Akin Vitrine Galleries featuring Michelle Rawlings

We are delighted to introduce our current Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery artist, Akin artist Michelle Rawlings. Michelle's work will be on exhibit in our galleries beginning at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West for the month of April and then 1485 Dupont for the month of May.

Experience is an installation made up of 3-dimensional letters displayed at different heights and depths. The word is playfully broken apart causing viewers to pause to decipher what it says as they take in the different forms and planes of the window display. The result is an unexpected visual experience reminding us to stop every once in a while and take in the world around us.

Experience
Paper
Dimensions variable
2020

To contact the artist:
Instagram: @ms.rawlings
#Akinvitrine

Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present our 2020 programming in two Vitrine Galleries located at Akin St. Clair and Akin Dupont. These miniature galleries feature the diverse talent of our members with travelling installations rotating each month. Each artist will be featured for the first month at St. Clair and second month at Dupont. For more information about our artists and our programming, join us on Instagram @akinvitrine.

Michelle’s work will be on view for the month of April in our St. Clair Avenue West Akin Vitrine Gallery, 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

The exhibition will then travel to the Akin Dupont Vitrine Gallery where it will be on view for the month of May. 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.

Akin Vitrine Galleries featuring Liliana Vera

We are delighted to introduce our current Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery artist, Akin Dupont artist Liliana Vera. Liliana's work will be on exhibit in our galleries beginning at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West for the month of March and then 1485 Dupont for the month of April.

I want to be defined by the things I love,
not the things I hate,
nor the things I am afraid of.

“i found it in the forest” is about the personal journeys we venture into, the idea of the sacred pilgrimage to answer our most pressing questions. It is about the places themselves, places ready to trip us if not prepared, places willing to give but that will take something from us too.

These journeys we must take alone; sometimes dubious but with heightened senses.

I invite you to reflect on the journey you are wandering on and hope you find shelter to rest and continue forward.

Ever since starting on Akin on 2017, I have been working with the theme of “hand portraits” and have found a comfortable space working on wooden panels, since the material respects the details pencil traces while adding a little of its own decisions when mixed with gouache, bleeding colour into different parts of my pieces. But I have curiosity to shift between mediums, and lately have experimented with paper and wire to create black-grey-white small sculptures. I found the Vitrine to be a good opportunity to try something I want: storytelling in maquette form.

I found it in the forest
Sewn paper and text
Dimensions variable
2020

To contact the artist:
Instagram: @thecatintherain
#Akinvitrine

Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present our 2020 programming in two Vitrine Galleries located at Akin St. Clair and Akin Dupont. These miniature galleries feature the diverse talent of our members with travelling installations rotating each month. Each artist will be featured for the first month at St. Clair and second month at Dupont. For more information about our artists and our programming, join us on Instagram @akinvitrine.

Liliana’s work will be on view for the month of March in our St. Clair Avenue West Akin Vitrine Gallery, 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

The exhibition will then travel to the Akin Dupont Vitrine Gallery where it will be on view for the month of April. 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.

Akin Vitrine Galleries + Kyle Yip

We are delighted to introduce our current Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery artist, Akin Ossington artist Kyle Yip. Kyle's work will be on exhibit in our galleries beginning at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West for the month of February and then 1485 Dupont for the month of March.

“The following body of work are exact replicas of visual art conceived and produced during the rapid-eye movement dream state of the artist. While the purpose of dreams are not completely understood, psychoanalysts believe they are the manifestations of our deepest desires and fears. They are the direct expression of imagination and utilize the most efficient language of symbolism and mythological archetypes.” - Kyle Yip 

In Gestalt therapy, Fritz Perls describes dreams as projections of the parts of ourselves that have been neglected, rejected, or suppressed. Carl Jung added that every person in the dream may represent an aspect of the dreamer, which he called the existential approach to dreams. Perls went to far as to say that even inanimate objects in the dream may represent aspects of the dreamer. Through association, the dreamer would be asked to imagine being an object in the dream and describe its characteristics, bringing into awareness the more disaffected aspects of the dreamer's personality. 

