Kim Ondaatje (born Betty Jane Kimbark on October 2, 1928) is a Canadian painter, photographer, and documentary filmmaker. Biography Early life and training Born in Toronto, Ontario, Ondaatje studied at the Ontario College of Art and McGill University. She completed a M.A. in Canadian literature at Queen's University, while on a teaching fellowship. Until 1964, Ondaatje served as a part-time lecturer at Wilfrid Laurier University and Sherbrooke University. In the early 1960s she returned to the visual arts again and by 1965 was painting full-time. Founding of Canadian Artists' Representation In 1967, with Canadian artists Jack Chambers and Tony Urquhart, Ondaatje founded Canadian Artists' Representation, now the Canadian Artists Representation/Frontes des Artistes Canadiens (CARFAC). It is the first artist organization in the world to establish a fee structure for museum and gallery exhibitions of contemporary artists. Career Along with abstract and impressionistic landscapes, Ondaatje composed three paintings series: a landscape group entitled the Hill Series; an interior-based group of paintings titled The House on Piccadilly Street; and a final group of large industrial landscapes entitled the Factory Series, completed in the mid-1970s. Ondaatje's research on traditional Ontario quilt-making design led to a large national touring exhibition of patchwork quilts (1974–1976), and a documentary film. Ondaatje also directed short documentary films and published books of photography. In 2008, the Art Museum University of Toronto held a major retrospective entitled Kim Ondaatje: Paintings 1950–1975, the first comprehensive exhibition of Ondaatje's works since 1973. The retrospective was curated by University of Toronto art historian Lora Senechal Carney. In 2021, Renée van der Avoird for the Art Gallery of Ontario curated an exhibition titled Kim Ondaatje: The House on Piccadilly Street, featuring a group of works, created between 1967 and 1969, depicting various scenes of the artist's Victorian house in London, Ontario, accompanied by a film by Ondaatje's grandson, Khyber Jones. During the course of her career, she worked for Museum London, the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Emily Carr University of Art and Design outreach program as a travelling artist with her work from 1969 to 1981. Personal life She was married to D. G. Jones and was later to Michael Ondaatje. Awards In March 2009, Ondaatje and Urquhart were announced as joint winners of a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, Outstanding Contribution for their role in founding Canadian Artists' Representation (CARFAC) Works Collections