personal curriculum #3
it’s been a minute but here i am! back with another round of personal curriculum! some of these are longgggg overdue in my intention to share them, it’s just been such a crazy time at OCADU & my MFA program.
right now as i write this i’m sitting in the OCAU grad gallery waiting for artists to come in to install their work for the 2026 OCADU Graduate Conference exhibition. I’m one of the organizers for the conference & i’m semi taking the reins on curating, organizing, installing etc. this exhibition. If you’re interested in seeing the work or attending the conference, the show is running from February 13th to February 21st at 205 Richmond in the 1st floor Grad Gallery. The conference is a 2 day event at 205 Richmond, Friday February 20th & Saturday February 21st! You can find the schedule of workshops & panels here if you’re interested!
i’m also the project manager & one of the co-curators/organizers for an upcoming exhibition at Xpace in March & early April. Its part of course work & of course that means no budget, so we are fundraising. At the conference we will be selling stickers we’ve designed, used books & some crafty items! if you want to support either of these projects i’m part of, attending the conference is the way to go! I hope to see you there!
and now lets get into the juicy stuff…..
we’re doing a Momus heavy drop today! i’ve been loving Momus since meeting Sky (as mentioned previously) & some of their articles really speak to me! the writing style of their writers and the range of topics/events/etc. is so wide, there’s something for everyone for sure.
Starting off with critic Aaron Katzeman’s Jeffrey Gibson Saves America article. This is a really nice, indepth review & analysis of the exhibition the space in which to place me by Gibson which premiered at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Gibson is the first Indigenous artist to have a solo United States Pavilion, which is ‘barrier-breaking’ and an incredible honour, but as Katzeman aptly discusses, provides a unique tension. There’s a suggestion throughout the review that Gibson is prioritizing negotiating his place within the US & representing himself & that nation, instead of cirtically interrogating the formation of the settler-colonial entity. There’s also some controversy sourrounding citizenship. Works like WE WANT TO BE FREE (2024) reference the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act. This exhibition frames citizenship as a path to freedom, Katzeman aptly interjects, noting that many Indigenous scholars view the Act as a ‘genocidal’ tool. One that is used to overwrite tribal sovereignty and absorb Native peoples into the US constitution, politics, civil governments etc. There are a number of other qualms Katzeman has, including “colonial apologia’, the venice protests from ANGA & a look into Gibson’s abstract work. If my little summary has caught your attention, or you just wish to see some images of interesting, challenging & aesthetically beautiful work, I highly reccomend this article!
The next article ‘Staying with the Trouble’ at the Helsinki Biennial: Challenges of Environmental Curating by Katie Lawson is a review of the third Helsinki Biennial; Shelter: Below and Beyond, Becoming and Belonging. This biennial has popped up for me a few times, especially last semester while I was doing some research on reciprocity & environmentalism for an annotated bibliography. I’d never heard of this biennial before so I’ve kinda been doing a semi-deep dive into what’s written about it. In this article, Lawson evaluates biennial’s the attempt to center the ‘more-than-human’ world & maintain a commitment to sustainability. Weighing the successes against the inherent contradictions of hosting such a large-scale international art fair/event during an ongoing and ever worsening climate crisis. This biennial was curated by Kati Kivinen and Blanca de la Torre & invited artists to treat animals, plants & minerals as main characters. Laura Pōld’s ceramic rainwater receptacles for birds & Carola Grahn’s birch and reindeer horn sculpture are genuinely attuned to the environment of Vallisaari Island according to Lawson. There is are inherent contradictions, as Lawson points out. A disconnect between the event’s ecological rhetoric & the execution. A lack of local activist engagement once again contradicting the in-situ & environmental alleged driving factors/uniqueness of this biennial. There are far more contradictions outlined by Lawson, but to conclude the biennial is one of the most environmentall concious of its kind. This speaks volumes to the state of art biennials, if this one, rife with imperfection, contradictions, missteps & more is the best we can do. If any of this seems interesting, or you want to learn more & be frustrated with the state of the world & the art world but also inspired to do more I highly recomend the article!
That’s it from me for now. I hope you see you at the conference & I’ll catch you next time!
