Kim Ondaatje

Kim Ondaatje (also known as Betty Jane Kimbark, October 2, 1928) is a Canadian painter, photographer, and documentary filmmaker.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Ondaatje studied at the Ontario College of Art and McGill University. She completed a M.A. in Canadian Literature at Queen's University, while on a teaching fellowship. Until 1964, Ondaatje served as a part-time lecturer at Wilfrid Laurier University and Sherbrooke University. In the early 1960s she returned to the visual arts again and by 1965 was painting full-time. In 1967, with fellow Canadian artists Jack Chambers and Tony Urquhart, she founded Canadian Artists Representation (CAR), which today is the Canadian Artists Representation/Frontes des Artistes Canadiens (CARFAC). CAR was the first artist organization in the world to establish a fee structure for museum and gallery exhibitions of contemporary artists.

Primarily a visual artist, Ondaatje later directed short documentary films and published books of photography. In her paintings she pursued a variety of interests. Along with abstract and impressionistic landscapes she composed three paintings series: a landscape group entitled the Hill Series; an interior-based group of paintings titled The House on Piccadilly Street; and a final group of large industrial landscapes entitled the Factory Series, completed in the mid-1970s. Ondaatje's research on traditional Ontario quilt-making and design led to a large national touring exhibition of patchwork quilts (1974–76), and a documentary film. During the course of her career, she worked for the London Public Gallery, the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Emily Carr College's Outreach as a travelling artist with her work from 1969 to 1981.

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