1976.[7] These works are in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada,[8] Canada Council Art Bank[2] and Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa.[9]

The Rites of Nuliajuk (1977),[10] performed at different places in Ontario, including the Robert McLaughin Gallery, marked the beginning of her crossover from fine artist to musician.[11] Collaborating with her partner Douglas Pringle and their production company Peak Productions, Berman started composing music and creating the on-stage persona of Michaele Jordana. With her band, The Poles, Jordana became known in the new wave movement.[12] With their hit single "CN Tower" (1977), The Poles won the first U-Know Award, and were regulars at punk venues including Max's Kansas City, the El Mocambo and CBGB, where they played alongside Devo and the Ramones.[13]

In the 1980s, Jordana Berman directed[14] and produced the documentaries Moving with the Light and Face to Face which pioneered assistive technologies for down-syndrome youth to communicate through the introduction of art, light and colored gels. Her stage show Storming Heaven, a rock opera which cast a dystopian glance at the realities of animal testing, was presented at the DuMaurier Center in Toronto and toured to the United States.

In the mid-1990s, Jordana started applying photorealistism to digital art and design, and together with Pringle started integrating new media platforms into their work, producing music art and video for the web. By 2000, Peak Productions had evolved into the Peak Media Collective, a collective of art workers, working independently and collaborating on large-scale public installations.

Jordana is also an art educator and has taught courses in visual art throughout her career at institutions including the art schools of York University (1975-1976),[3] the University of Guelph (1977)[3] and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, where she developed and taught drawing for animators and gameworlds for game designers. Jordana also has been professor and coordinator of the program in digital animation and game design and development at Centennial College's Centre for Creative Communication.

Private life

Jordana took a leave-of-absence from the world of new wave music to have a child, Ramona Pringle.

References

  1. ↑ "Artist/Maker name "Berman, Michaele"". Artists in Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  2. 1 2 Vernon, Jaimie (29 November 2004). "Biography - Michaele Jordana Berman". The Canadian Pop Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 MacDonald, Colin S. "Michaele Berman, A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and vol. 9 (Online Only)" (PDF). webmail.bell.net. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  4. ↑ Ihor Holubizky. "Small Villages, The Isaacs Gallery in Toronto: 1956 - 1991;". Retrieved 9 January 2010.
  5. ↑ "Michaele Berman: Carnivore". ccca.concordia.ca. Concordia. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  6. ↑ Ruth Ratner (1977). "The Primal Vision of Michaele Berman". Ontario Review, Issue 6;. pp. 71–79. Retrieved 9 January 2010.
  7. ↑ Murray, Joan (1977). ""Toronto: Joan Murray talks to Michaele Berman"". Artmagazine. 9 (35): 16–21, 49–50. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  8. ↑ National Gallery of Canada (1976). National Gallery Annual Acquisitions;. Retrieved 9 January 2010.
  9. ↑ Berman, Michaele. "Collection". rmg.minisisinc.com. Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa. Archived from the original on 27 November 2021. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  10. ↑ Permanent Collection. Oshawa: Robert McLaughlin Gallery. 1978. p. 2. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  11. ↑ Jane Lind (September 2001). Joyce Weiland: Artist on Fire;. ISBN 9781550286953. Retrieved 9 January 2010.
  12. ↑ Harry, Isobel. "Michaele Jordana and Douglas Pringle in the Poles (Crash 'n Burn)". ccca.concordia.ca. Concordia. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  13. ↑ Deorge Dean Higton. "Shades Magazine;". Retrieved 9 January 2010.
  14. ↑ "Canadian Women Film Directors Database;". Retrieved 9 January 2010.
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