Marigold Santos, “Tiffany she/her/siya,” 2024, digital photo mounted on acrylic, 16" x 24" (courtesy of Art Gallery of Southern Manitoba)
Marigold Santos at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba in Brandon
A new exhibition exploring the ways we cover our skin — from clothing to tattoos — has opened at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba in Brandon, Man.
Marigold Santos, of armour bespoke, of fabric, of skin, of within / binubuo ng pasadyang proteksyon, ng tela, ng balat, at ng kalooban, is on view now through Aug. 24.
Santos moved to Canada from the Philippines as a young child in 1988. She now lives and practices in Calgary. She holds an MFA from Concordia University and a BFA from the University of Calgary, and has had her work shown in exhibitions at Esker Foundation, the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Dunlop Gallery and Fondation Phi. She was also one of the five artists awarded the 2020 MNBAQ Contemporary Art Award. She is represented by Norberg Hall and by Patel Brown.
Santos says her work is about looking at the world from a diaspora lens, drawing on a rich visual vocabulary influenced by “folktales of my early youth, sensorial connections via taste, smell and texture, Filipino traditions both commonplace and revered, and the geography and landscape both of my homeland and present environments, real or imagined.”
“She’s a world-builder, who understands at a deep level how the mythologies of ourselves and our cultures are as much a part of our real, lived landscape as the ground and sky are,” says AGSM curator Lucie Lederhendler.
Chin Hua Catherine Dong, “Skin Deep No. 8,” 2019, colour photography with an augmented reality component (photo courtesy of Arsenal Contemporary Art, Montreal)
Digital Art Biennial at Arsenal Contemporary Art in Montreal
What’s true? What’s not? Where do people fit in a world of AI, fake news and screens everywhere? The Biennale Elektra: Illusion seeks to reflect on these issues during the seventh International Digital Art Biennial, on now through July 21 at Arsenal Contemporary Art in Montreal.
More than 30 artists from three continents are participating in this year’s biennial. The largest exhibition dedicated to digital art in North America, it is curated by Alain Thibault and promises to be “a reflection on the post-factual, post-truth and alternative reality era of current society,” according to the release.
Participating Canadian artists include Kent Monkman, Adad Hannah, Adam Basanta, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Cinzia Campolese, David Rokeby, Nicolas Baier, Timothy Thomasson and others. ■
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