Call for Submissions: Local Art for New Residential Community

Daniels HR Corporation, on behalf of The Daniels Corporation, invites artists from the Regent Park and downtown East area to submit proposals in consideration for the residential areas at Artworks Tower and Artsy Boutique Condominiums in Regent Park. The installation of the various artworks will take place in phases between late 2022 to early 2023. The proposal process will involve consulting with Daniels HR Corporation on the design and fabrication of the work to arrive at a final concept, as well as the installation of the piece.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

For The Daniels Corporation (Daniels) each new home community is a work of art - literally. From conception through to completion, every Daniels neighbourhood is designed to enhance its surroundings, the community and to make a statement about its unique character. Daniels has pioneered a new approach to décor and art focused on sourcing local art for each of our new buildings. Within each community Daniels looks to source a wide range of art forms from paintings to photography to sculptures and beyond. This addition of striking local art through community engagement has quickly become a cornerstone of the company’s design philosophy.

The community is located at the north side of Dundas Street, between Tubman Ave. and River St., consisting of the 32-storey Artworks tower on the east side and the 11-storey boutique condominium, Artsy on the west, joined by a 4-storey podium with shared amenities.

For this opportunity, priority will be given to artists who self-identify as:

• Having a connection to the Regent Park Community and downtown East area: current or former resident, or works within the specific community identified 

• Emerging and mid-career artists 

• Diverse and equity-deserving individuals including but not limited to members of visible minority groups, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ2S+ people

Deadline: 11:59 p.m. on May 15, 2022.
For any other questions, please contact LocalArt@danielscorp.com.

Ghostmoth by Claire Correia

Want to add some art viewing to your solstice? Check out our Vitrine Gallery featuring Ghostmoth by Claire Correia (@claire.correia)!

Correia writes, "Although giant cecropia moths still thrive in the woods of Ontario, and I look for them all the time, I’ve only ever seen one. In this artwork, a life-sized silver wire-formed cecropia moth resting on a radiant green leaf mandala forms a symbol of these reclusive and seldom-seen forest creatures.

Presenting the moth as a ghostly form both implies its elusive nature, and also suggests its vulnerability, as the important wild places where these creatures live are threatened by both climate change and blind commercial development.

I’m concerned about longevity in all of my pieces, hoping that the artwork will exist for longer than my lifespan. Many hours are spent on invisible but really important research and process experimentation, on behalf of that poor future conservator who may have to deal with the things I’ve put into the world! Making that piece was like making a magic spell; it felt as though the work was opening doors."

Check it out till January 30th!

🪁Banafsheh Erfanian, Fly Your Burning Kite🪁

🪁Banafsheh Erfanian, Fly Your Burning Kite🪁

We're so excited to present Banafsheh Erfanian from our RBC Space Recipients Exhibitions! The RBC Space Award is a partnership between Neighbourhood Arts Network and Akin. This award provides access to space for professional artists to grow their practice.

A little bit about the show from the artist:

‘Fly Your Burning Kite’ is my visual interpretation of the post-1979 revolution era in Iran. This solo painting exhibit is a contribution to the suffering my people are going through. It addresses the ongoing cultural issues Iran has been dealing with since the revolution. Iran has been experiencing crucial cultural and political changes. The use of symbolism and surrealism has been a strong tool for me to portrait this bizarre chain of events taking place in my country of origin and the destruction that has been left behind from the revolution and war. Rigidity crawled into our daily routines when we were sleeping and we became believers in ghosts more than ever. In the Middle of the East, we are chained. In the middle of the perpetual night, we are burning. Nevertheless, are we collecting ashes from which we will be reborn. Our children will fly their burning kites of dream. From the fire, clouds will be created.

The clouds will cry so loud for the ones who do not have a voice. Then the clouds will burst into tears and wipe out all this darkness. We will see once again the time when dogs were not slaughtered and crows did not migrate. It was when the wind blew into girls' hair."

We're excited to invite you to attend Fly Your Burning Kite from October 23rd to the 30th!

TOAF - Toronto Outdoor Art Fair - begins this weekend! (July 2-11)

Akin is thrilled to see so many current and alumni Akin Members participating in the 2021 Toronto Outdoor Art Fair. This year, the fair will have a digital component as well as a small showcase of artworks in person at stackt market.

