Annie Wong
Annie Wong is a multidisciplinary artist, community organizer, and writer. Wong uses various platforms of participation, social engagement, and collaboration to explore the intersections of the poetic and political in everyday life. Wong has been presented by The Gardiner Museum, The Art Gallery of Ontario, Gallery 44, Intersite: Visual Arts Festival (Calgary, AB), and Third Space (Saint John, NB). Wong’s writing can be found in Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Canadian Art, Performance Research Journal (UK), and MICE Magazine. She holds a BA with Honors in English and a MA in Communication and Culture at York University. | anniewong.co
Diana Reyes
Diana Reyes aka FLY LADY DI is a Toronto-native visual artist known best for live paintings in New York. Her paintings garnered much attention and international press. Events like “Donuts are Forever 2″ (Tribute to J.Dilla), Complex Magazine’s “Hip Rock Reggae” (featuring other acts like Kid Cudi and Mickey Factz), Art Battles and AfroPunk all helped her gain press in magazines such as Audrey Magazine (LA), TRACE (NYC) in three consecutive issues, YRB (NYC) where she was featured in both 2008 and 2010, LUSSW (Tokyo, Japan) and Lady Caprice (Paris, France), and the Village Voice. Her popularity also soared online, being featured in such online publications as Honey Magazine, Clutch Magazine, Philippine News, Black Star News, Bandit Magazine (based in Paris) and Swizz Beatz’ Swizz World where she was listed as a ‘Popular Post’ for 2 consecutive weeks. Her latest art showings were at the Art Gallery of Ontario for Manifesto’s All Art Everything as well she performed a live painting on MuchMusic’s RapCity for Manifesto’s 5-year Anniversary. Diana continues to be recognized for her visual arts skills and is currently embarking upon new projects with various organizations. Diana has also taught visual arts with non-profit organizations such as UNITY Charity and Art Starts TO to name a few. She loves to share and teach her art knowledge to the youth – in order to enlighten and empower them through self-expression. Di hopes to continue to spread her artistic passions worldwide. | flyladydi.com
Jordan Tannahill
Jordan Tannahill is a Canadian writer and artist working across multiple disciplines. His work has been presented in theatres, festivals, and galleries across Canada and internationally. In 2016, he was described by The Toronto Star as being "widely celebrated as one of Canada’s most accomplished young playwrights, filmmakers and all-round multidisciplinary artists", and by the Montreal Gazette as "the hottest name in Canadian theatre." His plays have been translated into multiple languages and widely honoured in Canada and abroad. He is a three-time Governor General's Award finalist in English Drama, and won the prize in 2014 for Age of Minority: Three Solo Plays. His plays, performance texts, and productions have been presented across the world at venues including at The Young Vic Theatre (London), Woolly Mammoth Theatre (Washington DC), The Kitchen (NYC), Volkstheater (Vienna), Canadian Stage (Toronto), The National Arts Centre of Canada (Ottawa), Sadler's Wells (London), The Lincoln Centre (NYC), The Edinburgh International Festival, and on London's West End. His books include the autofiction novel Liminal (House of Anansi, 2018), and Theatre of the Unimpressed: In Search of Vital Drama (Coach House Press, 2015). From 2008 - 2016, Jordan wrote and directed plays through his theatre company Suburban Beast. The company’s work was staged in theatres, art galleries, and found spaces, and often with non-traditional collaborators like night-shift workers, frat boys, preteens, and employees of Toronto's famed Honest Ed's discount emporium. From 2012 - 2016, in collaboration with William Ellis, Jordan ran the alternative art space Videofag out of their home in Toronto’s Kensington Market neighbourhood. Over the four years of its operation, Videofag became an influential hub for queer and avant-garde work in Canada. As a filmmaker, Jordan's work has been presented in festivals and galleries the world over. His virtual reality performance Draw Me Close, produced by the National Theatre (UK) and the National Film Board of Canada, was presented at both the Tribeca Film Festival and Venice Biennale in 2017. The piece will run at London's Young Vic Theatre in January 2019. Jordan has also worked in dance, choreographing and performing with Christopher House in Marienbad for the Toronto Dance Theatre in 2016 and writing the text for Akram Khan's celebrated final solo Xenos, currently touring internationally. | jordantannahill.com
Lido Pimienta
Lido Pimienta is a Toronto-based, Colombian-born interdisciplinary musician and artist-curator. She has performed, exhibited and curated around the world since 2002, exploring the politics of gender, race, motherhood, identity and the construct of the Canadian landscape in the Latin American diaspora and vernacular. Her most recent album La Papessa was self-released, and the winner of the 2017 Polaris Music Prize. Currently, Pimienta is working on a new album titled Miss Colombia and wrapping up the international tour of La Papessa, while exhibiting her artwork and raising her three kids. | lidopimienta.bandcamp.com
Liz Ikiriko
Liz is a biracial Nigerian Canadian independent photo editor and curator. She is an MFA candidate in the Criticism and Curatorial Practice graduate program at OCAD University. Born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan - she now lives and works in Toronto with her husband and 2 kids. As a photo editor - Liz has worked on a number of publications including The Ethnic Aisle, Toronto Life, Maclean's, Canadian Business, Today's Parent and AWAY magazines. She's juried awards and reviewed portfolios at OCAD University, Ryerson University, Scotiabank CONTACT Photo Festival and the Flash Forward Annual Competition.
As a curator she has worked with Wedge Curatorial Projects, The National Music Centre and Sheridan College. Her curatorial work is centred on the practice of care, addressing hidden histories and foregrounding platforms for underprivileged artists. | lizikiriko.com
Michèle Pearson Clarke
Michèle Pearson Clarke is a Trinidad-born artist who works in photography, film, video and installation. Using archival, performative and process-oriented strategies, her work explores the personal and political possibilities afforded by considering experiences of emotions related to longing and loss. Her work has been shown across Canada, the United States, and Europe, including in exhibitions at The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2018); ltd los angeles (2018); Studio XX, Montreal (2017); and Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto (2015); as well as in screenings at Ann Arbor Film Festival (2017); Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2016); International Film Festival Rotterdam (2015); and International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2015).
Based in Toronto, she holds an MSW from the University of Toronto, and she received her MFA from Ryerson University in 2015, when she was awarded both the Ryerson University Board of Governors Leadership Award and Medal and the Ryerson Gold Medal for the Faculty of Communication + Design. From 2016-2017, Clarke was artist-in-residence at Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, and she was the EDA Artist-in-Residence in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media at the University of Toronto Scarborough for the 2018 winter semester. Clarke’s writing has been published in Canadian Art and Transition Magazine, and she is a 2018 TEDxPortofSpain speaker. She is currently teaching in the Documentary Media Studies program at Ryerson University. | michelepearsonclarke.com