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EXHIBITION: A psionic hope, an astonishing dream

A psionic hope, an astonishing dream

17 MARCH – 29 APRIL, 2023

Opening Reception: Friday, 17 March, 6-8PM

Curated by Philip Leonard Ocampo

Featuring works by Curtia Wright, Camille Jodoin-Eng, Santiago Tamayo Soler, Morris Fox, Tyler Matheson, and Sin Wai Kin

With publication contributions from Sameen Mahboubi, Sonny Assu and Eric Kostiuk Williams

A combination of “psi” (psychic) and “-onics” (from electronics), the term “psionic” is synonymous with psychic abilities, the paranormal, and the physical application of unexplained, unknown phenomena. 

Embraced in the realm of science fiction and comic book lore, the “psionic” speaks to the idea of exceeding the physical and realistic parameters of reality. By the fantastic logic of psionics, one could soar through the sky instead of being tethered to the ground. A superhuman’s might can materialize as explosive, technicolor light. A psionic hope, an astonishing dream places artists working in video, sculpture, painting, and performance in a position of speculative worldbuilding. Artists involved in this exhibition channel psionic and/or superhuman feats, utilizing their respective approaches in art making to forge new worlds, alternative spaces, and moments outside of time and reality through wielding an ethereal might.

Supported by the Ontario Arts Council

Documentation by Darren Rigo

Biographies

Philip Leonard Ocampo

Philip Leonard Ocampo (b.1995) is an artist and arts facilitator based in Tkaronto, Canada. Ocampo’s multidisciplinary practice involves painting, sculpture, writing and curatorial projects. Exploring worldbuilding, radical hope and speculative futures, Ocampo’s work embodies a curious cross between magic wonder and the nostalgic imaginary. Following the tangents, histories and canons of popular culture, Ocampo is interested in how unearthing cultural zeitgeists of past / current times may therefore serve as catalysts for broader conversations about lived experiences; personal, collective, diasporic, etc.

He holds a BFA in Integrated Media (DPXA) from OCAD University (2018) and is currently a Programming Coordinator at Xpace Cultural Centre and one of the four founding co-directors of Hearth, an artist-run collective based in the city.

Curtia Wright

Curtia Wright is a multidisciplinary artist, mural artist and arts educator based in Toronto, Ontario. She received her BFA at OCAD University in the Drawing and Painting program in 2015. Her artwork uses elements of fantasy, mythology and science fiction through a surrealistic lens to transport audiences to her hyper-coloured fantastical worlds. Her narratives center around spirituality and gender while telling stories of Black people of the African diaspora; primarily speaking about her own heritage and history as a Jamaican-Canadian.

Camille Jodoin-Eng

Camille Jodoin-Eng is an artist based in Toronto. She has developed a growing visual language of symbols that reveal the intuitive and indefinite. Jodoin-Eng’s studio practice combines mirrored structures, light, papier-mâché, discarded trash, glass, paint, and ink drawings. She completed her BFA at OCAD University in 2014, and is currently a collaborator of Patel Brown Gallery. Recent solo exhibitions include Convergence at the Frog Pond at Patel Brown Gallery (2022) Earth Shrine at Patel Gallery (2020), and The Gate at Project Gallery (2018).

Santiago Tamayo Soler

Santiago Tamayo Soler (he/him) (Bogotá, Colombia 1990) is a Montréal based multidisciplinary artist working mainly in video, with a background in performance art and film. He holds a BFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University.

Santiago is interested in world-building and juxtaposing digitally built locations with archival footage. To give life to these universes, he creates stories ranging from fiction to historical. Through the use of multiple narrative devices, Tamayo Soler proposes an eco-political examination of Latin America from a diasporic perspective, giving a home to immigrant and queer stories that suggest a radical futuristic fantasy.

Morris Fox

Morris Fox (Tkaronto, 1984) is a queer interdisciplinary artist cruising virtual and ecogothic objects, texts, media. Fox’s shows include My Gay Mediaeval Times (2022), Vestiges&Remains (2022), he has exhibited internationally. As a PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Humanities (Concordia, 2022+), Fox researches emotional material to find affinity in the haunted now.

Tyler Matheson

Tyler Matheson is a queer interdisciplinary research-based artist, educator, and culture worker residing in the territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit. Matheson’s practice is an exploration of personal and shared experiences of feeling queer. His work investigates processes of becoming and adaptation through conceptual and experiential considerations of gender and sexuality. Matheson holds an MFA from the University of Waterloo. Matheson is a resident artist and fellow at Mississauga’s Living Arts Centre, and serves on the Board of Directors at Hamilton Artists Inc. Matheson’s work has been published in Femme Art Review, Off Centre, Peripheral Review and dArt Magazine.

Sameen Mahboubi

Sameen Mahboubi was born on the territories of the Anishinaabe, the Attawandaron, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the Haudenosaunee. Mahboubi currently resides on the land of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Mahboubi is one of four co-founders and directors of Hearth, a roaming curatorial collective and former DIY space in Tkaronto and currently sits on the board of directors of Art Metropole and SAVAC. Mahboubi is interested in ecology, geography and urbanism and the relationships we all share with public space.

Eric Kostiuk Williams

Eric Kostiuk Williams is a cartoonist based in Toronto. His work deploys a fluid, surreal visual aesthetic and explores ideas surrounding queer culture and urban upheaval. Eric’s comics have appeared in Dazed & Confused, The Believer, NOW Magazine, and PEN American; illustration clients include VICE, The Walrus, and the Art Gallery of Ontario. This year, Eric will be releasing 2AM Eternal: A Decade of Queer Nightlife Posters + Comics (Secret Acres) and Criminalized Lives: HIV & Legal Violence with Alex McClelland (Rutgers University Press). Eric is an Eisner, Lambda Literary, and Doug Wright nominee.