Come Up to my Room at the Gladstone featuring artists An Dy and Kendra Yee of Akin Dupont

Come Up to My Room (CUTMR) is the Gladstone Hotel’s annual 4-day alternative design exhibition happening this year on January 18-21. There will be art, design, installations and events happening in all areas of the hotel curated by Jana Macalik and Christophe Jivraj with Lukus Toane featuring dozens of artists including An Dy and Kendra Yee of Akin Dupont.

Each year CUTMR provides artists and designers the opportunity to take risks, to push their ideas, to evoke meaning not just function. The event was conceived in 2004 as a vehicle for experimentation and interaction within the fields of art and design. Acting as counterpoint to the Interior Design Show and giving rise to the more recent Toronto Design Offsite Festival, CUTMR has since become a cornerstone of the Toronto alternative design scene.

This year, CUTMR 2018 explores how people interact with art and design. Is it a shared experience mediated by an artist or designer? Or is it an individual response triggered by personal experience? Or is it all of the above? We hope you decide to check out the event and investigate for yourself! Don't forget to to visit the second floor where Akin artist's An Dy and Kendra Yee will be showing work in the north corridor, and in room 214. 

AN DY | 2ND FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR: 

'These Pixels are TOO sweet' by An Dy

An Dy is putting Pixels on trial, calling on a variety of media to challenge and affirm the way we consume art and media. Imagery will include motifs taken from virtual interfaces such as the adobe suite programs, and contrast them with traditional forms such as the human figure. Allowing for a slower way to interpret these spaces, An Dy's work postures as stand in’s for the stimulation we receive through our screens at a time where we are both consumed by social media and alienated from it. 

An Dy is a Toronto born artist, graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in April 2017 with a BFA. These Pixels are Too Sweet explores the language of painting as a way to reflect the oversaturated experience he had growing up navigating the structures of the digital world.

SISTER CO-RESISTER | ROOM 214:

Sister Co-Resister is Pamila Matharu, Karen Azoulay, Nedda Baba, Yan Wen Chang, Marianne Ibrahim, Zahra Komeylian, Maanii Oakes, Kalpna Patel, and Akin Dupont artist Kendra Yee.

This project is a marker for the absence of intersectional feminisms’ in contemporary visual culture. It sets out to examine the labour around making and holding space - an often-repeated evocation in contemporary artistic and social discourse. In the art historical canon, the feminine has been relegated to interior, domestic spaces for the past two centuries. The social parallel has been to isolate feminist discourse within biological, ethnic, and class-bound markers. While the experiences of institutionalized misogyny and erasure, the women, femmes, two-spirit, and gender non-conforming artists in this installation intersect- profound discontinuities and contentious disagreements abound. The language of solidarity between these intersections is very much a work in progress- with approximate markers holding space for terms that can encompass the vastness of a marginalized existence. The result is a space in permanent flux- containing the messy shards and jagged edges of solidarity in a state of continual evolution. Shattered nerves, furtive pride, salvaged homelands, nostalgia and itinerant spaces of care populate this room. Its inhabitants are late-invited guests, squatters even, at a conversation whose terms have been pre-defined. They speak in languages that have been misappropriated and distorted, vulnerable to misinterpretation and co-optation. Their loud din echoes in passages and labyrinthine hallways, leading to a protected space where their incitements can breathe. 

KENDRA YEE is a Toronto-based artist and designer. She focuses on recreating the speculative world that exists within her head, combining these landscapes with cultural elements discovered throughout local neighbourhoods. 