Kyle Yip is an award-winning, internationally recognized, critically acclaimed visual artist based in Toronto. He is known not only for his Juno Award Nominated debut album for best 'Electronic Album of the Year’ from the 45th Annual Juno Awards in 2016, but also his international exhibitions in New York, Vancouver and South Korea.

Sewer
Mixed Media
30 x 22 1/2”
2019

Moonbeam
Mixed Media
30 x 22 1/2”
2019

Pepto-Abysmal
Mixed Media
48 x 36”
2016

To contact the artist:
Instagram: @kylepyip
#Akinvitrine
www.kyleyip.com

Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present our 2020 programming in two Vitrine Galleries located at Akin St. Clair and Akin Dupont. These miniature galleries feature the diverse talent of our members with travelling installations rotating each month. Each artist will be featured for the first month at St. Clair and second month at Dupont. For more information about our artists and our programming, join us on Instagram @akinvitrine.

Kyle’s work will be on view for the month of February in our St. Clair Avenue West Akin Vitrine Gallery, 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

The exhibition will then travel to the Akin Dupont Vitrine Gallery where it will be on view for the month of March. 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.

Akin Vitrine Galleries 2020 Exhibitions - Call for Submissions for Akin Studio Members

Akin is very excited to announce our 2019 Call for Submissions for Akin’s Vitrine Gallery! We are programming for the coming year and looking to fill our monthly exhibitions with a variety of work from our studio members. 

These miniature galleries feature the diverse talent of our members with new installations each month. The first Akin Vitrine Gallery launched in 2016 at Akin’s Dupont studios. At the beginning of 2018, the second Vitrine Gallery location launched at the Akin St. Clair studios.

APPLICATION DETAILS:

Deadline to apply: Monday, December 2nd, 2019, 5:00pm

Akin will program 12 exhibitions in 2020, each for a duration of two months. Featured artists will be exhibiting for one month in our Dupont Vitrine location and for the following month in our St. Clair Vitrine location.  

The first month of the exhibition will be at the Akin St. Clair Vitrine gallery location (1747 St. Clair Avenue West), corresponding with a month-long online feature on Instagram. Akin Vitrine Gallery Instagram account: @akinvitrine showcases the current artist in a spotlight interview style, month-long series of posts. Make sure to check out the account for more information, to follow us and support your fellow Akin members!

The second month of the exhibition will be at the Akin Dupont Vitrine gallery location (1485 Dupont St). In addition to this, each featured artist is welcome to organize, host and promote a reception during their exhibition at the Akin St. Clair Studios Vitrine. They will work with the Akin St. Clair studio manager on the logistics for their reception, but be responsible for planning and hosting their reception themselves. 

This call for submissions welcomes fine artists of all mediums, craftspeople, designers and those whose work expands the limits of these mediums to apply; we only ask that your project reads as visual art as opposed to a window display/merchandising. Please note this call is only open to Akin studio members from any of our nine locations.

Akin is a Queer and Trans friendly organization, and we encourage folks who identify as womxn, Indigenous Peoples, visible minorities, persons with disabilities, and members of sexual minority. Should you desire to, please identify if you are a member of one the these groups.

Submission Details: 

If you are an Akin studio member and would like to submit work for consideration, please email your submission to janet@akincollective.com by December 2nd with the words ‘VITRINE 2020 SUBMISSION’ as the email subject. You must include:

• Project description: due to the timeline of our programming, it is not imperative that you apply with finished work. If you are applying with a concept not yet realized, please provide a description of your project in one paragraph. Sketches for the project or photographs of similar work are preferred.  

• Up to 3 images of the work to be exhibited, or similar if you are applying with a work in progress.  Images must be titled: FULLNAME_TITLE_SIZE_MEDIUM_DATE

• Brief bio/statement (maximum 150 words).

• Contact information – including phone number, website and Instagram username if available.

• Requested month for exhibition - if you have a particular month in which you would prefer to show, please let us know what that month is and why. We will consider all requests but cannot guarantee we can accommodate them all.

Our goal is to curate a cross-section of work, representing a variety of media from all of our studio locations. This does mean that space is limited. We appreciate all of your submissions, and what we can’t accommodate for this project, we will keep in mind for future opportunities. We will respond to submissions via email. 

Thank you from the Akin team.

