Jennifer Dany Aubé, Subin Ee and Sara Mozafari

There is only one month left in Year 1 of the Akin Studio Program at MOCA , a unique studio residency program in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada.

Akin is honored to continue sharing profiles of the remarkable group of artists from our inaugural cohort. We have posted profiles of some of the artists throughout the summer and will continue until mid September; you can click here to see previous posts. Today we are happy to share profiles of three of the Year 1 artists, Jennifer Dany Aubé, Su Bin Ee and Sara Mozafari.

Image source: Jennifer Dany Aubé

Jennifer Dany Aubé

Jennifer Dany Aubé grew up in Hamilton, and studied fine arts at the University of Quebec. She was recognized as one of the emerging artists of the region upon graduation. Since Jennifer has travelled extensively, lived in India for 1.5 years, studied Yoga and volunteered at several yoga ashrams for several years. These experiences greatly influenced her art. Her artistic explorations started by experimenting with various textures to abstractly evoke the different textures that exist within the body. Removing the skin from the imagery removes the external focus of gender, race and physical beauty, to reveal the inner spirit that lies within the flesh.

As her Yoga practice grew, the aesthetics of her works changed, and her gestural movements became pregnant with more meaning. Jennifer’s recent works are called Yantras, sacred forms in which energies are held, and a visual tool used during meditation. Her work aims to ‘scratch the surface and reveal the light underneath’.

www.jenniferdany.ca

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Image source: sheridanartsblog.com

Subin Ee

Drawing is a primary practice in Subin Ee’s work. She sees drawing as a form of a language: an instinctual language, that does not require a symbolic syntax like a spoken language. However, it is similar in a sense that it is also immediate. In her drawings, Subin’s body is translated into lines and shapes. Her primary goal is to capture a fleeting moment. Her drawings therefore reflect the presence of her body through gestural mark making. She lays down multiple of layers using hard ground mediums such as charcoal, india ink, and black pastels, then she starts to erase the image. She will scrape the image, pour water and oil, scratch with a fork, apply gesso and white charcoal. The result is a collaborative image with herself, paper, mediums, and the surface that she lays the piece onto.

She is interested in the life of the drawings after completion. When the drawings are installed, the piece is capable of having conversations with the viewers.

www.subinee.com
www.instagram.com/silentpause

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Image source: www.instagram.com/sara_mozafari_art

Sara Mozafari

Sara Mozafari was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1981. Having grown up through the war between Iran and Iraq, and the suppression of the political and social activists, religious minorities, and women, social issues became the primary concern in her life and they were reflected on her artworks. Naturally, she was drawn to oil painting and had her first group exhibition in 2000 in Iran. She started studying Fine Arts Studio at Centennial College after she moved to Toronto. It was then when she was introduced to sculpture and installation art and noticed the significance of space in expressing an idea and experiencing an art piece. That led her to continue her study in Architectural Studies and Visual Studies at the University of Toronto and graduated with distinction in 2017.

Although in all these years she explored and applied different mediums, techniques, and styles to create artworks, she has found common ground which ties all the forms of art that she has exposed to, and that is Iranian social and political issues in a way she has experienced them.

www.saramozafari.com
www.instagram.com/sara_mozafari_art

You can see work by Jennifer, Subin and Sara from now until–September 8, 2019 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA) as a part of An Index. The exhibition An Index comprises work in a variety of media from sculpture, to video, to new wall murals by the first cohort of Akin residency artists who entered the year-long studio programme in September 2018.

While the participating artists’ practices range widely in terms of conceptual approach, style and media; they have also been influenced to some degree by the experience of sharing and conversing within an open-plan studio structure for the last nine months. 

MOCA Artist Series: Maren Boedeker, Raoul Olou, and Emma White

There are only a few weeks left in Year 1 of the Akin Studio Program at MOCA , a new and unique studio residency program in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada.

