Land – LIMINALITY- Loss: Workshop on IDENTITY AND BELONGING

Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - 5:30pm to 8:00pm

About the Artist: Angie Ma is a DRPT major in her fourth year at OCADU. In her art practice, she reflects on her Chinese Canadian identity, expressing her thoughts, memories and desires through watercolour painting. She is actively pursuing art education as researcher and as educator. In her workshops, she collaborates with participants using storytelling to animate a dialogue that will connect everyone’s experiences.

Venue & Address: 
OCAD University Graduate Gallery (Ground Floor, 205 Richmond St. West)
Email: 
ppatterson@faculty.ocadu.ca
Cost: 
Free

Land – LIMINALITY- Loss

Art by Pam Patterson, on view at the event.
Tuesday, September 3, 2019 - 12:00pm to Friday, September 6, 2019 - 5:00pm

About the exhibition:

How might we explore the political and cultural implications of histories and stories, both personal and collective, around the intersection of land and cultural disruption and change? Often this historical and contemporary crisis is as a result of an inherited colonial legacy. The construction is about power. Many who were able to flee and/or were lured to Canada bear the trappings of the rewards they reaped from this place to which they migrated. But didn’t the acquisition of privilege and power have something to do with why they/we left in the first place? 

Troubled by this complex relationship of land, loss and potential acquisition, undergraduate student Angie Ma (Faculty of Art), Assistant Professor Pam Patterson (Faculty of Art), graduate student Vicky Talwar and OCAD staff member Leila Talei (Officer, Research Projects, Office of Research & Innovation), as settler/immigrants, in exhibition and conversation, occupy a problematic liminal space, a space adrift. At a moment at OCAD U when we are embracing a holistic indigenous curriculum, such conversations are key to examining complex and often troubling relationships. This multi-media exhibit invites the community to explore their own histories and stories within this context in exhibition, conversation and workshop. 

The OCAD University Graduate Gallery is open from 12pm to 5pm daily.

Venue & Address: 
OCAD University Graduate Gallery (Ground floor, 205 Richmond St. West)
Email: 
ppatterson@faculty.ocadu.ca
Cost: 
Free
Land Liminality Loss poster featuring cropped mixed media painting and collage from each artist with show date and location

ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᓂᑦ / Among All These Tundras

Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - 6:00pm to Saturday, December 7, 2019 - 5:00pm

ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᓂᑦ
Among All These Tundras

September 18 to December 7, 2019

Free public reception
With performance by Allison Akootchook Warden
Wednesday, September 18 from 6 to 9 p.m.

ᐊᓯᓐᓇᔭᖅ
asinnajaq
ᓛᑯᓗᒃ ᐅᐃᓕᐊᒻᓴᓐ ᐸᑦᑑᕆ
Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory
ᑲᕈᓚ ᑯᕋᕼᐊᓐ
Carola Grahn
ᒫᔾᔭ ᕼᐋᓕᓐᑐ ᐅᓇᓗ ᓵᒥ ᕕᓐᓚᓐᒥᐅᑕᖅ
Marja Helander
ᖃᑉᓗᓯᐊᖅ
Kablusiak
ᓵᓐᔭ ᑲᓕᕼᐅ-ᑰᒻᔅ
Sonya Kelliher-Combs
ᔪᐊᖅ ᓇᓐᑰ
Joar Nango
ᑕᕐᕋᓕᒃ ᐹᑐᔨ
Taqralik Partridge
ᐱᐅᓕ ᐸᑐ
Barry Pottle
ᐃᓅᑎᖅ ᓯᑐᐊᑦᔅ
Inuuteq Storch
ᑲᔨᓐ ᐸᓐ ᕼᐅᕕᓕᓐ
Couzyn van Heuvelen
ᐊᓕᓴᓐ ᐊᑰᑦᓲᒃ ᒍᐊᑕᓐ
Allison Akootchook Warden

ᑕᑯᔭᒐᖃᕐᕕᖕᒥ ᑲᒪᔨᑦ: Hᐃᑐ ᐃᒡᓗᓕᐅᖅᑎ, ᐋᐃᒥ ᑎᒃᓯᓐ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓴᕆᓴ ᐹᓐ ᕼᐃᐅᓕᒐ
Curated by Heather Igloliorte, Amy Dickson and Charissa von Harringa

ᓴᕿᑕᐅᔪᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑐᓂᔭᐅᔪᖅ ᑖᒃᑯᓇᖓᑦ ᓕᓄᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐲᓇ ᐊᓕᓐ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ ᑕᑯᔭᒐᖃᕐᕕᒃ, ᑳᓐᑯᑎᐊ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᕕᒃᔪᐊᖅ
Produced and circulated by the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University

ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᐃᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᓂᑦ, ᐊᑎᖓ ᐱᔭᐅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᑕᐃᒎᓯᕐᒥᑦ “ᐊᖕᖏᕋᕋ ᐆᒻᒪᑎᓐᓃᑦᑐᖅ” ᑎᑎᕋᖅᓯᒪᔭᖓ ᓵᒥᒥᐅᑕᖅ ᓂᐅᔅ-ᐊᔅᓚᒃ ᕚᑭᐊᐹ, ᓴᕿᔮᖅᑎᑕᐅᔪᖅ ᓄᓇᖅᑲᖅᑳᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᑎᖏᓐᓂᑦ ᓇᑭᑐᐃᓐᓇᖅ ᑲᔾᔨᐊᓂ ᓄᓇᕐᔪᐊᑉ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᐊᓂ ᐅᑯᐊ ᓴᓇᔭᐅᔪᑦ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓂᕈᐊᖅᑕᐅᓯᒪᔪᓄᑦ ᐃᓄᖕᓄᑦ ᐅᖃᖅᓯᒪᔭᐅᔪᑦ ᒫᓐᓇ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᖅ ᐃᓱᒫᓘᑎᒋᓪᓗᒍ ᑐᑭᓯᓇᖅᓯᑎᑕᐅᕙᓪᓕᐊᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᓄᓇ, ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖅ, ᓄᓇᖃᖅᑐᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᒃᐱᕐᓂᖅᑖᑲᓐᓂᕐᓂᖅ. ᓴᓇᖑᐊᖅᑎᑦ ᓄᓇᖅᑲᖅᑳᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᓄᓇᖏᓐᓂᑦ ᑕᒫᖓᑦ ᓄᓇᕐᔪᐊᑉ ᑲᔾᔨᐊᓂᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᖅ ᑐᓴᕐᑎᑦᑎᔪᑦ ᐃᒻᒪᑲᓪᓚᓂᑦ ᖃᓪᓗᓈᖑᖅᑎᑕᐅᓯᒪᒐᒥᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᑐᖅᓯᒪᔭᑎᒃ ᐳᐃᒍᓇᓐᖏᑦᑐᑦ ᐃᓅᓯᕆᓚᐅᖅᑕᒥᖕᓂᑦ, ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᐅᓕᕐᓂᖅ ᓴᐳᒻᒥᓂᐊᕐᓗᒋᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᖅ ᐆᒪᔪᓕᒫᖏᑦ ᐊᕙᑎᓕᒫᖏᓪᓗ, ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖏᑦ, ᐃᓄᖏᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᓂᖏᑦ ᑕᒫᖓᑦ ᐱᐅᓐᖏᑦᑐᐋᓗᖕᓂᑦ ᐊᒃᑐᖅᑕᐅᓂᖓᓄᑦ ᓯᓚ ᐅᖂᓯᓂᖓᓄ ᐊᓯᑦᔨᕐᓂᖓᓄᑦ, ᓄᓇᕐᔪᐊᖅ ᓄᓇᒥᑦ ᐲᔭᐃᔪᒪᔪᑦ, ᐱᕈᖅᑎᑦᑎᕙᓪᓕᐊᔪᑦ ᑲᓐᐸᓂᕐᔪᐊᓂᒃ, ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓄᓇᖃᑎᒌᓐᖏᑦᑐᕐᔪᐊᑦ ᓵᓚᒌᖃᑦᑕᐅᑎᒐᓱᐊᖅᑐᑦ. ᑲᑐᔾᔨᓗᑕ, ᐅᑯᐊ ᓴᓇᔭᐅᔪᑦ ᑕᑯᑎᑦᑎᕗᒍᑦ ᐃᓚᒌᒍᓯᖏᓐᓂᒃ ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᐊᒃᑐᒐᒃᓴᐅᔪᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑭᓱᓕᒫᑦᓯᐊᖏᑦ ᓄᓇᖅᑲᖅᑳᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᓂᖏᑦ ᐊᑐᖅᑕᐅᓗᑎᒃ, ᓄᑖᓂᒃ ᐱᓕᕆᔾᔪᑎᖃᕐᓕᕐᓂᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓄᖑᑉᐸᓪᓕᐊᓂᖏᑦᑐᓂᒃ, ᑎᔅᓯᓇᖅᑐᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᑐᕐᓗᒍ ᐊᓐᓇᒍᓐᓇᕐᓂᖅ, ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑕᒪᑦᑕ ᑲᑐᑎᓗᑎᒍᑦ ᐱᔭᒃᓴᕆᔭᕗᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᑉ ᐃᓅᓯᖓ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓄᓇᖓ.

Among All These Tundras, a title taken from the poem ‘My Home Is in My Heart’ by famed Sámi writer Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, features contemporary art by Indigenous artists from around the circumpolar world. Together, their works politically and poetically express current Arctic concerns towards land, language, sovereignty and resurgence. Artists from throughout the circumpolar north share kinship with each other and their ancestors, love for their homelands, and respect for the land and its inhabitants. Yet they also share histories of colonialism and experience its ongoing legacies and are united in their desire to protect northern ecologies, languages, peoples and knowledge from the nefarious effects of climate change, encroaching industry and competition. These resistance efforts do not merely express, they give shape to a collective ecology of care, a “decolonial love” (in the words of Leanne Simpson and others) that is both generous and generative. These works invite viewers to contemplate relationships between textual and embodied Indigenous knowledges, innovation and sustainability, humour and resilience, and our collective responsibility to northern life and land.

ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑑᓕᖅᑕᖏᑦ ᕉᑕ ᖃᔮᕐᔪᐊᖅ
Translation by Rhoda Kayakjuak


The exhibition publication is available online here.