EXHIBITION HOURS:
THURS, JAN 18: 7-10PM
FRI, JAN 19: 11AM - 10PM
SAT, JAN 20: 11AM - 10PM + Opening Reception 7-10PM
(after 6pm, entry is dependent on capacity - online ticket holders who arrive after this time may not get in if venue is already full)
SUN, JAN 21: 11AM - 5PM

SPECIAL EVENTS:
THURS, JAN 18 | EXHIBITION PREVIEW | 7-10PM
FRI, JAN 19 | STUDENT DAY - $5 STUDENT TICKETS WITH VALID STUDENT ID ONLY
SAT, JAN 20 | OPENING RECEPTION | 7-10PM
SAT, JAN 20 | LOVE DESIGN PARTY | 10PM - LATE
SUN, JAN 21 | TSA IDEAS FORUM | 1-3PM

'Pretty Bird' by Chris Harms at the Akin Vitrine Galleries

Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present our 2018 programming in two Vitrine Galleries, one a recent addition to our St. Clair studios and our original location at our Dupont studios. These miniature galleries will feature the diverse talent of our members with travelling installations rotating each month. Each artist will be featured for the first month at Dupont and second month at St. Clair. For more information about our artists and our programming, join us on Instagram @akinvitrine.

We are excited to welcome the new year by featuring new work by returning artist, Chris Harms! 

Chris is a self taught artist living and working in Toronto. He is an Akin Dupont member whose artwork explores the relationship between our city’s constant state of construction and its citizens. Chris creates vibrant sculptures with plexiglass, objects seen and unseen, that shape our world and envision the future.

Venturing into the bizarre and humorous, this installation, ‘Pretty Bird’ combines two mundane objects, made with a minimal aesthetic, to create a playful, laughable environment. 

‘Pretty Bird' 
Plexiglass, found materials
Variable Dimensions

Exhibition runs for the month of January 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.

‘Pretty Bird’ will then travel to the Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery and be on view for the month of February at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

To contact the artist: chrshrms@me.com
www.chris-harms.com
Instagram: @chrshrms

Akin artist Quinn Rockliff featured in The Body Issue of NOW Toronto Magazine

“My art practice is about nudity, self-love and female empowerment...every time I draw my body I’m reclaiming it, and to do that for other women is really important. It feels radical to shamelessly love my body as a woman, and political to share it online.”

— Quinn Rockliff for NOW Magazine

Akin Lansdowne artist Quinn Rockliff talks about her art practice, self love, body positivity and more in a segment called Love Your Body in The Body Issue of NOW Magazine.

Quinn Rockliff's art practice is centred around nudity, self love, and empowerment. Her current project is about women celebrating their bodies as she recreates nude selfies in ink and watercolour. Her Master's thesis in OCAD University's Digital Futures Program focuses on a similar theme and aims to combat shame and power loss through art by challenging the stigma attached to taking and sharing a nude selfie. Quinn is driven to explore how theory and practice can meet in the middle, how her own experience can be reworked into a tool for learning and teaching through example. Find out more about Quinn and see examples of her work at www.quinnrockliff.com

NOW is a Toronto news and entertainment magazine published in print and online weekly.

Storefront Gallery on the Danforth: Rebekah Andrade

Akin Dufferin member Rebekah Andrade has enough work to fill a small store. And so she has. Filling it with her paintings in a last-minute turn of events, she has transformed the empty storefront, formerly a shoestore at 348 Danforth Ave, into a small gallery full of bright beautiful art for the next ten days. 

The venue, owned by Thomas Walsh a local businessman, was only going to be empty for a short period but within a matter of days Rebekah had a working title (taken from a recent piece in the show) and complete collection ready. '' It was a challenge'', she says, ''but I'm so happy I did it!'' Rebekah says the titles of her paintings arise from a self-reflective and humorous take on life, with pieces like We Drank We Laughed and So Tender And Delicate. 

Coming from Northern BC, Rebekah Andrade finished her BA at Emily Carr in 2012 and has since exhibited across Canada and internationally. Her most recent formal exhibition, a group show, is still up at Sussex Contemporary in Ottawa. Check out her pop-up featuring IT WAS NEVER ABOUT YOU and chat with Rebekah until January 31, most days (except christmas) 11-7 pm at 348 Danforth Ave. 

