Karen Kraven is an artist working with photography, sculpture and installation. Influenced by her father’s (and his father’s) knitting factory, which stopped manufacturing the year that she was born, and by the physical and optical properties of textiles, her practice explores the ways in which clothing registers the body — how the body is unfinished, unstable and like an archive, something that unfolds and changes with time — pointing to the sustained impact of work and wear. 

Recent solo exhibitions have included Le Chiffonier at AXENÉO7 in Gatineau (2022), Hoist at PLATFORM Centre in Winnipeg (2022), Lull at Latitude 53 in Edmonton (2020), Dust Against Dust at Parisian Laundry in Montreal (2019) and Pins & Needles in the Toronto Sculpture Garden (2018). Reviews of Kraven’s work have been published in C Magazine, Canadian Art, Momus and Artforum. Her work was also recently acquired by the Musée d’art Contemporain de Montréal. She is represented by Bradley Ertaskiran in Montreal.

Gareth Long is an artist whose diverse artistic practice unifies around a range of recurring motifs: repetition, seriality, amateurism, translation, collaboration, pedagogy, knowledge transmission and the retelling of narratives. These various themes are mobilized in his work towards a larger project that dismantles notions of authorship and articulates a deep suspicion of originality and a clear investment in the domain of things already said, already written. Often, this has seen him working across the converging roles of artist, curator, archivist, editor, educator and student, as he has sought to further complicate notions of artistic creation and production. These themes are both a central thematic concern and a method in the production of the work.

Many of Long’s projects have often adopted a discursive mode of practice, engaging others in truly interdisciplinary, collaborative and pedagogically focused projects that include installations in the public realm, written texts, book-works, performances and discussions on the topics of cultural production, artistic labour, amateurism, copying and post-studio practice. Long is currently the Director of the Visual Studies program at the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, where he is also an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream. Long has previously taught at numerous universities in North America and Europe. 

Long’s solo exhibitions have been staged at venues including Kunsthalle Wien, Austria; the Blaffer Museum, USA; the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge; Oakville Galleries, Oakville; Kate Werble Gallery, New York; Michael Benevento, Los Angeles; TORRI, Paris; SpazioA, Pistoia; Galerie Bernhard, Zurich; Super Dakota, Brussels; and Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto. His work has been shown at galleries and institutions such as MoMA PS1, Long Island City; Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Denver; The Power Plant, Toronto; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal; Artists Space, New York; Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York; Flat Time House, London; Drawing Room, London; Spike Island, Bristol; Wiels, Brussels; Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg; Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe; and Kunstinstituut Melly (formerly Witte de With), Rotterdam.

He holds an Honours BA in Visual Studies and Classical Civilizations (2003) from the University of Toronto, and a MFA in Sculpture (2007) from Yale University.

Jean-Paul Kelly is an artist whose activities across various media, presented in exhibition and screening contexts, pose questions about the limits of representation by examining complex associations in the production, reception, and circulation of nonfiction material. His work has been presented in solo exhibitions at VOX Centre de l’image contemporaine (Montréal, 2019), Plug In ICA (Winnipeg, 2019), Delfina Foundation (London, 2016), Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, 2014), Scrap Metal Gallery (Toronto, 2013), and Gallery TPW (Toronto, 2008). 

Kelly’s work has been included in group exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Toronto (GTA24: The Greater Toronto Art Triennial, 2024), Badischer Kunstverein (Karlsruhe, 2021), Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides (Saint-Jérôme, 2016), Southwark Park Galleries (London, 2016), Oakville Galleries (2015), Mercer Union (Toronto, 2010 and 2014) and The Power Plant (Toronto, 2011). His videos have screened at Anthology Film Archives, The Brakhage Center Symposium, Canada House (London), Courtisane Festival, The Flaherty Film Seminar, Film at Lincoln Center, International Film Festival Rotterdam, New York Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and TIFF Cinematheque. Kelly received the 2014 Kazuko Trust Award from Film at Lincoln Center and the 2015 Images Festival Award. 

He is an Assistant Professor and previous Program Director of Visual Studies, the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. A graduate of the Master of Visual Studies program at the Daniels Faculty (MVS, Studio Art, 2005), he has taught studio and seminar courses in the Visual Studies program as well as at the School of Image Arts, Toronto Metropolitan University and OCAD University. 

From 2009 to 2012, Kelly was Artistic Director of Trinity Square Video (Toronto) where he curated exhibitions including artists Abbas Akhavan, Jennifer Chan, Harry Dodge, Alison Kobayashi, Alex Morrison, Lisa Oppenheim, Andrew James Paterson, Paulette Phillips, Steve Reinke, James Richards, Ming Wong, and Jin-Me Yoon.