Onsite Gallery, OCAD University is happy to offer a free interactive guide for families and young visitors to creatively engage with our current contemporary art exhibition. Click here to learn more.

 

ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᓂᑦ Among All These Tundras

 

Free Public Events

  • Spoken Word Performance & Writing Activity with Taqralik Partridge
    Saturday, September 21 at 2:00p.m.
    Co-presented with Wapatah: Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge
    Join Inuk artist, writer, curator, throatsinger, spoken word poet and Onsite Gallery exhibiting artist, Taqralik Partridge, for a spoken word performance and writing activity. The title of Onsite Gallery’s exhibition, ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᓂᑦ / Among All These Tundras, is taken from the poem ‘My Home Is in My Heart’ by famed Sámi writer Nils-Aslak Valkeapää. During this event, Taqralik will perform one of her spoken word pieces and then guide attendees in a writing activity inspired by a shared theme.
     
  • Curators’ Tour with Heather Igloliorte, Amy Dickson and Charissa von Harringa
    Friday, September 27 at 6:30p.m.
    Join Heather Igloliorte, Amy Dickson and Charissa von Harringa for a curatorial tour of ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᓂᑦ / Among All These Tundras.
     
  • Exhibition Tour with Ryan Rice
    Thursday, October 17 at 6:30p.m.
    Join Ryan Rice for a tour of ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᓂᑦ / Among All These Tundras. Ryan Rice, Kanien’kehá:ka, is an independent curator and the Associate Dean in the Faculty of Liberal Arts / School of Interdisciplinary Studies at OCAD University, Toronto.
     
  • imagineNATIVE Art Crawl
    Thursday, October 24 from 5:15 to 5:50 p.m.
    Co-presented with imagineNATIVE Media + Arts Festival
    This year's Art Crawl kicks off at Onsite Gallery, with a visit of ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᓂᑦ / Among All These Tundras. The Art Crawl continues in the historic 401 Richmond building.
     
  • Peter Morin: Reciprocity with Among All These Tundras
    Thursday, November 14 at 6:30 p.m.
    Join Peter Morin for a performative reciprocal exchange with the artworks in ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᓂᑦ / Among All These Tundras.
     
  • The Fifth Region Film Screening and Conversation
    Wednesday, November 20 at 6:30 p.m.
    Nancy and Joshua are Inuit but raised in southern Canada. All their lives they struggled with aspects of their identities and now begin to redefine what is means to be a young urban Inuk growing up under the shadow of the Sixties Scoop and the residential school system. Join us for a screening of the documentary film, The Fifth Region, followed by a conversation with filmmaker Aeyliya Husain and lead participants Nancy Saunders and Joshua Stribbell.
     
  • Inuit Art On-Line
    Thursday, November 28 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
    Co-presented with Wapatah: Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge
    This public symposium will convene a panel of Inuit artists and scholars to discuss the role and importance of materiality in the creation and presentation of Inuit art. Visit Onsite Gallery’s webpage for a list of confirmed speakers.
     
  • Launch of the Virtual Platform for Indigenous Art
    Friday, December 13 from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m.
    Co-presented with Wapatah: Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge
    Celebrate the launch of the Virtual Platform for Indigenous Art (VPIA) prototype. The VPIA is a custom digital platform designed to facilitate Indigenous access and contributions to Indigenous artworks in museum and gallery collections around the world. Using a wiki-style approach, the VPIA allows institutional artwork records to be transformed into living documents that integrate Indigenous knowledge, language and protocols.
     

 

Curator Biographies

Dr. Heather Igloliorte is the University Research Chair in Indigenous Circumpolar Arts at Concordia University in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal, where she also leads the Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership SSHRC Partnership Grant and Co-Directs the Initiative for Indigenous Futures Cluster (IIF) in the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology with Professor Jason Edward Lewis. Igloliorte currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Indigenous Circle for the Winnipeg Art Gallery, working on the development of the new national Inuit Art Centre; on the Board of Directors for North America's largest Indigenous art historical association, the Native North American Art Studies Association; is Vice-President of the Inuit Art Foundation; and sits on the Faculty Council of the Otsego Institute for Native American Art History at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York, among others.

Amy Dickson is an emerging curator and doctoral student in the Art History program at Concordia University. Her research focuses on the practice of Inuit artists within urban spaces and the role of art in the construction of place. Amy holds a BA and an MA in Art History, both from Carleton University. Her writing has been featured in Inuit Art Quarterly and esse arts + opinions.

Charissa von Harringa is a PhD Researcher in Art History at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology from New York University (2007) and an M.A. in Art History from Concordia University (2016). Von Harringa’s academic area of focus lies at the intersection of several fields including Circumpolar, Indigenous, Memory and Performance Studies. Through her doctoral work she examines the media-based practices, archival dispositions, and networked agencies of pan-Inuit and Sámi artists. These are analyzed as they engage past and present Arctic discourse, elaborate new functions of tradition and modernity, and clarify the ever-evolving nexus of theory and practice in contemporary art towards sovereign ends. She has several published essays and reviews in Inuit Art Quarterly and RACAR: revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review, among others.

