Ville: Montreal

lenore claire herrem

Lenore Claire Herrem is a multidisciplinary artist from Saskatoon-based in Tio’Tia:Ke/Montreal since 2013. She has training and a BFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Saskatchewan, and currently works in a variety of digital formats including animation, web series, portraiture, and graphic design. Precious Puppies is one of her larger current projects, encompassing an animated series, clothing brand, zines, stickers, and other hand-crafted merchandise. The series began as experimental mini-episodes in 2018, and in 2020 she produced the first full season of the show. She is currently in production of the second season, with the aid of MAI’s alliance program. The Sandy Bridges Show is another multi-faceted project of Lenore’s, produced as both a web series and live event. Sandy Bridges has been an alter-ego of hers since 2009- emcee, stand-up comedienne, lifestyle coach, and more. Lenore is also a community events organizer and co-founded Taking What We Need in 2015, which is a grassroots fundraising and community organization for Montreal’s low-income transfeminine community. Taking What We Need is an informal  volunteer-run community group dedicated to helping trans women, trans-feminine (AMAB) and two spirit people get what they need through discretionary funding.

Photo Credit: Sarah Rainville  

⇒ https://www.lenorech.ca/

jongwook park

South Korea-born Jongwook Park holds an MFA in Communication Design from Sangmyung University (Seoul) and a diploma in Animation Art and Design from LaSalle College (Montreal). Living in a foreign land forced him out of his psychological comfort zone, a disorientation that led him to objectively re-examine the familiar. His artwork draws on traditional art practices while adopting new techniques and is distinguished by his unique treatment of line drawing. His work has been presented in exhibitions and publications in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, as well as South Korea, Japan, and the United States.

⇒ https://jon-p.weebly.com/

hea r. kim

South Korean-born, Canadian immigrant Hea R. Kim explores overlapping technical art processes within fibers and sculptures. Visually inspired by her Korean heritage, Kim’s explorations share elements of childhood recollections and imagination. With her formal education in South Korea and her in-depth studies in material processes and contemporary art in Montreal, Kim aims to visualize the innocent period when days are filled with infinite possibility, indulgence, and mystery. Kim has exhibited her works across Canada and South Korea. She had a solo exhibition Vomiting Flowers at MAI in 2019. This exhibition will be presented again at Eastern Edge Gallery in St. John’s Newfoundland in March 2022.

atif siddiqi

Atif Siddiqi studied fashion design in Los Angeles and video production/performance in Montreal where they live currently. Their work revolves around gender identity, ecology, justice, notions of personal transformation and metamorphosis by incorporating elements of symbolism and iconography. Their artistic body of work includes the long form experimental documentaries, Solo (winner best documentary) and M! Mom, Madonna and Me. Audio recordings of Amethyst’s Universe, Firefly, and Tranie Tronic. Various other short form videos like Unique Mythology, Erotic, Exotic, and performances of Alienation are also part of their portfolio.

Photo credit : Eisha Marjara

⇒ http://www.atifsiddiqi.com/

alida esmail

Alida Esmail (she/her) is a Tio’tia:ke/Montreal-based dance and theatre artist born in Burlington, Ontario. She holds a BFA in Contemporary Dance from Concordia University, a Certificate in Movement Arts and Mixed Media from the Attakkalari Centre in India, and a MSc in Rehabilitation Sciences from Université de Montréal. She is also trained in International Ballroom/Latin dance which she currently uses to develop and spread Liquid Lead Dancing, a gender-neutral approach to partner dancing. Alida’s identity as a second generation Canadian-Muslim, bilingual anglophone, and female of colour living in Quebec’s socio-political climate is the backdrop for her choreographic work. As she discovers how to find a sense of belonging, she has also begun to uncover the unspoken loss, erasure, trauma, and privilege from her ancestral lineage passing from India to Africa to Canada.

She has recently created a Collective with Sophia Wright and with the support of Alliance they are building a collaboration with Deaf theatre artist, Hodan Youssouf, to discover her relationship to the above themes. The Collective has also been supported by the Plateau Mont-Royal, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, Théâtre aux Écuries, the Maison de la culture du Plateau Mont-Royal and PTC (Playwrights Theatre Centre) Vancouver. Alongside Alida’s performance career she is also involved in innovative Arts and Health research which has been published in reputable peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Photo credit: Douglas Rideout 

⇒ http://www.alidaesmail.ca/

hoor malas

Hoor Malas is the recipient of the joint mentorship with the Conseil des Arts of Montreal for 21-22 in dance.

