U.S.-based artists featured in world-class BIPOC collection

OCAD University has launched Project 31: New Futures, the hottest ticket to see amazing works by nearly 40 BIPOC artists available in silent and live online auctions.


Toronto, Ontario, June 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- U.S.-based artists Aaron Li-Hill and Sanaz Mazinani are among the nearly 40 artists whose works are being showcased in a world-class online collection of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) artists from the OCAD University community. They join American-born Kathy Moscou who now teaches at the University as well as Gary Taxali, a well-known contemporary fine artist and illustrator.

This collection is part of a unique and immersive experience called Project 31: New Futures that seeks to shine a light on BIPOC artists while raising funds to support BIPOC students at the art and design university located in Toronto – this is the hottest ticket in town to see amazing works by emerging and established BIPOC artists.

Works are featured in a silent auction that is now open until June 30. A live online auction will be held on June 24 on the ohyay platform.

Featured artists include

Aaron Li-Hill is a visual artist based in Brooklyn who employs painting, illustration, stenciling, and sculptural elements within his art. With a background in graffiti and mural painting and a degree in Fine Arts, his works range from smaller multiples to enormous murals that explore industrialization, scientific breakthrough, man versus nature and information saturation.

Kathy Moscou’s background is eclectic and unique, merging visual arts and health. Her lived experience, born as an African American, informs her art, with a focus on Black cultural aesthetics, contemporary design for social justice, commitment to the Black community and choice of research, which focuses on equity and empowerment of Black and Indigenous youth in the United States, Canada and across the African diaspora.

Sanaz Mazinani is an artist and educator based between San Francisco and Toronto. Her work explores how repetitions and patterns make information legible, transform seeing into knowing, with the possibility of altering people’s worldview. Her work has appeared in solo exhibitions at institutions, including the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Triton Museum of Art (Santa Clara), San Francisco Camerawork, West Vancouver Museum, Ab/Anbar (Tehran, Iran), and Asian Art Museum (San Francisco). 

Gary Taxali is a Canadian contemporary fine artist and illustrator known for his iconic retro style pop art and illustrations and is recognized as one of the top 100 illustrators in the world in “100 Illustrators” by art book publisher Taschen (2017).  His work intersects fine art, pop culture, design and 1930s style iconography, graphics and typography. 

Anishinaabe artist Michael Belmore’s work and processes speak about the environment, about land, about water, and what it is to be Anishinaabe. He has exhibited nationally and internationally and is represented in the permanent collections of various institutions and numerous private collections, including the National Museum of the American Indian – Smithsonian Museum, National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Centre in New York City, the National Gallery of Canada and Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).

 

Attachments

 
Forever in the Sky by San Francisco-based artist Sanaz Mazinani  is a pigment print on archival paper (edition 2/5, 2012/2019). Size: 20” x 20” Strong Black Woman #1 is a mixed media work by artist Kathy Moscou (wood, glass, oil and cowrie shell). Size: 24” x 24”

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