Chris Gardiner’s Three Favourite Things about being a member at Akin Niagara!

We took some time to chat with Akin Member Chris Gardiner about our newest West-End location, Akin Niagara. Continue reading below to find out Chris’ three fabourite things about being a member:

1. The enormous potential the outdoor space has. There seems to be room outside for almost anything: outdoor sculpture, plaster casting, working on a large canvas, using smelly solvents, cooking encaustic, spraying, pouring, etc. Safe outdoor use for Acrylic Paint: 1.7 degrees to 37.8 degrees Celsius!

Image Description: Outdoor patio with table and umbrella in the center, bbq in the back left and benches and window to the right.

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2. The nearby area. It’s vibrant. There’s always a lot of energy, and things to see. I am also close to art supplies stores, hardware, groceries, etc. 

 

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3. Torin the Studio Manager. He's very friendly, and good at bringing us together as a community of artists. He's one of those magnetic personalities that you like to be around. I'm also a big fan of musicians that go through art schools. 

Image Description: Image of the facade of the building that Akin Niagara resides in. It is a 5-storey building red brick on the right side and covered in white concrete on the left side. The photos os taken in spring so there are many green trees. a teal blue graphic border surrounds the photo with graphic pops if pink. The Akin logo live atop the image and the words “Akin Niagara!” sit below.

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Chris’s studio at Akin Niagara

Image Description: Chris’s studio at Akin Niagara features a grey chair positioned against the left wall, beneath a thin shelf. The walls to the left and back are adorned with several paintings. 

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Chris Gardiner’s two-dimensional work combines elements of Geometric Abstraction, Neo-Dada, and Art Informel. Whether he focuses on a process of drawing that emphasizes spontaneous/gestural qualities of the artistic process; collage that creates unexpected juxtapositions, a sense of irony, or a disruption of the viewers' expectations; or in painting where precise shapes and forms are arranged in deliberate and structured ways. Gardiner’s work challenges viewers to question their assumptions about the nature of art, and invites them to engage with the work in unexpected and thought-provoking ways. In metaphorical terms it’s Free Jazz meets Professional Wrestling.

See more of Chris’s work at www.chrisgardinerart.net and @gardinerartdotnet

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Chris’s paintings in his studio at Akin Niagara

Image Description: Several paintings hanging in Chris’s studio made of black, white or red lines.

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Chris Gardiner, Bars and Toner 2023, Oil on Canvas, 32"x42"

Image Description: Painting with multiple vertical black and white bars, one small red horizontal bar in the lower right hand corner and several red strokes in the top left hand corner.

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Akin Niagara is located at 289 Niagara Street just south of Queen Street West and in close proximity to Trinity Bellwoods Park. Akin Niagara features rooms with large windows which get ambient daylight and an outdoor patio space exclusively for Akin Niagara members’ use.

All memberships include taxes, 24/7 access, wifi, utilities, insurance, shared storage facilities, restroom and kitchen access, communal workspaces, common area cleaning, connection to a community of artists and more!

• Shared Memberships: $78/month
  • Access to shared working areas and storage
  

•  Dedicated Memberships (your own studio):
  • Private and semi-private options
  • Sizes range from 40 sqft at $252 per month to 117 sqft for $551 per month. 

Visit www.akin.art for more info.
Link in Bio to view all currently available studios.

Contact us at info@akincollective.com to book a studio tour!

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Akin Launch New Exhibition and Community Programming Space ‘REMOTE’ and New Studio Location, Akin Richmond

REMOTE and Akin Richmond
Gallery, Programming Space and Art Studios
568 Richmond Street West
www.remote.gallery
 

Launching Friday, March 29th, REMOTE is Akin’s new dedicated exhibition and programming space at 568 Richmond Street West. REMOTE will provide opportunities for artists and members of the public to rent low-cost space for exhibitions and programming of all kinds. This multi-use space will be available for workshops, presentations, meetings, and community events as well as exhibitions, performances and other artistic programs.

To inquire about REMOTE space rentals, please email sara@akincollective.com to discuss availability and pricing. Please include a brief description of your exhibition or idea, the dates you are looking at, and any other pertinent information in your inquiry. We aim to make our space rentals as financially accessible as possible and look forward to hearing your ideas! Akin will be prioritizing Toronto’s newcomer artists, the Toronto Arts Council’s Equity Priority Groups and Akin’s current members for rentals of the space, but everyone is welcome to inquire!
 

Gallery Launch & 'Movement' Exhibition Opening Party Next Friday!
Friday, March 29th, 6-9pm. 
Cash bar.
Join the event on Facebook 
Follow REMOTE on Instagram

Join us as for the public launch of REMOTE as we celebrate the opening of our inaugural exhibition, “Movement” featuring new and recent works by Akin artists Clara Hirsch, David Salazar, Helen Dreifelds, Jamileh Salek, Julianne Ess, Nicole Krstin and Zach Tuinman.

A huge thank you to the Toronto Arts Council for their collaboration on this space, without whom this would not have been possible. Special thanks also to our friends and collaborators Neighbourhood Arts Network and Toronto Employment and Social Services’ Art Connectionsprogram.