Artist Biographies

asinnajaq
Inukjuak, Nunavik and Montreal, Quebec

asinnajaq is an Inuit artist from Inukjuak, Nunavik. Her film, Three Thousand (2017), blends archival footage with animation to imagine her home community of Inukjuak from the past into the future. Three Thousand won Best Experimental film at the 2017 imagiNATIVE media arts festival, and was nominated for Best Short Documentary at the 2018 Canadian Screen Awards. She is a laureate of the REVEAL Indigenous Art Award in 2017 and the Toronto Film Critics Association’s Technicolour Clyde Gilmour Award in 2018. She is one of the curators of Tillitarniit, a three-day festival in Montreal which celebrates Inuit culture. asinnajaq was apart of the curatorial team that worked with Isuma on their representation of Canada at the 2019 Venice Biennial. She is also be on the curatorial team working on the inaugural exhibition of the Inuit Art Center opening in 2020.

Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory
Iqaluit, Nunavut

Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory is an artist that applies her study of uaajeerneq (Greenlandic mask dancing) and understandings of Inuit philosophies into many genres, from performance art and theatre to writing and curatorial work. Co-winner of the 2018 Dora Award for most outstanding play and of the inaugural Kenojuaq Ashevak Memorial Award from the Inuit Art Foundation, Laakkuluk is the first Artistic Director of Qaggiavuut, a nonprofit society in Nunavut supporting Inuit artists and advocating for a Nunavut performing arts centre. Laakkuluk lives in Iqaluit with her husband and three children.

Kablusiak
Mohkinstsis (Calgary), Alberta

Kablusiak is an Inuvialuk artist and curator based in Mohkinstsis and holds a BFA in Drawing from the Alberta University of the Arts. They are represented by Jarvis Hall Gallery, and their work has been acquired by public and private collections across so-called Canada. Kablusiak is a board member of Stride Gallery (2016-present). Awards include the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Young Artist Prize (2017) and the Primary Colours Emerging Artist Award (2018). A multi-disciplinary artist, they imbue a variety of mediums with their trademark ironic humour to address cultural displacement. The light-hearted nature of their practice extends gestures of empathy and solidarity; these interests invite a reconsideration of the perceptions of contemporary Indigeneity. Kablusiak, along with three Inuit curators, will be creating the inaugural exhibition of the new Inuit Art Centre in 2020, and they are shortlisted for the 2019 Sobey Art Award, representing the Prairies and the North.

Carola Grahn
Malmö, Sweden and Kittelfjäll, Sápmi

Carola Grahn is a Sámi visual artist based out Malmö, Sweden and Kittelfjäll in Sápmi. Grahn works primarily with materializations of text, installation strategies and sculptural media. Her affective text- and sound-based sculptural installations lend poetic dialogue to the contexts of place, labour, and identity that are attuned to the slippages of language and representation in art while complicating cultural and gendered social constructions of the North. Carola is an internationally-known artist in northern Scandinavia and abroad, whose work has been shown at Southbank Centre, 2017 (London, UK), Carleton University Art Gallery, 2017 (Ottawa), Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, 2017 (Brandon), Office of Contemporary Art Norway, 2017, Tråante, 2017 (Nor), Havremagasinet, 2016 (Sweden), Art Centre KulttuuriKauppila, 2016 (Fin), Bildmuseet, Umeå (Swe), 2014, Galleri Jinsuni, Seoul, 2014 (South Korea) amongst other places. Grahn has been the guest editor of Hjärnstorm magazine 2017, she has written for Afterall (2017) and published the conceptual novel Lo & Professorn (2013). Grahn’s work is also represented in the Swedish Art Council’s collection.

Marja Helander
Utsjok and Helsinki, Finland

Marja Helander is a video artist and photographer based in Utsjok and Helsinki, Finland. Her multi-media practice draws from her Sámi and Finnish ancestry. Helander explores themes related to femininity, identity and the tension between traditional Sámi ways of life and modern Finnish society. Her recent work concentrates on post-colonial topics among Sámi including industry and resource extraction in the North with photography and video art that feature the Northern landscape and Sami issues of modernity through a tragicomic lens. Although originally trained as a painter, Helander decided to pursue her interest in photography, graduating from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki in 1999. Since then she has presented works in solo and group exhibitions both in Finland and abroad, with many shows in northern Scandinavia, Canada, South Africa, and Mali. Her video work Dolastallat won the Kent Monkman award at imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto, 2016. In 2017, Helander was chosen as the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York’s artist-in-residency. Her recent short, Birds in the Earth won Risto Jarva Prize and the Main Prize in the National Competition in the Tampere Film Festival 2018 in Finland. Helander´s works are also included in collections in several Scandinavian museums and in the National Gallery of Canada. Helander has also made a public artwork So Everything Flourishesfor the Sámi Cultural Centre Sajos, in Inari.