Artwork by Akin Ossington Artist Amy McNeill at Volta Espresso until December 31

Amy McNeill is a Toronto-based artist who just recently went full-time when she joined Akin Ossington in August with her company Little Potje Ceramics. Amy is a ceramic artist but writes and creates paintings as well. Limited edition signed prints, original paintings and a limited selection of Little Potje Ceramics are now available for sale at Volta Espresso until Dec. 31, 2017. 

Volta Espresso
Open everyday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
866 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON M5R 3G3

Amy is motivated strongly by her personal experience of losing loved ones who made their livings as makers. Every pot, bowl and vessel she throws is dedicated to her family who raised her to have a strong work ethic and dedication to quality craftsmanship. 

In her fine art, Amy meditates on issues of fertility and reproduction. Trying to decipher what it means to be human rather than female, she's found that it's an identity mixture hard to separate and isolate at the best of times. 

Amy also enjoys writing arts and life pieces for news outlets, and working with small businesses as a copywriter and content strategist. She spends her spare time sailing, skiing and making terrible jokes at which her friends and family rarely laugh.

"All Are Welcome” by Akin Dupont member Bernadette Peets in the Akin Vitrine Gallery

Introducing our Akin Vitrine Gallery December exhibition, “All Are Welcome” by Akin Dupont member, Bernadette Peets.

“I have been thinking a lot about how recent immigrants and in particular refugees who come to Canada feel about us, this country and in particular what their experience is of our landscapes. 

Is Canadian society the open, warm and friendly culture that we like to think it is for these newcomers? Is our pristine landscape available to them? Does it represent a refuge or is it viewed as threatening due to its vastness and unknown dangers?

I often use wild animals in my shadow boxes to represent the vulnerability of the human characters in the narrative. In this case, the deer with the bullseye carries the symbol of the 'hunted' while at the same time acting as a warning to these individuals. The orange screen across the front is meant to slightly obscure the scene so that the viewer must look even closer to be able to see it completely. The screen says "All Are Welcome" but also acts as a barrier or an enclosure reminiscent of a refugee camp. The scenes on the side walls remind us of the origins of the travellers and the reflective surface creates a way for all of the scenes and characters to merge.

I think that we still need to go some distance in our understanding of how these newcomers may be feeling in their new reality and how we might bridge the gap between viewing them as 'other' and more as part of our communities.” 

Bernadette was born in Toronto where she currently lives and works. Her studio is in the Akin Collective at 1485 Dupont Street. She graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1996 where she majored in Drawing, Painting and Art History. She lived in Florence Italy for two years (1987–88 & 1994–95) where she continued to study Art History and develop her craft as a painter.

She has explored many themes over the past 20 years of her art practice and while she has mainly used painting as her medium she has also included three dimensional installation work as well as other pictorial devices that include shadow boxes, photographs, drawing and printmaking.

Her subjects of interest have been rooted in her political, social and aesthetic ideals. Whether she is using her work as a platform for a discussion on topics as diverse as the female body image to issues relating to the Indigenous Nations in Canada, her approach is always connected to her strong sense of design, colour and technical precision.

Craft is important to her as an effective means of communication. She believes that having a high quality of execution in her work facilitates a more effective communication of her intent.

‘All Are Welcome' 
Mixed Media
Variable Dimensions

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: bernadettepeets1@gmail.com

www.bernadettepeets.com
Instagram: @b_peets
#AkinVitrine

Support Akin Projects 2018 Programming Schedule this #givingtuesday

Today, Giving Tuesday, Nov. 28, you can help support our city's artists.

Your contributions to Akin Projects provide vital funding for our ambitious programming calendar of activities and initiatives. Throughout the year our community work, workshops, exhibitions and educational programs provide free or low-cost opportunities and services for artists and creatives across the city- including paying professional artist fees to Canadian artists.

Akin Fundraiser T-Shirts designed by Billy Franklin of Akin Dupont and Cierra Frances of Akin Sunrise

This #GivingTuesday we ask you to consider supporting our community programming by donating or making a contribution through a purchase in our fundraising online shop! We have limited edition artist designed fundraiser T-Shirts for sale ($20 each, see below!) as well as amazing deals on our artist made colouring books, 'Akin' enamel lapel pins and our Benefit Edition Prints!

