Akin Vitrine + Mel Hayes

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

Sail Away explores the boundaries of time and the role memories play in shaping your current reality. Inspired by expression “ One eye on the past, one eye on the future”. The piece is composed of multiple layers strategically placed in front of each other to create a larger composition.

Mel Hayes is a multi-disciplinary creative, who pushes the boundaries between visual arts and graphic design. Originally trained as a graphic designer and BDes graduate from the Alberta University of the Arts. Her studies informed her approach to abstract painting, relying on shapes and composition to elevate her ideas.

Sail Away
Mixed media
Dimensions Variable
2020

To contact the artist:
Instagram: @melhayes.art

#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.

Mel’s work will be on view for the month of July 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 August. 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.

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.

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.

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

Must See Nuit Blanche Events

IN VIEW - East End Arts - Future Danforth

Walter Segers and Lilliput Gallery (Make Love Not War Installation at August Kinn, 1374 Danforth Avenue)

ARTIST: Walter Segers
THEME: Future Danforth
PROJECT: MAKE LOVE NOT WAR

Together with Lilliput Gallery, Walter presents a movable doll house consisting of still 2D images and 3D altered toys titled MAKE LOVE NOT WAR. Each room in the house will tell a unique story that reminds us to make ‘love’ instead of ‘war’. The future of the Danforth is bright, with a vision of love instead of war, he develops a cohesion for the neighbourhood community.



Learn more here.

The Artists Protest Resistance
Artist: Artists Protest Projects
Medium: Projection
Project Type: Independent Projects
Neighbourhood: West Queen West
Projecting images, GIFs and videos onto public surfaces, contemporary artists will express themes of protest and resistance.

Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. W. Exterior, north wall

“The Artists Protest Resistance” will ask audiences to consider how the province of Ontario and the city of Toronto are under siege from major political forces. Many artists are concerned about the erosion of hard-won, democratic, community standards here. Global political currents are trending towards the decimation of human values, too. If the time for action is at hand, how are artists to respond? A vital mode of expression for artists in voicing their concerns is their artwork. Venues for political forms of expression must extend beyond studio walls and art-gallery spaces. Thus the collective Artists Protest Projects was born. Participating artists range from well-established to emerging. "The Artists Protest Resistance" will also be presented at a second location: Samara Contemporary at 156 Augusta Ave. in Kensington Market.

Learn more here.

Both of these exciting Nuit Blanche installations feature the work of Akin MOCA alum and current Akin River artist Walter Segers. Walter Segers is a visual artist who emigrated from Belgium in 1993 and currently lives and works in Toronto. He graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design University in 2008. He finished his year long residency at Museum Of Contemporary Art Toronto (MOCA) on September 30, 2019 where he worked on various photo-based projects.

Charmaine Lurch: Compounding Vision

Compounding Vision by Charmaine Lurch at RiverBrink Art Museum

September 12, 2019 – February 1, 2020

Join us Thursday September 12th from 5 – 7 p.m. to celebrate the opening of Compounding Vision by Akin Sunrise artist Charmaine Lurch curated by Debra Antoncic.

Toronto-based artist Charmaine Lurch interrogates complex histories of humans and the environment. This exhibition presents the artist’s recent work exploring borders and boundaries, in painting, photography, sculpture and installation.

The exhibition runs from September 12th, 2019 – February 1, 2020 at RiverBrink Art Museum (116 Queenston Street, Queenston).

Charmaine Lurch is a sculptor, painter and installation artist who creates work that imagines inside and outside of history, involves quiet moments of joy, and draws our attention to human-environmental relationalities. an inherent sense of movement resides in the pieces. Lurch maps belonging and representation in space and place, outside of normative racial scripts. Her work has been exhibited at The Art Gallery of Ontario, Durham Art Gallery, the Montreal museum of art, Royal Ontario Museum , Station Gallery, Toronto Centre for the Arts, The Gladstone, Nuit Blanche, the National Gallery of Jamaica, and more.