Sonya Kelliher-Combs
Nome, Alaska

Sonya Kelliher-Combs is an Iñupiaq and Athabascan artist from the Alaskan community of Nome. Through her mixed media painting and sculpture, Kelliher-Combs offers a chronicle of the ongoing struggle for self-definition and identity in the Alaskan context. Her combination of shared iconography with intensely personal imagery demonstrates the generative power that each vocabulary has over the other. Similarly, her use of synthetic, organic, traditional and modern materials dissolves binaries of Western/Native culture, self/other and man/nature, to examine their interrelationships and interdependence while also questioning accepted notions of beauty. Kelliher-Combs’s work has been shown in numerous individual and group exhibitions, including the national exhibition Changing Hands 2: Art without Reservation and the inaugural Sakahàn quinquennial of Indigenous art at the National Gallery of Canada in 2013. Recent exhibitions include Hide: Skin as Material and Metaphor at the National Museum of American Indian Art in 2010 and the traveling exhibition THIS IS DISPLACEMENT: Native Artists Consider the Relationship Between Land and Identity in 2011.

Joar Nango
Alta and Tromsø, Norway

Joar Nango is a Sámi and Norwegian architect and visual artist, born in Alta, Norway, and who currently lives and works in Tromsø, Norway. His varied practices often involve site-specific performances and structural installations which explore the intersection of architecture and visual art, drawing from both his Sámi heritage and Western culture. Nango is a co-founder of the architecture collective FFB, who create temporary installations in urban settings. He has exhibited in Canada at Western Front (Vancouver, 2014) and Gallery 44 (Toronto, 2016) and internationally at 43SNA, Medellin (Colombia, 2013), and the Norwegian Sculpture Biennale at Vigelandsmuseet (Oslo, Norway, 2013). One of his recent projects was European Everything (2017) at Documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel, an extensive installation and performance which involved collaborations with Sámi and European artists, writers, poets and musicians.

Taqralik Partridge
Kuujjuaq, Nunavik

Taqralik Partridge is an Inuk artist, writer, curator, throatsinger, and spoken word poet. She is originally from Kuujjuaq in Nunavik, although she now splits her time between Canada and Kautokeino in northern Sápmi. Partridge’s writing focuses on both life in the north and on the experiences of Inuit living in the south. Partridge co-founded the Tusarniq festival held in Montreal. Her performance work has been featured on CBC radio one and she has toured with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Partridge has also worked as Director of Communications for the Avataq Cultural Institute. In 2010, her short story Igloolik won first prize in the Quebec Writing Competition and the same year she was a featured artist onstage at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. In 2018, Partridge was named as a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize. Partridge is Editor-at-Large for the Inuit Art Quarterly. Her work will be featured as an official selection at the Sydney Biennale in Sydney, Australia in 2020.

Barry Pottle
Rigolet, Nunatsiavut and Ottawa, Ontario

Barry Pottle is an Inuk artist from Nunatsiavut in Labrador (Rigolet), now living in Ottawa, Ontario. He has worked with the Indigenous arts community for many years particularly in the city of Ottawa. Barry has always been interested in photography as a medium of artistic expression and as a way of exploring the world around him. Living in Ottawa, which has the largest urban population of Inuit outside the North, Barry has been able to stay connected to the greater Inuit community. Through the camera’s len, Barry showcases the uniqueness of this community. Whether it is at a cultural gathering, family outings or the solitude of nature that photography allows, he captures the essence of Inuit life in Ottawa. From a regional perspective, living in the Nation’s Capital allows him to travel throughout the valley and beyond to explore and photograph people, places and events, as well as articulate and interrogate the emergent identity of an “urban Inuk.” His projects have included the “Foodland Security”series which highlights the importance of access to country food in urban communities and the “Awareness” series which documents the history of the Eskimo ID tags and the elders who wore them. Mostly self-taught, his work is rooted in photojournalism. His work can be seen in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Museum of History, and Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada.

Inuuteq Storch
Sisimiut, Greenland and Copenhagen, Denmark

Inuuteq Storch is a Kalaallit visual artist, photographer, musician and author based in Copenhagen, Denmark and Sisimiut, Greenland. Storch received his photography certifications from the International Center of Photography in New York in 2016, and at Fatamorgana in Copenhagen in 2011. The artist’s practice in photography, film, video, music and installation, incorporates archival and contemporary images to comment on colonialism and the present day impacts and realities of modernization on Greenlandic communities. He is the author of Porcelain Souls (2018), a collection of family photos and letters from Greenland in the 1960s, and anticipates a forthcoming publication this December. Storch has participated in several festivals and major international solo and group exhibitions including: Old Films of the New Tale (Sisimiut Culture House, Greenland, 2017) and Run Away For Mother Earth (Katuaq, Nuuk Culture house, 2012). His group shows include Chirts & Cloves (Nuuk Kunst Museum and Sisimiut Culture House, 2018), Notas Al Futuro (Espacio El Pasajero, Bogota, Colombia, 2017), and the Pop Up Archive Exhibition, MANA (New Jersey, 2017).

Couzyn van Heuvelen
Iqaluit, Nunavut and Toronto, Ontario

Couzyn van Heuvelen is an Inuit artist born in Iqaluit but who has lived most of his life in Southern Ontario. His artistic practice blends modern fabrication techniques with Inuit tradition to create “hybrid” objects that explore both cultural tensions and synchronicities. Van Heuvelen holds a BFA from York University and an MFA from NSCAD University. His work has been included in several group exhibitions across Canada. Recently, van Heuvelen created an aluminum qamutiik sculpture at the Southway Inn in Ottawa, Ontario for the Lost Stories Project commemorating the historical significance of the hotel being a landing point for Inuit traveling south for school, employment and medical care. In 2017, van Heuvelen was chosen as the Sheridan College Temporary Contemporary Artist in Residence and the subsequent work, Nitsiit (2017) was featured at Sheridan’s Hazel McCallion Campus in Mississauga.