Akin is honored to continue sharing profiles of the multi-talented group of artists from our inaugural cohort. We have posted profiles over the past few weeks of some of the artists and will continue until September; you can click here to see previous posts. Today we are happy to share profiles of three of the Year 1 artists, Maren Boedeker, Raoul Olou, and Emma White.

Image source: Maren Boedeker. Untitled 1, 2018.

Maren Boedeker

Maren Boedeker studied visual arts and art education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Münster, Germany.

Her abstract, large-scale canvases have been shown in galleries in Germany, Belgium and Canada. She received the artist-in-residency-grant Liguria, Italy and was awarded first place in the exhibition "Art for Europe", curated by the European Community in Brussels, Belgium.

Besides her artistic practice, she has continuously been working with children, teens and adults as an art teacher and instructor.

https://www.marenboedeker.com/

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Image source: Sarah Bodri @sarahbodri

Raoul Olou

Raoul Olou is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in Toronto. His work focus on home, belonging and archiving the mundane.

https://raoulolou.com/

https://www.instagram.com/raoul_o

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Image source: Emma White. Vita Coco, 2019

Emma White

Emma White is a recent graduate of Fine Art at Queen’s University, and is new to Toronto. Her main focus is oil painting, although she works with many mediums (such as sculpture and collage) in the process of creating a final painting. 

She is extremely influenced by her surrounding environment. This can be a natural setting or a parking lot; it can be somewhere she has lived for years or a vacation spot she passed through in a few minutes. What makes these places important to me is that she has seen them, and through the act of looking, she has left her trace there forever.

This irreversible act of occupying a space is something that she attempts to express through her work. When someone looks at my piece, they’ve now touched the work themselves, as well as the place that the piece depicts. She thinks of the artworks as portals to these special places. 

www.emmawhite.net/

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You can see work by Maren, Raoul and Emma from now until–September 8, 2019 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA) as a part of An Index. The exhibition An Index comprises work in a variety of media from sculpture, to video, to new wall murals by the first cohort of Akin residency artists who entered the year-long studio programme in September 2018.

While the participating artists’ practices range widely in terms of conceptual approach, style and media; they have also been influenced to some degree by the experience of sharing and conversing within an open-plan studio structure for the last nine months. 

We also hope you can join us for MOCA Goes Dark, an interactive art party on August 17 by the artists and curators of the exhibition An Index. Come see MOCA transformed into an interactive art party by some of Toronto’s best emerging artists.

MOCA Artist Series: Ghazaleh Avarzamani, Humboldt Magnussen, Adria Mirabelli and Tanya Louise Workman

There are only two months left in Year 1 of the Akin Studio Program at MOCA , a unique studio residency program in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada.

Akin is honored to continue sharing profiles of the remarkable group of artists from our inaugural cohort. We have posted profiles over the past few weeks of some of the artists and will continue until September; you can click here to see previous posts. Today we are happy to share profiles of three of the Year 1 artists, Ghazaleh Avarzamani, Humboldt Magnussen and Adria Mirabelli.

Image source: Ghazaleh Avarzamani

Ghazaleh Avarzamani

Ghazaleh Avarzamani (b. 1980, Tehran) is an artist currently based in Toronto. She was trained in painting at Azad Art University, Tehran and holds a Master of Fine Arts from Central Saint Martins, London. Avarzamani’s practice examines the role of experience, memory, psychology, modern rationality and educational methodologies in the construction of knowledge. Considering a range of spaces, structures and devices for interactivity, self-development and play, her work questions the contextual biases that shape meanings and values. Exploring these concerns in relation to growth and erasure, Avarzamani aims to expose the paradoxical realities beneath the surface of society.