Help Animate Storefronts for Nuit Blanche - Call for Proposals

Nuit Blanche - East Danforth is just around the corner, and East End Arts is still accepting submissions for this unique artist opportunity: IN VIEW: East Danforth Storefront Installations.

IN VIEW pairs local business owners with artists from across the city to transform their storefront windows for the evening of Nuit Blanche (October 5, 2019) under the theme of Future Danforth. Thematically, Future Danforth invites artists to (re)interpret what the future of East Danforth looks like and means to them and the broader community.

Think you've got a fun idea that could fit? Apply today before the deadline! Each artist will receive a $500 Artist Honorarium, inclusive of HST.

Application Deadline: Wednesday July 31, 2019 by 11:59 pm, EST

The Life of a Dead Tree by Mark Dion - Coming Soon!

Opening May 24th on MOCA’s 3rd floor, The Life of a Dead Tree by Mark Dion brings a massive, fully grown, deceased tree, along with its inhabitants, to MOCA for the museum’s first summer exhibition in the Tower Automotive Building. This specially conceived project marks the 100th anniversary of the Tower Automotive building and brings attention to our role in observing and caring for Toronto’s natural ecosystems.

Appropriately sourced from a cemetery, a site that continues to play a role in sustaining Toronto’s urban forest, the dead tree will be the central host for a “live” and sensory experience. With the support of the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Toronto and other partners, visitors can observe and participate in a kind-of autopsy of the tree that will unfold over the course of a two-month exhibition period. This shared investigation will remove, preserve and document all the various life forms the tree continues to support. Most importantly, the project will act as a site for conversations around specific pernicious, invasive insects threatening North American forests, such as the Emerald Ash Borer and Elm Bark Beetle.

The Lift of a Dead Tree by Mark Dion

Location: MOCA, 3rd Floor, 158 Sterling Rd, Toronto, ON

Date: May 24–July 29, 2019

Trees and forests have long populated Dion’s imagination and a particular body of production. He is well-known for artworks that question how we experience, study, display and think about the natural world. Through this particular project, a range of partners will be called upon to help expand the conversation and research being undertaken at MOCA. Dion states: “to build a culture of nature that features regeneration over destruction, sustainability over depletion and nurturing over domination, it requires input from a diverse collation of thinkers, makers, and doers. Art is one of many areas which can be important to this constellation.”

MOCA will offer a variety of public programs that will run in parallel with the exhibition. A series of talks and walks will discuss the myriad of lifeforms supported by dead trees, including Dead Trees for: Birds; Insects; Fungi etc.. There will also be opportunities for visitors to participate in the autopsy of the tree, as well as undertake drawing classes that examine the organisms sourced from the tree, along with focusing on the intricate textures of the tree itself.

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.

Xpace Cultural Centre Summer Exhibitions feat. Samar Hejazi →

Samar Hejazi of Akin King (soon to be Akin x MOCA) will be exhibiting her recent audio visual piece Mawtini in Xpace Cultural Centre's Project Space from June 29 to July 28th 2018, opening reception on June 29th from 7-10PM.

Mawtini is an audio visual installation that simulates the internal experience of the Arab diaspora in the west through the appropriation of the english language. The installation is a combination of typographical artworks spanning across textile, soundscapes and video of the anthem Mawtini (homeland), an Arabic song by Palestinian poet Ibrahim Touqan. Hejazi’s piece allows the viewer to reflect on how ancestry and present environment merge to inform elements of a new and continually shifting (cultural) identity.

Through meditations on traditional practices and present environments, Hejazi's work merges eastern and western styles to express how the crossing of cultures can form new identities. Her choice in medium follows the conceptual needs of the piece which is primarily embroidery, but also includes works on paper and new media.