Allison Akootchook Warden
Kaktovik and Fairbanks, Alaska

Allison Warden is an Iñupiaq interdisciplinary visual and performance artist who raps under the name AKU-MATU. She was born in Fairbanks, Alaska with close ties to Kaktovik, Alaska and is now based in Anchorage. Warden’s practice weaves together Iñupiaq narratives and traditions from the past, present, and imagined futures. She is the creator of one-woman show, “Calling All Polar Bears” which in 2011 was part of a National Performance Network residency. Her most recent work is Unipkaaġusiksuġuvik (the place of the future/ancient) at the Anchorage Museum in Alaska in 2016, featured an extensive performative installation piece in which she was present in the gallery for 390 hours over two months. As AKU-MATU, she performed at the Riddu Riddu Music Festival in 2018 as part of the Inuit Circumpolar Hip-Hop Collaboration. In 2018, Warden was awarded the Rasmuson Individual Artist Fellowship in the new genre category.

 

Produced and circulated by: Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University
Patron Sponsor: Birch Hill Equity Partners
Supported by: Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage), Initiative for Indigenous Futures and Nexus Investments

 

Onsite Gallery is the flagship professional gallery of OCAD U and an experimental curatorial platform for art, design and new media. Visit our website for upcoming public events. The gallery is located at 199 Richmond St. W, Toronto, ON, M5V 0H4. Telephone: 416-977-6000, ext. 265. Opening hours are: Wednesdays to Fridays from noon to 7 p.m.; Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. Free admission.

Onsite Gallery acknowledges that the new gallery construction project is funded in part by the Government of Canada's Canada Cultural Spaces Fund at Canadian Heritage, the City of Toronto through a Section 37 agreement and Aspen Ridge Homes; with gallery furniture by Nienkämper. Onsite Gallery logo by Dean Martin Design.

 

Image: Marja Helander, Dolastallat (To have a campfire), 2016. Video still. Video, colour, sound, 5 min. 48 sec.

Venue & Address: 
Onsite Gallery (199 Richmond St. West)
Email: 
onsite@ocadu.ca
Phone: 
416-977-6000 x265
Cost: 
Free
Image: Marja Helander, Dolastallat (To have a campfire), 2016. Video still. Courtesy of the artist.

Nithikul Nimkulrat, Associate Professor in the MAAD Program - exhibition

"The F(r)ame Without Painting, by Nithikul Nimkulrat
Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - 6:30am

Textile holds emotions and stories. Interwoven is an exhibition exploring ties between art and textile design, including a glimpse of bold new materials used by experimental designers. It interweaves fibres, techniques, textures and diverse materials into a tapestry fusing the legacy of contemporary art, ancient handicrafts, new technology and futuristic visions. A timeless source of warmth and security, textiles preserve an important fragment of human history, while also carrying on ancient techniques and narratives from generation to generation.

 

Artists:
Sheila Hicks, Hanna-Kaisa Korolainen, Maija Lavonen, Pia Männikkö, Nithikul Nimkulrat, Kärt Ojavee, Bella Rune, Kustaa Saksi, Sue Stone, Johanna Ulfsak, Timo Vaittinen, Sandra Wirtanen.

Venue & Address: 
Finland
Website: 
https://emmamuseum.fi/en/exhibitions/interwoven/.
Digital Screen: 

The Laundry Series by Teresa Ascencao

Teresa Ascencao, Pinning
Friday, March 15, 2019 - 12:30pm to Saturday, April 20, 2019 - 12:30pm

Teresa Ascencao, sessional instructor at OCAD U,  photograph's herself in various interactions with clothing. Each set explores a growing repertoire of body language associated with her struggles with clothing, domestic labour and folk rituals. Second-long automated exposures capture unnoticed and continuously dissipating moments between clothing and the human body – moments known only to the body and the clothing themselves. The moments range from sensual and nostalgic, to strenuous and dramatic. Dressing hovers between sensual play and frantic disrobing to disrupt a feminine identity. Pinning of freshly washed clothing was performed and shot in her mother’s backyard while she watched. Folding of freshly dried laundry piles up against a garden backdrop. Spinning is inspired by my heritages of Azorean folklore dancing and Brazilian carnival. Here, Teresa tied heaps of dirty laundry to my waist while she spun for the camera.

Teresa Ascencao gratefully acknowledge Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts, for their support of this project. 

 

BIOGRAPHY

Teresa Ascencao is a multimedia artist whose work examines social constructs of body language, costume, customs, and inner corporeal experiences. Her folk and pop inspired artworks employ concept-related media and technologies that invite audiences to play with iconographies and scenarios involving gender, seduction, consumption, and class. Teresa Ascencao was born to Azorean parents in Sao Paulo, Brazil and immigrated to Canada at a young age. Her work has been exhibited widely in Canada and internationally.
 

