Material Memories: Don Kwan (January 13 - March 3, 2024)

Image: Don Kwan. 'Lucky Lai See Suit', 2022. Lai see envelopes, maps of Canada, foam buttons, thread.

January 13 - March 3, 2024
Reception: Saturday, January 20, 2024 from 1-3pm
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen Street West, Toronto

A third-generation Chinese Canadian, Don Kwan turns to his own experiences and challenges of being a gay, East Asian artist as a way to ground in broader conversations about identity, representations, and intergenerational memory-making in the diaspora. Kwan regularly draws from common and powerfully symbolic found objects and forms. He redeploys them in provocative, and playful ways; delivering complex, and nuanced concepts in an open framework for interpretation that evokes both familiarity and wonder. His artworks investigate Chinese Canadian diasporic experiences, especially as they concern identity, belonging, and place. Kwan has exhibited his works across the nation. In 2022, his year long exhibit at the Ottawa Art Gallery titled 'Landscape, Loss and Legacy' was shortlisted by Galeries Ontario / Ontario Galleries. During the same year, Kwan was awarded the Peter Honeywell Mid-Career Artist Award by the Ottawa Arts Council and in 2023 was invited to participate in Newfoundlands Bonavista Biennale.

donkwanart.com

Sandy Lamb & Miriam Parkman (March 9 - April 21, 2024)

March 9 - April 21, 2024
Reception: TBA
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen Street West, Toronto

Sandy Lamb has been weaving since 2011. His practice is focused mostly on weft faced tapestry weaving. In 2018 he expanded his practice to include natural dyeing. He attended two years of a BFA at Concordia University in 2005-2007, and returned to study at the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles in 2014. Since 2015 he has kept a rigorous studio practice and work on a commission basis for private and commercial clients while always pursuing a more exhibition oriented practice. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at Room68 in Provincetown, MA, in October 2021 and in Toronto in December, 2020. In April 2023 Sandy Lamb was invited to contribute a piece to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal in support of their foundation, and is presently in discussions with the Mingei International Museum about contributing a piece to an upcoming show. His work has been featured in notable publications including the Guild of Canadian Weaver's quarterly publication, VAV Magasinet in Sweden, the Warp & Weft online publication, and the Globe & Mail.

hautbeau.ca

Miriam Parkman is a handweaver and textile artist based in Stockholm, Sweden. She graduated from Handarbetets Vänner school in 2016 after three years of weaving and needle work studies. That same year, the weaving collective Studio Supersju was founded with Miriam being one of seven founding members. Today, the group of six independent weavers exhibit and make public commissions together. In June, the group is to install a 2x5 meter hand woven tapestry in Stockholm City Hall to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the building. Collaborative work has been formative in Miriam’s practice since the start - pairing well with the ancient history of weaving as a knowledge passed down and developed from people to people throughout the ages. Miriam finds her inspiration in colour - from 1940s-1960s aesthetics and natural landscapes to everyday objects and life itself. Her main techniques are rya and tapestry, where the mind and hand can work together in an instant motion, creating freely on the open surface of the loom.

miriamparkmantextiles.com

Par Nair (April 27 - June 16, 2024)

April 27 - June 16, 2024
Reception: TBA
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen Street West, Toronto

Par Nair (she/her) is an Indian-born interdisciplinary artist and researcher who lives and makes in the Greater Toronto Area. Her practice which centers oil paintings, hand embroidery, installation, performative work and creative writing focus on dual identities, hybrid cultures and fragmented realities of migrants. Par acquired her Master’s (MFA) in Interdisciplinary Art, Media and Design from OCAD University (2022). Her works have been shown at Project Casa (Montreal), The Textile Museum of Canada (Toronto), The Public Gallery (Toronto), Mayten’s Gallery (Toronto), Neilson Creative Centre (Etobicoke), Riverdale Art Gallery (Toronto), Propeller Art Gallery (Toronto), Xpace Cultural Centre (Toronto) and The Kochi Biennale (India).Par is the recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2021-22) and Propeller Gallery’s Emerging Artist Award (2020).

