Carole Condé

Carole Condé D.F.A. (born June 27, 1940) is a Canadian artist whose practice responds to critical contemporary cultural, social, and political issues through the use of collaboration and dialogue.

Condé and long-time collaborator and partner Karl Beveridge challenge concepts of ideology, power, and control.

In their career, which spans over thirty years, Condé and Beveridge have had over fifty solo exhibitions at major museums and art spaces across four continents, including: the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, UK; Museum Folkswang in Germany; the George Meany Centre in Washington; Dazibao Gallery in Montréal; Centro Cultural Recoleta in Buenos Aires; the Art Gallery of Alberta; and the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney.

In 1969, Condé and Beveridge, then working as independent conceptual artists, left Toronto for the burgeoning conceptual art world in New York City, where they found their overtly politicized voice.

In 1975, they picketed at the Museum of Modern Art, protesting its lack of inclusion of women artists.

The couple returned to Toronto in 1977.

Condé and Beveridge have worked on social issues including the working conditions of migrant farm labourers, the histories of auto workers, women in the workplace, projects relating to labour education and labour arts, national and global "free trade" agreements, police brutality and systemic racism, environmental issues, nuclear power, the decline of the fishing industry, struggles against neoconservative government policies, healthcare issues, anti-globalization protests, and the transnational politics of water.

The artists use dialogical aesthetics as a way of breaking down the conventional distinctions between artist, artwork, and audience.

The artists have been important advocates for artist-run centres in Canada, which give empower smaller curators and photographers working outside of traditional institutions.

Condé and Beveridge are key figures in the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre in Hamilton, Ontario.

As part of their artistic advocacy, Condé and Beveridge have worked closely with artist unions and CARFAC to advocate for fair copyright and compensation for artists working in Canada.

Condé and Beveridge utilize actors, staged tableaux, montage, thematic slogans, captions, and the construction of emblematic props and non-naturalistic sets to generate an atmosphere of serious visual expression grounded in theoretical and ethical contexts.

Their work expresses the fundamental principal that art is a social transaction that becomes a participatory, collaborative process, communicating and articulating commonalities and differences shared by all.

There is a Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge fonds at Library and Archives Canada.

The archival reference number is R9079.

The fonds covers the date range 1980 to 1984.

It consists of 40 audio cassettes, 71 photographs and 4.6 centimeters of textual records.