Onsite Gallery presents profound new digital mural

Cover image: installation of “Hopedale” by Jessica Winters.

OCAD University’s flagship professional art gallery, Onsite Gallery, presents a new digital mural on its exterior façade from January to April 2024.

The public is invited to visit the gallery and see Hopedale by Inuk artist Jessica Winters. Winters is a painter, biologist and curator raised in Makkovik, Nunatsiavut, and currently based in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

In her commissioned mural, Hopedale, Winters celebrates the land and people that build the foundation of home, the space that provides a depth of sustenance, responsibility and enduring connections.

“Every time I return to Nunatsiavut from the south, I can find something special about the place and the people that I took for granted as a kid growing up immersed in that life,” says Winters. “It often feels like I am seeing something for the first time again.”

Hopedale is part of the series Up Front: Inuit Public Art at Onsite Gallery, a partnership between Onsite Gallery and the Inuit Art Foundation. Hopedale is jointly commissioned by Bonavista Biennale 2023, the Inuit Art Foundation, Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership: The Pilimmaksarniq / Pijariuqsarniq Project, and Onsite Gallery at OCAD U.

About Onsite Gallery
Onsite Gallery, OCAD U’s flagship professional art gallery, presents contemporary, Indigenous, and public art and design to advance knowledge creation and stimulate local and international conversations on the urgent issues of our time.

About the Inuit Art Foundation
The Inuit Art Foundation is the only national organization supporting Inuit artists in all medias and geographic areas. It empowers and supports Inuit artists’ self-expression and self-determination through its many platforms, including the Inuit Art Quarterly (IAQ), Canada’s largest art magazine, the IAQ Profiles, artist services, awards, scholarships and mentorship opportunities.

About Up Front: Inuit Public Art at Onsite Gallery

In partnership with the Inuit Art Foundation (IAF), Onsite Gallery presents Up Front, a series of commissioned digital murals by Inuit artists. Onsite Gallery recognizes the important contributions of the Inuit art sector and is pleased to work with the IAF to support Inuit art and artists in the public realm.

The IAF is the only national organization supporting Inuit artists working in all medias and geographic areas. The IAF empowers and supports Inuit artists’ self-expression and self-determination through its many platforms, including the Inuit Art Quarterly (IAQ), Canada’s largest art magazine, the IAQ Profiles, artist services, awards, scholarships and mentorship opportunities.

Up Front is made possible with the support from the City of Toronto’s Indigenous Arts and Culture Partnership Fund and the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts.