We are excited to introduce our March 2018 Akin Vitrine Gallery artist, Akin Dupont member, Kayla Polan!
Calgary-born, Toronto based artist Kayla Polan is a multidisciplinary artist working across traditional and new media. She graduated from the Ontario College of Art & Design University with a BFA major in Drawing & Painting. She will be pursuing her MFA at the University of Waterloo in the fall. Her practice melds feminism and popular culture to investigate contemporary ideas about sexuality, fetishism, domesticity, queer identity, autobiography, and consumer culture through painting, sculpture, printmaking, and performance. She has received multiple awards for her work, including the Spark Box Studio Emerging Artist Award. Her work has been exhibited in several group exhibitions in Canada and Europe.
Exploring themes of consensual BDSM practices, alternative relationship lifestyles, and fetishism, Kayla delves into ideas surrounding chastity in her installation Romance For Two: Key To My Heart or Unlockable Shackles? In this work she investigates how sexuality is bound with power and inequality in complicated ways. Chastity belts in BDSM may be used to prevent the wearer from engaging in sexual activity without the permission of the dominant, who acts as a key holder. In this romantic picnic scene, Kayla questions how philosophical issues of purity, morality, and innocence have shaped us.
Romance for Two: Key To My Heart or Unlockable Shackles?
Mixed media (metal, resin, silicone, oil paint, fabric, sculpee)
2018
Exhibition runs for the month of March in our Dupont Akin Vitrine Gallery, located in the Clock Factory Building at 1485 Dupont Street (entrance on Campbell Avenue). Find Akin Studio 215 on the second floor and follow the sign into the hallway around the corner. The building is open from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday.
‘Romance for Two: Key To My Heart or Unlockable Shackles? ’ will then travel to the Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery and be on view for the month of April at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.
To contact the artist:
www.kaylapolan.com
Instagram: @kaylapolan
#Akinvitrine
For more information about Kayla Polan and her work, follow our Instagram account @akinvitrine.
About the Akin Vitrine Galleries:
Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present our 2018 programming in two Vitrine Galleries, one a recent addition to our St. Clair studios, and our original location at our Dupont studios. These miniature galleries will feature the diverse talent of our members with travelling installations rotating each month. Each artist will be featured for the first month at Dupont and second month at St. Clair. For more information about our artists and our programming, join us on Instagram @akinvitrine.