Images courtesy of Tairone Bastien.
Tairone Bastien, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Art, is a recipient of the Exhibition of the Year Budget over $20,000 Monographic Award from the Galeries Ontario / Ontario Galleries (GOG) Awards with the team behind Lawrence Abu Hamdan: 45th Parallel.
As the only annual juried awards of its kind, the iconic GOG Awards, which took place on November 28, celebrate the outstanding achievement, artistic merit and excellence of arts institutions and professionals in the public art gallery sector.
The GOG Exhibition Awards recognize art exhibitions evidencing exceptional and original curatorial and artistic achievement supported by technical excellence in exhibition design and installation, distinguished based upon financial budget of the project.
The award-winning team behind Lawrence Abu Hamdan: 45th Parallel includes co-curators Bastien and Julia Paoli; exhibition coordinator Aamna Muzaffer; installation team Mark Dudiak, Nadia Kuzmicz and Philip Luedemann; and artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan: 45th Parallel ran from March 26 to June 4, 2022, at Mercer Union, in collaboration with the Toronto Biennial of Art. The exhibition focused on the Haskell Free Library and Opera House—a unique municipal site between the jurisdictions of Canada and the United States—featuring a monologue and performance devised by Abu Hamdan and performed by acclaimed filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel.
About Tairone Bastien
Tairone Bastien is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Art at OCAD U and independent curator. He co-curated the inaugural Toronto Biennial of Art in 2019 and collaborated on the second edition in 2022.
From 2011 to 2016, Bastien established the arts program at Alserkal Avenue and the Alserkal Residency in Dubai, for artists, curators and researchers in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.
From 2005-2010, he was a curator for Performa in New York City, co-organizing the first three editions of the ground-breaking biennial of live performance art.
Tairone holds a Master of Art from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York; and a Bachelor’s Degree in Art History with a Minor in Critical Studies in Sexuality from the University of British Columbia.