BIOGRAPHY
A New Brunswick resident since 1973, Barbara Safran de Niverville received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree Cum Laude (1977) from Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree (2014) from the Lesley University College of Art and Design (formerly the Art Institute of Boston, Cambridge, MA).
Honors include the MFA Alumni Award and the Sheila Hugh MacKay Master of Fine Arts Scholarship. Nominated for the 2018 Prix Éloizes in visual arts, she has shown her work professionally since the mid-1970’s in 29 solo exhibitions and 34 group shows in Atlantic Canada, Ontario, Manitoba, Iceland and the United States.
Humanity’s relationship with the natural environment, experimentation and textual research influence each project. Awarded numerous grants and awards over the years, artist residencies in Reykjavik, Iceland (2015), Winnipeg-St. Boniface, MB (2016) and Terra Nova National Park, NL (2018) have prompted Barbara to create eclectic works in response to each landscape. She foresees a new series following the Artist Residency Constellation Bleue, Péninsule acadienne NB, September 2023.
Participation on peer juries includes: the Jane LeBlanc Legacy Fund Visual Arts Award (NB Film Co-operative 2022), the Fred Ross Scholarship (Sheila Hugh McKay Foundation 2018), Canada Council for the Arts Peer Assessment Committee for Project Grants to Visual Artists 2017, the BDC Drawing and Painting Symposium (Dalhousie, NB 2016) and the Struts Gallery and Faucet Media Center Review Committees (Sackville, NB 2014-15).
Interviewed by art writer Stephanie Buhman (NewYork and Berlin), Barbara’s work featured in “New Brunswick Studio Conversations: River View along the Petitcodiac River” in Billie; Undercurrents of Atlantic Canadian Visual Culture, pp 13-14, vol. 2, issue 2, 2017, Beaverbrook Art Gallery. Barbara’s published art writing includes “The Language of Landscape,” an interview with Herménégilde Chiasson in the inaugural issue of Billie, 2015. She has also worked with artist, writer and curator Paul Édouard Bourque on “Naturo elementa,” a critical essay on Barbara’s recent work (online 2021) and “Two Practices, Two Views” in the New Brunswick art journal Created Here: Creativity, vol. 17, 2021. She was a participant in L’incubateur de la pensée écrite workshops on art writing (Vie des arts, Owens Art Gallery, Galerie d'art Louise & Reuben Cohen, 2021-22).
Based on her painting “Vanitas Chicory,” Barbara collaborated on the short, experimental film "Vanitas Vivace” with Peter de Niverville (director-animator) and Abigail de Niverville (composer). The film premiered at FLIGHT / Mostra Internazionale di Genova (Genoa, Italy 2021) and was shown at the Silver Wave Film Festival, Fredericton, NB (2021) and the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival, Halifax, NS (2022).
Barbara has taught painting, drawing, professional practice and art history part-time for six years in the Département des arts visuels, Université de Moncton (2014, 2016-2020). She presented “The Strategic Colour Palette” webinar for CARFAC Martimes (2022). A mentor in the Association acadienne des artistes professionnel.le.s program (2018), art instructor and teacher, New Brunswick Community College Moncton (2010-14) and Moncton area public schools (1979 - 2009), she currently pursues her artwork full-time in Riverview, NB.