Shirley Wiitasalo (born 1949) is a Canadian painter whose work is characterized by abstract shapes and lines based on urban environments.
[5] According to a nomination statement given by artist, Ian Carr-Harris at the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, Wiitasalo has over the course of her 30-year long career 'both inherited and shifted the practice of painting'.
[6] Her work has been described as "lush washes of colour and pattern and ethereal swipes of obscuring neutrals".
[8] Wiitasalo has exhibited widely across Canada in museums, artist run centres, and commercial galleries.
[9] Internationally she has participated in exhibitions at Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland (1993);[10] Galerie Paul Andriesse, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (1993); GreeneNaftali, New York (1999); in 1981 the National Gallery of Canada organized the exhibition titled, 20th Century Canadian Painting, which travelled to The National Museum of Art, Tokyo, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan, and Oita Perfectural Art Centre, Oita City, Kyusha, Japan.