Biography
Anna Soper has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from OCAD University, where she won the OCAD University Medal and the Canon Canada Prize in 2011. She has studied abroad at the Glasgow School of Art, and has a Master of Library and Information Science degree from Western University.
Through an inventive and interdisciplinary practice, Soper's work explores the aesthetics of science and photography. She is particularly interested in art history, as well as objects and archives, and often creates work that resembles found photographs or ephemera.
Soper has exhibited her work in Toronto, New York, and London. She lives and works in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, where she has created two temporary public art works for the City of Kingston.
Group Exhibitions
Paper Works, Site:Brooklyn Gallery, New York, NY, 2023 (online)
Kingston Youth Climate Action: Our Neck of the Woods, Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning, Kingston, ON, 2023
Public Art at the INVISTA Centre, City of Kingston, Kingston, ON, 2019-2020
Paved Paradise, City of Kingston, Kingston, ON, 2018
19/9/60, Modern Fuel Artist-run Centre, Kingston, ON, 2018
We Don’t Have One/I Will Be Very Soon, Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning, Kingston, ON, 2017
Krappy Kamera, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY, 2017
Intersections/Cross-sections, Student Gallery, Ryerson Image Centre, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, 2016
Constructed Truth, Modern Fuel Artist-run Centre, Kingston, ON, 2013
No Two Alike, Modern Fuel Artist-run Centre, Kingston, ON, 2012
Through Thick and Thistle, Modern Fuel Artist-run Centre, Kingston, ON, 2012
Photo-Op, John B. Aird Gallery, Toronto, ON, 2011
Cynosure, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto, ON, 2011
The Show Off: 96th Annual Graduate Exhibition, OCAD University, Toronto, ON, 2011
Solo Exhibitions
Still Life, Modern Fuel Artist-run Centre, Kingston, ON, 2022
Stardust, Unit115, Kingston, ON, 2019
Imperfect Visions, Of Cabbages and Kings, London, UK, 2009
Publicity
In London Public Library's archives, a long-lost treasure turns up. London Free Press, January 24, 2022.
Alumna searches for botanist’s trailblazing work. Western News, August 23, 2019.
Where is Kate Crooks' 19th century botany collection from Southwestern Ontario?. CBC News, Aug 18, 2019.
Librarian seeks to unravel the mystery of local botanist. CBC Radio, August 16, 2019.
Ontario Morning - Thursday August 15, 2019 - Part 1. CBC Radio, August 15, 2019.
Finding Flora. Kingston Life, September, 2018.
Our new visual identity. Sketch, Fall, 2011.
OCAD University announces its 2011 medal winning students. OCAD University, May 4, 2011.
Publications
Costantino, Grace, and Anna Soper. “Kate Crooks and the Botanical Society of Canada: How BHL Helped Uncover the Work of a Long-lost Female Botanist.” Biodiversity Heritage Library, Biodiversity Heritage Library, 28 May 2020. www.blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2020/05/kate-crooks-botanical-society-of-canada.html.
Niagara Historical Society, and Anna Soper. “Catharine Smart.” Making Her Mark: The Women of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Niagara Historical Society, 2021. 56-58.
Soper, Anna. “A Place to Grow: Competing Visions for Ontario's Greenbelt.” NiCHE, Network in Canadian History and Environment | Nouvelle Initiative Canadienne En Histoire De L'environnement, 17 August 2021, www.niche-canada.org/2021/08/17/competing-visions-for-ontarios-greenbelt/.
Soper, Anna. "Curation and Coursework: Exploring Special Collections Librarianship at Western University." Public Services Quarterly, vol. 12, no. 3, 2016. pp. 263-270. doi:10.1080/15228959.2016.1194244.
Soper, Anna. “Foreign Body: On the 12-foot Skeleton as Supra-residential Memento Mori.” NiCHE, Network in Canadian History and Environment | Nouvelle Initiative Canadienne En Histoire De L'environnement, 31 October 2023, www.niche-canada.org/2023/10/31/foreign-body-on-the-12-foot-skeleton-as-supra-residential-memento-mori/.
Soper, Anna. "In Ontario, a Quest to Rediscover the Work of a Groundbreaking 19th-Century Botanist." Atlas Obscura, Atlas Obscura, 23 May 2019, www.atlasobscura.com/articles/botanist-ontario-kate-crooks.
Soper, Anna. "Terra Nova." Shift: Conventions. Ed. Gordon Grice. Toronto: OCAD University Student Press, 2011. 26-31.
Soper, Anna. "These Stunning Botanical Images Are Blueprints of the Past." Atlas Obscura, Atlas Obscura, 8 October 2019, www.atlasobscura.com/articles/botanical-photograph-cyanotype-blueprint-past.
Awards
OCAD University Medal, Canon Canada Prize, Nora E. Vaughan Award (2011)
OCAD Photography Faculty and Friends Award (2010, 2008)
Canada Millennium Scholarship, Ontario Scholar, Queen Elizabeth II Aiming for the Top Tuition Scholarship (2006)
Terra Nova, OCAD University, 2011.
Untitled from Unnatural History, 2022-
Stardust, 2019.