Ning Ashoona (1979)
Kinngait, Nunavut
Computer Desk, 2022
Serpentine

Ning Ashoona never had a computer desk, so she was inspired to make one based on the desk located at the Kinngait Studios cooperative’s space. This intricate and complex sculpture is made of serpentine, antler, and wood, making up several pieces that represent a desk and chair, computer, mouse, monitor and pen. Ashoona’s carving skills are clear from the detail in each individual piece.

Courtesy of the artist and La Guilde, Montréal.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Rémi Belliveau (1989)
Memramcook, New Brunswick
Land of Evangeline Route, 1930, 2021
Silkscreen

Land of Evangeline Route, 1930 pokes fun at the aristocratic non-Acadian and Anglophone ruling class in the Maritimes and its fetishization of the character of Évangéline, after the poem by American writer Longfellow was popularized. In this piece, Rémi Belliveau modifies a postage stamp to represent the fictional land of “Evangelinia,” a take on the Grand-Pré National Historic Site, here portrayed as a capitalistic, Disneyland-esque dystopia.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Kablusiak (1993)
Mohkinstsis/Calgary, Alberta
akunnirun kuupak: Duck Lake Street, 2018
Digital photograph

In akunnirun kuupak, Kablusiak recreates their performative ghost series, which they made further to a visit back to the Inuvialuit Settlement Region after a long absence—their first time as an adult. From their perspective of an urban Inuvialuk living outside of Inuit Nunangat, Kablusiak’s ghost series serves as a tool to understand and process the binaries of North and South, invisible and hyper-visible.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Dayna Danger (1987)
Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal, Quebec
End of the World, 2018
Digital photograph

End of the World is part of an ongoing series where artist Dayna Danger takes portraits of their kin. Here, they capture courage and beauty together as Alex stands over the kisiskāciwani-sīpiy, or “swift flowing river” (North Saskatchewan River). Danger wanted to show tranquility, the contrast of the stunning natural beauty with the crumbling concrete beneath their subject’s feet, and the connection forged by the woman’s long rubber extensions that reach the ground.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Kelli Clifton (1988)
Prince Rupert, British Columbia
Gaksdanaa (Behold!), 2020
Acrylic and glitter on wood

Gaksdanaa is a word that closely translates to “behold!” and is a favourite among Sm’algyax language learners. It appears in stories when something dramatic is about to happen. Kelli Clifton’s painting captures the exciting and mysterious nature of Sm’algyax ‘adaawx’ (“true tellings”) and reflects the feelings of listeners whenever they see or hear this particular word.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Ruth Cuthand (1954)
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Surviving: Measles, 2022
Beads on suede backing, vinyl on glass

Surviving: Measles is a powerful juxtaposition of the traditional craft of beading and a simultaneously beautiful and abhorrent subject. Artist Ruth Cuthand’s use of beading is a way to centre the Aboriginal woman in her work. Cuthand has built her practice on anti-aesthetic principles, and here she uses a material that had long been denied status as a serious medium, creating a sophisticated piece that merges attractive and repellent elements.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Anthony Gebrehiwot (1989)
Scarborough, Ontario
The Power of a Hug, 2020
Digital photograph

The Power of a Hug is part of Anthony Gebrehiwot’s ongoing series, “From Boys to Men: The Road to Healing.” Gebrehiwot works to communicate intimacy and vulnerability through his photography and engages boldly with race, masculinity, history, and perception. His broader series is meant to expose the necessary labour of unpacking learned negative behaviour attached to childhood trauma.

Courtesy of the artist. Models: Isiah Baptiste and Kaylyn Rose.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Jonathan S. Green (1984)
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Preserving Old Geologies, 2018
Intaglio

Jonathan S. Green’s Preserving Old Geologies explores how human environments can both work with and against the reality of nature. By combining his own documentation of wilderness with found images of landscapes, construction sites, and even modernist, experimental or hippie architecture, Green shows how these intersections of humanity and nature become sites of contestation and conflict.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Maureen Gruben (1963)
Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories
Moving with joy across the ice while my face turns brown from the sun, 2019
Digital photograph

The sled is an essential and powerful item in the artist’s community. In this artwork, Inuvialuk artist Maureen Gruben borrows fourteen hand-built sleds from families in her home of Tuktoyaktuk. Each sled has an intimate connection to the family that created it and that uses it for hunting, fishing, and transportation. In arranging these sleds together, Gruben’s work makes a powerful statement on the importance of community—a vital element of life in the Arctic.