List of current & alumni Akin Members participating:

Carrie Chisholm 
Corynn Kokolakis 
David Chinyama 
Dorota Dziong 
Jamileh Salek 
Joanna Strong 
Lindsay Chambers 
Loren Kaplan 
Melika Saeeda 
Miles Ingrassia 
Nicole Crozier 
Soroush Dabiri 
Zach Atticus 
Zoey Zoric 

For a full list of participating artists, please click here.
To learn more about stackt market please click here.

Collision Virtual Group Exhibition - On View Now!

With the goal of reconnecting communities and highlighting the voices of the artists working in the Collision Gallery space, this virtual group exhibition shares recent work from the artists working in our shared artist studios at 18 Wellington Street West.

The work presented here reflects a small selection of works, old and new, by artists at Akin’s Collision Gallery location.

Exhibiting Artists:
Maren Boedeker, Lindsay Chambers, Kai Hart, Antonio Pendones, Janne Reuss, Joanna Strong

Akin Vitrine St. Clair + Elsie Nisonen

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

Consumption is a series of images that explore the idea of Gender, Consumption, Collecting and is also about positive and negative space. By combining the digital aesthetic with handcrafted details, I blur the lines between the digital world and the human hand, gendered stereotypes, the truth vs. folktale. I have photographed old paper dolls that were mouse-eaten as a metaphor for gender confines, consumption and collection. The use of botanicals references work done by women illustrators and photographers during the Victorian era. The curiosity of the Victorians along with their sickening approach to collections, i.e. killing the thing you are studying, invokes the idea of capture, consumption, decay, and death. 

By playing and using old tropes, I have created new visuals to push against patriarchal hegemony. I have used older/fixed icons such as a dress as a frame to re/view the world. 

Elsie Nisonen is a lens-based artist in Toronto. Her works explores light, materiality, humanity, layering, and storytelling. It resides between memory and truth, the liminal spaces where reality and fantasy are intertwined.

Consumption
Mixed media
Dimensions Variable
2020

To contact the artist:
Instagram: @elsienisonen

#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.

Elsie’s work will be on view for the month of June 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 July. 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 St. Clair + Walter Segers

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

MAKE LOVE NOT WAR is an installation consisting of a movable doll house @lilliputgallery, still 2D images and 3D altered toys exploring the interaction between location and individuals. Each room in the doll house tells a unique story that reminds us that the future is bright with a vision of LOVE instead of WAR.

Working primarily with dolls such as Ken and Barbie, toy soldiers and toy animals, the battle of nations or battle between cats and dogs becomes intimate instead of combative.

Children use toys to discover their identity, learn cause and effect, explore relationships, and practice skills they will need as adults. Adults on occasion use toys to form and strengthen social bonds, teach, and to remember and reinforce lessons from their youth.

MAKE LOVE NOT WAR is communicating a positive message, a fantasy world that Walter would like to see as being real. Why not make the focus of your life something happy!

MAKE LOVE NOT WAR
Found objects, taxidermy, photography and doll house @lilliputgallery
Site Specific Installation, Dimensions Variable
2019-2020

To contact the artist:
Instagram: @waltersegers
Website: www.waltersegers.com

#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.

Walter’s work will be on view for the month of May 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 June. 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.

two truths and a lie by Jessica Thalmann

two truths and a lie is Jessica Thalmann’s first solo exhibition in a public art gallery and exemplifies the breadth and depth of her lens-based practice. The installation meditates on the slippery nature of the photographic object in a series of folded steel and paper sculptures and wall-mounted “straight” and physically altered photographs.

Please note: this installation is not currently on view, it will be open to the public soon.

Date: TBA

Location: Varley Art Gallery, Markham

Thalmann crosses disciplinary boundaries and uses the poetics of space to understand spatial and pictorial relationships. She ruminates on the porous boundary between object and image; exploring the ways ruins, monuments, and abandoned public squares embody the failed utopian aims of Brutalist architecture. To Thalmann, a monument, much like a photograph, is never itself; it is inextricably caught between its meaning and its being. The intention for both photographs and monuments is to embody the objects, places, or people they depict, yet they remain silent and inert. They often make visible what cannot be seen, and erase or obscure what is real.

In many ways, their mnemonic possibilities are troubled by their material limitations. Fabrications, Thalmann’s most recent investigation, further troubles the relationship between image and object—as freestanding, double-sided sculptures (using only one cut and one fold as a conceptual guideline) these photographs stand upright, with only the floor as support.

Jessica Thalmann: two truths and a lie is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Curated by Anik Glaude

Driftwork: A Selection of Art by Akin Lakeshore Artists at the Cloverdale Common until March 29

We are pleased to announce that Driftwork, the Akin Lakeshore group exhibition at Cloverdale Common has been extended to March 29! We encourage you to stop by to check out the incredible work by our studio artists on display.

About the exhibition:
Stepping into an artist’s studio can be like walking along the shoreline. Always interesting, there is the sense of passing through a potential treasure trove of discarded or unfinished pieces, past efforts, current ideas and experiments. Occasionally one comes upon a brilliant, exceptional thing of beauty. Similarly, the development of an artistic practice takes place over a mysterious ebb and flow of vision and technical discoveries, something that can often only be understood over time. The work presented here reflects a selection of works by artists at Akin’s Lakeshore studio; works-in-progress, old pieces, and new explorations.

With the goal of building community relationships and highlighting the voices of artists living outside the downtown core, this group exhibition shares recent work from the artists working in our shared artist studios at 2970 Lakeshore Blvd West.

Exhibiting Artists:
Oksana Berda, Erin Candela, Suzette Castro, Katrina Elena, Jessica Hiemstra, Monika Mincewicz, Lauren Huffman Morris, Erin Panjer, Kerry Viggiani

Cloverdale Common Hours of Operation:
Thursdays: 11am - 6pm
Fridays: 11am - 5pm
Saturdays: 10am - 6pm
Sunday: 12pm - 5pm

Accessibility:
There are no steps to enter the building or throughout.
Entrance is automated. Bathrooms are gendered (male/female). There are grab bars in the bathroom, the toilets are not raised. Complimentary stroller, walker and wheelchair available upon request at the Guest Services desk.

About Cloverdale Common:
Cloverdale Common is the designated space within Cloverdale mall created to seek the community’s feedback regarding the proposed Cloverdale Mall redevelopment. It also serves as an arts and cultural hub, providing a range of programming through Arts Etobicoke and our community partners.

Akin at the Artist Project

Thanks to all who came and visited us at the Artist Project. We appreciate everyone that made it possible for us to participate as well as everyone who stopped by the Akin booth to check out the artworks as well as learn more about Akin!

It was also an incredible honor to participate in a discussion on how studios and smaller arts organizations can help create a more equitable and inclusive artistic community in Toronto. This year’s chat featured panelists: Catherine Tammaro, Michael Vickers, Oliver Pauk and Talitha Tolles. 

Exhibiting artists in the Akin booth:
Antonio Pendones
Dalia Hassan
David Fredrik Moussallem
Foot-to-Face
Janet Hinkle
Jill Smith
Kim Kermode
Laura Kay Keeling

Additional Akin artists and alum who participated in this years Artist Project:
Alison Postma
Alyssa King 
Brianne Burnell 
Eugenia Elder  
Felicia Cirstea  
June Kim  
Kendra Yee 
Kristy Blackwell  
Linds Miyo 
Michael John Vickers 
Nicole Krstin
Design by Nuff 
SignBros
Strike Design Studio
Tonya Hart 

Akin at the Artist Project

Akin at the Artist Project | February 20-23, Better Living Centre, Exhibition Place

Akin Projects invites you to join us at the 2020 edition of Artist Project Toronto. Akin is excited to join this year's Artist Project as the non profit partner. In our booth, visitors are invited to view new work by a handful of our current members, learn more about our services and the many ways we offer support for artists.

Show Hours:
OPENING NIGHT - Thursday, February 20, 7-11pm

Friday, February 21, 11am - 10pm

Saturday, February 22, 11am - 8pm

Sunday, February 23, 11am-6pm

This year, the Artist Project turns 13 with its most exciting show yet and we can't wait to be a part of it! From collectors and curators, to gallerists and designers, visitors can explore and discover works of art from over 300 top contemporary artists from Canada and abroad.

This year, visitors you can view and interact with new works by members of Akin's community in Akin's non profit partner booth. Artists will be on site throughout the show to discuss their work and answer your questions.

Exhibiting Artists:
Antonio Pendones
Dalia Hassan
David Fredrik Moussallem
Foot-to-Face
Janet Hinkle
Jill Smith
Kim Kermode
Laura Kay Keeling

Accessibility Information:
The Artist Project is committed to excellence in serving all customers including persons with disabilities.The Better Living Centre is an accessible venue. It has a step free access to the building and is level throughout. A limited number of assisted devices are available onsite at the information desk for those who need them. Service animals are allowed into all areas of the event that are open to the public. Artist Project is happy to offer a complimentary admission pass for the support person of a person with a disability.