Akin Projects would like to extend a huge thank you to those of you who supported our programming initiatives throughout 2017. To everyone who attended an event, bought Akin merchandise, or donated funds to our non-profit: your support means the world to us! 

We hope to see you at the  Akin Holiday Party on December 16 at Akin Lansdowne from 12-5pm where you can drop off a donation to our clothing drive, pick up merchandise and artist's work (and have a couple of mugs of mulled wine).

Click Here to Visit the Online Shop

Click Here to Donate Now

Click Here to RSVP to the Akin Holiday Party

Interested in supporting Akin and our community programs in other ways? Learn more here or get in touch by emailing michael@akincollective.com

Thank you!
Love, Akin

In the Round opening reception this Thursday

Graven Feather presents In the Round V opening this Thursday from 7-10pm at 906 Queen St West. Featuring hundreds of new original works by local and international artists including Rebekah Andrade, ClayGirl Ceramics and Erin Candela of Akin Dufferin. Laura Elliot, Julianne Ess, and Jen Pilles of Akin Lansdowne. Bernadette Peets of Akin Dupont and Renee Castonguay of Akin Sunrise. 

In The Round is an open call art exhibition that encourages artists to work in any medium yet on the same platform. Each artist is given three 6" rounds on which to create their work. The result is a collection of work which is varied and each piece is spectacular in it's uniqueness. The rounds will be sold directly off the wall so for the best view of the show be sure to arrive early!

Exhibition Runs Thursday, November 16th - Sunday November 26th

About Graven Feather:
Established in 2011, Graven Feather is an arts space committed to working with emerging artists. Starting 2017 we made a big change from our West Queen West location.  We have started a nomadic year and will be leading events and workshops throughout the city.  We have also launched residencies and classes from our new cozy studio in the Junction Triangle.  

Stop Thinking, Start Working: On Pattern, Repetition, Obsession, and Letting Go

If you find yourself in Oshawa in the next month, swing into the Robert McLaughlin Gallery and check out this solo show by Akin alumni Colleen McCarten. The show opens tomorrow and runs until December 3. There will be a reception is on Friday December 1, 7-9 pm and Colleen will be giving an artist talk on Saturday December 2, from 1-3 pm. 

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Looking at the journey of the line, in regards to the similarities between thread/textile techniques and drawing, this show will explore the technical aspect of textile construction as well as the relationship that happens between minimalism and the handmade; emphasizing the techniques and textures that come through allowing and embracing ‘mistakes’.

The pieces in this show will take inspiration from minimalism, op art, and the digital age, but using traditional textile construction techniques such as weaving and sewing. This show will consist of fabric sculptures and drawings that have been created in tandem with each other in an exploratory sense and they will look at how a subtle shift in material or technique can have drastic changes to the end result of the piece.

About Colleen: 
Colleen McCarten (formerly a member of both Akin Dufferin and Akin Dupont) is an emerging Toronto-based artist whose work is based primarily in textile, weaving, sewing and other fibre-based practices, as well as drawing and collage. She uses these techniques to examine the legacy of 20th Century art movements such as Op Art, Minimalism and hard-edged abstraction. McCarten holds a Bachelors of Material Design from the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCADU), and is the recipient of the Material Art and Design Medal for her graduating year. Her work has been exhibited in group shows at Harbourfront Centre and the Textile Museum of Canada, and she has received awards for her textile-based practice, including the “Best in Fibre” award at the 2014 iteration of the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. She has also produced artworks for commercial and retail clients, including Simons, and will be exhibiting in Angell Gallery’s Project Space this summer.

TRACE - works by OCAD University’s Interdisciplinary Art, Media, and Design candidates

TRACE is happening at The OCAD Graduate Gallery (205 Richmond Street West). There is a reception on November 16 from 5-9pm with catered refreshments where you can meet, chat, and mingle with the curators and artists. We hope you can make it!

