Selected Works from 24 Years in a Patch of Old-Growth Boreal Forest on Blast Hole Pond Road, Newfoundland 2002–2026

Since 2002, a six-acre patch of old-growth boreal forest traversed by the Blast Hole Pond River, situated in Portugal Cove, Newfoundland/Ktaqmkuk, has been the site of Marlene Creates’s home and studio, and the source of her subject matter. This exhibition presents a selection of work from her multi-year “slow” engagement with this one particular place. Creates says, “Underlying all my work as an environmental artist has been an interest in place – not as a geographical location but as a process that involves layers of memory, multiple narratives, ecology, language, politics, emotions, and both scientific and vernacular knowledge.”

Marlene Creates: Larch, Spruce, Fir, Birch, Hand, Blast Hole Pond Road, Newfoundland 2007–2026, a monograph published by Impulse[b:], will be launched at the opening on Friday, May 1, 2026. This publication reproduces the complete series of photographs taken over nineteen years, documenting the artist’s connection to 77 particular trees amongst the thousands in the patch of old-growth boreal forest where she lives and works.


Marlene Creates is an environmental artist. For over forty-five years her art has been an exploration of the reciprocal relationships between human experience, memory, language, and the land. Her work has been presented in over 350 exhibitions and screenings across Canada and internationally. In 2001 Marlene Creates was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and in 2019 she received a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. She was named to the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2021, and in 2024 she received an Honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) from Memorial University of Newfoundland.