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The following were the artists in residence in 2018:
Nima Babaie-Azadi (Bleu Shiraz) - singer-song writer, rapper and musician
Toronto
Nime Babaie-Azadi is an Iranian-Canadian singer-songwriter, rapper and musician from Toronto who performs under the stage name “Bleu Shiraz.” His music is a fusion of folk music, bossanova, hip hop and trap, displaying an eclectic and experimental range of ideas and genres. Active since 2013, Babaie-Azadi has opened for Canadian Juno-winning and -nominated artists Kardinal Offishall, Simone Denny and Emmanuel Jal. In 2017, supported by the Cue Art Foundation, he released his first single “Odom,” which reflects the cultural diversity and musical influences prominent in his life. He is currently working toward releasing his second single.
Evin Collis - multi-disciplinary artist and educator
Winnipeg
Website: www.evincollis.com
Evin Collis is a multi-disciplinary artist and educator from Winnipeg. He creates paintings, comics, sculptures and stop-motion animations that investigate the complexities of history, identity, place, survival and the landscape. In 2010, he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Ontario College of Art and Design’s Painting and Drawing program, and most recently (2016) graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Collis has participated in various group exhibitions across Canada, Italy and the United States. In 2015, his solo exhibition entitled “Commerce, Prudence, Industry” opened at Winnipeg’s La Maison des artistes visuels francophones and was later exhibited at TRUCK in Calgary.
Lou Sheppard - artist and educator, specializing in audio, performance and video practices
Halifax
Website: http://lousheppard.com
Lou Sheppard is a Canadian artist working in video, audio and installation practices. A graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Sheppard was awarded the Emerging Atlantic Artist Residency Award by the Hnatyshyn Foundation in 2017. Their work has been exhibited in Canada and internationally, and was included in the first Antarctic Biennale and in the Antarctic Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale. Sheppard’s current practice focuses on processes of translation – particularly translations between meaning systems that do not align in conventional ways. Working with a range of source materials (diagnostic criteria, environmental data, field recordings and field samples), they work in a variety of media and disciplines, producing musical compositions, choreographies, drawings and other poetic gestures.
Fiona Freemark - visual artist with a focus on cut-outs, photography and drawing
Toronto
Website: http://fionafreemark.com
Fiona Freemark is an emerging, photo-based artist who lives and works in Toronto. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in Studio Art from McMaster University in 2012, and is currently represented in Toronto by Parts Gallery. In 2016, she exhibited her first two-person show with Casey Roberts; her first solo exhibition followed in 2017. Freemark’s hand-cut photographs explore themes of identity in relation to environment, as well as the transitory nature of personal memory. She has exhibited at the Love Art Fair and Art Toronto with Parts Gallery, and her work has been included in the Snap! Live Auction (2015/2016), and the Art with Heart Silent Auction (2017).
Meaghan Hyckie - visual artist specializing in drawing
Toronto
Website: http://meaghanhyckie.com
In her drawings of clouds and houses, Meaghan Hyckie deconstructs and visualizes space as a way to reflect on environmental, political and existential ideals and anxieties. Hyckie has participated in residencies at Vermont Studio Centre and the Banff Centre. She is the recipient of several awards, including grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and, in 2018, a Chalmers Arts Fellowship that will fund six months of research into Canada’s Wartime Houses, a consistent icon in her drawings. Hyckie’s work has been exhibited in Canada, the United States and the U.K. The first solo exhibition of her work with Olga Korper Gallery, “The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Atomic Radiation,” opens in March 2018.
Amanda Leduc - author and freelance editor
Hamilton
Website: www.amandaleduc.com/site
Amanda Leduc's stories and essays have appeared in publications across Canada, the United States and the U.K., and have won and been shortlisted for a number of awards, among them the 2016 ShortWorks Fiction Prize, the 2015 StoryQuarterly Fiction Prize, the 2014 CBC Fiction and Creative Nonfiction Prizes, the 2012 TNQ Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest, and the 2008 PRISM International Short Fiction Contest. Her first novel, The Miracles of Ordinary Men, was published in 2013 by Toronto's ECW Press. Her new novel, The Centaur’s Wife, will be published in 2019 by Random House Canada. Leduc lives in Hamilton, where she serves as the Communications and Development Coordinator for the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD) – Canada's first festival for diverse authors and stories.