Fiona Annis lands first solo public art commission at Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
Fiona Annis pictured in her studio | Photo: Isabelle Darveau and Geneviève Philippon
Multidisciplinary artist Fiona Annis, BFA 07, PhD 14, is adding a new chapter to her career with her first solo public art commission. Her outdoor installation, A Tale of Sources, will take shape at Quebec City’s Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ), where it will be featured at the new Riopelle Space. The work consists of four scenes featuring cast-bronze objects, with marble, granite and steel elements.
“Each scene relates to a different theme connected to Riopelle’s work and, more broadly, with Quebec’s landscape and symbolism,” says Annis, who will direct the project in collaboration with the Inverness Bronze Workshop in central Quebec to cast, assemble and install the work.
The installation will be integrated into the landscape of the future Riopelle Space, lining the pedestrian corridor that links the front and rear courtyards of a new pavilion dedicated to renowned Quebec artist Jean Paul Riopelle. It is expected to open in fall 2026.
Forged in collaboration
While A Tale of Sources marks her first solo commission, Annis is no stranger to public art. Her first large-scale public artwork, L’Étreinte des Temps (2018), was a bronze commission with fellow Concordia graduates Véronique La Perrière M., BFA 03, PhD 15, and Nadia Myre, MFA 02, an assistant professor of Studio Arts at Concordia. Working under the name Society of Affective Archives — co-founded by Annis and La Perrière M. — the group installed the piece at Tiohtià:ke Otsira’kéhne Park on Mount Royal in Montreal.
“That was my major introduction to working in the public art realm and a phenomenal experience of deep collaboration with two other artists,” she recalls.
The duo completed two additional public art commissions: one at the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal and another, an homage to nursing, at Place Jeanne-Mance.
Alongside her collaborative work, Annis has been developing her independent practice over the past decade. In 2024, she held a residency and exhibition at the Guido Molinari Foundation in Montreal.
“I was working in relation to Molinari’s legacy, and that dialogue with a historical figure likely contributed to being chosen for the Riopelle commission — where, once again, I’m engaging with a heavyweight in Quebec’s art history.”
An interdisciplinary foundation at Concordia
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, and raised in Manitoba, Annis moved to Montreal to study at Concordia. After earning a master’s degree from the Glasgow School of Art, she returned to Montreal to complete the PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities, where she studied with artist Evergon, art historian Johanne Sloan, BFA 83, and philosopher David Morris.
“The program’s structure — working with a committee across disciplines — was essential to how I now approach art making,” she says. “It taught me to stay in dialogue with the context of a site and think more expansively about material practice.”
À la rencontre des sources (A Tale of Sources), view of the scene La rencontre du territoire (Cartographies of Contact), one of four sculptural groupings in bronze, steel, granite and marble, currently in progress.
Annis’s work has been exhibited across North America and Europe and is held in the collections of the Museum of Civilization (Quebec City), the MNBAQ, and the City of Ottawa.
She has received multiple national and international fellowships, including the Brucebo Foundation’s travel award with a residency at the Observatoire de Capodimonte in Naples, and a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
In June 2025, Annis joined the faculty at Université de Montréal as an assistant professor in the Department of Art History, Film and Audiovisual Media.
“Creative dialogue and exchange have been central to the development of all of my former projects and I look forward to continuing to explore this with future students and colleagues as a faculty member at Université de Montréal.”