Erika DeFreitas – Artist Prize Finalist 2016

If you are travelling to Quebec, Erika DeFreitas’ work is on view at the 7th edition of ORANGE, St. Hyacinthe’s Contemporary Art Event. This group show, Cultivating Humility, honours plants’ power of resilience and their interdependence with other living and non-living beings. It takes place at the Jardin Daniel A. Seguin. Here is an excerpt of the exhibition description written by curators, Elise Anne LaPlante and Véronique Leblanc:

‘The works gathered here propose learning processes and invent ways to forge ethical relations with living beings. They surface the colonial heritage perpetuated in the Western history of plants and tell stories about realities left on the edges. They encourage us to be interested in reciprocal relationships among elements in the ecosystems of which we are a part. Arising from various kinds of awareness of the world, all of these works underline the emotional, cultural, ritual, and curative dimensions of plants; at the same time, they bring to light the processes of erasure, exploitation, dispossession, and exoticization established by colonial realities.’

Date: June 12 – September 11

Click here for the Exhibition program (scroll down for English translation)

Click here for more information on the practice of Erica DeFreitas

Laurie Kang – Artist Prize Finalist 2015

The Franz Kaka Gallery is proud to announce Laurie Kang’s inclusion in New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) Reset, curated by María Elena Ortiz. Reset is the first edition of NADA Curated, a new series of online exhibitions highlighting artists and galleries from NADA’s international community through curated thematic presentations.

Describing the exhibition, the curator writes: ‘The prompt was: reset. Artists were asked to stop, pause, and reconsider everything that has happened in the last two years. Reset presents 19 international artists who express personal narratives, fantasies, new technologies, and unjust realities.

Some of the artists in the exhibitions reflect on the literal sense of what it means to reset an artwork or change its configuration or meaning. This is the case with Laurie Kang, who considers her works as an ongoing process—an artwork constantly being rearranged.’

Date: June 7 – July 5, 2022

Click here for more information

Hazel Meyer – Artist Prize Finalist 2018

Hazel Meyer’s recent work, WEEPING CONCRETE, was performed at The Bentway. In a growing city such as Toronto, scaffolds are a ubiquitous feature of the urban environment. WEEPING CONCRETE was a site-specific project for a trio of performers across two towering scaffolds, asking us to reflect on the streets as we know them and imagine what they might be. ‘Sistering’ is a construction term for the act of placing supports on either side of a beam to add stability. In WEEPING CONCRETE, the three performers, including the artist, animated this makeshift, temporary architecture as it ‘sisters’ one of the concrete bents holding up the Gardiner Expressway. Borrowing from activist aesthetics, athletic tropes, and consumer advertising practices, the performers unfurled banners, engaged objects, and introduced elements of queer joy in an ongoing conversation with one another, and the audience. Through these actions, WEEPING CONCRETE presented a reflection on intimacy, interdependence, and infrastructure.

Date: WEEPING CONCRETE has closed but new performances continue and are free as part of STREET, The Bentway’s summer of installations, performances, and interchange.

Click here to view photographs of Weeping Concrete

Click here for more information on The Bentway Summer Programs

Jen Aitken – Artist Prize Finalist 2021

The McMichael Canadian Collection welcomes Jen Aitken to the Tom Thomson Shack as part of the RBC Emerging Artist Residency at the McMichael. During the residency, Aitken will use the Thomson Shack as a studio space to create a site-specific installation that responds to the site’s architecture.

Date: June 9 to July 3, 2022.

Visitors will be able to meet Aitken and engage with the work in progress during open door hours from 1 to 2 pm, Thursdays to Sundays. Additionally, on June 26 and July 3, Aitken will lead drop-in drawing workshops with visitors in the Shack.

The McMichael will also host a virtual Artist Talk on July 5 in which Aitken will be in conversation with chief curator Sarah Milroy.

Click here to learn more about the RBC Residency at the Thomson Shack.

Click here to register for the free Artist Talk