Her art practice encompasses a variety of forms, including sewing, needlework, patchwork, printing, ceramics and installation. This craft dimension of her work is combined with research that seeks to discover the socio-historical relevance of these disciplines, as it reflects on her own experience and larger cultural issues.

www.ghazalehavarzamani.com
www.instagram.com/ghazaleh.avarzamani

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Image source: www.instagram.com/humboldtmagnussen

Humboldt Magnussen

Humboldt Magnussen is an artist and curator from rural Saskatchewan. Magnussen holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies at OCAD University focusing on performance art and masculinity studies and a BFA from Concordia University from 2011 in Studio Arts. Humboldt weaves in autobiographical elements with larger political and social context to talk about the lack of safety and protection for queer people, even in designated “Safe Spaces”. He is interested in ways to visualize complicated notions of identity and gender / sexuality which can contribute to the growing conversation on these topics in Canada.

His practice is interdisciplinary in nature. Often his work is rooted in performance and includes the creation and use of elaborate masks and helmets. He utilizes elements of humour and glamour to make difficult topics more accessible and to create entry points for people to engage with the work.

www.instagram.com/humboldtmagnussen

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Image source: Adria Mirabelli

Adria Mirabelli

Adria Mirabelli graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 2015 with a major in Drawing and Painting and Minor in Textiles. Having also studied at Parsons Paris her work is influenced by conceptual themes and narratives alongside art and craft processes. Adria uses a variety of media and practices to create her works, utilizing collage, drawing, textile manipulation, installation, poetry and sculpture. Her works are often autobiographical and explore themes of space + place, temporality, belonging, love, and longing. Her process involves the collection of extensive, rotational archives of physical materials including ephemera, photographs, digital images, and texts, often saved from spaces of lived experience. This ever-developing catalog serves as the inspiration and materials for her final works, which manifest in various physical and digital forms.

Adria strives to create works that explore experiences of fear, desire, and love in regard to personhood, place and nostalgia. She makes work in an effort to create spaces of connection and acceptance through moments of beauty.

www.adriamirabelli.com
www.instagram.com/adriamirabelli

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Photo by Sean Patenaude

Tanya Louise Workman

Tanya Louise Workman is a Toronto-based multi-disciplinary artist, storytelling facilitator and journalist who works with audio, images and text to unravel the relationships between voice and our embodied selves. Her photographic, multimedia and audio work has been exhibited and screened in spaces in Toronto and internationally. She holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University, a post-graduate certificate in creative writing from the Humber School for Writers and a photojournalism diploma from Loyalist College.

Through spoken word, sound, installation, images and writing, I tune in to the embodied experience. My body is a radio, both a receiver and a transmitter; I listen in to make audible, visible and tactile what the body holds – what reverberates between interior and exterior selves, between what is seen and heard.

Tanya is a candidate in the low-residency MFA program at Maine Media College + Workshops in Rockport, Maine, and is one of the artists-in-residence at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto as part of the inaugural Akin Studio Program at MOCA. She holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University, a post-graduate certificate in creative writing from the Humber School for Writers and a photojournalism diploma from Loyalist College.

She is currently working on her first book.

www.tanyaworkman.com
www.instagram.com/tanyalouiseworkman

You can see work by Humboldt, Adria and Tanya from now until–September 8, 2019 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA) as a part of An Index. The exhibition An Index comprises work in a variety of media from sculpture, to video, to new wall murals by the first cohort of Akin residency artists who entered the year-long studio programme in September 2018.

While the participating artists’ practices range widely in terms of conceptual approach, style and media; they have also been influenced to some degree by the experience of sharing and conversing within an open-plan studio structure for the last nine months. 

We also hope you can join us for MOCA Goes Dark, an interactive art party on August 17 by the artists and curators of the exhibition An Index. Come see MOCA transformed into an interactive art party by some of Toronto’s best emerging artists.

MOCA Artist Series: Leone McComas, Carrie Chisholm and Liang Wang

We are in the home stretch for Year 1 of the Akin Studio Program at MOCA , a unique studio residency program in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada.

Akin is honored to continue sharing profiles of thetalented group of artists from our inaugural cohort. We have posted profiles of some of the artists throughout the summer and will continue until mid September; you can click here to see previous posts. Today we are happy to share profiles of three of the Year 1 artists, Leone McComas, Carrie Chisholm and Liang Wang.

