Writing from here

About Letters Final Letters & Community Calls to Action Letterheads

Latitude 53 and the Mitchell Art Gallery have partnered to commission a series of personal letters by and for emergent artists in Edmonton. The purpose of these letters is to explore the critical issues of community, connection, and artists’ relationships to both from local, personal and interpersonal viewpoints. Letters will be released as they are written and responded to in real time. The initial intention was for the invited artists to share ideas with each other, and generously allow us to read and listen as they reflect on the intertwining ideas between even the birds are walking, curated by Noor Bhangu, Grasping at the Roots, curated by Christina Battle, and more. With the outbreak of COVID-19 and the need for social distancing, community and connection are more needed than ever and the project has continued to expand. In Writing From Here II each artist will extend an invitation to a community member to write a letter so we can expand the sharing of ideas, as we all process ways to nurture connection at a physical distance.

Artists

Michelle Campos Castillo

Michelle Campos Castillo is a Salvadoran multidisciplinary artist living in Edmonton. She has completed several public art projects with the Edmonton Arts Council, including Colour Alley and the Kennendale Facility’s truck art. Her collaboration with Anthea Black, titled Loteria, is part of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts collection. A frequent collaborator with artist Vivek Shraya, she has provided art direction and photography for Vivek's Trisha photo series, her Lambda Literary Award-nominated book, What I Love About Being QUEER, and logo design for VS Books, the artist's imprint with Arsenal Pulp Press. Michelle’s most recent work is Platanos, a set of three sculptures on permanent display at Belvedere Transit Centre in Edmonton.

Max Elwood

Max Elwood is an emerging queer visual artist and activist who primarily works within their local 2SLGBTQ+ and disabled communities. They are passionate about engaging with and building community in their work, particularly through hosting conversations and facilitating workshops. Max seeks to find and create space for trans and disabled bodies in art as they explore themes of community, family, and intimacy. In exploring these themes, they primarily work in printmaking, textiles, installation, and participatory activities. They are currently a first year Fine Arts student at MacEwan University.  

Hilary Hex

Hilary Hex is an emerging artist who has finished their Fine Arts Diploma from MacEwan University in 2020. Their practice often encompasses identity and trauma, recently with a focus on the intergenerational trauma and sexual violence. Their work on identity, though often including their own as a fat queer human, strives to include the complex and rich lives of those around them. Hilary works to create an open and approachable dialogue on difficult topics in hopes to make art accessible and volunteers at many local institutions in hopes to make this a reality.

Sanaa Humayun

Sanaa Humayun (she/her) is completing a BFA at the Alberta University of the Arts, the Digital Program Coordinator at Latitude 53, Director of Coven Gallery, and an emerging visual artist residing in Mohkinstsis, trying to make art and make space for marginalized folks. She is involved in Latitude 53 & the Mitchell Art Gallery’s project Writing From Here, and is, along with Kiona Ligtvoet, co-founder of Making Space- a peer mentorship group for emerging visual artists that decenters whiteness. She has exhibited most recently at Marion Nichols Gallery, Lowlands Gallery and Latitude 53. Her art explores themes surrounding her identity as a queer, fat, woman of colour, and her right to take up space without facing violence. She is a first generation Canadian attempting to navigate the complicated politics of existing between two worlds, and trying to understand a Canadian identity as a woman of colour. She is passionate about being an advocate in treaty 7 territory and fostering community, through means of art and conversation.

Ashna Jacob

Ashna Jacob is a designer and visual artist based in Edmonton. A recent Bachelor of Design graduate from the University of Alberta, she primarily focuses on printmaking with a touch of intermedia and performance. Her practice broadly deals with interpersonal relationships, with performances focusing on dependency, trust, and kindness. Her past performances have also spoken about identity politics and the influence of media and mass marketing. She is interested in making the concept of privilege visible and tangible through her work. Jacob has participated in a number of group shows including, Nextfest Emerging Arts Festival, Hour Glaze at dc3 Art Projects and Text and Texture at The FAB Gallery. Her works are in the collections of the University of Alberta and SNAP gallery.

