Joyce Majiski 2025 Longlist

Artist Bio

The wild remoteness of the Yukon captivated me during my first visit in 1981, becoming home in 1984. Until the early 2000’s, I pursued three careers simultaneously: field biologist, wilderness guide and artist. Throughout the 1990’s my guiding company was unique in being the only wilderness guiding business in Canada owned and operated by women that focused on creativity and women-only trips. I spent part of my year navigating white water and mountain passes and the other part navigating streetscapes and creating art in far-flung cities. I love experiencing new cultures and have a passion for wild, untouched places. The variety and richness of my life, work and experiences have contributed to a broad foundation, an integrally woven expression of what I’ve felt, learned and what I am passionate about, all of which ultimately informs my artistic practice.

Artist Statement

There is a clear line of progression in my work both thematically and through my use of media. As a child I did endless drawings of animals and landscapes, using graphite and ball point pen, then in high school moving into watercolour painting and a variety of media.

I became interested in printmaking and in 1986, I enrolled in Belles Artes, a Mexican Art School in San Miguel de Allende to learn lithography. By chance I caught sight of an etching being lifted off the press and changed educational directions on the spot! After learning the rudiments of print and paper making that winter, I went on to pursue different techniques by creating work in studios in Canada and overseas.

The artwork I created in my 20’s and 30’s was a direct expression of my experiences as a wilderness guide and involvement in environmental issues. In particular campaigns to protect the Porcupine Caribou Herd from oil exploration in ANWR, mining on the Tatshenshini River and the Taku River corridors. The artwork I made gave me a voice as an active environmentalist and my caribou themed work is an ongoing signature series.

My interest is in telling a broader story, not only focusing on the environmental issues, but sharing a journey (as I did in my wilderness guiding career) of inspiration and celebration of beauty. My hope is that from that inspired place viewers would find a place of connection.

With an intent to depict the complexity of connections woven within the world of nature, I began to create mixed media installations allowing me to capture the layers and intricacies of my thoughts and research, delving into my passion for biology and love of the wilderness.

Over the last 20 years, my perspective has become broader as I shifted my gaze from “my” experience of north in the Yukon, to a circumpolar view (as depicted in my “North of Myth” installation). This northern focus continues with my current work about the Wooly Mammoth, another circumpolar species that lived and migrated across the circumpolar north during the last ice-age. This part of the north became an icefree refugium known as Beringia. The placer gold mining process around Dawson City has exposed bones long-buried in the permafrost layers, giving us a spectrum of animals, including mammoths, that existed here during the Pleistocene era. We have the bones but no remnants of human depiction of the animals of that time, so in October of 2024 I travelled to central France to examine the cave paintings from that time. This experience was pivotal in deepening my understanding of human evolution and the multiple flows of animal and human migrations that occurred worldwide over the millenia.

My gaze has broadened further with my focus on how we share resources on Earth through the unending global circulating systems of air and water. Water connects all of us in its various forms and pathways. Since 2016 I have been telling Water stories through my site specific installations, the most recent being “Song of the Whale”.

This summer I was invited to participate in a Korea-Canada artists exchange at a high altitude base camp in the Kluane Icefields (the largest non-polar icefield in the world). We camped on a plateau at 8200’, the source for most of the large glaciers pouring down in the National Park and in full view of Mount Logan, the highest mountain in Canada. This experience coupled with my planned meetings with renowned ice core scientist Dr. Criscitiello, will inform the next body of work around water.

Nothing happens in isolation on the planet. I am interested in examining the things that connect us to one another and to the natural world, rather than what separates us. In effect my work hasn’t shifted from my initial interests 55 years ago in the environment and the interconnectedness between things, however my work has gained more depth, wisdom and scope as my practice continues to grow and expand.

My work tells stories, posing questions and encouraging alternative perspectives. By creating platforms for discussion, I aim to draw people together to examine creative solutions and dream without limit as to how we can live together with more consciousness and connectedness on this earth.