About the Vitrine spaces:
The miniature galleries feature white walls, floor and ceiling, overhead lighting, electrical access and large window. The Vitrines lend themselves well to 2D hanging work, 3D display and site specific pieces, and are a perfect space to experiment with new materials and to try out new work or installation projects. 

Akin Vitrine Gallery + Laura Kay Keeling

Akin Vitrine Galleries are delighted to welcome Akin Dupont artist, Laura Kay Keeling back into our exhibition spaces for the months of June and July! Working primarily in collage, Laura is bringing one of her prints to life with her installation, Rocks and TV LIVE.

Opening this month on the second floor of 1485 Dupont St, Rocks and TV LIVE will move to 1747 St. Clair Avenue West for the month of July and will be visible at street level on St. Clair West.

“As an artist, I strive to explore and capture the magic that comes from everyday life. From the way the sunshine catches my eye, how the flowers look after it rains, a well groomed front lawn. I try to take moments that sometimes may be overlooked and give them a second chance to be admired. I am obsessed with landscape and how it changes in different regions, how nature’s colour palette is so vibrant and engaging and how we are so fortunate to have such beauty around us in so many different shapes and sizes. I love allowing the viewer to create their own narrative from a captured moment in time and hope my work evokes feelings from the viewer, whatever that may entail such that they can be engaged with the piece. With my 'HOT ROCKS' collage series, I feature interesting and beautiful images found in gemstone field guides which have been cut apart and put back together in a new way. Not only do I love photographing nature, I love allowing it to inspire me and guide my collages to become a new representation of things organically found in nature. My current digital collage series feature sourced imagery from National Geographic Magazines, old field guides and 35mm photos I have taken merged
together to create interesting, vibrant and engaging imagery.”

www.laurakaykeeling.com
Email: laurakay.keeling@gmail.com
Instagram: @laurakaykeeling & @lllllllllllllllllkk

Rocks and TV LIVE
Mixed media
Dimensions variable

For more information about our artists and our programming, join us on Instagram @akinvitrine.

Rocks and TV LIVE will be on view for the month of June 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.

The exhibition will then travel to the Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery and be on view for the month of July at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

For more information about Laura’s work, follow our Instagram account @akinvitrine.

Akin Vitrine Gallery + Sara Pearson

Introducing our April 2019 artist, Sara Pearson. Sara is an Akin Dupont member and her multi medium installation, Wayfinder is on exhibition in the Akin Vitrine Galleries for the months of April and May.

Using material as a narrative tool, Wayfinder is a layered installation of collage imagery. Shimmering mineral watercolour on terraskin paper (made from stone) the overscaled landscape references a desired destination: as we travel through life and forge our path, we set goals, build foundations and envision our future. The floor of the gallery is covered with handmade unfired clay pebbles- impermanent objects that suggest that sometimes/many times the ground shifts, falls away, and we must again find our footing and start in a new direction. Standing on this landslide is a Wayfinder, a sculptural form of ceramic and aluminum mirror, a navigational tool used as a beacon or a landmark to guide us along our new path.

Sara Pearson is a Toronto based artist whose work has centered on the merging of science (geological and gemmological) and a self-reflexive fine arts practice choosing materials and references that relate as elemental to the earth. Through abstracted painting of gemstone refraction and land formation, and sculptural methods of bronze casting, ceramics and assemblage, she has explored concepts such as human value systems, the sublime quality of nature and the journey of transformation. Sara holds a BFA from the Ontario College of Art and Design. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions with Patel Gallery, and has shown work in Ontario and British Columbia.

Wayfinder
Mineral watercolour on terraskin paper, ceramic, aluminum, and unfired clay.
Dimensions variable
2018

To contact the artist:
Instagram: @_sarapearson_
#Akinvitrine
www.sarapearsonart.com

Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present our 2019 programming in two Vitrine Galleries located at Akin Dupont and Akin St. Clair. These miniature galleries feature the diverse talents 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.

‘Wayfinder’ will be on view for the month of April 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.

The exhibition will then travel to the Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery and be on view for the month of May at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

For more information about Sara and her work, follow our Instagram account @akinvitrine
**Sneak peek images of the work located in the event posts!