“A trace may be small—a hint to the existence of something, a residue we can’t ignore. It is the beginning of a process, to subvert assumptions and discover intentions. It is the evidence that an investigation is taking place—revealing the hidden and acknowledging the ghosted. The absence of presence is where the trace reveals itself.”

Curated by the Criticism and Curatorial Practice first year program (including Jeff Tallon of Akin Sunrise), TRACE brings together the works of OCAD University’s Interdisciplinary Art, Media, and Design candidates to explore the contingent experience of presence as trace evades the ‘real,’ pointing to its constitutive outside: the unreal. Trace, a sign for everything elusive, has no site, but rather is change of site marked by its erasure, making it disappear in its appearance.

Featuring Artists:
Sarah Carlson
Lingxiang Wu
Vanessa Jackson
Tal Sofia Braniss
Ellen Snowball
Randa Reda
Philip Sparks
Kirstie McCallum
Coco Guzman
Shannon Lee
Adrienne Matheuszik
Lida Shanehchiyan
Kristi Poole-Adler
Dori Vanderheyden

Curated By:
Elizabeth Claire Handley-Derry
Liz Ikiriko
Erica Jane Cristobal
Panya Clark Espinal
Jeff Tallon
Keiko Hart

“for a moment it all comes together (and you’re the only one)” - New work by Katrina Jurjans at Artscape Youngplace

“ “Evocative of a contemporary Bonnard or Vuillard, these colourful acrylics are weighed heavily with patterns - backgrounds or depictions of printed textiles which enter fictional space. They challenge the two-dimensional versus, and illusioning dimension. The relationships are ambiguous, and often appear steeped in nostalgia or even existential angst, sometimes flesh-and-blood but sometimes ghostly outlines of people gone but remembered.””

— Joshua Heuman, Curator of Education and Public Programs at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery

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You are invited join us on November 16 from 6-9pm at Artscape Youngplace in the Third Floor Hallway Gallery for the opening reception of “for a moment it all comes together (and you’re the only one)” a solo exhibition of new work by Akin Lansdowne artist. 

This is Katrina's first solo show, and part of the Best of Student prize she was awarded at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition (TOAE), which includes this solo exhibition at Artscape Youngplace as well as a residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point. This summer Katrina was a double award winner at TOAE; she also won the Best of Painting award!

Katrina’s paintings rely on the visual language of colour, pattern, layering and spatial tension to explore intimate relationships and ideas of loss, memory, love, grief, instability and transition. Formed by blurring these concepts, her work breaks free from a fixed meaning, instead becoming a layered solidification of thoughts and feelings.

The exhibition will be taking place from November 13th - 24th, with the opening reception remaining on November 16th from 6pm - 9pm. 

'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

Akin at 2/edition Toronto International Art Book Fair

Akin is thrilled to be participating in 2/edition Toronto International Art Book Fair from October 27-20, 2017 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (222 Bremner Blvd). We will be there with a large selection of art books, art prints, zines, art multiples and more created by a diverse range of our talented studio artists.

Featuring work by the following Akin artists: 

Adria Mirabelli - www.adriamirabelli.com
Amy McNeill - www.amymcneill.ca
Brittany Carmichael - www.brittanycarmichael.com
ClayGirl Ceramics - www.claygirl.ca
Emma Dolan (Desert Pets Press) - www.desertpetspress.com
Jerry Rugg - www.jerryrugg.com
Jen Pilles - www.jenpilles.com
Jessica Thalmann - www.jessicathalmann.com
Kayla Polan - www.kaylapolan.com
Laura Kay Keeling - www.itnvrstops.com
Mark Liam Smith - www.markliamsmith.com
Michelle McGeean - www.michellemcgeean.com
Monique Resnick - www.moniqueresnick.com
Nicole Krstin - www.nicolekrstin.com
Pansy Ass Ceramics - www.pansyassceramics.com
Rebecca Jane Houston - www.rebeccajanehouston.carbonmade.com
Sophie Berg - www.sophiecberg.com
Sophia Burke - www.sophiaburke.ca

Edition is dedicated to the promotion of art book publishing in all forms, while building an appreciation for artworks produced in editions of more than one. A stimulating and engaging series of talks, panels and special exhibitions will also be presented throughout the weekend in conjunction with the fair’s programming partners. The event is happening alongside Art Toronto, Canada’s international contemporary and modern art fair.

