Background
Ethnicity:
She originated to Russian-Mennonite parents. Her mother was born in the Ukraine.
Wanda Koop was born on October 5, 1951 in Vancouver, Canada, to Russian-Mennonite parents who had escaped the Russian Revolution. Koop's mother was born in the Ukraine.
Education
Koop graduated from the Lemoine Fitzgerald School of Art, the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg in 1973.
Besides, in 2005, she was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Koop is also the recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of Winnipeg, the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, and the University of Manitoba.
Career
While still studying at the University of Manitoba School of Art, in 1972, Koop's work was included in an exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, Koop was the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including the 1985 travelling exhibition "Airplanes and the Wall"; the 1991 travelling exhibition "Wanda Koop: Recent Paintings"; and the 1998 exhibit "See Everything, See Nothing" at The New Gallery.
From February 18 to May 15, 2011 her solo exhibition entitled "On The Edge Of Experience" was shown at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. Koop's work often combines aspects of video, performance, or photography.
Koop is also well-known for her community work and social activism. In 1998, she founded Art City, a storefront art-centre, bringing together world-class contemporary visual artists and Winnipeg’s inner-city youth to explore the creative process.
Currently, she lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Robin Laurence: "Koop is interested in expanding the languages of paint and video, integrating them into the complex terms of loss and grief and reclamation."