she/her
a writer and researcher based in Toronto, the traditional lands of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, Haudenosaunee and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River, covered by Treaty 13.
As a PhD candidate in Art History at the University of Toronto, my research is broadly concerned with the intersections of art criticism and publishing with conceptual and postmodern art and on self-reflexive modes of art writing. My dissertation - focusing on the alternative systems of artist-initiated publishing that Lucy Lippard’s novel I See / You Mean circulates within - has been supported by a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Doctoral Scholarship (SSHRC). My writing has been published in RACAR Journal; The Brooklyn Rail; Border Crossings; C Magazine; Momus; BlackFlash; Canadian Art; and numerous exhibition catalogues.
From 2008-2018 I worked at the National Gallery of Canada where I advanced from Curatorial Assistant to Associate Curator in the Department of Contemporary Art.
About
I have fifteen years of experience writing, curating and thinking about contemporary art. In this moment, I toggle between working on my dissertation, writing critical texts for magazines and collaborating with artists to help put words to their visual practice. I have written catalogue essays, interpretive didactics and ekphrastic experiments.
I recognize the considered, salient and necessary work that must be done in my field to address systematic inequities, to implement anti-racist and anti-oppression working methodologies and to support the artistic production of diverse and dynamic groups of artists. I am committed to a continued personal process of unlearning, listening and relearning.
You can often find me in running shoes exploring the city’s many ravines and back alleys; searching out new and exciting cups of coffee and unabashedly watching for the most colourful sunsets.
Recent Articles & Reviews
“Wave / Lengths in Lucy Lippard’s I See / You Mean. RACAR. 48, no. 1 (Spring 2023). pp. 28-54.
"Lucy Lippard’s I See / You Mean." The Brooklyn Rail. June 2023. np.
"THREE SONGS - Laura Taler." C Magazine, Issue 154, 2023, pp. 81-82.
“Derek Liddington: “The trees weep…” Border Crossings Magazine. 41(1). pp.118-123
“Shading the Threshold: Howie Tsui’s Phantasmagoria.”Border Crossings Magazine. 40(1). pp. 118-126.
“Calling Cards: Chrysanne Stathacos: 1-900 Mirror Mirror.” Blackflash Magazine. 38(1). pp. 12-17. 2021.
“Webbing the Nest: Luanne Martineau’s The Knitter Woman.” Border Crossings Magazine. 39(2). pp. 60-65. 2020.
“Gillian King: Sediment” Border Crossings Magazine 38(3). pp. 171-172. 2019.
“The Tautological Reeling of Young & Giroux.” Momus. Online edition. October 18, 2019.
Recent Exhibition Essays & Catalogues
Steve Giasson As Others. Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, 2022
Laura Dawe: Scrapartment. Patel Brown Gallery, Toronto, 2022.
Manilla/Acapulco. City Hall Art Gallery, Ottawa. 2021
Framework 2/20: Rhiannon Vogl on Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky. Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto. 2020
Luanne Martineau. Saint-Jérôme: Musée d'art contemporain des Laurentides. 2019-2020.
“In the skin of an artist.” In David R. Harper: A Mouth-Shaped Room. Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum, Milwaukee. 2019.
Derek Liddington: After, before, yesterday, meanwhile, now, you, me, those, the others, right and left. Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto, 2018
“Third outcomes.” In James Kirkpatrick: Secret Base by the Lake. Western University, London. 2016.
News
I will be a 2024-25 Chancellor Jackman Graduate Fellow in the Jackman Humanities Institute at the University of Toronto.
I presented on a panelled titled Writing Literary Character(s) chaired by Daniel Aureliano Newman, University of Toronto and Kayla Goldblatt, Ohio State University at the ACLA Annual Conference in March 2024.
I spoke with Anne Focke at Western Front, in collaboration with Fillip, about our shared interest in alternative networks in the arts and beyond, alongside our interest in experiments with systems of support and structure that can make these networks possible.
I was awarded a Northrop Frye Centre Doctoral Fellowship for 2023-24.
I presented on a panel titled Artificial Intelligence: Art Historical and Contemporary Perspectives chaired by T’ai Smith, University of British Columbia and Amber Frid-Jimenez, Emily Carr University of Art and Design at the 2023 UAAC Conference in Banff, AB.
I hosted Sunday Scene at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, on Sunday July 23, 2023, and spoke about Ron Terada’s exhibition WE DID THIS TO OURSELVES.
I participated in the 2022-23 RBC Emerging Artist Network with the
Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, as a guest critic.
I spoke at Acid Free Book Fair in Los Angele on June 17, 2023, on a panel titled “Publishing and the Art of Failure" organized by East of Borneo.
I have been awarded the 2023 Mimi Fullerton U of T / AGO Art History Fellowship.
I wrote didactics for the Unity Health Art Collection. The installation at Wellesley St. James Town Clinic opened in July 2021, and the St Michael’s BARLO MS Centre installation opened in September 2021.
I wrote and recorded a series of audio texts about public art at the University of Toronto, for the City of Toronto’s Year of Public Art. The mobile-friendly audio tour launched September 2021.
Chrysanne Stathacos and I helped launch the Spring Issue of BlackFlash in May 2021.
Howie Tsui and I chatted about his 2020-21 exhibition at the Power Plant for their Power Talks series in September 2020.