Image source: Leone McComas

Leone McComas

McComas’ painting practice examines ideas of the self and the internalization of social ideologies–capturing states through conceptualized figure/environment relationships and digitally influenced landscapes. Following a growing sense of artistic responsibility, her current work is created from a place of hope (not pain), as reflected by visual metaphors of transformation and a desire to maintain a painting’s luminosity. Her painting technique is both intuitive and process driven; a method producing highly detailed and saturated oil paintings that appear to glow from within.

McComas graduated from OCADU receiving her BDes in 2013 and participated in the Faculty of Art’s 36th Florence Off-Campus Program. She is a recipient of the OIEOS 2010 Scholarship, OAC 2018 Visual Arts Project Grant, and is an AKIN artist at MOCA Toronto.

http://www.leonemccomas.com/

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Image source: Carrie Chisholm

Carrie Chisholm

Carrie Chisholm, AOCAD, MFA is an award-winning artist/designer and communications professional who draws inspiration from her engagement with arts and culture communities and institutions at home and abroad. She is a strong proponent for capacity building in the culture sector and has made valuable contributions through events/project/operations management, governance, strategic visioning, public relations, programming, promotions, volunteerism and audience development. 

When not championing her cause, Carrie methodically devotes her time to her mixed media art practice, interspersing 2-D (drawing/painting) and 3-D (sculpture/installation) applications. She is particularly fascinated with the optical affects and illusions generated by the elements of line, colour and light such as ornamentation, pattern, transparency, shadow casting and reflection. Conceptually her work questions the philosophical nature of an individual's free will when confronted by the allure of consumerism. These interests have been mined over the course of Carrie’s practice, which commenced after the completion of her studies in Florence, Italy in 2000. 

https://www.carriechisholm.com/

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Image source: Liang Wang

Liang Wang

Liang Wang is a Toronto-based painter raised in various parts of Taiwan, China, Australia and Canada. He has exhibited work in numerous groups shows at locations including Northern Contemporary Gallery (Toronto); Federation Gallery, Turnbull Gallery (Vancouver); and Rutherford Galleria (Edmonton). His work is in private collections in Canada and New Zealand. One day I saw the sunset forty-four times is his first solo show. Wang currently teaches painting at the McCanny Secondary School.

http://www.bywangliang.com/

You can see work by Leone, Carrie and Liang from now until–September 8, 2019 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA) as a part of An Index. The exhibition An Index comprises work in a variety of media from sculpture, to video, to new wall murals by the first cohort of Akin residency artists who entered the year-long studio programme in September 2018.

While the participating artists’ practices range widely in terms of conceptual approach, style and media; they have also been influenced to varying degrees by the experience of sharing and conversing within an open-plan studio structure for the last few months. 

MOCA Artist Series: Steve Lee, Emily Woudenberg and Nuff

There is a little more than two months left in Year 1 of the Akin Studio Program at MOCA , an independent and collaborative studio residency program in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada.

Akin is thrilled to continue sharing profiles of the talented group of artists from our year 1 artists. We have posted profiles over the past few weeks of some of the artists and will continue until September; you can click here to see previous posts. Today we are happy to share profiles of three of the Year 1 artists, Steve Lee, Emily Woudenberg and Nuff.

Image source: A’Design Award & Competition

Steve Lee

Steve is the founder and lead designer at Aprilli Design Studio, mostly focusing on architectural design projects and interactive art installations. He is a licensed architect in California and Ontario with 8+ years of working experience in Seoul, New York and Los Angeles prior to opening Aprilli Design Studio. As principal in charge, he focuses on design development and project actualization through all phases of projects including architectural design and product design. Steve has deep interest in creating innovative objects, spaces and atmospheric conditions which aesthetically, psychologically and functionally enhance the quality of living environments.

Prior to founding Aprilli Design Studio, he has worked at architectural design firms such as Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, Koetter Kim Associates and RTKL Associates focusing on international high rise, mixed use and hospitality projects in various countries.