Akin Vitrine Galleries + 'Flitting' by Verity Griscti

We are excited to announce our latest exhibition into our Akin Vitrine Galleries, ‘Flitting’ by Akin King member Verity Griscti. This is Verity’s second exhibit with the galleries. flitting opens in March at 1485 Dupont St, and will move to 1747 St. Clair Avenue West for the month of April.

Separation, alignment and cohesion. Individual agents adhering to three simple rules can create something complex, elegant and beautiful. flitting is an analogue exploration of the popular artificial life computer algorithm boids. Originally developed in 1986 by computer programmer Craig Reynolds boids is everywhere you’ve never bothered to look. It’s been used to study the flocking behaviour of Starlings and create the computer-generated bat swarms in Batman Returns. It’s the algorithm behind swarm robotics, where groups of small robots or drones are programmed to work in cohesion and it’s automatically programming dozens of internet radio stations at once. But before the algorithm puts all the DJ’s out of work starts dropping bombs on humans let’s look at how pretty it can be.

Verity Griscti is an artist and jill-of-all digital trades based in Toronto. Her studio practice explores generative systems and seriality in both analogue and digital mediums. She’s built numerous websites including the award-winning Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada and has participated in various exhibitions including Maker Festival, The Toronto Outdoor Art Show, and EyeScream’s II & III, the visual arts component of the Scream Literary Festival. Verity received a BFA in Printmaking from OCADu in 2004.

www.veritygriscti.com
Instagram: @veritygriscti
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/verityfaithgriscti

flitting, 2019
acrylic paint on duralar polyester sheets
25” x 40”
Verity Griscti

Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present our 2019 programming in two Vitrine Galleries located at Akin Dupont and Akin St. Clair. These miniature galleries 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.

‘flitting’ will be on view 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.

The exhibition 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.

For more information about Verity’s work, follow our Instagram account @akinvitrine.

'Fitting' by Verity Griscti - March/April 2019 - Akin Vitrine Gallery Installation.

'Fluid Streets' by Dalia Hassan on view now in the Vitrine Galleries!

We are delighted to introduce our February/March exhibition, Fluid Streets by Akin Lansdowne artist, Dalia Hassan!

Dalia Hassan is visual artist born and raised in Cairo, Egypt. Having grown up in a densely-populated
metropolis, her earlier work adopted the theme of urbanism and city life. Her paintings are often
dominated by the abnormalities of her urban environment with a fantasized setting.

Last Summer Dalia moved to Toronto, and her work has since been transforming into abstraction.
Navigating her way around initially depended on digital maps as she gradually familiarized herself with
the city. In Fluid Street, a series of small paintings, she records the transition from a virtual reference to
conscious imagery etched in memory.

Fluid Streets is on exhibit in the Akin Vitrine Galleries beginning at 1485 Dupont for the month of February and 1747 St. Clair Avenue West in March.

Fluid Streets
Acrylic on canvas board and yarn
Dimensions variable
2019

To contact the artist:
Instagram: @daliahassan.art
www.daliahassan.com
@akinvitrine
#Akinvitrine


Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present our 2019 programming in two Vitrine Galleries located at Akin Dupont and Akin St. Clair. These miniature galleries 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.

Fluid Streets will be on view for the month of February 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.

The exhibition will then travel to the Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery and be on view for the month of March at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

For more information about Dalia and her work, follow our Instagram account @akinvitrine.

Akin Vitrine Gallery + Carmina Miana

“A vision of an unrecognizable self, made of shredded glitch screens woven into coloured paper, kneeling to its past. The past is all a story. Every time it’s told it’s more real, more meaningful, but less your present life.”

Introducing our December/January artist, Akin King member, Carmina Miana. Her installation ‘Piqued/Peaked’ will be on exhibit in our Akin Vitrine Galleries located at 1485 Dupont and 1747 St. Clair Avenue West over the next two months. 

Carmina Miana is Toronto-based illustrator. Her image making has involved embroidery, quilting, weaving, and resin. Utilizing material meaning, both historical and contextual, and puns wherever applicable, Carmina’s work engages identity, memory formation and the constant presence of failure. Carmina is a graduate of OCADU’s Illustration program, receiving a Bachelor’s of Design (Bdes). She is currently the Social Media Coordinator for the Toronto School of Art. She often collaborates with artists of varying disciplines as a way to skill share and expands her visual language.