FAIR HOURS
October 27, 2017  12-8pm
October 28, 2017  12-8pm
October 29, 2017  12-6pm
October 30, 2017  12-6pm

Admission to Edition Toronto is free and the event is family friendly. The Metro Toronto Convention Centre is fully accessible facility. For more information visit www.editiontoronto.com

Akin Artist Designed Fundraiser T-Shirts: Available now for pre-order!

Introducing two new limited edition t-shirts designed by artists Billy Franklin of Akin Dupont and Cierra Frances Akin Sunrise. Available in five sizes and made of high Quality 100% soft spun cotton, the sale of these shirts will go to support our not-for-profit organization Akin Projects. Available for pre-order now in our online shop at www.akinprojects.bigcartel.com
 

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Akin X Billy Franklin

Focusing on hard lines, bold colours and clean typography, Billy’s work is easily recognizable. He is influenced by late 90’s skateboard graphics and cartoons from his childhood. Franklin’s work is humorous and witty, sure to draw in his audience with his clever perspective.

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Akin X Cierra Frances

Cierra Frances is an interdisciplinary, Toronto-based artist and arts administrator whose work consists of various explorations of material and techniques in painting, drawing and printmaking. Her artist practice focuses on biracial identity and "Eurasian" culture found through her Filipino ancestry. Her research is deeply rooted in Filipino History dating back to Spanish Colonialism to current days and addresses subconscious colourism in Asian culture.

These limited edition shirts will also be available for purchase or pick-up at Edition Toronto the second annual Toronto international art book fair October 27–30, 2017 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Use code EDITIONPICKUP to pick up at Edition and avoid the shipping fee.

Special requests or questions? Email michael@akincollective.com
Thank you to Peace And Cotton Inc. for their help with this special project.

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

Art Documentation now available at Akin!

Akin Lansdowne is happy to offer documentation services for creative people needing high resolution and clear images of their artwork.

Jessica Thalmann has expertise in documenting 2D (paintings, works on paper) and 3D artwork (sculpture, glass, ceramics, jewelry etc)!

Rate:
Akin Member Rate: $25 per hour plus expenses*
General Public Rate: $30 per hour plus expenses*
*rental of any specialized gear or lighting equipment

Depending on the amount/size of work to be documented, a documentation session will take 1-4 hours to shoot and an additional 1-2 hours of editing.

Final Output
Online: low resolution, 72dpi, JPEG (suitable for web presentation, slide shows, competition submissions entries)Print: high resolution, 300 dpi, TIFF (suitable for capturing works with critical detail and printing)

Akin Lansdowne artist Monique Resnick at the Orillia Museum of Art and History and Riverdale Gallery

Akin Lansdowne artist Monique Resnick will be showing works in two upcoming exhibitions in September and October: The Carmichael Canadian Landscape Exhibition: Tradition Transformed at the Orillia Museum of Art & History, and A Living Mosaic at the Riverdale Gallery. More information on both shows below:

Carmichael Canadian Landscape Exhibition: Tradition Transformed
The Orillia Museum of Art & History - 30 Peter St South, Orillia, On
Exhibition dates: September 23 – November 26, 2017
Reception: September 29 | 7—9pm
www.orilliamuseum.org

The Carmichael Canadian Landscape Exhibition: Tradition Transformed was created in recognition of Group of Seven member, Franklin Carmichael, who was born in Orillia. Now in its 16th year, this juried show calls on artists from across the country to submit work that embraces, challenges, comments, critiques, echoes, re-works or strengthens images, perceptions and interpretations of Canadian landscape through the artist's chosen medium.

Monique will be showing a painting entitled 'Disparities'. 