Winter Art Crawl - DesignTO Stops

Sometimes it’s all sunshine and rainbows and other times Toronto slingshots from Fall-like weather to a mid-winter blizzard overnight. This tricky weather occasionally affects Akin’s programming like today’s scheduled Winter Art Crawl. That being said, if any art crawl had to be cancelled due to weather conditions this created the perfect opportunity for folks planning to attend today’s event to create their own DesignTO Festival crawl over the next week.

DesignTO Festival is Canada’s leading (and largest) annual design festival that celebrates design as a multidisciplinary form of creative thinking and making, with over 100 exhibitions and events forming Toronto’s design week, January 17-26, 2020. Since 2011, DesignTO has been bringing communities together to celebrate design, by taking art and design out of the studio and into the urban realm.

Akin’s 2020 Winter Art Crawl consisted of 5 stops in Toronto’s Queen Street West and Ossington area, but you don’t have to stop there! The DesignTO Festival spreads across the city featuring many exhibitions, pop ups, window installations and more. Visit the festival’s website for full details and locations of all of this year’s projects.

We recommend checking out the following stops that would have been featured during today’s art crawl along with a few other notable pop ups.

Image Source: DesignTO Festival. Can’t Say Nothing (Lorem Ipsum, Moving Patterns).

Can’t Say Nothing (Lorem Ipsum, Moving Patterns)

Where: Artscape Youngplace, 180 Shaw Street, Toronto

Project Type: Exhibition

Dates: January 17-31, 2020

Using Lorem Ipsum text and the Photoshop background, ‘Can’t Say Nothing’ by Janina Anderson, turns signifiers of blankness into overlapping patterns, which are printed, mounted and stitched together. ‘Can’t say Nothing’ is a mixed media installation drawing from textile art, collage, painting, graphic design and sculpture. ‘Can’t say Nothing’ investigates the way systems of language, symbols and design affect meaning, and wonders: if even the expression of absence is so heavily coded, is it possible to express oneself without external mediation, and to what extent is it possible to truly “say nothing” at all?

Dying.exhibits

Where: Artscape Youngplace, 180 Shaw Street, Toronto

Project Type: Exhibition

Dates: January 12 - February 1, 2020

Dying.exhibits’ is an exhibition series on end of life, inviting participants to think about their relationship with life and death as a process; encouraging heart-level conversations about difficult, often taboo topics. By holistically engaging with life, including death, ‘Dying.exhibits’ becomes a catalyst for unpacking the uncomfortable. The exhibition serves as an opportunity to engage with diverse perspectives and participate in open discussion about death and dying through engaging art and design works and participatory experiences.

During DesignTO there will be several events under the ‘Dying.’ series, featuring work by Akin MOCA artist Laura Kay Keeling and Akin Alum David Salazar, with an opportunity to visit exhibits across Toronto. ‘Dying.’ is a collaboration between the Health Design Studio at OCAD U and Taboo Health.

Daydream Under the Penny Vine

Where: gh3*, 55 Ossington Avenue, Toronto

Project Type: Window Installation

Dates: January 14 - February 2, 2020

Sylvia Lee, glass designer and Creative Director of Jeff Goodman Studio is launching her first lighting product at DesignTO 2020. Titled the ‘Penny Vine’, this piece is a luminescent wall installation inspired by the humble copper penny and a silver coin vine, a favorite succulent houseplant.

The wall mounted system comes in various size is available in multiple lengths or ‘strands’ of lights which are cantilevered on delicate copper vines. Each ‘leaf’ is an illuminated opal glass circle with subtle copper edging. For the DesignTO 2020 exhibition, Lee chose a colour palette of leaves in delicate greens and pinks.

“For my inspiration, I’m always fascinated by vernacular, obsolete objects. The Silver Coin Vine plant started a thought process about coins and specifically pennies, which are not used anymore. I envisioned this copper strand light with simple, coin shaped leaves.” says Lee of her design. The theme of obsolete objects continues from her work in past exhibitions which were inspired by simple paper file folders and an abacus.

She goes on, “I wanted this to be scalable for designers and architects to be able to layer and have vines project into their space. For this DesignTO installation, I chose a subtle palette, but we could layer infinite glass colours into any configuration.”

‘Daydream Under the Penny Vine’ also includes a translucent, hand carved Temple Glass bench lit from the inside, a cast glass architectural product produced by Jeff Goodman Studio. Passersby will come upon a small glowing bench under a magically lit strands of illuminated leaves. Lee says, “I want viewers to experience a moment of departure in their urban commute.”

