Circularity of (un)knowing: An exploration of embodied knowledge in untitled spaces

Jul 2022

Circularity of (un)knowing: An exploration of embodied knowledge in untitled spaces

Conceived by mihyun maria kim and Claire Heidinger

Natia Lemay, Always but Never Dreaming 2022, oil on canvas, 62" x 42"

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Artists: Claire Heidinger, mihyun maria kim, Natia Lemay, Par Nair, Hau Pham

July 30th- August 27th, 2022

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 30th 2-6 PM

Mayten’s Projects is pleased to announce the guest-curated group exhibition Circularity of (un)knowing: An exploration of embodied knowledge in untitled spaces, comprising the work of five emerging IBPOC artists, all women, who either reside in or have a connection to Toronto. These artists exemplify a new generation of figurative art dedicated to diversity and the resultant themes of identity and its embodiment. They bring the excitement of an emerging movement with a promising future.

Although these artists work in a range of media—from ceramics to found objects—this exhibition stresses painting. And the human figure is central (the subjects are primarily women and non-white) to an exhibition exploring the embodiment of knowledge systems via ideologies and internalized cultural values. The gap between ancestral knowledge and current cultural awareness renders the work unknown in a contemporary context. But these five artists reclaim the unknown in a circular dialogue between what has been lost and what is now understood and thus between dual cultural identities and, in turn, between the centre and its margins.

Claire Heidinger is a Chinese-Canadian artist whose research area is diasporic identity. Accordingly, she explores cultural hybridization, specifically a loss of culture and history in migrant bodies.

Par Nair, a mother series, oil on wood panel, series of 12 pieces 6” x 8” each

mihyun maria kim, an interdisciplinary artist, applies sundry materials to develop narratives centring on body memory, untranslatability, and affect that concern, among other things, collective and individual experiences through transference across generations.

Natia Lemay, an Afro–Indigenous interdisciplinary artist and curator of Black, Mi’kmaw, and French descent, draws on childhood trauma—racism, poverty, and addiction. She links trauma to colonialist structures ranging from capitalism to systematic racism, conveyed through the representation of women and the literal representation of Blackness.

Par Nair’s practice explores the dual identities of the migrant/settler through quotidian experience and the artist’s family background. An upcoming installation forges a portrait of her mother through paintings of passport photos, a small mound of turmeric, and a hand-embroidered sarees, together implying a hybrid identity.

Hau Pham is a Vietnamese–Canadian artist who considers Western views of Asian women and the relationship with the object in multidisciplinary work, based on her personal experiences and collective, learned identity. She specifically recalls her adolescent years in her included mixed-media work Trapping a younger version of myself (2022).