Meet the artists of the inaugural FIELD TRIP: Artist Residency
We are delighted to announce the inaugural FIELD TRIP: Artist Residency will feature seven artists from across the country and will kick-off later this month.
Please join us in welcoming the artist-residents of 2020!
Emily Jan, Aga Khan Museum
Simone Elizabeth Saunders & Alex Kwong, Contemporary Calgary, Calgary
Esmaa Mohamoud, Museum London & Visual Arts Centre of Clarington
OLUSEYE, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery
Caroline Monnet & Joseph Tisiga, Yukon Art Centre
ABOUT THE RESIDENCY
The Field Trip Artist Residency is a 6-week online program designed to make space for and to support diverse artists contending with the repercussions of racism to create and facilitate discussion. In this first iteration, participating galleries in consultation with their networks invited artists to shape residencies that emphasize agency and openness, with space to create work, engage in dialogue and explore individual and collective practices.
The Field Trip Artist Residency is an opportunity for arts organizations in Canada to listen, learn, respond and create space in a collaborative manner that is meaningful and relevant while advancing work towards inclusion and equity for marginalized populations.
Field Trip: Art Across Canada strongly denounces racism, discrimination and colonialism deeply embedded within museum structures. While there is much work to do, we are keen to implement this residency program in the coming weeks, the first of many, delivered with our Field Trip partners and artists from communities far and wide.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE 2020 ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE
Alex Kwong is a visual artist based out of Calgary, Alberta, and specializes in large scale murals. His work is representational, specifically portraits, painted in a photorealistic manner fused with surreal and expressionistic elements. His practice is largely informed by his Bachelor’s Degree in Art History where Kwong, before he became an artist himself, was exposed to the lives and work of artists and artisans of various movements and cultures throughout history. His focus on people as a subject matter is driven by an interest in human connection and the stories of people he encounters. Kwong describes his practice of painting as the way in which he experiences and engages with life and the world around him. To him, the paintings become symbols of the meaningful lessons and connections gained during the process of their creation.
Caroline Monnet (Anishinaabe/French) is a multidisciplinary artist from Outaouais, Quebec. She studied in Sociology and Communication at the University of Ottawa (Canada) and the University of Granada (Spain) before pursuing a career in visual arts and films. Her work has been programmed internationally at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), TIFF (CAN), Sundance (US), Aesthetica (UK), Palm Springs (USA), Cannes Film Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art (Montréal), Arsenal Contemporary NY, Axenéo7 (Gatineau), Walter Phillips Gallery (Banff), Division Gallery (Montréal) and the National Art Gallery (Ottawa). In 2016, she was selected for the prestigious Cinéfondation residency in Paris. Her work is included in numerous collections including Quebec Museum of Fine Arts, National Art Gallery, RBC Royal Bank, and Museum of Contemporary Art Montréal. Recent exhibitions include the Whitney Biennial and the Toronto Biennale of Art 2019. She is based in Montréal and represented by Division Gallery.
Emily Jan is a Montreal-based artist and writer. Originally hailing from San Francisco, California, Jan has traveled to 35 countries and lived in four, including South Africa and Mexico. As a wanderer, naturalist, and collector of objects and experiences, she is guided in her work by the spirit of exploration, kinship, and curiosity. Emily Jan creates intricately crafted, hyper-realistic installations of found objects inhabited by both handmade and found flora and fauna. Her primary materials are wool, reed, cloth, silicone and resin. These environments, like enterable museum dioramas, mix elements of high culture with low culture, science with mythology, and history with current affairs. The creatures, wondrous and monstrous by turns, feel real but are entirely handmade. They are not taxidermy, but are emotionally believable to the point where they are often mistaken as such. Jan holds an MFA from Concordia University (2014), a BA with Honours from Brown University (2000), and a BFA with High Distinction from the California College of the Arts (2009).
Esmaa Mohamoud (Canadian, b. 1992), is a Toronto -based African-Canadian artist. She holds a BFA from Western University (2014) and an MFA from OCAD University (2016). Recently, Mohamoud has exhibited at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Upcoming exhibitions include: To the Hoop: Basketball and Contemporary Art, Weatherspoon Art Museum, UNCG, Greensboro, NC, USA; Esmaa Mohamoud: Double Dribble, The Bentway, Signature Public Art Commission; Garmenting: Costume and Contemporary Art, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY, USA; and, Aliens with Extraordinary Abilities, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, SK, Canada. Esmaa Mohamoud: To Play In The Face of Certain Defeat, a solo exhibition organized and circulated by Museum London will be travelling to the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Art Gallery of Ottawa, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 2021-22. A Seat Above the Table (Warren Moon) is currently on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario as part of their permanent collection. She is represented by Georgia Scherman Projects.
Born in 1984, Joseph Tisiga is a member of the Kaska Dena Nation, who lives and works in Whitehorse and Montreal. This year he is a recipient of the Sobey Art Award, Canada’s most prestigious contemporary art prize. Although firmly rooted in painting and drawing, his work incorporates performance, photography, sculpture and installation in an exploration of colonial history, hybrid identities, and an evolving personal mythology. His practice features imagery inspired by his own social and philosophical influences, reflecting new approaches to storytelling.
Oluseye is a Nigerian-Canadian multidisciplinary artist. His practice is rooted in the interplay of seemingly dichotomous ideas – Christianity and indigenous African beliefs; vulnerability and strength; spirituality and sexuality – and how these ideas collide and reconcile to shape perception and identity. With a primary focus on Black male subjectivity, he creates paintings, photographs, performances, and sculptures that explore the ways in which contemporary, historic and African mythologies shape notions of Blackness. He has exhibited at The Art Gallery of Ontario, Gallery 151 in New York, and Art Twenty-one in Lagos, Nigeria. His work will be included in a group show at Patel Brown Gallery in Toronto opening August 15, 2020. He is a recipient of the Canada Council for The Arts New Chapter Grant, and 2019 Toronto and Ontario Arts Council Visual Arts Grants.
Simone Elizabeth Saunders is a mixed-race woman of Jamaican and European descent living in Alberta, Treaty 7 Territory. Simone is a visual artist and classically-trained actor. Her practice focuses on rug-tufting to create large, colourful portraits. Simone’s textiles carry narratives through cultural mythology, Black history and personal landscapes; encouraging and aiding in the service of racial emancipation and liberation of Black womanhood. Simone was President of the Students’ Association for the 2018-19 school year at the Alberta University of the Arts. She was recognized by the Alberta Government by receiving the Laurence Decore Award for Student Leadership in 2019. Simone graduated with distinction in May 2020 from AUArts. Selected 2020 awards for Simone include: the AUArts’ Board of Governors’ Graduating Student Award, the Illingworth Kerr Gallery Award for Academic Achievement and the Surface Design Association Graduating Student Award. Most recently Simone was featured on CBC “what’re you at?” with Tom Power, The Calgary Herald, CBC Arts, CBC Radio One, Instagram’s feature Artist, GalleriesWest, Boooooom, Design Milk, Colossal and The George Washington Textile Museum. Recent exhibitions include the Long Distance Art Series through the Social Distancing Festival and Sled Island.
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