The RBC Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers is excited to announce Damon Couto-Hill and Veerta Kumar as the recipients of the 2023 Akin Studio Career Launcher.
Damon Couto-Hill is a Portuguese/Mohawk man and an interdisciplinary visual artist. He is a Six Nations of the Grand River member who grew up in Scarborough and currently lives and works in Toronto, Canada. He works with digital collages to entangle his body with images of Canada, nature, the Western art canon, and the internet to visualize the dysfunctions of Western collective consciousness through an intuitive, dream-like lens. He then translates the digital collage into physical form as fragmented wood panels painted in acrylic and oil, making the image again upon the scattered shards of a slanted mosaic.
Instagram: @damond.liver
Veerta Kumar was born in India in 1999 and lives and works in Toronto. She considers the flux, chaos, and fragments of our perceptions to decolonize modes of re-presentation and re-creation. In the past year, she observed the interaction of paint and light and engaged in various modes of making and materials, including ornamentation, textiles, found materials, family album photos, personal photography, and digital manipulation.
Kumar completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting in 2023 from OCAD University. She received the John Madott Fine Art Award for her recent body of work Tedhi Nazar exhibited at Grad Ex 108.
Website: www.veertakumar.ca
Instagram: @_veertakumar
Damon and Veerta will be awarded $2,000 in credits to go towards a studio space at Akin’s shared workspaces in 2023-2024! In addition to the $2,000 studio credit, each recipient will receive $450 credit for use at Remote Gallery at Richmond and Portland. Remote Gallery provides the opportunity to exhibit work, host workshops / artist talks, or other activities relevant to early career growth.
Akin is a Toronto-based arts organization that provides creative studio space as well as arts-based programming. Akin’s studios provide a working environment that maintains a friendly and inspiring atmosphere where people can work on creative endeavours and creative entrepreneurial undertakings of all kinds. They build community through accessible and educational programming along with open studio events, gallery tours, exhibitions, as well as various other art projects.
Learn more about our Career Launchers at: https://careerlaunchers.format.com