Mitchell Akiyama is a Toronto-based scholar, composer, and artist. His eclectic body of work includes writings about plants, animals, cities, and sound art; scores for film and dance; and objects and installations that trouble received ideas about history, perception, and sensory experience. Akiyama’s output has appeared in commensurately miscellaneous sources such as Leonardo Music Journal, ISEA, Sonar Music Festival (Barcelona), Raster-Noton Records (Berlin), Gendai Gallery (Toronto), and in many other exhibitions, publications, and festivals. He holds a PhD in communications from McGill University, an MFA from Concordia University, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Visual Studies at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto.

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Charles Stankievech is an artist redefining “fieldwork” at the convergence of geopolitics, deep ecologies and sonic resonances. From the Arctic’s northernmost settlement to the depths of the Pacific Ocean, Stankievech’s practice uncovers the paradoxes of our existence on the planet by engaging with the imperceptible. His diverse body of work has been shown internationally at institutions including the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna; MASS MoCA; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal; and the Venice and SITE Santa Fe Biennales, among others. 

His writing has been published by Sternberg, e-flux, Verso, MIT, and Princeton Architectural Press, and he lectured at dOCUMENTA (13) and the 8th Berlin Biennale. He has participated in such residencies as The Banff Centre, Fogo Island, Marfa Fieldwork, Atlantic Centre for the Arts, Museumsquartier Vienna and the Canadian Department of Defence. His comprehensively researched curatorial projects include Magnetic Norths and CounterIntelligence—both critically acclaimed as the top Canadian exhibitions of 2010 and 2014 respectively. In 2015 he won the OAAG award for best solo exhibition Monument as Ruin and was shortlisted twice for the Sobey Art Prize in 2011 (Westcoast) and 2016 (Ontario). Since 2015, he is an editor of the peer-reviewed Afterall Journal (U. of Chicago Press) and was the co-founder/director of K. Verlag Press, Berlin. In 2007 he was a founding faculty member of the Yukon School of Visual Arts in Dawson City, Canada (under joint governance by the Indigenous sovereign nation of Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in). 

From 2015 to 2021, Stankievech was the Director of Visual Studies at the the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, where he is currently an Associate Professor. In 2022-23, he was also a visiting research professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Tokyo.

Sue Lloyd works across media: photo-based, collage, drawing, painting, text, writing, lettering. She works in both analogue and digital media. She is a visual artist and a writer.

Lloyd has received Arts Council grants at all three levels. She has shown at, amongst others, A-Space and Gallery TPW (Toronto), Platform (Winnipeg), Kamloops and Presentation House Gallery (Vancouver), in Kingston and Rochester. She has shown at Fleischman Gallery (Rochelle Holt) and at AIRD Gallery and various projects/exhibitions, working with curator Carla Garnet. Lloyd was represented by SPIN Gallery in Toronto, and was a member of artist collectives, both project-based (Out of the Frame, GIANT-S) and ongoing collectives (Red Head), in Toronto. She holds a CYW from George Brown, an Honours BA from University of Toronto and an MFA from York University.

Born and raised in Toronto, Lloyd has a long-term commitment to the city, local culture, community, and indie sensibilities. She has experience in alternative education, artist-run centres, and collectives. Her work and views are informed by and rooted in her experiences in alternative education, queer communities, and issues of neurodivergence and disability.

http://www.susanhobbs.com/artist/30059260-shirley-wiitasalo

Shirley Wiitasalo received a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2011. The Canada Council for the Arts, which grants the Governor General’s Awards, commended her art, citing her "highly celebrated talent as a contemporary painter" that "has received critical and public attention throughout her career." Undaunted by the medium’s rich history, Wiitasalo creates work that is unpredictable, challenging, and new. From her evocative imagery to her recent explorations that employ a more reductive vocabulary, Wiitasalo is interested in unravelling the mystery of painting itself. Her paintings have been exhibited in solo exhibitions at The Power Plant in Toronto (2000), the Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland (1993) and the Art Gallery of Ontario (1987). She has also participated in several important group exhibitions across Canada, including at the National Gallery of Canada (1989), and internationally at the Museum Haus Lange in Krefeld, Germany (1994), the Fodor Museum in Amsterdam (1984), 49th Parallel in New York (1982) and the National Museum of Art in Tokyo (1981). Wiitasalo received the Toronto Arts Award for Visual Art in 1993 and the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation 1998 Annual Prize. Her work is in many major national public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada.