Pony Da Look opening for Florence and the Machine at the Mod Club, Toronto, in 2009 Akimbo is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2024 with a monthly series that draws on our rich archive of clients, critics, and contributors to reflect on the accomplishments of the past and look toward future possibilities. Our fourth installment features Hamilton-based artist Amy Bowles, who, on May 8, 2008, was the second person to contribute to our newly launched Hit List feature. Amy Bowles, Fern and Fungus, 2023, glazed ceramic sculpture from The Offering at Paul Petro Contemporary Art (photo: LF Docum ..read more

By Yuluo Anita Wei After clocking out on a busy Friday evening, a stranger’s T-shirt caught my eye as we both waited for the light to change. “OUT OF OFFICE.” I barely had time to process it before I thought to myself, “That resonates. Where can I buy one?” T-shirts are like walking billboards that honk messages down the streets, facilitating self-expression and engagement with the surroundings. I once had a passion for collecting T-shirts with various slogans. Some artists, like Holly Ward and Kevin Schmidt, have evolved their practice by turning these garments into sculptures. Holly Ward &a ..read more

Exhibition view, De la vie au lit, 2024, Galerie de l’UQAM (© Galerie de l’UQAM) De la vie au lit is a group show I curated at Galerie de l’UQAM in Montreal that brought together works by Liz Crow, Salima Punjani, Octavia Rose Hingle, Rea Sweets, Tamyka Bullen, and Cindy Baker. The exhibition is part of a literary and artistic tradition of producing art from a bed or room (of one’s own) and, more specifically, from bedridden, chronically sick, disabled, or Deaf artists. Félix Vallotton, La paresse, 1896, woodcut on paper Time spent in bed, whether temporary, occasional, or permanent, of ..read more

Andrew Tay, Artistic Director of Toronto Dance Theatre, is a multi-hyphenate performance curator, choreographer, and DJ. His creative practice seeks to destabilize pre-conceived notions of queerness, spirituality, and identity politics through choreographic strategies. His work, Make Banana Cry, a subversive runway performance that troubles the Western gaze by confronting Asian stereotypes, is currently touring internationally. He was the first curator of the CCOV in Montreal, received the Risk and Innovation Award from the Summerworks Performance Festival, and was named on the list of “50 un ..read more

By Lin Li The Chinese-Canadian artist Xiangmei Su recently transformed the space of Canton-Sardine into an intertwined and captivating labyrinth with two immersive site-specific installations. The solo exhibition Here—-There is curated by the gallery’s director, Steven Dragonn. With these works Su primarily uses cotton threads, a material deeply intertwined with the artist’s family history and her birthplace, to narrate her journey from China to Canada. It also offers visitors a deep sense of introspection and an unwavering exploration of her evolving identities, as well as a celebration of mu ..read more

Judah Iyunade is a Nigerian, lens-based artist. Drawing on his Nigerian heritage, his photographs and films explore history, sexuality, identity, and love as a way of centering the African diasporic experience. His unique style regularly incorporates elements of West African studio photography in portraits that capture vulnerable and intimate moments. In 2020, he was one of the PLATFORM Photography Award winners. His solo exhibition Alara opens on March 30 at the Centre for Cultural & Artistic Practices. Fragile Legacies: The Photographs of Solomon Osagie Alonge I recently got this boo ..read more

Akimbo is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2024 with a monthly series that draws on our rich archive of clients, critics, and contributors to reflect on the accomplishments of the past and look toward future possibilities. Our third installment features Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art. Plug In ICA’s Executive Director Allison Yearwood answered our questions. Plug In ICA building at 460 Portage Avenue What are some of the gallery’s highlights from the past twenty-five years? Stan Douglas, Luanda-Kinshasa, 2013, video still from film installation One highlight that may go unnoticed b ..read more

By oualie frost As a little mixed kid, I’d pray to have darker skin like the beautiful Black women in my life, but with straight “white woman” hair because I was bullied for my frizzy curls and didn’t see many Black women with “natural” hair anyways. Karin Jones’ exhibition The Golden Section, now on view at Art Mûr, examines this desire for hair in proximity to whiteness, as well as the consumption involved in seeking to reach a Eurocentric standard of beauty. Karin Jones, The Golden Section 8 (detail), 2021, commercially available human hair extensions, vinyl mesh Past two other exhibi ..read more

Ava Katz is a queer artist completing their BFA in sculpture at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Their practice expands upon the inherent androgyny and fluidity of organic forms, participating in a larger dialogue around queer ecology and the naturalization of trans and intersex bodies. Inspired by the resilience and adaptability of the flora and fauna around them, their forms emerge in the space between vulnerability and self-preservation, fear and desire. Their work is currently exhibited in Residue: The Power of Thing at the Michael O’Brian Exhibition Commons in Vancouver until Mar ..read more

By Chukwudubem Ukaigwe Some systems take off perpetually into new inventions, bouncing away with intent, beyond approaching intervals, skipping measurements, and impending horizons. Some other systems repeat, returning in different colours of remembrances, or echo spatially through an inheritance of shape/form, shifting in and out, reincarnating at approximate coordinates within a field. The group exhibition To Broadcast is to Scatter presented a system of systems by artists seth cardinal dodginghorse, Cadence Planthara, Diana Sofia Lozano, Natalia Villanueva Linares, June Canedo de Souza, and ..read more