Akin Members at Field Trip Music and Arts Fesitval →

Field Trip brings some of the world’s best music right to the heart of Toronto, but the festival is also about much more than that. Food, art, comedy, family, fashion and a spirit of discovery count among the many inspirations, and each year’s Field Trip is dedicated to collaborative explorations of those themes. At this year's festival you can find Akin Ossington members Leora Israel's and Jenn Kitagawa's work is on display in the Field Trip Marketplace and in one of the Art and Design areas.

Leora Israel is a Toronto potter with a focus on functional wares with a modern twist. You can shop her line of beautiful ceramics, The Otter Potter, in the Field Trip Marketplace this weekend. The Field Trip Marketplace is an annual hub where fans can browse unique wares from some of Toronto’s most talented crafters and designers.

Jenn Kitagawa is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist and designer based in Toronto, Canada. Her vision is to experiment with different mediums, techniques and materials to create a diverse body of work generating excitement in the viewer. You can find her gigantic bean bag installation just south of the Fort York stage.

Introducing our Akin Vitrine Gallery artists for the month of April - Sarvenaz Rayati and Jill Smith

** Please note that both exhibitions run for the entire month of April. **

Akin Dupont Current Exhibition:

'mother / rhythm' by Jill Smith - April 2018 / May 2018

Introducing our April / May 2018 artist, Jill Smith. Jill is an Akin Dupont member, and her new work 'mother / rhythm' is on exhibition in the Akin Vitrine Galleries for the months of April and June. 
 
Transforming space into narrative, 'mother / rhythm' presents a series of bodily sculptures that come together to explore complex power-based relationships. This installation emphasizes materiality, scale, and gesture as elements that have the ability to relate to human forms and body movement. Primarily using clay and concrete, mother / rhythm demonstrates a compassionate, yet commanding relationship between ambiguous material bodies.
 
Jill Smith is an interdisciplinary artist based in Toronto, Ontario (b.1995) and recently completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honors Specialization in Studio Art) At Western University. Her most recent work explores the fragility and absurdity of the body and mind, as well as the connective possibilities of materiality. Smith has exhibited work in galleries across Ontario, such as the Artlab Gallery, Forest City Gallery, The Arts Project, Open Studio, and Earl Selkirk Gallery at ARTiculations, as well as Friends and Neighbours Gallery in Montreal, Quebec. She has recently participated in artist residency programs at Sparkbox Studio in Picton, ON (May 2017) and at AGA LAB in Amsterdam, NL (September 2017). Currently, she is a member of the AGO Youth Council, and has upcoming residencies with Graven Feather and Artscape Gibraltar.

'mother / rhythm'
mixed media
2018
dimensions available

'mother / rhythm' 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 April at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.
 
To contact the artist:
www.jillpaulinesmith.ca
Instagram: @very.petite
#Akinvitrine

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

---

Akin St Clair Current Exhibition:

'The Embrace' by Sarvenaz Rayati - April 2018

Introducing our April 2018 Akin St Clair Vitrine Gallery artist, Sarvenaz Rayati. Sarvenaz is a multidisciplinary artist and an Akin Lansdowne studio member, . Her new installation 'The Embrace' will be on exhibition at the Akin St Clair Vitrine Gallery. Her work discusses ones love or longing for nature, particular mountains and trees.

'The Embrace'
mixed media
2018
dimensions available
 
The Embrace will be on view for the month of April in our Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.
 
To contact the artist:
www.sarvenaz-rayati.com
Instagram: @sarvenaz_ray
#Akinvitrine

Kwentong Bayan Collective of Akin Lansdowne present Balikbayan at the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre‎

Kwentong Bayan Collective of Akin Lansdowne presents Balikbayan at the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre‎ (WAHC) from January 24 - April 21, 2018. The exhibition Balikbayan features a visual timeline of the 150+ year history of caregiving in Canada by racialized women, and Balikbayan boxes that contain migration and labour stories. Opens to the public on January 24th, 2017. Join us for the opening reception on Friday, February 9th, 7 – 9 pm; artists will be in attendance. 

Learn more about the work of Kwentong Bayan with a slide talk and exhibition walkthrough conducted by Althea and Jo on Saturday February 10. Click here for more information. 

About the Exhibition:
In the Filipino language, “balik” means “to return” and “bayan” can mean “country, place, home, or town”.

Since the 70’s, the labour export policy of the Philippine government has forced Overseas Filipino Workers to work abroad to provide for their families. An average of 6,000 workers leave the Philippines each day. One way they maintain a connection with their loved ones is to send home balikbayan boxes home packed with items that symbolize their labour and care.

BALIKBAYAN will transform WAHC into a gathering place to listen to migrant worker stories. In a series of gatherings, workers from Hamilton and Toronto will participate in a healing soup circle, create storytelling wearables, and plant native seeds. At each gathering, folks can create their own pasalubong (gifts) to take home and share with others.

This exhibition will be accompanied by an exhibition essay by Zenee Maceda, Labour Activist and National Representative of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada.

The Workers Arts and Heritage Centre will also offer additional programming alongside BALIKBAYAN over the winter season, including two PA Day camps, a comic jam for ages 12 and up and much more. Click here for more information.

About the Kwentong Bayan Collective:
Kwentong Bayan is a collective of two Toronto-based artists, Althea Balmes of Akin Lansdowne and Jo SiMalaya Alcampo. Their artistic mandate is to explore a critical and intersectional approach to community-based art, labour, and education.

Althea Balmes is an artist-educator rooted in community work. She uses her strong connection to her culture and her place as a diasporic Canadian woman of colour to inspire her work and as a way to connect to others. Althea is pursuing a Master of Information degree in User Experience Design at the University of Toronto.

Jo SiMalaya Alcampo is an interdisciplinary artist whose art practice includes community storytelling, interactive installations, and electroacoustic soundscapes. Jo volunteers with Caregiver Connections, Education and Support Organization (CCESO) – an organization that support migrant caregivers and is a member of the Kapwa Collective – a mutual support group of Filipinx Canadian artists, critical thinkers, and healers bridging narratives between the Indigenous and the Diasporic.

About the Workers Art and Heritage Centre:
Founded in 1991, the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre is a national museum dedicated to celebrating the historic and contemporary cultural contributions of Canada's working people through both the arts and a wide range of interpretive exhibitions. wahc-museum.ca

'Buckshot Deli and Diner' by Katie Sadie this month in the Akin Vitrine Gallery

Akin Vitrine Gallery is excited to present November’s exhibition, “Buckshot Deli and Diner’ by Akin St. Clair member, Katie Sadie! 

“The Buckshot Deli and Diner is set in the Sonoran desert, in the town of Niland, California, just about 4.5 miles from Slab City. Slab City is a place where people learn to live off the grid and choose to be left alone. There is no official electricity there and many of the residents use generators or solar panels. Peter, sits quietly reading the paper, and the couple nearest to the television do not acknowledge its existence above. The Buckshot Deli and Diner’s atmosphere felt like a by product of the vast desert surroundings and the way that nearby residents choose to live.”

Katie Sadie is a graduate of the Applied Photography program at Sheridan College. She was recently announced as a winner of the Flash Forward Emerging Photographers Competition presented by The Magenta Foundation, 2017. Katie’s current personal practice has involved using primarily colour negative film. Her work is inspired by the great photographers of the past and the  people she surrounds herself with in the present. Katie aims to question ideals and start conversations by covering a wide variety of topics through documentary photography. 

'Buckshot Deli and Diner' 
Shot using a Pentax 6x7, 120mm film
Niland, California, 2016.

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: gbstudiotoronto@gmail.com

www.katiesadie.com
Instagram: @katiesadiephoto
#AkinVitrine

Amanda Wand and the Akin Vitrine Gallery

The Akin Vitrine Gallery is excited to present new work by Dufferin studio artist, Amanda Wand! This work will be on view for the month of October.

