Jean Halstead

Jean Halstead continues a life-long pursuit of symbolically projecting a human perspective of the universe into everyday life through visual art.

She has worked in Tokyo, New York, Paris, Brussels, and Berlin as well as in Ottawa, on monumental and more intimate sculptures in many materials: clay, wood, stone, welded metal, cast bronze and polyester resin.

Together with Svetlana Swinimer, with whom she has worked collaboratively since 1996, she has exhibited multimedia installations (including “holograms”, large photographic prints and transparencies of experimental visual effects, videos, 3 D sculptures incorporating unique techniques), with a focus on interpreting current but obscure cosmic discoveries.

Their “art in public places” on large scale can be seen in the Department of Music, Carleton University (“BWV #564") and at the Centre Culturel du Vieux Aylmer, Gatineau, P.Q. (“La Chute d’Icare” and “Shades of Difference”). They have also received support from the Ontario Arts Council.

In 2006, the collaborative team of Halstead- Swinimer received the City of Ottawa public art commission to create a monumental sculpture for the new Paramedic Service Headquarters on Don Reid Drive, Ottawa. This 2 ton stainless steel sculpture combines a “map” of Ottawa (folded at a 60 degree angle into dynamic wings) with the caduceus symbol of the medical profession, and “directs” the outgoing paramedic ambulances toward their Ottawa city targets.

Jean G. Halstead (187 Billings Avenue - Ottawa, K1H 5K8 (613) 521-5221) - jeanhals@magma.ca