 

Venue & Address: 
A Space Gallery, 110-401 Richmond St. West
Website: 
info@aspacegallery.org aspacegallery.org
Phone: 
416-979-9633
Digital Screen: 

T.M. Glass: The Audible Language of Flowers

Wednesday, May 8, 2019 - 6:00pm to Sunday, August 18, 2019 - 5:00pm

T.M. Glass: The Audible Language of Flowers
May 8 to August 18, 2019

Curated by Francisco Alvarez, Dorene & Peter Milligan Executive Director, OCAD U Galleries
Core exhibition of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival

Free public reception
Wednesday, May 8 from 6 to 9 p.m.

 

T.M. Glass: The Audible Language of Flowers presents recent series of images by lens-based artist T.M. Glass that feature blooms and vessels from unique gardens across the globe. Glass' distinct photographic style is characterized by extensive digital embellishment of textures and colours to enhance the emotion and geometry of flowers. Recently, the artist’s large-scale flower images expanded into the third dimension through advanced 3-D printing technology. Inspired by 17th century European flower paintings, the artist contends that contemporary digital photographers are also painters who work with pixels instead of oils.

T.M. Glass is a digital artist based in Toronto, whose practice explores the historical, technological, and aesthetic conditions of photography to stretch it beyond its traditional definition. The works have been showcased in multiple solo exhibitions and held in private collections in the Canada, the United States, Britain, France, and Australia. Glass turned to photography as the primary mode of production after studying sculpture at the Ontario College of Art and Design and pursuing a distinguished career in writing and production for film and television. Glass uses rapidly advancing digital technology to celebrate the beauty of nature.

With writing contributions from art historian Jennifer Franks, OCAD U faculty members John Deal and Amish Morrell and University of Houston professor Lynn Voskuil.

The exhibition brochure is available online here.

Onsite Gallery, OCAD University is happy to offer a free interactive guide for families and young visitors to creatively engage with our current contemporary art exhibition. Click here to learn more.

 

T.M. Glass: The Audible Language of Flowers

Free Public Events
Public events developed by Linda Columbus, Programs & Community Coordinator, Onsite Gallery

  • Digital Photography Portfolio Review
    Tuesday, May 21 at 6:30 p.m.
    Limited availability; advance registration required
    Tickets available on Onsite Gallery’s Facebook page as of Tuesday, April 30 at noon
    An opportunity for amateur and professional photographers alike to have a selection of their digital photography work reviewed by professional lens-based artists Kotama Bouabane, April Hickox and Meera Margaret Singh. Each registered participant will be assigned a time slot with one of the three reviewers.
     
  • Arts & Crafts Garden Visit
    Co-presented with the Toronto Botanical Garden
    Sunday, June 9 at 2 p.m.
    Limited availability; advance registration required
    Tickets available on Onsite Gallery’s Facebook page as of Friday, May 24 at noon
    Join T.M. Glass, Onsite Gallery and the Toronto Botanical Garden for a special visit to T.M. Glass’ traditional Arts & Crafts Garden. The artist and the Toronto Botanical Garden will lead a tour of the garden and speak about the flowers in bloom, gardening and the history of Arts & Crafts Gardens.
     
  • Artist and Curator's Exhibition Tour
    Thursday, June 13 at 6:30 p.m.
    Join T.M. Glass and Francisco Alvarez for a tour of T.M. Glass: The Audible Language of Flowers, while they discuss the artist’s process, interest in flowers and travels to international museums and gardens.
     
  • The Language of Flowers: Workshop with Karen Azoulay
    Wednesday, June 26 at 6:30 p.m.
    Join Brooklyn-based artist Karen Azoulay for a talk and interactive experience that will explore the symbolism of flowers.
     
  • Oil Infusion Workshop with Kat Mahon
    Tuesday, July 9 at 6:30 p.m.
    Limited availability; advance registration required
    Tickets available on Onsite Gallery's Facebook page as of Tuesday, June 18 at noon
    Join us for a presentation on flowers throughout history, highlighting the specific uses of certain flowers then and now for their medicinal and therapeutic purposes. This will be followed by hands-on workshop where participants create their own oil infusion. Everyone will leave with their artistic jar of flower-infused body oil to take home.
     
  • How I Learned to Jam with a Pansy: Talk with Bob Ezrin
    Tuesday, July 30 at 6:30 p.m.
    Celebrated Canadian music producer and musician Bob Ezrin discusses the organics of making music with plants, animals and humans.
     
  • Complexity versus Simplicity: Historic Influences on the Contemporary Work of T.M. Glass
    Thursday, August 8 at 6:30 p.m.
    Jennifer Franks will discuss the pendulum swing between complexity and simplicity throughout art history, while highlighting the historic influences in the contemporary work of T.M. Glass.
     
  • A Man Named Pearl Film Screening
    Wednesday, August 14 at 6:30 p.m.
    A Man Named Pearl tells the inspiring story of self-taught topiary artist Pearl Fryar. When Pearl Fryar and his wife sought to buy a house in 1976 in an all-white neighborhood of Bishopville, South Carolina, they were dissuaded with the explanation that "Black people don't keep up their yards." Instead of fueling bitterness and anger, this comment motivated Pearl to become the first African-American to win Bishopville’s Yard of the Month award, and, eventually, to transform his ordinary suburban yard into a horticultural wonderland. The topiary garden's centerpiece emblazons both its message and Pearl's own philosophy: Love, Peace, and Goodwill.

Onsite Gallery is the flagship professional gallery of OCAD U and an experimental curatorial platform for art, design and new media. Visit our website for upcoming public events. The gallery is located at 199 Richmond St. W, Toronto, ON, M5V 0H4. Telephone: 416-977-6000, ext. 265. Opening hours are: Wednesdays from noon to 8 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays from noon to 7 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Free admission.

Onsite Gallery acknowledges that the new gallery construction project is funded in part by the Government of Canada's Canada Cultural Spaces Fund at Canadian Heritage, the City of Toronto through a Section 37 agreement and Aspen Ridge Homes; with gallery furniture by Nienkämper. Onsite Gallery logo by Dean Martin Design.

Venue & Address: 
Onsite Gallery (199 Richmond St. West)
Website: 
https://www.facebook.com/events/366882887261488/
Email: 
onsite@ocadu.ca
Phone: 
416-977-6000 x456
Cost: 
Free
Onsite Gallery is the flagship professional gallery of OCAD U and an experimental curatorial platform for art, design and new me

Monsters and Clothing

Tuesday, February 19, 2019 - 10:00pm to Saturday, March 2, 2019 - 6:00pm

Come and see the unique character designs from the imagination of two OCAD illustration students, Eunice Lai and Becky Wu. Enter their world of wonderful monsters and creatures, and an array of extravagant and modern outfits. This exhibition also features a collaborative four piece painting of two giant monsters!

On at the Learnig Zone Gallery until March 2

Venue & Address: 
Learning Zone, 113 McCaul Street, Level 1. Also accessible from 122 St. Patrick Street
Email: 
mchudolinska@ocadu.ca
Phone: 
416-977-6000, ext 2529
Cost: 
Free
Photograph of acrylic painting called Portrait of Monsters by Eunice Lai and Becky Wu

Call for Applications - Ossington Public Exhibition 2019

Career Launcher Ossington Public Exhibition 2019
Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - 10:45am to Monday, February 25, 2019 - 12:00am

 

OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION

DEADLINE: February 25, 2019

Hullmark Developments and the Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers are excited to announce the Ossington Public Exhibition Career Launcher for senior students and recent graduates from the Faculty of Art.

The exhibition will open in April 2019 at 12 Ossington St. Toronto. The selected proposal will be mounted in a boutique-like space with large window opening out to the busy Ossington street. Due to current access restriction at the building, curators are encouraged to propose projects that can be experienced from the outside. Selected proposal will receive a project support of $ 2,500 from the CEAD. 

QUALIFICATIONS

  • Must be Faculty of Art upper-year students or recent graduates from OCADU in 2017 or 2018.
  • Proposal must have at least one (1) designated curator.
  • Proposal must be a group show exhibiting at least three (3) artists. 
  • Curators cannot be exhibiting artists.
  • Proposal must commit to paying minimum artist’s fees per CARFAC schedules or higher. 

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

  • Full contact information (Name, phone, and email), and a confirmation of eligibility. 
  • One-page curatorial statement.
  • CVs and bios for all artists and curators.
  • Maximum 10 support images in jpeg following naming format: 01_ExhibitionTitle_ArtistName.jpeg
  • An image list including: artist name, title, year, medium, size/ duration (for media work). 
  • Budget proposal. 

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTION

Please submit all written components in one (1) PDF with separate support images to the attention of Tak Pham tpham@ocadu.ca

Visit www.careerlaunchers.format.ca for full details.

 

Email: 
tpham@ocadu.ca
Phone: 
416-977-6000 Ext. 361
Cost: 
N/A

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"[click here to edit]" Exhibition poster with a screen shot image of text edited in a design application
Monday, January 14, 2019 - 11:15pm to Saturday, February 2, 2019 - 5:45pm

Every artist has that work that they've lost inspiration for or simply ran out of time to do and never finished; this exhibition aims to shine a light on those neglected pieces. It's a sort of ode to the constantly-travelling, fickle mind of the artist; the unconventional processes; the abandoned. The exhibition also aims to explore the true concept of "finished", and it's finality-how does one decide that? Is an artist's "unfinished" another viewer's "finished"?

Featuring: Petra Alexson, Gregorio, HollyJo, Jazmin Cordon-Ibanez, Salisa Jatuweerapong, Eunice Lai, Par Nair, Moira Ness, Em Ratkovsky, Mikhail SK, Janet Tran, Aghavni Vardanyan, Emilia Wilson, Maryam Zaraimajin.

On until February 2

Reception

January 17, 2019

6:30 - 8:00 pm.

Venue & Address: 
Learning Zone, 113 McCaul Street, Level 1. Also accessible from 122 St. Patrick Street
Email: 
mchudolinska@ocadu.ca
Phone: 
416-977-6000, ext. 2529
Cost: 
Free

Parting Lines II

Thursday, January 17, 2019 - 5:00pm to Thursday, February 21, 2019 - 5:00pm

Parting Lines II is a group exhibition showcasing work from students of the Mould Making Studio courses in Continuing Studies at OCAD University.

Curated by Lauren Schaffer and Camille Rauton.

Venue & Address: 
Continuing Studies Gallery 285 Dundas Street West
Website: 
ocadu.ca/continuingstudies
Parting Lines II Poster

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