Faculty of Art
Sculpture/Installation
Janeen
Gilbert
Sculpture/Installation
“Injury At Track Level — a ‘modern ruin’ — a memory, a portal to another time containing stories of sadness, hopelessness, dejection and despair. Sculpted concrete forms, layered and raw, embedded and embossed, stacked, placed, modular and movable — standing in for the unremembered and the overlooked — revealing the failings of a broken system and an apathetic society; while still finding the beauty in the forgotten and the lost — and believing that empathy through art can help banish isolation, encourage understanding, invite healing, and enrich our inner, emotional worlds. It is this philosophy that is engrained and encapsulated within my work.”
Janeen Gilbert is a multidisciplinary artist whose work centres around self discovery and self realization. Her work is created from a past filled with joys, sorrows, pain, and adventures — stimulated by a present filled with schedules, excitement, happiness, chaos, and change — and motivated by a future filled with anticipation, fear, challenges, unknowns and growth. Janeen Gilbert’s sculptures and installations tend to be autobiographical — a way of telling her life story — in a way that can be taken in and understood by the outside world. At the root, her work speaks to life experiences, memory and trauma — it is a tangible, concrete messenger of her inner most self. Janeen Gilbert gravitates towards geometric forms — clean lines and simplicity; tactile forms — intricate, layered and raw; sculpted forms — authentic, abstracted and implied; and purposeful forms — conceptual, personal, and embodied. She believes that materials carry with them their own unique voice and language — and that strong conceptual ideas can only be heightened and strengthen by the nature of the medium. Janeen has worked with resin, plaster, clay, concrete, wood, aluminum, bronze, pewter, and found objects — each playing an integral role in the meaning of her work. Janeen Gilbert has a B.A.Sc in Family and Social Relations from the University of Guelph, a B.A. in History from York University and a B.Ed from the University of Toronto. She is the owner and director of Lello Art School, which focuses on art education and enrichment within Toronto schools. She is currently finished her fourth degree at OCADU in Sculpture and Installation, with a minor in Art History.
University of Toronto
Bachelor of Education
Major Completed, 1999
York University
Bachelor of Arts - History
Major Completed, 1997
University of Guelph
Bachelor of Applied Science - Family & Social Relations
Major Completed, 1994
Lello Art School - Owner Teaching Art Enrichment Sculpture and Installation Painting Mixed Media Art History Special Education