GEP Banner

2017

This winter, the Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation Global Experience Project at OCAD University will support the residency of acclaimed artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien.

Five students will come together to creatively respond to the themes resonant in Isaac’s work, while gaining access to the behind the scenes installation of his upcoming show at the ROM; attend events related to Isaac’s work in Toronto and his Images Festival Screening; and travel to Isaac’s studio in London, U.K.

 

Upcoming Events

 

Isaac Julien: Other Destinies

January 21, 2017 to April 23, 2017, Royal Ontario Museum

READ MORE

 

Global Experience Project Lecture with artist Isaac Julien

March 30, 2017 at 7:30 p.m., OCAD U Auditorium

Yuling Chen

Yuling Chen is an integrated media artist. Her primary focuses are video installation, performance, and animation. She explores different materials, such as textile, plaster, paper cutouts and magazine collage. She also experiments with audio in her work. She reconstructs context and meaning through deconstructing materials. Yuling often investigates the idea of subconsciousness and how personal desire is repressed throughout the progress of the history. She is currently completing her BFA at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada.

Aylan Couchie

Aylan Couchie is a multidisciplinary Anishinaabe artist from Nipissing First Nation in Northern Ontario. She obtained her BFA from NSCAD University and is currently pursuing her MFA at OCAD University with a focus on Indigenous monument and public art. She’s been the recipient of several awards including “Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture” (2015) through the International Sculpture Center, the Inaugural Barbara Laronde Award (2015) from the Native Women in the Arts organization and most recently, a Premier's Award through Ontario Colleges (2016). Her work has been exhibited throughout Canada and internationally. In 2018 she will see her first large scale public art commission raised 70 feet to permanently overlook the City of Barrie, Ontario.

Aaron Moore

Aaron Moore is a Northern Irish artist currently completing his BFA in photography at OCAD University. Moore’s work uses photography, video, sculpture and painting/drawing techniques in order to revise a variety of historical narratives in order to present their inconsistencies. Moore had his first solo exhibition The Cusp and The Middle at Studio223a in March of 2016 and is currently working on a new body of work.

leaf jerlefia

leaf jerlefia is a Jamaican-Canadian artist, curator and critic who explores diaspora and identity in her many bodies of work. By deconstructing hierarchal structures jerlefia creates a contemporary narrative and vocabulary that values the experiences of marginalized peoples. She is best known as the co-curator of It’s Still Privileged Art (2016), an exhibition at 401 Richmond which responded to the retrospective show of Carole Conde and Karl Beveridge. She is currently curating the Nia Centre’s Annual Exposed show for the 2018 itinerary, as well as working on a science fiction novel. jerlefia is finishing her BFA in Criticism and Curatorial Practice at OCAD University.

Justyna Werbel

Justyna Werbel works both as an active visual artist and curator. She received her BDes in Industrial Design from OCAD U and is currently perusing her masters in the IAMD program. Werbel's works dance between social practice, film, performance, installation, drawing and photography. Her works have been made and presented in Poland, Germany, Israel, the Czech Republic, Uruguay, Brazil, India and Canada. Werbel creates interdisciplinary projects that require participation from an audience and involve social engagement as a method of research. Werbel was the head of the productions department in Poland's newest Centre for Contemporary art TRAFO, where she also spearheaded the Plug In Project Room, an experimental space dedicated to supporting both local and international emerging artists. She has been the recipient of numerous grants, including support from the Adama mickiewicz institute, the Polish Institute New Delhi, the Polish Institute in Tel Aviv, the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as well as the outstanding scholastic achievement grant from the Polonia Centre in Canada.

Isaac Julien

 

Isaac Julien is a Turner prize nominated artist, photographer and filmmaker. He was born in London in 1960, where he currently lives and works.

Earlier films and photographic works include “Young Soul Rebels” (1991), which was awarded the Semaine de la Critique Prize at the Cannes Film Festival; the acclaimed poetic film-essay and photographic series “Looking for Langston” (1989); and “Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask” (1996).

Julien has pioneered a form of multi-screen installations, including light-boxes and photographic works with “Western Union: Small Boats” (2007), “Ten Thousand Waves” (2010) and “Playtime: Kapital” (2014).

Julien participated in the 56th Biennale di Venezia and worked closely with its curator Okwui Enwezor (2015). He has exhibited his work in major museums and institutions across the world including “Ten Thousand Waves” at Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013-2014), which is currently exhibited at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris (2016). In 2015, Julien had a retrospective at the Depont Museum (Tilburg, the Netherlands). In 2016, he showed “Playtime” and “Kapital” at El Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City and recently had a solo photographic exhibition titled "Vintage" (Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco) displaying his photographic oeuvre from the 1980's and his seminal "Looking for Langston" series, which is also included in “Made You Look”, at The Photographers' Gallery.

Julien’s work is included in the collections of institutions around the globe. In 2013 MoMA published RIOT, a monographic survey of his career to date, featuring his films, photographic and installation works over the period.

Julien is currently producing a new work that is a poetic meditation on aspects of the life and architecture of Lina Bo Bardi. The first chapter of this work, “Stones Against Diamonds”, was shown during 2015's La Biennale di Venezia, Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach. Amongst forthcoming exhibitions, “Western Union: Small Boats” will be part of “Protest” exhibition at Victoria Miro Gallery (fall 2016).

After teaching at Harvard University (1998-2002), Julien was Professor of Media Art at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe (2009-2015) and Chair of Global Art at University of Arts London (2014-2016).

More about the jack weinbaum family foundation global experience project

The Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation Global Experience Project was made possible by a $500,000 gift from the Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation to OCAD University. The Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation has been a supporter of OCAD U for nearly 15 years by funding such events as the annual Graduate Exhibition and the Nomadic Resident Program. 

“We are grateful to the Weinbaums for giving this opportunity to some of the university’s most promising creative minds, enabling them to immerse themselves in the rich and varied landscape of global artistic practice,” said Dr. Sara Diamond, OCAD University President and Vice-Chancellor. “The Global Experience Project will expand OCAD U’s global connections to strengthen teaching and learning experiences.” 

“The Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation is delighted to invest in this transformational program at OCAD U, where students will engage with world-renowned artists and embark on international learning experiences,” said Carol Weinbaum, representative of the Foundation. “We are excited to help bring Isaac Julien to campus for the inaugural edition of the project.”