Having moved from India to Canada in her early twenties, Par’s work addresses the diasporic journeys of the South Asian community highlighting voices and stories of peoples historically silenced in colonial spaces. The primary focus of her art practice is to investigate and explore lived experiences of diaspora using decolonial methods and a return to ancestral practices. Her practice recognizes and problematizes assimilation and loss of culture within an immigrant experience while presenting the diasporic body as a hybrid archive of dualities. The importance of storytelling and the acknowledgement of ancestral knowledge is an integral part in Par’s work. She meditates on the confusion, double life and imminent transformation felt in migrant journeys while addressing white washing, misrepresentations, and translations of brown bodies as a way for her to make sense of her diasporic identity. Within her work, Par unravels and reimagines historical narratives of Indian women.

parnair.format.com

Kae Sasaki (June 25 - August 11, 2024)

June 25 - August 11, 2024
Reception: TBA
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen Street West, Toronto

Kae Sasaki (she/her) is a visual artist and Japanese-born settler living and working on Treaty One Territory, known as Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Kae grew up in Fukui, an hour away from Kyoto, with a slight detour in El Paso, Texas in her formative years. She graduated from Rikkyo University in Tokyo where she studied German literature as well as education and library science. After moving to Winnipeg she worked full-time in accounting and half-time grading exams and essays on campus while putting herself through School of Art at University of Manitoba, graduating with first class honours in 2012. Kae has taught drawing as a sessional instructor at University of Manitoba faculty of architecture while establishing a full-time studio practice.

Kae is a recipient of Alice Hamilton Painting Prize, Cecil C. Richards Memorial Award for achievement in figurative sculpture, Lynn Sissons Memorial Scholarship, and a public art commission award from University of Manitoba Sculptural Experience competition. Her art practice has been generously supported by grants from Winnipeg Arts Council, Manitoba Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts, and her work can be found in private, public, and corporate collections in Canada and U.S.A. She has been shortlisted for the Kingston Prize (2015/2017/2019), the Salt Spring National Art Prize (2017) and Jackson's Open Painting Prize (2018/2019) for her painting.

While her primary art medium remains representational painting, Kae started creating unconventional beadwork using reclaimed vintage Japanese beads that are harvested from damaged vintage beaded bags and using traditional Japanese beading technique since 2019. Her beadwork has received funding support from Manitoba Arts Council through Manitoba Arts Council Riding Mountain Artist Residency in 2019 and 2023, and Manitoba Craft Council through Victoria Beach Retreat in 2023.

kaesasaki.com

Joon Hee Kim (August 17 - September 29, 2024)

August 17 - September 29, 2024
Reception: TBA
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen Street West, Toronto

Joon Hee Kim's work explores the significant perception of existing as a human being while examining and reconciling the diverse identities and heritage of the world, seeking out the compelling forces of beauty and desire. An award-winning ceramist who was an art director in her native South Korea, Kim came to Canada and took patisserie studies at Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa. However, switching careers, and graduating from Sheridan College, led her to become intrigued with ceramics. As the Cecil Lewis Sculpture Scholarship recipient, She completed a Master's in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts in the UK. Her compelling ceramic works have been exhibited in the USA, Germany, UK, and have also been in a solo exhibition at the Clay and Glass Gallery. She examines her heritage through the lenses of multiple influences as she travels to both national and international artist residencies. Following the Banff Clay Revival Residency, she was one of six-selected artists for the Canadian Craft Biennial. Then she attended the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park Residence in Japan, the Ceramic Centre Residency in Berlin, and most recently and prevalently the Archie Bray Foundation Residency. She was a recipient of a large variety of many honourable awards and grants, including the Helen Copeland Memorial Award for 6-consecutive years from the Craft Ontario Council, a numerous amount of grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council, the Best of Student Exhibition from the Toronto Outdoor Fair later flourished in winning the Best of Ceramics, and Best of Craft and Design the ensuing year, as well as being awarded the prestigious Winifred Shantz National Award for an exceptional emerging ceramic artist. Her latest achievement derives from her work being chosen through numerous selections for the Royal Botanical Garden’s International Sculpture Collection.

www.junniekim.com