Hoor Malas is a Syrian dance and movement artist recently moved to Montréal.

Started at the age of eight in the Ballet School in Damascus. Got her B.A in dance from the Higher Institute of Arts in Damascus-Syria and a diploma in contemporary dance from The Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds-UK. She participated in many workshops in Europe and the UK. She has been teaching contemporary dance techniques for ten years in the Art conservatory in Damascus. 

She started choreographing in 2014-15.

In her work, she dives into social matters influenced by personal experiences.  Some of her latest choreographic work Regression (2016), Three Seconds (2018), Hanging (2019), Dust (2020-21) et sa nouvelle pièce solo If my body had a name that are works in progress.  

⇒ https://hoormalas.com/

katey wattam

Katey Wattam is a director and creator of mixed English, Irish, Franco-Ontarian, and Anishinaabe ancestry. She is drawn to stories that connect with her ways of knowing while allowing space to explore and experiment with theatrical forms through an Indigenous lens. Through her corporeal based practice, she mines bodies for their blood memory, uncovering experiences and traumas to reclaim and decolonizing bodies, minds, and spaces. She is an alum of McGill University, MAI Alliance Program, and Black Theatre Workshop’s Artist Mentorship Program. Katey is currently a part of Why Not Theatre’s ThisGen Fellowship. Within Alliance, Katey Wattam is developing a theatrical adaptation of Métis poet and novelist Katherena Vermette’s river woman, using language through the body to explore the epicenter of colonial grief through decolonial love.

 

tanha gomes

Tanha Gomes is the recipient of 2020-21 PWM + MAI joint support for artists* interested in working with a dramaturg.

Visual artist and cultural worker, Tanha Gomes has worked in several artist-run centres and art galleries in Montreal. Since 2011, she has been involved in initiatives that bring art to communities with people of all ages.

Born into a multicultural family in Brazil, she moved to Canada as a teenager and has since lived between these two worlds. Her immigration experience leads her to explore the links between displacement, death and memory. Fascinated by the traces of personal history on people’s bodies and trajectories, she uses photography in order to conduct intimate and delicate explorations of identity. She seeks to create contemplative works using time as raw material, often with long exposures that require bodies to remain still. Tanha’s images are marked by a performative aspect, through simple imprints or a promise of movement. Recently graduated from a master’s degree in Arts Education, she aspires to develop her artistic practice around cultural identity.

This partnership is supported by the Government of Quebec and the City of Montreal as part of l’Entente sur le Développement Culturel, and by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Photo credit: Daniele Barroso

marbella carlos

Marbella Carlos is a Manila-born visual artist based in Montreal, Canada. She holds an MA in Creative Arts Therapies (Art Therapy) from Concordia University, a BFA in Visual Arts (With Distinction) from the University of Calgary and a B.Ed. in Visual Arts Education (With Distinction) from the University of Toronto and has participated in artist residencies with Artscape Toronto and the Calgary Allied Arts Foundation. Her recent work focuses on using burlesque under the moniker Joy Rider as a medium to exercise control over one’s body and sexuality. By doing so, burlesque affords her the opportunity to create captivating comedic vignettes of performance art,  while interrogating issues such as the complexity of acculturation as an immigrant settler living in the diaspora. Marbella won the prestigious Bunny Competition at the Edmonton International Burlesque Festival. Her project within Alliance 2020-21 uses performance to create interpretations of pre-colonial folklore creatures from the Philippines. 

cécilia bracmort

Cécilia Bracmort is a French and Canadian artist/curator who favours the mixing of genres, transdisciplinarity and experimentation in her art and curatorial practice.

Through her multifocal vision linked to her different “layers of identity”, Cecilia Bracmort’s projects create bridges between themes to which she feels connected, such as history, identity, ecology and spirituality.

Through her artistic and curatorial work, she wants to open the door to other perceptions of the world to emerge, to encourage people to think outside the “white” box and to invite them to see the world from new angles.

In 2019, she curated the exhibition Reclaming My Place at Warren G Flowers Art Gallery at Dawson College, showcasing the works of artists Shanna Strauss, Cedar-Eve and Sharon Norwood and calling for greater visibility of BIPOC women artists in the arts community. Supported by Alliance in 2018-29, this exhibition will be presented again in 2021 at Lethbridge Center. Her new Alliance project aims at improving the visibility of her profile in the visual arts scene and refining her communication skills.