Courtesy of the artist and Cooper Cole, Toronto.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Brandon Hoax (1994)
Halifax, Nova Scotia
MOVEMARROW Full Suite, 2022
Digital photographs

MOVEMARROW is a project where artist Brandon Hoax created custom harnesses and presented them to other artists, performers, and contemporaries. The harnesses blend traditional ribbon regalia with sexual fetish gear. The gifting of these pieces to others was an invitation to respond in their own creative capacity through writing, photography, video, or performance. This project explores themes of movement, the body, sex, ceremony, fetish, and self-adornment.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Bushra Junaid (1964)
Toronto, Ontario
Sweet Childhood, 2017
Archival photograph and text

Bushra Junaid treats a 1903 stereoview photograph of children in a Caribbean sugarcane field as family portraiture. By superimposing period ads from the St. John’s Evening Telegram for sugar, molasses, and rum on the children’s clothing, Junaid references the little-known, centuries-long Newfoundland-Caribbean trade in commodities produced by and for enslaved Africans. In so doing, the artist reflects on the transnational reality of slavery and its afterlife and complicates our understanding of Black history and presence in Atlantic Canada.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Fariba Kalantari (1973)
Ottawa, Ontario
The unknown future, 2022
Acrylic on wood

The unknown future aims to spotlight our shared humanity and Canada’s history of immigration, which has shaped the country’s identity. Inspired by artist Fariba Kalantari’s lived experience as an immigrant with family in four countries on three continents, this work speaks to a sense of belonging and the fundamental right to a home.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Laïla Mestari (1992)
Montréal, Quebec
Monabamqueb, 2022
Digital photograph

Created from a URL work of the same name, Monabamqueb is a photomontage imbued with Laïla Mestari’s hybrid identity as a Maghrebi Quebecer. The photomontage is constructed like a vertical strip, expressing various Web-project elements (photography, GIFs, drawings, animations, performances, etc.). It offers the results of visual research on auto-ethnography, land inhabitation and changes in knowledge.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Azadeh Monzavi (1984)
St. Catharines, Ontario
Namesake, 2022
Woven second-hand fabric, fabric paint

Azadeh Monzavi’s work is informed by her lived experience as a woman of colour, former refugee and immigrant. She explores the concepts of immigration, belonging and identity in a transnational context. Her art references her cultural background and foregrounds her research-based practice. From right to left, the artwork spells her first name, Azadeh, in Persian. The lines that run through the shapes signify her journey, reworked from completely thrifted materials.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Zinnia Naqvi (1991)
Toronto, Ontario
The Wanderers - Niagara Falls, 1988, 2019
Digital inkjet print

The Wanderers is part of the series, “Yours to Discover,” which presents found photographs of Zinnia Naqvi’s family visiting popular tourist destinations in Ontario. The series examines the way these locations are staged to educate the public on Canadian ideals and values. Naqvi includes artifacts from her childhood, research materials, family photos and board games in the larger frame. In doing so Naqvi questions what visitors are meant to learn from these sites, and who decides what is deemed worthy of representing national values.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Zinnia Naqvi

Krystle Silverfox (1984)
Whitehorse, Yukon
tth’í’ yáw nan (thread beads land), 2018
Digital collage

With tth’í’ yáw nan (thread beads land), Krystle Silverfox examines the relationship between documenting landscapes and knowledge through visual arts practices. The series is inspired by First Nations beading practices—which record images and knowledge of landscapes—and the tradition of landscape photography. The images use broken threads and beads to stand in for people, specifically missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The broken threads also reference cultural loss and disconnection, such as that from residential schools and the Sixties Scoop.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Nelson White (1966)
St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
Grandfather, 2022
Oil on canvas

