Renée Van Halm
Got you covered
On view until June 20, 2026
General Hardware is thrilled to present a solo exhibition of new works by Renée Van Halm.
Cultural history and the ways we represent and inhabit the world through artistic interventions has long been central Renée Van Halm’s work. Van Halm draws her images from a variety of sources: mainstream fashion, architecture and decor magazines, and more recently the work of 1920s Bauhaus artists and weavers, in considering the ways in which architectural space governs contemporary human experience. More than forty years ago, Van Halm began working with the architecture found in early Renaissance painting, constructing life-sized, three-dimen-sional structures inspired by those pictorial spaces. This led her to consider how architectural space shapes contemporary experience—how it frames the body, whether overtly visible or only implied. These concerns continue to inform her practice across painting, drawing, and, most recently, ceramics.
She draws imagery from her own photographs, printed matter, and internet sources, translating them through processes of manipulation and juxtaposition into new compositions that propose reconsidered meanings. Through this, she intends to question visual conventions and expose the layered politics embedded in form and space. Her ongoing interests centre on the politics of space: who owns it, who occupies it, and how we, as individuals, define and negotiate our private and public identities within the environments we inhabit.
Born in the Netherlands, Renée Van Halm immigrated to Canada as a child. She currently lives and works in Vancouver, after extended periods in Toronto, Montréal, and Berlin. She studied at the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art +Design) and holds an MFA from Concordia University in Montréal.
Van Halm has exhibited widely, with over 50 solo exhibitions and numerous group shows, including Making Space (Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 2020), Form Follows Fiction (UTAC, Toronto, 2016), The Poetics of Space (Vancouver Art Gallery, 2015) and international exhibitions in Sydney and Tokyo. Her work is held in public and private collections internationally including the National Gallery of Canada.
A founding member of Mercer Union, Toronto’s artist-run centre (est. 1979), Van Halm has also made significant contributions as an educator. She taught at York University before joining the faculty at Emily Carr University, where she is now Professor Emerita.
Renée Van Halm, Stuck Up, 2024, ceramic, 14” x 7” x 8”
Renée Van Halm, Untitled B, 2026, acrylic on canvas, 22 x 18 inches
Renée Van Halm, Weave (GS), 2021, gouache on paper, 21 x 17 inches framed size