Rebecca John

Rebecca John is a multidisciplinary performing artist based in Amiskwaciwâskahikan/Edmonton. She/they work with body-based methodologies of creation and performance to delve into ancestral and diasporic exploration. Her/their work is informed by her/their experience as a mixed-race, queer, and mad identifying person. Rebecca attended Keyano College and the University of Lethbridge. With formal training in theatre performance and production, she/they have recently been working with structures of dance, performance art, spoken word, and choreo poetry as well as with community-engaged initiatives fostering equity, diversity, and representation on stage. Recent companies she/they have performed with include CRIPSiE, Mile Zero Dance, the Art Gallery of Alberta, and M.I.X.E.D. Toronto.

Kiona Ligtvoet

Kiona Ligtvoet (she/her), is a Cree/Métis artist coming from Michel First Nation, currently practicing in amiskwaciwâskahikan. She primarily works in painting and printmaking, exploring stories of grief and tenderness. Her practice uses a non-linear telling of memories through narrative work as a form of personal archiving. It draws from feelings of loss, displacement, and enfranchisement within her own Indigenous identity, but also from moments of deep belly laughter. Kiona received her diploma in Fine Art from MacEwan University, then went on to complete her BFA at the University of Alberta. Most recently, she’s shown at Parallel Space, SNAP, Latitude 53 and Ociciwan. She’s also been working alongside other artists in initiatives of community care, co-organizing Making Space in partnership with Sanaa Humayun. Making Space is a visual arts focused peer mentorship decentering whiteness and prioritizing collaboration.

Conor McNally

Conor McNally is a filmmaker based in amiskwaciy (Edmonton, Treaty 6). He has made numerous short films to date, with his most recent being IIKAAKIIMAAT (2019). Conor is a proud father, and member of the Métis Nation of Alberta.

Preston Pavlis

Preston Pavlis is an artist based in Edmonton, Alberta. Pavlis completed his Diploma of Fine Arts at MacEwan University in 2019. Pavlis was selected as the winner of the BMO 1st Art! prize for the province of Alberta in 2019, for his painting, your skin behind the lattice. Currently, he is interested in the fusion of painting and textiles as a means to explore narrative, form and colour. His work is an attempt at traversing liminal bridges by way of poetic association and metaphor. The resulting works become charts for time, memory and feeling.

Paxsi

Paxsi (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist and singer-songwriter based in amiskwacîywâskahikan, or so-called Edmonton. Combining elements of folk and rock, Paxsi plays their own original music under the stage name WARA WARA. Paxsi’s art and music echoes the complications of heartbreak, loss, and loneliness, while speaking to their experience as a non-binary, mixed race, displaced indigenous [Andean] person.

Simone A. Medina Polo

Simone A. Medina Polo (she/her ; they/them) is an interdisciplinary scholar and artist based out of Edmonton, Alberta whose interests focus on psychoanalysis and philosophy as they pertain to emancipatory projects. Through her artistic and communities endeavors, Simone has been a curator and producer for lectures, dialogues, panels, visual art exhibits, music shows, and festivals, some examples include her affiliations with the Chess House Arts Collective, her role in the production of Endless Bummer 2019, the run of various series of events for the Sewing Machine Factory as an interdisciplinary community outreach, and her curation of night club events for NextFest. Many of her essays and presentation write-ups are available on her Medium blog @MichelFoucko.  

Shaihiem Small

Shaihiem Small is an artist currently based in Edmonton Alberta, originally from Toronto Ontario. Shaihiem is a recent MacEwan Fine Arts graduate and has participated in multiple pop up art shows across the city and the group show Five Artists One Love hosted at the AGA. Currently this artist is venturing into the discipline of tattooing and is apprenticing at Shambala Tattoos in Edmonton.