Programming Space Features:
Total Square Footage: ~300 sqft.
Gallery quality fluorescent lighting
Polished concrete floors
Fully accessible entrance and bathroom
Additional promotion on our website and across Akin’s social media channels
Occupancy: 42 people
Please note that artists are responsible for providing gallery attendants for their exhibitions, and planning any associated events and receptions.

Akin Richmond

In addition to programming space, Akin is also launching Akin Richmond artist studios next door, which will be available to rent on a month-to-month basis, specifically prioritizing Toronto’s newcomer artists, the Toronto Arts Council’s Equity Priority Groups and Akin’s current members. To be added to the waiting list for studio rentals at 568 Richmond Street West or inquire about any of Akin’s studio locations please contact info@akincollective.com

Akin Richmond Art Studio Features:
Studios Ranging in size for 25sf to 60sf
Shared memberships available for $70/month
Fully accessible entrance and bathroom
Separate entrance from main REMOTE programming space

Accessibility:
Akin Richmond and REMOTE are fully accessible spaces. There are no steps to access the space, automated entrances, and both have gender-neutral washrooms with grab bars.

Support Our Friends at Walnut Studios →

In the early morning of May 19, 2018, Walnut studios, nestled between Niagara street and Walnut Ave in Toronto experienced a devastating fire. The devastating fire in the north end of the studio, affected 22 artists who lost not only their artwork but also all of their art supplies. 

Founded in 2008, Walnut Studios is a community of 45 artists in a large warehouse studio in Toronto's King West Village. It is home to Painters, Sculptors, Fashion Designers, Jewellery Makers, Photographers, and Installation Artists.

As the friends, family and community of those artists affected by the Walnut studio fire, let's give back to our creative community during their time of great loss. All funds raised through the GoFundMe campaign will be distributed so that the artists can purchase new equipment and art supplies to get making again. This money will also go towards helping these artists relocate temporarily while the major repairs are being completed on their Walnut studio spaces.

Akin King: Akin relocates group of 100 artists to new downtown studios at King and Spadina.

Facing evictions from four studios across two locations, Akin relocates group of 100 artists to new downtown studios at King and Spadina.

After nine years at 444 Dufferin Street and six years on the first floor of 87 Wade Avenue, Akin artists will relocate their studios to our new location at 511, 525 and 527 King Street West, thanks to a unique collaboration with Allied Properties REIT who are leasing us space as the site awaits development. Thanks to our friends at Small who have facilitated this arrangement, we are able to keep our artistic community intact, and simply shift it into a new space. For more information on Allied’s site development plans, please see here.

How can Akin move to King & Spadina?
By working together. As Toronto rents become impossibly high and artists look to Hamilton and beyond, Akin continues to find new space and maintain studio affordability by negotiating short to medium-term rentals in properties that are actively in transition, as is the case with the new Akin King location.

As artists we recognize that we may only have the same space for years (or even months) rather than decades, but, by relocating in this way, Akin can keep entire artist communities intact along with the friendships and collaborations that make them so important. Instead of facing eviction alone, artists can shift with us as a unit- maintaining a practice in an affordable space as part of an active, vibrant and supportive artistic community in downtown Toronto. Property owners and developers, in this case Allied Properties REIT, are able to lease properties that would otherwise sit empty and unused during the period before demolition and development begin, enabling Akin to create social and economic value from buildings that would otherwise remain vacant. In other cities, notably in London and across the UK, ‘meanwhile’ leasing of dormant space like this has effectively supported artists for years. Similarly to this new location, at our other recently opened studios, Akin St Clair (a local meat shop that sat empty pending development) and Akin River(underused storage and office space that will become a 38 storey tower) we provide studio space for nearly 50 artists in the interim. 

As the Toronto Star ’s Murray Whyte puts it, “in a place that has embraced the popular notion of “creative city” economics espoused by Richard Florida...skyrocketing commercial rents have had an unintended irony, having all but purged such workers from the core.” Akin is offering a solution to this challenge by rethinking how unused and underused properties can become usable studio space for artists- finding useful life for buildings that have been abandoned by commerce during years of development planning, construction design and securing of permits.

Akin strives to ensure that there is always studio space for artists and creatives of all kinds and at all levels across our city while engaging, connecting and educating communities through art. As with all of our  locations, Akin’s month-to month rentals include 24/7 access to the studios, taxes, insurance, utilities, wifi, access to communal working areas as well as storage, kitchen, and bathroom. 'Akin King' is  easily accessible by subway, streetcar, bus, bike, or car.

Akin artists Rebekah Andrade and Verity Griscti help load their studio supplies into Akin's moving trucks!

The first of multiple trips, moving artists from Akin Dufferin to the new Akin King location.

The first of multiple trips, moving artists from Akin Dufferin to the new Akin King location.

Artists packing up Akin Dufferin to move to their new studio spaces.

For more information about any of our locations, book a tour or to share ideas, please get in touch:

CONTACT:
jen@akincollective.com

Please share widely!