Tip Toland was born outside of Philadelphia and now lives in Vaughn, Washington. She received her MFA from Montana State University in 1981. In 1986 She received a visual arts Fellowship grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She was awarded first-place in 2005 for the Virginia Groot Foundation Grant, an Artist Trust/Washington States Arts Commission Fellowship in 2007, a Jean Griffith Fellowship Artist Award in 2009 and a US Artist Windgate fellowship Award in 2014. Tip is a full-time studio artist and a part-time instructor in the Seattle area. In addition, she conducts workshops across the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Her work is represented through the Traver Gallery in Seattle. Tip Toland’s work is included in prominent private and public collections including: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Yellowstone Art Museum, Montana; Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT; Kohler Arts Center, Wisconsin, The St Petersburg Museum of Art, FLorida and many private collections worldwide. Toland recently had a retrospective at the Bellevue Arts Museum, Washington; and in 2014 had a one woman show through the Apex Gallery at The Portland Art Museum, Oregon.
From a series of figurative sculptural works dedicated to understanding and sharing information on the plight of Albinism sufferers in Eastern parts of Africa, where the rate of prevalence is significantly increased and those affected can be treated to appalling acts of segregation and mutilation — with a belief that body parts of the individual can cast magical powers when developed into potions by local shamans. Toland’s sculpture finds a remarkable intimacy in her studies, the increase in scale and framing of expression broadcasting a due sense of paranoia and tension. African Child with Albinism 3 Part of series documenting the albinos plight in Africa