Amanda Wand’s new work, Emotional Acceptance, is a true representation of allowing and accepting all emotions. No emotions are good nor bad, they just are. She wants to provide a space for people to feel reassured that everyone is battling their emotions in different ways and that is what creates a beautiful social human experience. She uses the gallery space to bring together people who are mindful of social justice, and who can benefit from artwork that provides healing, inspiration, and empowerment. This show is about honestly accepting how you feel and taking the time to appreciate your feelings and how they shape you as a human being.

Mando, also known as Amanda Wand, is a Toronto based abstract artist. She allows herself to be guided by what she’s feeling, creating pieces that are imbued with emotion. The process of each piece is of utmost importance to Mando, as she wants the artwork to represent the wide range of human emotions we all possess. She finds inspiration in communicating the difficulties of processing social inequality in the world. 

Using her artwork as a reminder for everyone that it is imperative that we pause, reflect, and allow ourselves to express our emotions in order to move forward. Her artwork is the most honest representation of herself and she hopes to inspire moments of introspection in others as she finds the process of creation as a form of survival.

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: mando@mandoandtheworld.com

website: www.mandoandtheworld.com
instagram: @mandoandtheworld
#AkinVitrine

People and Trees: an art installation with Sarvenaz Rayati

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 10 19:30-21:30    DETONIA PARK, TORONTO ON

Akin Lansdowne artist Sarvenaz Rayati introduces People & Trees, a public outdoor installation created in collaboration with a number of emerging artists, with support from the Cultural Hotspots SPARK Project, The Neighborhood Arts Network, and the City of Toronto. This event takes place in the ''living greens of Dentonia park'' located just north of the Danforth. Participants Carmina Mari Miana (also an Akin member), Sohae Jeong, and Kenny Tran are several of a group of youth engaged over the summer to bring art and creativity to the East End. Rayati has been working with young artists over the past two months.

Sunday September 10 7:30-9:30 pm, is the opening night of People & Trees, involving the installation of many giant ''People'' into the folliage of the park. The goal is to bring awareness of the life of trees to the inhabitants of the city. Sarvenaz, the lead artist in the project says ''I had this idea of making human like figures with bamboo sticks and paper maché and to put them in a park full of trees. I went to one of the Cultural Hotspot's information sessions and talked to Andrea Raymond-Wong about it. She liked it and that's how it started. It was wonderful getting to know so many lovely people along the way, who helped make this project possible,  This was something I had never done before. It was challenging and satisfying.''

People and Trees is a Cultural Hotspots SPARK project in partnership with the City of Toronto.
Special thanks to: Nadira Pattison, Andrea Raymond-wong, Park People, Minaz Asani-Kanji, Councillor Janet, Davis, Sarah Buchanan, Sabra Ripley, Shwasti, Moonira Chowdhury, Zebun Nessa, Nadira Tabassum, Bain Campfire Festival, Sean Frey, Pamela Schuller, Sarah Pearson, Miles Collyer, Kieran Wright, Vibe Arts, Nadine Villasin Feldman, Sandra Mannila , Art Starts, Julian Carvajal, Bayley Nargang , East End Arts, DeSerres, Sarah Novotny, Metro & Our amazing volunteer Mijung Choi

For more information please visit:   https://www.facebook.com/peoplentrees

Akin Vitrine Gallery featuring Verity Griscti

Introducing our July installation at the Akin Vitrine Gallery featuring new work by artist and Akin Dufferin studio member, Verity Griscti. Her piece, Rimless is on exhibition until the end of this month in the Akin Vitrine Gallery. 

A drunk staggers home, an animal forages for food, a gambler wins and loses a fortune on a dice roll, and the scientist plots their every move neatly on a graph. Eventually, a model is determined and an algorithm created and all the romance gets sucked out of nature.  We run around modeling everything: molecules, bird flight, real-estate prices. We measure everything we can't predict and take comfort in it's tamed presentation between neatly labelled x and y-axes.
 