Nelson White’s practice documents the changing cultural landscape of Indigenous people in the 21st century. According to the artist, there is no real history of Indigenous portraiture, apart from settler representations of “noble savages.” In his work, White strives to display Indigenous people in positions of beauty and power. Grandfather is about the responsibility these elders carry to teach children about cultural knowledge, spiritual awareness, and kinship.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Jane Meredith Whitten (1952)
Summerside, Prince Edward Island
Consumed, 2021-2022
Vessels woven using discarded plastic

Jane Meredith Whitten maintains that, in this Anthropocene era, the plastics industry has “stitched up” people. Throughout 2021, Whitten collected and kept record of discarded wrappings in her household each month. Traditionally, basket makers use the materials found around them. And so Whitten coiled the wrappings into vessels in the order they were disposed of. This created a bar graph of her plastic usage, which was greatly impacted by the curbside and online shopping she did during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Jessica Winters (1996)
Makkovik, Newfoundland and Labrador
Hair Braiding Booth, 2022
Acrylic on paper

Through her art, Jessica Winters shares her memories and experiences as vividly as she remembers them—breathing, feeling, and absorbing her life as an Inuk in Nunatsiavut. With Hair Braiding Booth, rather than set the scene for the painting, she wanted it to come from something that happened naturally—spontaneously braiding people’s hair at a public event. Winters believes that her intense curiosity and attention to detail led her to painting. The practice allows her to depict such realism, vivid colours and sharp contrasts. Winters’ work is a deeply profound response to her culture, her family and the land that nurtures them all.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Chun Hua Catherine Dong (1975)
Montréal, Quebec
Skin Deep, 2014-2020
Digital photograph

Skin Deep is a photography series with augmented reality that explores the surface of a face in relation to Chinese shame culture. Chun Hua Catherine Dong translates shame into a cultural symbol and creates a series of ID card photographs in which they conceal their face in Chinese traditional fabrics. This work demonstrates how shame can cause women to hold back and remain silent. Skin Deep transforms a personal experience into something universally relatable.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Deanna Bowen (1969)
Montréal, Quebec
Donna (Afterimage), 2020
Plexiglass in wooden frame

Donna (Afterimage) is a work that explores familial history and relationships; specifically, Deanna Bowen’s family relationship to Donna Risby—the lost daughter and sister—and her memory. The black plexiglass used in the artwork presents a hard, smooth, opaque surface that protects Donna while simultaneously seducing viewers through its gloss and mirroring. Donna (Afterimage) works to honour and protect the life and memories of a violently undervalued Afro-Indigenous woman.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Calvin Morberg (1983), Brian Walker (1946)
Whitehorse, Yukon
Daughter of the Creeks, 2022
Copper

Calvin Morberg and Brian Walker’s Daughter of the Creeks tells the story of a young woman who protects salmon in the small creeks and streams where the fish are born. Her father took over the spirit of a large sea monster called Gonakadet, which means “Bringer of Wealth.” This wealth is portrayed by the image of Gonakadet holding a copper shield, Tináa, that represents a salmon egg. Copper is said to reflect the colour of salmon flesh, which is true wealth that nourishes the community.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Annie Briard (1984)
Vancouver, British Columbia
In Possible Lands I, 2020
Digital photograph

The “In Possible Lands” series began when Annie Briard was gifted her father Michel Briard’s 50-year-old photographs, taken during cross-country geological excursions. Annie Briard retraced his journey, looking for evidence of climate change. Reshooting his photographs from the same vantage points, she also explored nearby lands. In the studio, she overlapped the archival slides and her new images in layers. Each resulting photograph compresses the time gap between the source material and the new images while showing the impact humans have had on the land. Though fantastical, the images present perspectives that are not far off from current scientific predictions.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Jim Logan (1955)
Ottawa, Ontario
The One the Elders Kept From the School, 2018
Acrylic on canvas

Jim Logan’s practice explores the northern Canadian Indigenous experience. Not so long ago it was against the law to keep Indigenous children from attending a residential school. In order to keep the language and spiritual beliefs of their community alive, Elders would select and hide a special child from the Church and government authorities and immerse that child in their language, stories, songs and spiritual beliefs. The child would become a knowledge-keeper and those who returned from the school and were searching could go to that person to be reacquainted with their culture.

Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services