Title: Piqued/Peaked
Dimensions: 30x38x50
Medium: Paper, resin

To contact the artist:
Instagram: @meanugh
#Akinvitrine
www.carminamiana.com

Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present our 2018 programming in two Vitrine Galleries located at Akin Dupont and Akin St. Clair. These miniature galleries 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.

‘Piqued/Peaked’ will be on view for the month of December 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.

The exhibition will then travel to the Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery and be on view for the month of January at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

For more information about Carmina and her work, follow our Instagram account @akinvitrine.

Akin Vitrine Gallery + Rebecca Jane Houston

We are excited to feature new work by returning artist and Akin Dupont member, Rebecca Jane Houston. Rebecca’s piece, “Perfect Circle” will be on exhibit in our Vitrine galleries located at 1485 Dupont and 1747 St. Clair Avenue West over the next two months.

Can I draw circles through past and current work? If I line it all up, an accumulation of stuff made over 5 years, is there a thread to draw them together? When I was in my MFA, I spent a lot of time trying to make perfect spheres on the wood lathe. It was a meditative process and more than that it was a claiming of space as a woman in a wood shop through my presence; by taking up space and time at the tools, and doing it in a feminist way that valued process over “expertise”, open experimentation over “mastery”. Of course I only see this in retrospect. In the vitrine you can see the collection of wood spheres made on the lathe in various stages of completion. In 2017, while working on a project making 100 slip cast bowls, something I hadn’t done before, I kept the trimmings by hanging them all over my studio where they dried and many crumbled. The ones left, that survived all the moving and firing and handling, are hanging here in the vitrine as well. Another set of circles, all warped and drooping. Each like a line drawing, but in three dimensions. I was partly successful in making these bowls, it was also somewhat disastrous. Finally, the two ceramic sculptures were made with casts of spheres in clay. This was just another experiment. They were to represent a bubbling up of feeling. I don’t know if it really happened but again I learned something and moved on to the next thing. I have gathered these three collections of circles together to see if there is a meaning that brings me back in circular ways through similar considerations. Or perhaps it’s just a random collection of things. 

Perfect Circle
ceramics, wood, nails
2018
dimensions available

To contact the artist:
Instagram: @rebeccajanehouston
#Akinvitrine

Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present our 2018 programming in two Vitrine Galleries located at Akin Dupont and Akin St. Clair. These miniature galleries 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.

‘Perfect Circles’ will be on view for the month of November 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.

The exhibition will then travel to the Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery and be on view for the month of December at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

Akin Vitrine Gallery + Yamandu Sztainbok →

Our October/November artist is Akin St.Clair alum, Yamandu Sztainbok. Yama is an illustrator, cartoonist, and essayist. His piece, “No Room” will be on exhibit in our galleries located at 1485 Dupont and 1747 St. Clair Avenue West over the next two months.

NO ROOM is the transcription of a page remembered from a dream, mistakenly bound in the cover of the Time-Life Library of Art: World of Breughel. The story was about carnivorous rooms which feed upon and assimilate the sedentary-type rooms to which we have become accustomed. Throughout the volume were interspersed twelve pages printed in an invisible ink, which, when exposed to air for twelve seconds would absorb the atmosphere of a room. Thus the dream itself contrived to squander chance for me to transcribe the other pages.

NO ROOM
Ink on paper
2018
dimensions available

To contact the artist:
Instagram: @y.smerdis
#Akinvitrine

Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present our 2018 programming in two Vitrine Galleries located at Akin Dupont and Akin St. Clair. These miniature galleries feature the diverse talent of our members with travelling installations rotating each month. Each artist is 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.

NO ROOM will be on view for the month of October 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.

The exhibition will then travel to the Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery and be on view for the month of November at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

For more information about Yamandu and his work, follow our Instagram account @akinvitrine.

Akin Vitrine Gallery + Samantha O'Neill →

Akin Vitrine Galleries featuring Samantha O’Neill

We are excited to introduce our September/October Vitrine Gallery artist, Akin Lansdowne alum, Samantha O’Neill! 

