Open Studio with Taryn Sheppard

Taryn Sheppard is a Vancouver-based artist and architect. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto (Master in Architecture, ‘10) and Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University (Bachelor of Fine Arts, ‘05). She is a co-founder of Woodford Sheppard Architecture based in her home province of Newfoundland & Labrador, who have completed numerous award winning projects in the coastal Atlantic region and have been published in international magazines including Dezeen and The Globe and Mail Arts. Taryn has contributed critical writing on the built environment to a variety of publications including Canadian Architect, Riddle Fence Arts Journal and The Scope Arts Magazine. She has been a guest lecturer at a variety of conferences and universities and an advising member on a variety of boards and associations in Canada, including the Canada Council For the Arts, the Newfoundland & Labrador Association of Architects and the City of St. John’s Heritage Advisory Board.

Taryn is currently establishing her studio practice in Vancouver with a research focus on architecture and digital culture, and is conducting research in digital fabrication with the Material Matters Research Centre at ECUAD.

In earlier work, Taryn has explored the notion of meaning within architecture from psychological, political, and material perspectives. During this residency, Taryn’s research will focus on how buildings are a tool of capitalism - a means of generating wealth through real estate, in an exploitative system. Her work will explore a building’s role as a form of capital, and how this disconcerting truth is manifested in the experience of our built environment. Taryn will be using digital-to-analog processes to create work that raises questions about our perception of space in the contemporary metropolis.

Taryn is the second annual winner of Griffin Art Projects’ and Emily Carr University’s annual Studio Residency Award.