Since 2014, he has been a lecturer at various universities including UCLA March II program “Suprastudio” and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

www.aprilli.com/
www.instagram.com/aprilli_design_studio/

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Image source: Emily Woudenberg

Emily Woudenberg

Strike is a Toronto-based design studio founded and lead by Emily Woudenberg that offers frank design consultancy, innovative strategy and striking solutions for print and screens — with a client portfolio ranging from creative industries to corporations.

Emily is an entrepreneurial designer that is passionate about using design processes to bridge mediums and messages. With experience in art direction, product development, digital brand strategy and design thinking.

www.strikedesignstudio.com/

www.instagram.com/studioonstrike/

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Image source: Nuff

Nuff

Nuff creates quite design with simple forms. In an anti-disciplinary practice, he uses whatever he can to make a mark. His work spans from commercial to fine art and lives in both public and private spaces.

Nuff has been doing computer-creative-artsy-media things since about 2001, when a friend showed up at the studio with a CD containing basically every piece of software under the sun. Professionally, Nuff has been working since graduating in 2007.

Currently, Nuff spends most days designing brand identities, digital products and illustrations, and nights making interactive installations. Nuff is generally available to work with you within a few weeks, depending on current workload.

www..designbynuff.com/
www.instagram.com/designbynuff/

You can see work by Emily and Nuff from now until–September 8, 2019 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA) as a part of An Index. The exhibition An Index comprises work in a variety of media from sculpture, to video, to new wall murals by the first cohort of Akin residency artists who entered the year-long studio programme in September 2018.

While the participating artists’ practices range widely in terms of conceptual approach, style and media; they have also been influenced to some degree by the experience of sharing and conversing within an open-plan studio structure for the last nine months. 

We also hope you can join us for MOCA Goes Dark, an interactive art party on August 17 by the artists and curators of the exhibition An Index. Come see MOCA transformed into an interactive art party by some of Toronto’s best emerging artists.

MOCA Artist Series: Eva Kolcze, Michaela Macleod, and Walter Segers

There are only a few months left in Year 1 of the Akin Studio Program at MOCA , a unique studio residency program in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been profiling the remarkable group of artists from our inaugural cohort on the Akin blog. Today we are happy to share profiles of four of the Year 1 artists, Eva Kolcze, Michaela Macleod and Walter Segers. You can click here to see previous posts in the MOCA Artist Series.

Image source: Eva Kolcze

Eva Kolcze

Eva Kolcze is a Toronto based artist who creates films and installations that investigate themes of landscape, architecture and the body. Her work has screened at venues and festivals including the National Gallery of Canada, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC), Anthology Film Archives, the Gardiner Museum, Nuit Blanche, Cinémathèque québécoise, Birch Contemporary and the Images Festival. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from OCAD University and a Master of Fine Art from York University.

www.evakolcze.com
www.instagram.com/evakolcze

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Michaela Macleod

Michaela is from Moncton, New Brunswick and earned her professional degree in architecture from the University of Waterloo. She was awarded the Ontario’s Architects Association Guild Medal Award and the Prix de Rome in Architecture for Emerging Practitioners for her research work on contaminated landscapes located within the public realm. She is an intern architect with the Ontario Association of Architects and founder of Polymetis, an architecture and landscape studio based in Toronto. She also works as a sessional instructor at the University of Toronto.

www.polymetis.net
www.instagram.com/polymetis_projects

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Walter Segers

Walter Segers emigrated from Belgium in 1993 and currently lives and works in Toronto. He graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design University in 2008 with honors and received OCADU’s prestigious M.C. McCain Post Graduate Photography Residency in 2009. His photo-based works explore issues surrounding gender, sexuality, immigration and identity.

www.waltersegers.com
www.instagram.com/waltersegers

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You can see work by Eva, Michaela, and Walter from July 25–September 8, 2019 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA) as a part of An Index. The exhibition An Index comprises work in a variety of media from sculpture, to video, to new wall murals by the first cohort of Akin residency artists who entered the year-long studio programme in September 2018.