Samantha is a Fashion Designer who has combined her love for both Fashion and Art. Specializing in outerwear, she creates art based pieces rather than Ready to Wear. Samantha has been passionate about fashion since her childhood and studied Fashion Business at George Brown College.

‘Twisted Fantasy’ is inspired by the idea that there is a twisted relationship between light and dark. In this work, lightness is conveyed through the use of feminine silhouettes and flowers while darkness is conveyed through the use of dark colours, textures and a certain sense of undone-ness or incomplete-ness. It’s the idea that there is a sense of torture and uncertainty even in our wildest fantasies.

Twisted Fantasy
2018
dimensions available

To contact the artist:
samantha.oneill2@gmail.com
Instagram: @samantha.toronto_
#Akinvitrine

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.

‘Twisted Fantasy’ will be on view for the month of September 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.

The exhibition will then travel to the Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery and be on view for the month of October at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

For more information about Samantha and her work, follow our Instagram account @akinvitrine.

Akin Vitrine Gallery + Kate Drwecka →

We are very excited to present new work by Akin St. Clair member, Kate Drwecka in our Vitrine Galleries for the months of May and June! 

Her installation is based on her most recent project, Becoming: a 31 page printed horror comic, the first in a series of mini comics exploring horror’s ability to process real trauma through representation. The original pages measure roughly 16.75" x 21.25", and the final product is a mini-comic that is 5.5" x 8.5". This installation features some of the original pages, and a recreation of the iconic mirror and monster from the comic. 

Becoming is a story of repression, denial of self, and how that presents itself in our lives. Laila is a woman who lives alone with her past, haunted by a ghastly figure living in her mirror. The reflection calls to Laila's unacknowledged history, begging her to confront her denied history. As Laila continues to refuse her past, the figure in the mirror grows stronger, to eventually manifest outside the mirror. 

Kate Drwecka is a freelance cartoonist/illustrator working and living in Toronto. She grew up in the cold climates of Canada, and studied at the School of Visual Arts in NY. As a small child, Kate wanted to grow up and become Freddie Mercury. She still does.

Currently Kate is working on a series about an all-girl supernatural detective agency, and a series of horror comics. Kate is an original member of the Akin Comic Club and has recently helped organize the Akin Comic Day event. A one-day celebration of comic books, comic making and comic artists! 

Becoming will be on view for the month of May 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.

The exhibition will then travel to the Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery and be on view for the month of June at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

Akin Vitrine Gallery featuring "The Braids" by Nicole Krstin - Until Dec 31

Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present the Vitrine Gallery, a recent addition to our Dupont studios. This miniature gallery will feature the diverse talent of our members with a new installation each month.

Our current exhibition, The Braids, is running for the month of December. This new work from Akin member, Nicole Krstin is part of an ongoing series intended to foster dialogue, awareness and understanding about women’s health issues.

“The Braids is about navigating the seemingly otherworldly experience of trying to paint a clear picture of our medical profiles. It is about the need to be vigilant about understanding our bodies, our rights, and about asking questions in order to empower ourselves, rather than remaining in the dark about our health. Layers of paint are carefully cut by-hand to reveal imagery that represent healthy tissue, disease, information, misinformation — all of which is explored and or filtered-out in order to learn more about our bodies. The braids, which are interlaced and therefore stronger than the strands alone, represent the power of knowledge; revealing what is beneath the darkness.”

Nicole Krstin is a visual artist, currently focusing on film photography and painting. She is a “retired” graphic designer, holding a BA from the University of Toronto, with a Major in Anthropology and a Minor in English. Nicole describes herself as being known for incessant mouth breathing, an unrelenting admiration for cats, and saying weird things in-person and on social media. She is uni-coastal, splitting time between Toronto and Brooklyn.

The Braids, 2016
16 x 20 inches
Acrylic on wood, vinyl, fabric

The Akin Vitrine Gallery is located at 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 Friday, or to arrange a viewing outside of those hours please contact the artist: info@nicolekrstin.com

www.nicolekrstin.com
Instagram: @nicolekrstin

#AkinVitrine