Mathematicians, economists and biologists model randomness in the hopes of unlocking a better understanding of their subjects. I model randomness because it's messy, often plain and occasionally beautiful, even whimsical.  Chance will ultimately roll over neatly defined borders and overflow onto its surroundings. It may look plain, divine or foul but it's a force that's always there.
 
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 The Toronto Outdoor Art Show, and EyeScream II: The Visual Life of Words  and Eye Scream III: Revenge of the Glyph, the visual arts component of the Scream Literary Festival. Verity received a BFA in Printmaking from OCADu in 2004 and is currently enrolled in Ryerson University's Computer Programming Applications Certificate in a move to go 'all in' on this internet thing.

Rimless, 2017
Mixed Media
dimensions variable

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: verity.griscti@gmail.com

veritygriscti.com
www.instagram.com/veritygriscti

'High-Rise' by Jessica Thalmann in the Akin Vitrine Gallery

The Akin Vitrine Gallery launched on October 1, 2016 at our Dupont studios. This miniature gallery features the diverse talent of our members with a new installation each month.

Our current exhibition running for the month of May, features new work by Akin Lansdowne member, Jessica Thalmann.

“These people were content with their environment, and felt no particular objection to an impersonal steel and concrete landscape, no qualms about the invasion of their privacy by government agencies and organizations, and if anything welcoming these intrusions, using them for their own purposes. These people were the first to master a new kind of 20th century life. They thrived on the rapid turnover of acquaintances, the lack of involvement with others, and the total self-sufficiency of lives which, needing nothing, were never disappointed.”
– JG Ballard

High-Rise is a site-specific installation of hand-folded archival pigment prints investigating the exploding steel and glass landscape of downtown Toronto as a veritable condoland converges onto the apex of the city. The strange lives of condo-dwellers seem at once compact, luxurious and quietly desperate as reflected sunlight bounces between glass curtain walls, almost folding one unit onto one another, never knowing where one begins or ends.

Photographs of glass condos are folded using a special Miura pattern named for its inventor Japanese astrophysicist Koryo Miura. A Miura fold can be packed into a compact shape, and unfurled in a single motion. This pattern has even been used in solar panel arrays for space satellites in the Japanese space program have been Miura folded before launch and then spread out in space.

Jessica Thalmann is an artist, curator and writer currently based in Toronto and New York City. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Advanced Photographic Studies from ICP-Bard College and a BFA in Visual Arts from York University. She has worked at the Doris McCarthy Gallery, Toronto International Film Festival, C Magazine, the Art Gallery of York University and Yossi Milo Gallery. She has shown at various venues in Toronto, Vancouver and New York City including the Art Gallery of Mississauga, Flash Forward 2010, Whippersnapper Gallery, Nuit Blanche, the Artist Project, VIVO Media Arts Center, Aperture Foundation, the International Centre of Photography, Photoville, the Camera Club of New York and Printed Matter’s New York Art Book Fair.

High-Rise, 2017
Folded Archival Pigment Prints
dimensions variable

The 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: jessica.thalmann@gmail.com

www.jessicathalmann.com
Instagram: @jessthalmann1
#AkinVitrine

The Readable City - a group exhibition opening tonight at Angell Gallery featuring work by Jessica Thalmann of Akin Lansdowne

The Readable City
Opening Reception: Today! (Friday, April 7) 7-9PM at Angell Gallery
On View: April 7 - 29, 2017

The Readable City features installation, sculpture, film, video, collage and photography by Toronto - and Montreal-based artists including Jessica Thalmann of Akin Lansdowne. Curated by associate director Bill Clarke, and taking its title from a phrase in French scholar Michel de Certeau's essay "Walking in the City".

The exhibition presents an opportunity to reflect on our built environments, and consider how, through collective action, we can produce cities in which all inhabitants can say, "I feel good here."

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