Tia Halliday uses performance, dance, and photography to literally “get under the skin” of her paintings. Halliday analyzes, creates and questions the body’s relationship to painting and sculpture: she choreographs painting tropes such as edge, flatness, depth, and rhythm using the body under dynamically sewnfabric cloaks or ‘sheaths’. These performed paintings are a form of generative research, a way to physically negotiate the paradigms of painterly abstraction, and yield different products and evidence of the creative process. Halliday performs solo or invites guest dancers to perform in public and at institutions. She also photographs performances to develop into large scale photographic artwork, digital or paper collages, and large scale paintings. Halliday was born in Calgary, as the daughter of the late Canadian abstract painter, Richard Halliday. She earned a BFA in Painting With Distinction from ACAD (2006), also studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Ontario College of Art and Design. Halliday obtained her MFA in Drawing and
Painting (2009) from Concordia University, and a BEd from University of Calgary (2012). She is a permanent faculty member at the University of Calgary where she teaches visual art and theory.
Halliday was an Artist in Residence at Contemporary Calgary in the NEXT2015 Program; she performed her ‘living sculpture’ performances during their LOOK2015 fundraiser. Recently, Halliday was included in the Body As Site Residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and the Alberta Biennial 2017 where she will exhibit at the Alberta Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton) and the Walter Phillips Gallery (Banff). Halliday has exhibited in many venues, and participated in projects across Canada, the US, and Europe. Solo exhibitions: Herringer Kiss Gallery (2016); NEXT2015; Kindred, Epcor Centre (2014). Selected group exhibitions: LOOK2015; Enacting Space I, II, III, Calgary, New York, Sweden (2015). Halliday’s work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Washington Post, and Canadian Art Online.