Image Source: DesignTO Festival. (AI) - Aesthete’s Items.

(AI) - Aesthete’s Items

Where: gravity pope, 1010 Queen Street West, Toronto

Project Type: Window Installation

Dates: January 17-26, 2020

‘(AI) – Aesthete’s Items’ is founded on the philosophy that beauty must be expressed and shared commonly. It should not be reserved for a limited circle of initiates, but rather be a part of our daily lives in the form of everyday objects.

Yaw Tony’s artistic practice is deeply rooted in use of colour and its connection to humanity. His artistic oeuvre has shifted from narrative art, into experimental research on the value of colour and its impact on human behaviour. The value determines the worth and worth determines the significance of each colour.

Yaw Tony’s approach to aesthetics and beauty is an intriguing invitation to explore an eclectic, colourful, language. His work draws viewers into a resplendent world of visual journeys where artistry and character go hand-in-hand. The majority of his artwork is on 100% silk or natural fabrics, the aesthetic and design concepts are influenced by the sophisticated details of African adages, combined with elements from western culture. It is the “gameo” – “gem” – “marriage”, the fusion of two distinct elements into one. All the patterns, motifs and details are hand drawn, painted, and then transferred into colour to give them form — this is when the stories come to life. The scarf collection is the first stage in a larger series of applications for the Life Liveth brand, whose maximalist aesthetic is then applied to furniture, wallpaper, decorative items, textiles, art prints and installation and so much more.

Yaw Tony breaks all colour rules to define all colour rules. He strongly believes that all colours complement each other, one just has to know what they are doing. Take a look at nature, it consists of many colours at a given time and they all work beautifully.

Image source: Erin Candela. Installation view of Akin MOCA artist Emmie Tsumura’s work at CUTMR20.

Come Up to My Room

Where: Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto

Project Type: Exhibition

Dates: January 16-19, 2020

‘Come Up To My Room’ (CUTMR) is an annual 3-day alternative design exhibition created and produced by the Gladstone Hotel. Art and design intersect, with the historic hotel becoming a platform for site-specific installations. Visitors can explore, discover and engage in conversation with the artists. Different from our 37 permanent artist-designed hotel rooms, CUTMR presents temporary projects that occupy and alter spaces in dramatic, conceptual, or experimental ways.

Artists are selected based on their body of work, not on detailed proposals, and they are invited to challenge themselves and try new things in this unconventional setting.  This model allows for the evolution of ideas, risk-taking and an element of surprise. Participants use art and design to converse, connect, collaborate and construct delight in the unexpected.

Projects are presented by individuals, collectives, and multidisciplinary teams.

Image source: MUKË

Other notable 2020 DesignTO Festival projects include:

Design Collection @ stackt (IN RESIDENCE)

Where: stackt market, #1-112, 28 Bathurst Street, Toronto

Project Type: Exhibition

Dates: January 17-26, 2020

During the festival, local design duo MUKË (Akin co-director Michael Vickers and Akin co-founder Michael Dellios) will move the contents of its studio (furniture, plants, pets, maquettes, materials and more) into a shipping container at stackt — enveloping it as a site to showcase new and recent work, but also inviting visitors to engage directly with our process, the practices of our Toronto peers, and one another through live programming.

100 Vases

Where: The Shop, 1485 Dupont Street, Toronto

Project Type: Exhibition

Dates: January 24-25, 2020

‘100 Vases’ is inspired by the possibilities presented when objects come together, and the dialogue that happens between them. Spearheaded by ceramicist Michelle Organ, and artist and designer, Dasha Valakhanovitch, the two day event is a showcase of diversity in contemporary clay design, featuring work by Akin MOCA artist Erin Candela.

Future Retrospectives

Where: Harbourfront Centre, Artport Gallery, 235 Queens Quay West, Toronto

Project Type: Exhibition

Dates: January 17 - March 29, 2020

‘Future Retrospectives’ is a group exhibition featuring the work of eleven local and international artists and designers, including Akin Ossington artist Jessica Thalmann, unified by a shared methodology: using the past as a lens through which we imagine the future. It asks, “what will the future look like, and how did we get there?”

