Violet Costello

Violet Costello is an artist living and working in Calgary, Alberta. Born in Morpeth, England, Costello moved to Canada as a child. She studied at the Alberta College of Art before transferring to the Emily Carr College of Art and Design, where she graduated with an honours diploma in 3-Dimensional Studies in 1988. She received the J.W. McConnell Memorial Fellowship upon graduation. In 1991, she graduated with an MFA in sculpture from Concordia University, Montreal, where she taught sculpture during her last year. She has also taught sculpture at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. Violet has been on the rosters of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Calgary Arts Partners in Education Society (CAPES), and City of Calgary Public Art Program. She has received awards from Alberta Foundation for the Arts, British Columbia Culture, and Canada Council. Her large-scale sculptural installations have been exhibited throughout Canada. A common thread in much of her work has been consideration of the children’s world of play—a realm where reality readily gives way to, and confuses with, imagination. Her work raises questions about the construction of identity and the nature of representation. It is at once amusing and unsettling.

Violet Costello, 2023