Artscape Gibraltar Point announces four artists selected to participate in Winter Island Residency
For immediate release: Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Artscape Gibraltar Point Announces Four Artists Selected to
Participate in Winter Island Residency
Members of the public invited to participate in interactive arts projects and performances
TORONTO – Artscape is pleased to announce the four artists who will be living and creating at Artscape Gibraltar Pointon Toronto’s Ward Island this winter. Allison Rowe, Sandra Smirle and Brendan George Ko will each spend a month in residency creating exciting new works as part of the Winter Island Artist Residency program. Artscape Gibraltar Point also selected Addae Nurse as the winner of the 2019 Emerging Artist Award, who will receive a two-week residency next April.
Winter Island enables participating artists to collaborate with members of the local Island community other artist residents and the general public in the making of their site-specific and/or interactive art projects. Participants for this year’s Winter Island project were selected through a juried process that included Artscape Staff and previous Winter Island artist facilitators.
From January to April 2019, the public is invited to Artscape Gibraltar Point to meet Winter Island artists and experience and participate in their creative projects through special events that will be announced. Local and international artists are also invited to undertake a self-directed artist residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point during this special time on the Toronto Islands.
The Winter Island project culminates in June 2019, with a public exhibition of Winter Island artworks that will be on display at Artscape Youngplace (180 Shaw Street)in Toronto’s West Queen West district.
2019 Winter Island Artist-In-Residences:
January 7- February 4, 2019
Allison Rowe is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and researcher from Toronto, who works at the intersection of socially engaged art and pedagogy. For Winter Island, Alison Rowe will bring together youth from the Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club, Island residents and Artscape Gibraltar Point residency participants, to build a large snow fort. Her residency will culminate in a community winter play day and snow ball fight inspired by the Canadian film classic La Guerre des Tuques (commonly known in English as The Dog Who Stopped the War) followed by a screening of the film.
February 4 – March 4, 2019
Sandra Smirle is a multidisciplinary Canadian artist based in Montreal, who uses drawing, sculpture, paper cutting, photo, video, and installation, to explore ideas around surveillance, dataveillance and our ‘viewer society.’ For Winter Island, Sandra will use balloon and kite mapping, along with cyanotype printmaking, found object collecting and walking as her modes of research, to create a multimedia, video-based “map” of the ever-changing shoreline of the Toronto Islands. Members of the public are invited to join her on these walks and collecting expeditions and to participate in cyanotype and aerial (kite/balloon) surveying workshops, conducted during the course of her residency.
March 4 – April 1, 2019
Brendan George Ko is a visual storyteller who works in photography, video, installation, text, and sound, and divides his time between Toronto and Maui. For Winter Island, Brendan George Ko, invites the public to gather and listen to the stories collected from the oral traditions of the Hawai’ian Islands as he translates them through spoken word, documentary video and, landscape photography from Kānaka ‘ōiwi (Native Hawaiian) perspective to Canadian audience.
April 1 – 15, 2019
Addae Nurse is the recipient of the 2019 Jurors Emerging Artist Award. The Toronto-based artist’s work in painting and assemblage often involves the investigation of class and the re-contextualization of race through appropriated imagery. During his time on Winter Island, Addae Nurse will complete a series of paintings exploring the nexus between femininity, sexuality, expression and anonymity.
For complete artist bios, http://artscapegibraltarpoint.ca/winter-island2019/
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MEDIA CONTACT
To visit Artscape Gibraltar Point’s Winter Island and/or interview participants, contact:
Carol Davies, Director of Marketing and Communications, Artscape
C: 647-309-9574
About Artscape
Artscape is a Toronto-based not-for-profit urban development organization that makes space for creativity and transforms communities. Since its beginnings in 1986, Artscape has become a leader in creative placemaking working at the intersection of arts, culture, activism, urban development, philanthropy and public policy to build and provide secure, sustainable space for arts and culture to thrive. Artscape partners with a variety of community stakeholders to develop real estate projects that bring artists, creators and community cultural organizations together to create, collaborate and strengthen the social fabric of neighbourhoods. Over 2,700 people work and/or live within Artscape’s portfolio of 12 community cultural hubs and artist live/work studios. Its 42 public venues greet close to half a million visitors annually, who enjoy exhibitions and performances, and thousands more participate in diverse programs and events.
Through its unique creative placemaking model, Artscape delivers millions in annual savings on commercial and residential occupancy costs to its artist tenants and owners, and supports grassroots groups and non-profits with subsidized rates on Artscape performance and event venues. Artscape’s work helps build vibrant communities, lively neighbourhoods, and a more dynamic, resilient city. Artscape comprises Toronto Artscape Inc. and Artscape Non-Profit Homes Inc. For more information, visit artscape.ca.
About Artscape Gibraltar Point
Artscape Gibraltar Point is a community cultural hub operated by Artscape located on the Toronto’s Wards Island. Since its opening in 1999, Artscape Gibraltar Point has hosted thousands of local and international artists in residence, as well as festivals and other special events. Surrounded by 46 acres of parkland and adjacent to a beach on Lake Ontario, its tranquil setting offers artists and creatives an ideal place to focus on their practice and projects. It is also an ideal venue that can be rented for weddings, corporate retreats and other gatherings. Learn more at: artscapegibraltarpoint.ca.
