Roula Partheniou’s current practice explores the replica and how the remaking of a familiar object can shift our perception and perspective. Her projects tend to take the form of sculptural installations that make use of hyper-real trompe l’oeil, material puns and colour cues to deconstruct the familiar and trigger a reconsideration of common forms. Reproduced to various degrees of verisimilitude, and an experiment with the edge between representation and abstraction, her objects question how we see and read objects and challenge the viewer to negotiate between the perceived and the actual. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Guelph in 2001 and currently lives and works in Sackville, NB. She has exhibited throughout Canada and internationally, with recent exhibitions at Tonya Bonakdar Gallery (NYC); Essex Flowers (NYC); Oakville Galleries (Canada); The Power Plant in Toronto (Canada); Plug In ICA in Winnipeg (Canada); University of Waterloo Art Gallery (Canada); the Dunlop Gallery in Regina (Canada); Museum of Bat Yam (Israel); AHVA Gallery, Vancouver (Canada) and MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts (USA). In 2019, Roula was artist in residence at Google in Mountain View, California. Her work is held in numerous private, public and corporate collections including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Munich Re, Bank of Montreal, TD Bank, RBC, Fidelity Investments, Hyundai Capital and The University of Toronto.
In 2018, Index, 160 page, part monograph, part beautifully produced artist book was published by the Dunlop Art Gallery in collaboration with Oakville Galleries, The Art Gallery of Peterborough, University of Waterloo Art Gallery and Contemporary Calgary.
- Sara Angel, “The Art of Illusion: Twelve Canadian Artists,” Art Canada Institute, April 1, 2022.
- Ulysses Castellanos, “The Totemic Quotidian in Roula Partheniou,” MOMUS, June 22, 2019.
- Nathan Heuvingh, “Record Shop,” Public #58, May 2019.
- Lauren Fournier, “Roula Partheniou,” Canadian Art, November 28, 2018.
- Chris Hampton, “Toronto’s Planet Storage has been transformed into a temporary art gallery,” Toronto Star, October 13, 2018.
- “Artist of the Week: Roula Partheniou,” LVL3, May 3, 2017.
- Sarah Liss, “Work in Progress: Shape Shifter,” Block Magazine, Winter 2016.
- Murray Whyte, “On the Wall: What’s in the galleries this week,” Toronto Star, January 5, 2016.
- Murray Whyte, “In Studio with Roula Partheniou,” Toronto Star, January 2, 2016.
- Bill Clarke, “Objects Food Rooms at Tanka Bonakdar Gallery,” ArtReview, Fall 2015.
- Rebecca Rothfeld, “Objects Food Rooms,” Frieze #174, September 25, 2015.
- Adam Barbu, “Roula Partheniou,” Magenta, June 2015.
- Nancy Webb, “‘Playlist’ Review: Online but Unavailable at Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran,” Canadian Art, June 18, 2015.
- Monica Khemsurov, “Saturday Selects,” Sight Unseen, May 30, 2015.
- Murray Whyte, “Endangered Oakville Galleries wrapped in an artist’s sly embrace,” Toronto Star, April 23, 2015.
- Shannon Anderson, “Roula Partheniou and the Art of the Double Take,” Canadian Art, Summer 2014.
- Emily Anne Kuriyama, “Toronto-based visual artists you should know,” Complex, September 22, 2013.
- Sholem Krishtalka, “Parts and Wholes,” The Globe and Mail, April 5, 2013.
- Betty Ann Jordan, “Book Club: The printed word plays muse for a host of Canadian artists,” House & Home #33, October 2011.
- Betty Ann Jordan, “Beyond the Coffee Table,” FASHION, Summer 2011.
- “Artist Profile: Roula Partheniou,” Juxtapoz #124, May 2011.
- Vasileios Dofoudis, “Artist Interview,” OZON Magazine #87, May 2011.
- Bill Clarke, “Out of Print,” ArtNews #110, April 2011.
- Matthew Purvis, “Out of Print,” BlogTO, January 11, 2011.
- Sarah Robayo-Sheridan, “Out Of Print,” Mercer Union, January 2011.
- Jen Hutton, “Circular Logic,” Magenta, February 4, 2010.
- Peter Terzian, “The Painted Book,” Print, February 2010.
- Gary Michael Dault, “Micah Lexier and Roula Partheniou at *QueenSpecific,” The Globe and Mail, February 28, 2009.
- Aileen Burns, “Changing the Rules of the Game,” Canadian Art, June 12, 2008.
- Gary Michael Dault, “And you thought a cube was just a cube,” The Globe and Mail, April 26, 2008.
- Sean Flinn, “Get your Free Sample,” The Chronicle Herald, April 5, 2005.