Tim Whiten
(1941–)
Tim Whiten
1941–
Tim Whiten (1941– ) is an educator and creator of cultural objects. He works across painting, drawing, sculpture, performance, and multi-media installations. Much of Whiten’s work merges everyday signs and symbols with the mystical, often using ritual performances and site-specific installations to create experiences that allow the viewer to explore the human condition. Whiten’s work invites viewers to sense, rather than overtly read, the work.
Exploring the nature of myth, spirituality, and transcendence, Whiten’s work often transports the viewer from the physical world into a spiritual one. Since 1970, his work has included skulls and organic materials including bones, lemon juice, wood, and natural fibers. In the mid-1980s, Whiten also began incorporating glass into his work. As a motif, the skulls represent divine powers, signifying a connection between humans, our ancestors, and the divine. Furthermore, glass mobilizes the transparency of the medium to illustrate the bridging of our physical world with an infinity of spiritual worlds.
Born in Inkster, Michigan, Whiten obtained a Bachelor of Science from Central Michigan University in 1964. He studied under philosopher and psychologist Oscar Oppenheimer whose thinking has had a continued influence over Whiten’s life and artwork. In 1966, Whiten obtained an MFA from the University of Oregon. After completing military service as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army in 1968 where he participated in the Vietnam War, Whiten obtained a teaching position at York University in Toronto. In 1970, he became one of the first members of the newly formed Faculty of Fine Arts, where he served as the chair between 1984 and 1986. He retired in 2007 after thirty-nine years of teaching.
His work has been featured in a number of solo and group exhibitions in Canada and the United States, including a retrospective titled Tim Whiten: Tools of Conveyance, curated by Sandra Q. Firmin, at the Colorado University Art Museum, Boulder, in 2021. His work is also held in a number of public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Whiten is represented by Olga Korper Gallery in Toronto, and he is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