Light is Magnetic

Where: ergoCentric Showroom and Store, 37 King Street East

Project Type: Window Installation

Dates: January 17-26, 2020

Light is energy. It encompasses a spectrum of electromagnetic radiation much of which exists beyond our visible experience. This is the light that can not be seen manifest in radio waves, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray and gamma rays. “My art is inspired by the physics of light as I seek to find ways to portray energy. ‘Light is Magnetic’ is an exhibition that brings together my recent experiments in light sculpture. It will include sculptures that integrate light or reflective elements with other conceptual pieces that explore the connection between light and energy.” - Akin MOCA artist, Tonya Hart

The Sky is Falling

Where: Knife Fork Book, Mezzanine, Artscape Youngplace, 180 Shaw Street

Project Type: Exhibition

Dates: January 17-26, 2020

Visual artist, designer and poet Jessica Hiemstra of Akin Lakeshore creates an abstracted paper sky on the ceiling of Toronto’s only all-poetry bookstore, Knife Fork Book. Using watercolour paper, thread and washes of Genzäh Handmade Watercolours paint, Hiemstra’s sky is one that is torn and sewn back together. This sky has tangled stitching, punctures, long dangling threads, and fragments of poetry sewn into it. Independent bookstores and especially those that specialize in theatre, poetry, music and art are becoming rarer and rarer. Knife Fork Book is an ephemeral place. It continues to exist because its sky continues to be held together by delicate threads.

Come Up To My Room - Emmie Tsumura

There are only a couple of days left to check out Come Up To My Room at the Gladstone Hotel, featuring Akin MOCA member Emmie Tsumura!

The historic spaces of the Gladstone Hotel come alive with site-specific art and design installations! Walk into a universe of art and design at Come Up To My Room (CUTMR) 2020, the Gladstone Hotel’s annual 4-day alternative design exhibition running from January 16-19. Find out what happens when art and design intersect through site-specific installations, within the walls of a historic hotel. Visitors can explore, discover and engage in conversation with the artists on site throughout the festival. Different from our 37 permanent artist-designed hotel rooms (some of which will also be on display!), CUTMR presents temporary projects that occupy and alter spaces in dramatic, conceptual and experimental ways.

CUTMR is curated by artist, not project, giving artists the opportunity to take risks and explore their wildest dreams! Nobody (including the curators) will know what the exhibition will look like until it’s installed the day before!

Emmie Tsumura, an Akin MOCA member, is a multidisciplinary artist and graphic designer. She explores the boundaries of communication, and the intersections of diasporic memory, consumption & the human condition. 

Light is Magnetic - Tonya Hart

Light is Magnetic

Jan 17 – Jan 26 2020

“Light is energy. It encompasses a spectrum of electromagnetic radiation much of which exists beyond our visible experience. This is the light that can not be seen manifest in radio waves, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray and gamma rays. My art is inspired by the physics of light as I seek to find ways to portray energy. ‘Light is Magnetic’ is an exhibition that brings together my recent experiments in light sculpture. It will include sculptures that integrate light or reflective elements with other conceptual pieces that explore the connection between light and energy.” - Tonya Hart, Akin MOCA artist

Traverse waves of electric and magnetic fields are the dynamic forces that make up light. In this sculpture they are called loops or static light. The light that is incorporated into these works serves to illuminate energy and the dynamic pathways of electric and magnetic fields. Magnetic fields are, by their nature, invisible yet abound in our natural and artificial environment through the earth’s constant geomagnetic presence and barrage of technology, cell phones and personal devices that all emit magnetic fields. Recent advances in science have deepened our understanding of magnetism to embrace radical geometries and dynamism as the language of nature and technology.

Image source: DesignTO

‘Light is Magnetic’ exhibition will showcase works that animate magnetic fields and explore alternate geometries in a solid, static state. Sculptures in the exhibition will include variations of ‘Static Light’ that debut in the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2018.

This project is part of the King East Design District (KEDD). Several receptions, talks, and events will be happening for KEDD Night on Monday, January 20, 6-9pm.

Tonya Hart studied at York University in Toronto and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts, Visual Arts degree in 1998. Her artwork draws inspiration from nature, science and light with a focus on portraying magnetism. Nature and magnetism have manifest in a vast array of articulations in her artwork and continues to facilitate the conceptual nature of her work.

HOME – Group Exhibition

The Artists’ Network Gallery is starting the new year and warding off the post holiday blues with its HOME – Group Exhibition. Imagine walls of art emulating coziness, comfort and warm hues. Captured in the Danish word Hygge (to hug) to appreciate the small, calming pleasures of home.  The Gallery is exhibiting the work of Artists’ Network members or non-members, including Akin River member, Andrea Bailey, that cast a warm glow of quietness after the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

HOME Group Exhibition: January 15 to February 2, 2020.

Opening reception: Thursday, January 23, 2020, 6-9 pm.

