Porous Identities

Description

“All identity is porous and shifting, as long as it is alive.” (3)

In anticipation of Patel Brown opening a new location in Tiohtiá:ke / Mooniyang / Montreal, it seems relevant to reflect on how culture communicates, fragments, reinvents, and evolves. On a local scale, it's apparent that there is extraordinary potential for learning and exchange between the respective cultures of the two cities, where the gallery now has a foothold in Toronto, and now in Montreal. Looking closely at the practices of the gallery's artists, including the exhibiting artists of this inaugural show, we see this question of interconnection is at the heart of many of their reflections and artistic considerations.

Native Art Department International's practice focuses on the idea of permeability between artists towards an evolving shared visual language. Approaching each new series as a collaborative project NADI's two artists, Maria Hupfield & Jason Lujan, move away from a practice based on individuality, and instead promote cooperation and non-competition. With the quadriptych Mino-giizhgad (an anishinaabe word), they continue their current explorations into painting, place, through anishinaabe culture via the Woodlands School aesthetic codes. Working from art history references, they have developed an aesthetic language that speaks to tradition, and reinvention in painting today.

Excerpt from exhibition text by Roxanne Arsenault

Links

https://www.patelbrown.com/identites-poreuses-porous-identities