Project 31: New Futures promises to be a unique experience that will not only transport you into an immersive experience at a live auction, but will introduce you to Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) artists and designers from the OCAD University community.
This year, we are creating a world-class collection that will feature up to 50 works by established and emerging BIPOC artists and designers. Pieces will be sold at a Silent Auction being held from June 16 to 30 and at a Live Auction on June 24, to be hosted on the ohyay platform.
Members of the Project 31: New Futures committee include: Jason Baerg, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Art; Dr. Andrea Fatona, Associate Professor, Faculty of Art and Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Canadian Black Diasporic Cultural Production, Dr. Nithikul Nimkulrat, Associate Professor and Acting Chair, Material Art & Design; Ilene Sova, Assistant Professor and Ada Slaight Chair of Contemporary Painting and Drawing, Faculty of Art.; Ryan Rice, Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science; and Lisa Deanne Smith, curator at the Onsite Gallery.
All funds raised from both the silent and live auctions will support our BIPOC students through bursaries as well as programming by our Faculties.
The Project 31: New Futures collection will feature incredible works from: Kevin Bae; Jason Baerg; Shea Chang; Kestin Cornwall; Dr. Sugandha Gaur; Andre Y. Kan; Natalie King; Kotoba Jewellery; Surendra Lawoti; JJ Lee; Julius Poncelet Manapul; Dr. Ashok Mathur and Soleil Launière; Anna Jane McIntyre; Peter Morin and Dr. Ayumi Goto; Dr. Kathy Moscou; Dr. Nithikul Nimkulrat; Emma Nishimura; Gary Taxali; Yaw Tony; Annie Tung; Natalie Majaba Waldburger; Amy Wong; and Shaheer Zazai.
SPOTLIGHT ON FOUR ARTISTS FROM THE PROJECT 31: NEW FUTURES COLLECTION
KEVIN BAE
Bae is an instructor in the Faculty of Art and a graduate of OCAD U. His works show the residues of moment and presence, tracing the unprecedented life event. He takes the visual information that consist layers of moment with an understanding of the form and structure.
The work:
En Plein Air at Don River (13.25” x 9.25”) is watercolour on cold press paper, with an estimated value of $3,500. Date of work: 2015
In the artist’s own words:
I am interested in observational practices that celebrate presence of subject matter in time and space.
SHEA CHANG
Chang is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Design and a graduate of OCAD University. Her cross-disciplinary practice is in rooted in art, design and art-education. She activates an artistic practice in-between and outside of the traditional paradigms of the art and design field.
The work:
the maypole, inherited is an original artwork of acrylic and absorbent ground on aluminum composite (36” x 48”), with an estimated value of $4,600. Date of work: 2020
In the artist’s own words:
In my personal visual vocabulary, I view the cylinder tube as a ‘hypershape’ – as a thing that simultaneously indicates a demarcation of power or delineation of place, and as a thing that indicates a hole or something that has been omitted. The impetus behind this work stems from a longing to articulate experiences of inbetweenness and exclusion, to activate and extend these marginalized spaces while transcending exclusion or restraint.
NATALIE KING
Natalie King is a queer interdisciplinary Anishinaabe artist, facilitator and member of Timiskaming First Nation and a graduate of OCAD U. Her arts practice ranges from video, painting, sculpture and installation as well as community engagement, curation and arts administration.
The work:
forever kind of kinship (40” x 60”) is an acrylic and ink on canvas, with an estimated value of $1,200. Date of work: 2021.
About the artist’s work:
King visualises the act of embarking on ancestor-to-ancestor in forever kind of kinship. She visualises the act of embarking on ancestor-to-ancestor conversations that exist within and beyond the current physical plane, queering real and imagined conversations of past and future.
Exploring urban Indigenous identity through a lens of bold Indigenous pride, King imagines these stories and conversations as painting, as thoughts/futures. She challenges monolithic understandings of Indigeneity and the conspicuous consumption of Queer Indigenous traumas, reframing stereotypical ideas and signifiers of an urban Anishinaabe identity to expand on ideas of time and space, of belonging, reverence and place. The piece engages in discussions around binary systems to spark conversations of desire, belonging and reverence.
In the piece forever kind of kinship, King places importance of relations, specifically to Anishinaabe peoples. In the image, the two figures hold one another, seeming to come from the same body, their hair connecting, framing the piece. In the image the two femme Indigenous peoples embrace, supporting one another. Here King is placing importance on the act of belonging, how relationships are so significant to kinship practices, how many acts of kinship exist beyond the immediate family, and the importance of an external community.
ANNA JANE MCINTYRE
OCAD U graduate Anna Jane McIntyre is an artist with a playful practice that combines storytelling, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, performance and microactivism. Her work investigates how people perceive, create and maintain their notions of self through behaviour and visual cues, and is an ever-shifting visual mashup of British, Trinidadian and Canadian cultural traditions.
The work:
Game Face (Now You Know) is a digital print with hand-applied gold leaf (30” x 40”), valued at $500. Edition 2/10.
In the artist’s own words:
Game Face (Now You Know) is a print of my mixed media emoji wall-puzzle. The original work was intuitively created exploring histories of Blackness and consists of woodcut prints, copper nails, Darjeeling tea, Trinidadian cocoa and Quebecois sage smoke. The work references many sources including Eduardo Kohn’s incredible book How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human. The work was commissioned for The Visual Life of Social Affliction: A Small Axe Project, a travelling exhibition with works by artists and writers from the Caribbean and Caribbean diaspora who critically engage with the legacy of colonial violence in the region.