While the participating artists’ practices range widely in terms of conceptual approach, style and media; they have also been influenced to some degree by the experience of sharing and conversing within an open-plan studio structure for the last nine months. 

Join us on Wednesday July 24 for the opening reception of An Index from 6-9pm on Floor 4 of the Museum.

We also hope you can join us for MOCA Goes Dark, an interactive art party on August 17 by the artists and curators of the exhibition An Index. Come see MOCA transformed into an interactive art party by some of Toronto’s best emerging artists.

MOCA Artist Series: Jessica Thalmann, Helen Liene Dreifelds, Samar Hejazi and David Constantino Salazar

Year 1 of the Akin Studio Program at MOCA , a unique studio residency program in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada, is approaching it’s conclusion this September.

This summer we have been profiling the talented group of artists from our inaugural cohort on the Akin blog. Today we are pleased to share profiles of four of the Year 1 artists, Jessica Thalmann, Helen Liene Dreifelds, Samar Hejazi and David Constantino Salazar. You can click here to see previous posts in the MOCA Artist Series.

Image source: Jessica Thalmann.

Jessica Thalmann

Jessica Thalmann is an artist, curator and writer currently based in Toronto and New York City. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Advanced Photographic Studies from ICP-Bard College and a BFA in Visual Arts from York University. She has worked at the Doris McCarthy Gallery, Toronto International Film Festival, C Magazine, the Art Gallery of York University and Yossi Milo Gallery.

She has shown at various venues in Toronto, Vancouver and New York City including the Art Gallery of Mississauga, Flash Forward 2010, Whippersnapper Gallery, Nuit Blanche, the Artist Project, VIVO Media Arts Center, Aperture Foundation, the International Centre of Photography, Photoville, the Camera Club of New York and Printed Matter’s New York Art Book Fair.

jessicathalmann.com
www.instagram.com/jthalmann1

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Image source: Helen Liene Dreifelds.

Helen Liene Dreifelds

Helen Liene Dreifelds is an emerging artist ad workshop facilitator working in sculpture and installation based in handweaving. Positioning textiles as tools, performers, and archives, her work investigates theme related to affective labour, social geography, interpersonal relationships, and duration with attention to combined sensory experiences such as sight a touch.

www.helenlienedreifelds.com
www.instagram.com/h__l__d/

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Image by Adam Coish.

Samar Hejazi

Samar is a trilingual woman of Palestinian descent, born in the U.S. and raised in diverse communities in the Middle East and Canada, she uses her art to question ideas surrounding identity. Through meditations on traditional practices and her present environments, her work merges eastern and western styles to express how the crossing of cultures can form new identities. Her choice in medium follows the conceptual needs of the piece which has primarily been embroidery, but also includes works on paper and new media.

www.samarhejazi.com
www.instagram.com/samarhejazi

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Image by our friends at Samara Contemporary.

David Constantino Salazar

David Constantino Salazar is a Toronto based sculptor who holds a Master in Fine Arts degree from OCAD University. His work explores the borders between necessity and excess, desires and addiction. Salazar's goal is to create work that is approachable through humour with the intent that the viewer can explor their own relationships with desire and overindulgence through his allegorical sculptures.

www.davidsalazar.ca
www.instagram.com/dc.salazar

You can see work by Jess, Helen, Samar and David from July 25–September 8, 2019 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA) as a part of An Index. The exhibition An Index comprises work in a variety of media from sculpture, to video, to new wall murals by the first cohort of Akin residency artists who entered the year-long studio programme in September 2018.

While the participating artists’ practices range widely in terms of conceptual approach, style and media; they have also been influenced to some degree by the experience of sharing and conversing within an open-plan studio structure for the last nine months. 

Join us on Wednesday July 24 for the opening reception of An Index from 6-9pm on Floor 4 of the Museum.

MOCA Artist Series: Stephanie Avery, Raquel Da Silva and Jieun June Kim

There are only three months left in Year 1 of the Akin Studio Program at MOCA , a unique studio residency program in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada.

Akin is honored to have a remarkable group of artists as a part of our inaugural cohort and are excited to profile them here on our blog over the next few months. Today we are happy to share profiles of three of the Year 1 artists, Stephanie Avery, Raquel Da Silva and Jieun June Kim. You can click here to see all the blog posts in the MOCA Artist Series.

Photo source: www.instagram.com/stephvonawesome

Stephanie Avery

Stephanie Avery is a Toronto-based artist. Focusing on themes of play, discovery, identity and memory, Stephanie uses humour and absurdity to intervene with familiar objects and imagery to give them new meanings and narratives. Her goal is to inspire new perspectives and initiate critical dialogue about elements of contemporary culture that are often taken for granted.

www.stephanieavery.com
www.instagram.com/stephvonawesome

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Photo source: www.instagram.com/raquelnaia

Raquel Da Silva

Raquel Da Silva is a Toronto based artist, working primarily with painting and installation. Raquel has been able to combine her interests of street art, animation and acrylic painting to develop her current visual language. Da Silva's current work is an exploration of how 2 and 3 dimensional forms and shapes work together to create an environment. She uses unconventional characters and shapes as the representational figures of our environments, and how they can coexist with one another in one space. The works involve alternative color palettes and shaped canvases to allow the surface, colors and composition to work with one another to deliver the message of unity in space through shape and form.

www.raqueldasilva.com
www.instagram.com/raquelnaia

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Photo source: www.instagram.com/junekima.rt

Jieun June Kim

Jieun June Kim (b. Seoul, Korea) is a painter and muralist who lives and works in Toronto. In her paintings and murals, she explores different ideas of “home” using colorful patterns and dynamic natural forms. Since she moved to Canada in 2016, her works has been shown at notable galleries and events in Toronto and she has been commissioned to paint numerous murals across GTA. Jieun is co-founder of KJ Bit Collective who create murals and street art events such as “Laneway Light Up” project (2018). She is also the recipient of the Newcomer and Refugee Artist Mentorship grant from the Toronto Arts Council (2018).

www.jieunjunekim.com
www.instagram.com/junekima.rt

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You can see work by Stephanie, Raquel, and Jieun from July 25–September 8, 2019 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA) as a part of An Index. The exhibition An Index comprises work in a variety of media from sculpture, to video, to new wall murals by the first cohort of Akin residency artists who entered the year-long studio programme in September 2018.

While the participating artists’ practices range widely in terms of conceptual approach, style and media; they have also been influenced to some degree by the experience of sharing and conversing within an open-plan studio structure for the last nine months. 

Join us on Wednesday July 24 for the opening reception of An Index from 6-9pm on Floor 4 of the Museum.

Akin artist Quinn Rockliff featured in The Body Issue of NOW Toronto Magazine

“My art practice is about nudity, self-love and female empowerment...every time I draw my body I’m reclaiming it, and to do that for other women is really important. It feels radical to shamelessly love my body as a woman, and political to share it online.”

— Quinn Rockliff for NOW Magazine

Akin Lansdowne artist Quinn Rockliff talks about her art practice, self love, body positivity and more in a segment called Love Your Body in The Body Issue of NOW Magazine.

Quinn Rockliff's art practice is centred around nudity, self love, and empowerment. Her current project is about women celebrating their bodies as she recreates nude selfies in ink and watercolour. Her Master's thesis in OCAD University's Digital Futures Program focuses on a similar theme and aims to combat shame and power loss through art by challenging the stigma attached to taking and sharing a nude selfie. Quinn is driven to explore how theory and practice can meet in the middle, how her own experience can be reworked into a tool for learning and teaching through example. Find out more about Quinn and see examples of her work at www.quinnrockliff.com

NOW is a Toronto news and entertainment magazine published in print and online weekly.