Quiet Vignettes, Anahita Azrahimi Presented with DesginTO

“I feel like I am trying to gently nudge these fragments to come together - a reflection of my inner world at the moment.”

— Anahita Azrahimi on 'Quiet Vignettes'

quiet vignettes
Jan 17 – Jan 26 2020

A collaboration between a collage artist and a floral designer, ‘quiet vignettes’ combines both practices to create a subtle — almost evanescent — experience of a balance and poised marriage of two art forms. Both artists have responded to the other in a mirrored reaction to their work. The first, a series of understated folds and creases that evoke a sense of quiet energy. The second, a presentation of evocative foliage. Though different, the pieces mix and meld into a balanced and graceful dance. The result is an intimate spatial installation. One that nudges you to slow down and pay attention — and to reflect the unassuming authority of a unique and unexpected bond.

Anahita Azrahimi, an Akin Lansdowne alum, is a collage artist and cultural producer. In her role as the Executive & Creative Director of Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, Canada’s largest contemporary outdoor art fair since 1961, Azrahimi thrives in making joy of art and direct engagement with artists accessible to all public. Azrahimi is equally passionate about creating her own moments of art.

“The works that I have created for this show are subtle collages of folds and creases that evoke a quiet movement and energy. There is a simplicity and understated quality in these works that I find deeply gratifying and calming. Fine hand-sewn stitches have replaced my previous drawings. I feel like I am trying to gently nudge these fragments to come together - a reflection of my inner world at the moment.

I have invited Lauren Wilson of Timberlost Designs to mirror the works with evocative and poetic foliage vignettes. Lauren’s creations are soulful and deep. We will create a subtle — almost evanescent — experience of a balanced and poised marriage of our practices. With this intimate spatial installation, the vision is to create a moment that nudges you to slow down and pay attention — and to reflect the unassuming authority of a unique and unexpected bond.” - Anahita Azrahimi

Akin's Winter Art Crawl

Akin's Winter Art Crawl | January 18th, 1-4PM, Artscape Youngplace, 180 Shaw Street | PWYC (suggested $10 donation): http://tiny.cc/tnq1gz

Akin Projects invites you to join us for special tours conversations during the 2019 edition of DesignTO in the Queen West area - an Akin Art Crawl focused on local design in alternative spaces!

Come along as artists, curators and staff provide special walkthroughs and tours of their special festival exhibits and projects.

Crawl Schedule
1:00PM - Visit Artscape Youngplace for ‘Can’t Say Nothing (Lorem Ipsum, Moving Patterns)’

1:30PM - Visit Artscape Youngplace for 'Dying.exhibits'

2:00PM - Visit 55 Ossington Avenue for ‘Daydream Under the Penny Vine’

2:30PM - Visit 1010 Queen Street West for ‘(AI) – Aesthete’s Items’

3:15PM - Visit Black Artists’ Network in Dialogue (BAND) 19 Brock Avenue for ‘Akwaaba | Welcome Home.’

4:00PM - End the crawl at the Gladstone Hotel for ‘Come Up to My Room’

PWYC (suggested $10 donation), but please register at: link coming soon!

All are welcome, open to the public. The more the merrier!

Any attendees who wish to explore ‘Come Up to My Room’ at the Gladstone Hotel at the end of the crawl must purchase a special discounted ticket here http://tiny.cc/g09vgz. Please be advised that not all areas of the building are open to the public.

Please let us know of any other accessibility needs so that we can do our best to assist you. Please email janet@akincollective.com at least one week before the event and we will do our best to accommodate. Thank you!

Future Retrospectives featuring work by Jessica Thalmann

‘Future Retrospectives’ is a group exhibition featuring the work of eleven local and international artists and designers, unified by a shared methodology: using the past as a lens through which we imagine the future. It asks, “what will the future look like, and how did we get there?”

Creative acts are, by their nature, future-oriented. Creativity brings to fruition that which did not previously exist and, in doing so, builds the future. What is this future-world that we are building? What does it look like and how does it work? How do we prepare for it? ‘Future Retrospectives’ proposes that in order to have a meaningful understanding of relationships in the future and our role in them as creators of material culture, we have to look at how the past, present, and future are interconnected. By considering the past, we are able to holistically imagine the future.

The exhibition features the work of Graysha Audren, Mia Cinelli, Hannah Claus, Cassandra Ferguson, Tsēmā Igharas, Andreas Krätschmer, SHATTERED MOON ALLIANCE, Studio Björn Steinar, Adhavan Sundaramurthy, Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart, and Akin Ossington member, Jessica Thalmann.