Monique’s approach to art involves viewing the subject matter from a literal 30,000 feet. Specifically she uses Google Map imagery to assess and depict the relationship between the land and those who occupy it. By taking this approach the viewer is able to evaluate the discrepancies fuelled by conspicuous consumption. From population density to the degree of resources required to manicure lawns, Monique forces the viewer to acknowledge that which they may not have otherwise been exposed to. This painting depicts the expansive grounds of an estate home, standing in contrast to smaller or ‘modest’ homes. The source comes from subdivisions and estate homes in her hometown of York Region.


A Living Mosaic: The Cartography of Origins and Settlement
Riverdale Gallery - 1326 Gerrard St E, third floor, Toronto, On
Exhibition dates: September 30 and October 1
www.riverdalegallery.ca

A Living Mosaic is a two day celebratory event and month long exhibition that offers a fresh take on Canadian identity. The exhibition aims to pay tribute to the varying stories of origin that lend vibrancy into our collective society, specifically highlighting Indigenous and immigrant histories in Canada. Featuring the work of thirteen local artists, Living Mosaic represents a broad spectrum of experience and historical perspectives that together acknowledge the past, celebrate the present, and look toward building a bright future. 

Monique will be showing a piece entitles 'The Synagogue Project'.

The Synagogue Project sets out to capture all the synagogues in the city of Toronto and York Region. Monique's interest lies in the way religious and cultural groups morph and mobilize to suit the needs of their communities. Her own Synagogue Beth Tikvah had a day school in it, where she once attended Hebrew School. Due to the decline of the Jewish population in the Willowdale area the school had to close its doors but the sanctuary has remained open.

Many of the structures documented in this piece are situated along Bathurst Street- knows for its historical and contemporary ties to the Jewish community. The architectural details captured tend to denote the different groups within the Jewish religion; Sephardic shuls have Mediterranean influence whereas the Askhenazi structures borrow from North American architecture. The piece is not set in time but forever evolving. Synagogues are demolished, transformed, erected and converted thus this piece is really only a starting point. One of the synagogues captured here (Shaar Shalom) has shuttered within the past year due to population change, it will become the site of a Catholic school.
 

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

Claire Correia and the Akin Vitrine Gallery

The Akin Vitrine Gallery is excited to present new work by Akin Lansdowne studio artist, Claire Correia, on exhibit until the end of September. 

The Angel of History

She said: what is history?
And he said: history is an angel being blown backwards into the future
He said: history is a pile of debris
And the angel wants to go back and fix things
To repair the things that have been broken
But there is a storm blowing from paradise
And the storm keeps blowing the angel backwards into the future
And this storm, this storm is called progress

Laurie Anderson – excerpt from The Dream Before. 1989.

Claire Correia is a multi-media artist who works with both two and three-dimensional media including soft glass, in combination with small scale metal-working, paper engineering, and use of wood and other materials. Her installations, relief wall pieces and kinetic sculptures express ideas about energy, environment, and the Earth as a living entity. Claire also is a mother, paints, maintains a rigorous sketchbook practice, is a design educator in the School of Graphic Design at Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology, and is a pastry cook at the Dundas Park Kitchen in Toronto, Canada.

The Angel of History, 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: clairelcorreia@yahoo.com

website: www.clairecorreia.com
instagram: @claire.correia
#AkinVitrine

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

Akin artist Katie Sadie selling prints to support people affected by Hurricane Harvey

Akin artist and photographer Katie Sadie is offering for a limited time 8"x11" matte prints of her work: "Corpus Christi, Texas 2015" to support those affected by Hurricane Harvey. 

Katie spent some time in Port Aransas, Texas in 2015. She parked her van on the beach and slept there for weeks. She is devastated to see the destruction done by #HurricaneHarvey and wants to try and help by doing a limited time print offer with 80% of proceeds going to the American Red Cross.

Here's a link to where you can purchase the print: http://goldenboystudio.bigcartel.com/p…/corpus-christi-texas.