Humber Galleries presents Facing Future at L Space Gallery from January 22 – March 28, 2024.

Opening Reception - Thursday, February 8th, 5pm-7pm

This group exhibition showcases the work of recent graduates' alongside professional artists' additions to Humber College’s Permanent Art Collection. Works featured include paintings, photography, prints, mixed media and sculpture by artists Kim Dorland, Shellie Zhang, Akshata Naik and several Humber Alumni, featuring six emerging artists, all recent graduates of the Visual and Digital Arts Program; Georgia Acheampong, Jasmine Cowan, Chesley Davis, Ebru Kur, Maya Iraheta and Alyssa Mahon. Facing Future speaks to the realities of the present and the world to come, dealing with themes of the climate emergency, immigration, migration, identity, connection to one’s ancestral land and within their current place in the world. As artists and recent graduates look to the future in a world where optimism is challenged amongst myriad environmental and humanitarian catastrophes, they continue to move forward, telling their stories honestly and fearlessly. 

Featuring works by

Kim Dorland

Kim Dorland pushes the boundaries of representation through an exploration of memory, material, nostalgia, identity and place. Drawing heavily from the history and language of painting, the loose yet identifiable scenes are interjected with areas of heavy abstract impasto. His refusal to remain faithful to one medium or approach plays into the symbiotic nature of his work. He has exhibited globally, including shows in Milan, London, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. His work is featured in the Contemporary Art Foundation (Japan), The Sander Collection (Berlin); Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; Glenbow Museum (Calgary); Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Art Gallery of Alberta, the Audain Art Museum and numerous important private collections.  

View more of Kim's work - Instagram

Shellie Zhang

Shellie Zhang is a multidisciplinary artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada. By uniting both past and present iconography with the techniques of mass communication, language and sign, Zhang explores the contexts and construction of a multicultural society by disassembling approaches to tradition, gender, history, migration and popular culture. She creates images, objects and projects in a wide range of media to explore how integration, diversity and assimilation is implemented and negotiated, and how manifestations of these ideas relate to lived experiences. Zhang is interested in how culture is learned and sustained, and how the objects and iconographies of culture are remembered and preserved. 

View more of Shellie's work - Website | Instagram

Akshata Naik

Akshata Naik is a contemporary visual artist, educator, researcher, and administrator based in Toronto, Canada. Born and raised in Mumbai, Akshata has lived in Vadodara and the UK. Her works reflect upon her lived experiences of moving homes, cities, and countries. Through a lens of immigration, war, displacement, home, and belonging. She works towards co-creating with her viewers an immersive experience and interactive art installations which consist of drawing, painting, ephemeral temporary sculptures, and art in virtual reality. She was an Assistant Professor at Parul University in Gujarat, where she taught drawing and painting in India before moving to Canada. She is a newcomer to Canada and soon after she arrived in 2017, she became active in the arts scene, widely showing her interactive art with several communities across Toronto. 

View more of Akshata's work - Website | Instagram | Facebook

Georgia Acheampong

Georgia Acheampong is a multidisciplinary artist exploring themes of identity, culture and the Black gaze through lived experience and precious aspects of her life; family, friends and community. Her figurative work focuses on portraits of Black women that have taught and guided her. Her intentions are positively representing Black people across the African and Caribbean diaspora through visual storytelling as a means of granting them visibility and reassurance that their stories are being heard and told.

View more of Georgia's work - Instagram

Jasmine Cowan

Jasmine Cowan is an emerging visual artist based in Hamilton, Ontario. She recently graduated from Humber College with a Visual and Digital Arts diploma. Cowan received her business degree from Nipissing University in 2020 while working full-time in the steel fabrication industry. Her art focuses on exploring the place of humanity in the natural world. Her experience in fabrication has provided invaluable connections and allowed Cowan to understand the creation process from a professional perspective. She was awarded ‘Best Post-Secondary Artist’ for her work at the 2022 New Vistas Juried Exhibition. Her collection of work was displayed in the Humber Literary Review Spotlight in the fall 2022 issue. Cowan frequently collaborates with the multidisciplinary artist Ebru Kur. The pair debuted a featured sculpture at the 2022 Mississauga Festival of Trees.

View more of Jasmine's work - Website | Instagram

Chesley Davis

View more of Chesley's work - Website | Instagram

Ebru Kur

Ebru Kur, a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist from Turkey, is known for her diverse body of work spanning mixed-media paintings, digital illustrations, and installations. Her art, featured in group exhibitions across Toronto, Mississauga, and Mulmur, explores profound themes like identity, mental health, and gender roles. Kur's creations, marked by sharp, minimalistic lines, challenge societal norms around "womanhood." In 2023, she gained recognition through the Humber College Nuit Blanche Fellowship, leading to participating in a group exhibition at Humber Galleries. Kur's work is not confined to the canvas; she leverages her platform to advocate for human rights and health equality, challenging stereotypes and prejudices. Through her art, she seeks connection, offering empathy to those grappling with similar struggles, embodying her identity as a global citizen and dismantling external attempts at defining who we are.

View more of Ebru's work - Website | Instagram

Maya Iraheta

Maya Iraheta (also known as MK Irah) is an emerging contemporary artist from Toronto, Canada. Her goal is to promote mindfulness and connection through her work. Iraheta has completed the Visual and Digital Arts program at Humber College. Her current research investigates women and sex in popular media. In the Spring of 2023, she debuted her first collection of artwork at the Humber College L Space Gallery.

View more of Maya's work - Website | Instagram

Alyssa Mahon

Alyssa Mahon is an emerging Barbadian multidisciplinary artist currently based in Toronto who specializes in a variety of traditional media. Inspired by her personal connection to the people and places around her, her work explores various themes in a non-conventional manner with a focus on color, form and texture.

View more of Alyssa's work - Website | Instagram

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