This exhibition is curated by DesignTO, and co-presented with Harbourfront Centre. It is generously supported by Lemay. Thank you to our external jurors Farah Yusuf and Melanie Egan.

Participants
Graysha Audren, Mia Cinelli, Hannah Claus, Cassandra Ferguson, Tsēmā Igharas, Andreas Krätschmer, SHATTERED MOON ALLIANCE (Christina Battle and Serena Lee), Studio Björn Steinar, Adhavan Sundaramurthy, Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart, Jessica Thalmann

One Tender Night by Akin Lakeshore's Jessica Hiemstra!

One Tender Night

Thursday December 5th at Super Wonder Gallery

Poetry and visual art by Jessica Hiemstra with an electrifying performance by SPECIAL GUEST singer/songwriter, Nicky Lawrence.

FREE ADMISSION. CASH BAR.
Original art, books and music for sale.

All are welcome.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

JESSICA HIEMSTRA of Akin Lakeshore is an award winning multi-disciplinary artist whose work has appeared in galleries all over the world, among them Australia, Sierra Leone, Edmonton and Vancouver. She is also an accomplished showroom artist and set designer with experience creating everything from tidal waves using shims to giant iridescent octopuses. She likes using reclaimed house paint, discarded objects and single-use plastic. Since 1998 Jessica has published three full-length collections of poetry and edited numerous anthologies of poetry and creative non-fiction. Jessica likes what Paul Klee once said about art – that one eye sees, the other feels. Jessica works in a variety of mediums on many kinds of surfaces - from watercolour and thread on paper to acrylic on acetate to plastic bags sewn into canvas. One of the things people often ask Jessica is “what’s the difference between all the things you do?” Jessica doesn’t distinguish much between her mediums. She chooses the best medium for exploring whichever question, concern or exaltation is most pressing to her in the moment - from delight in the body to sorrow and anger at how poorly we care for our world and each other. Sometimes she uses words, sometimes pencils, sometimes paint. In 2019 she started tearing her paintings and stitching them back together. She is delighted to be presenting her most recent work for ONE TENDER NIGHT at the Super Wonder Gallery. To visit Jessica online: www.jessicahiemstra.ca

NICKY LAWRENCE is a moody, tender, tour de force of a performer and vocal artist. Moved to sing by the black women who sang before her and who continue to sing within her, Lawrence’s voice will grab you by the throat with the force of its pain, beauty, rage and ultimately—love. Brimming with the longing, courage and despair of her jazz and blues heroes—Nina, Etta, Ella—Lawrence’s original songs are devastatingly elegant and sensual, lit by the fires of the past alongside the aching light and hope of the future. Lawrence’s vocals are redemptive; with the release of her single, The Ugly Black Woman, Toronto audiences are invited to witness an excavation of truth and history that will cut the heart open and begin to heal us all. Follow Nicky online here: thenickylawrence

Furoshiki - Opens Saturday!

SAMARA Contemporary in collaboration with Kid Icarus, are pleased to announce Furoshiki, A group exhibition that will feature the works of 20 artists working with the theme: “Gifting”. Furoshiki wrap is an eco-friendly alternative to traditional wrapping paper.

Where: Samara Contemporary, 156 Augusta Avenue, Toronto

When: Saturday, November 30th, 12-6pm

Every holiday season more than 8 million tons of gift-wrap ends up in landfills. Disposable and chemically processed, this waste is destroying our environment. Furoshiki can be re-used, passed on from one gift receiver to the next.

Cloth wrapping has been used for over 1200 years in Japan. The word Furoshiki came about during the Edo period (1603-1868) when cloths were commonly used in bathhouses to wrap clothes or as bath matts. Today, Furoshiki can be used to wrap gifts, wine bottles, books, groceries, or just about anything!

This year and onward present your special gift enveloped in beautiful art created by some of Canada’s
top illustrators and artists! An environmentally ethical and unique option to gift giving!

Participating artists:
Daniela Roessler, Dave Setrakian, Fiona Smyth, Flips, Akin Ossington alum Jenn Kitagawa, Jill Holmberg, Jimmy Chaile, Akin Sunrise artist Jieun June Kim, Justin Broadbent, Akin Ossington alum Kendra Yee, Kirsten McCrea, Luke Parnell, Happy Sleepy, Marijke Bouchier, Mariko Paterson, Mike Ellis, Orbital Arts, Rachel Joanis, Santiago Paredes, Trio Magnus