BIOGRAPHY
Arcana Shanks is a visual artist and experimental vocalist residing in Mooniyang / Tiohtià:ke/ Montrèal, Canada. Her practice is inspired by the entangled connections between humans and more-than-human beings, particularly beings that exist beyond the traditional definitions of life such as fire, water, minerals, and other biological entities. She engages with these entanglements by viewing them through mythology, ritual, storytelling, and instinct. Archetypes of nature are key elements within her artwork: the anthropomorphic “Mother Earth” and “Mother Nature,” the divinely sacred yet chaotically untamed femininity of wild spaces, and the delicate relationship between creation and destruction are core concepts across her portfolio. She seeks to embody these concepts through performance, voice and sound, and sculptural artworks, presenting them as conduits to ground the omnipresence of nature within the contemporary art space. Shanks’ work is characterized by immersive, multi-sensory elements fused with poetic narrative and storytelling, often creating artworks that cross the boundary between mediums and exist in liminal, hybrid spaces.
Her research interest lies in exploring and establishing ethical practices for working collaboratively with more-than-human life forms in art. She graduated with distinction from the University of Lethbridge in 2019 with a Bachelor of Fine Art in Studio Art. She has presented her art and writing across Canada and internationally in the United States and England. Her research on artistic collaboration with biological entities has been presented to international audiences at the 2024 FEMeeting conference at the University of Windsor, Ontario and the 2025 UAAC-AAUC Conference at York University, Ontario. Shanks is a co-founder and co-artistic director of CARBON Artist Collective, a Canada-wide community of artists researching the Beinghood of Nature. She is currently developing a body of work visualizing the impact of wildfires as a manifestation of the symbiotic relationship between humanity and nature, working alongside fire as a companion, muse, and creative collaborator.
