BEING+

Michelle Cieloszczyk

Biba Esaad

Miles Ingrassia

Noah Lima

Roxana Parsa

Michelle Rodrigues

curated by Abisola Oni

January 12 - February 28, 2022 on TOAF.ca.

BEING+ explores the nexus between the experience of the individual and the objective social and cultural forces that bind this experience.

Simone De Beauvoir recognizes the ambiguity of the human experience which suggests we are both subjects who act, and objects who are acted upon, constrained by our physical limits, social barriers, and the political powers of others (The Ethics of Ambiguity, pp.7-34). BEING+ similarly considers the variable states of selfhood and complicates the rigidity of subject-object relations.

The affirmation of ambiguity brings all of humanity to a shared junction, and this exhibition to the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair in January 2022.

BEING+: Case Studies

BEING+ is an exhibition of six emerging artists who interrogate the social forces that influence our sense of self and relationality with others. The exhibition consists of installation, abstract, figurative, and collage artworks by Michelle Cieloszczyk, Biba Esaad, Miles Ingrassia, Noah Lima, Roxana Parsa, and Michelle Rodrigues. The artists examine the experience of being in relation to social and cultural phenomena by expressing diverse subjectivities through formal elements and subject matter.

Michelle Cieloszczyk engages the domineering presence of police power with the audience as subject with a separate, but related, power to look and interrogate.

Biba Esaad approaches the construct of racialized existence with artworks that transcend the limits and imposed physical barriers erected by the society in which one lives.

Miles Ingrassia presents the masculine figure in a method which underlines the emotional and temporal bonds that fortify the masculine individual’s sense of self.

Noah Lima asserts the right to define oneself by creating bold figurative paintings that examine the interplay between the imposed, rigid structures of gender and the embodied lived experience of gender identity.

Roxana Parsa creates dream-like group compositions that fortify notions of memory and kinship as well as single figure portraits evoking solemn reflection and relationality with the surrounding environment.

Michelle Rodrigues builds striking collages that interrogate the socio-cultural construction of womanhood through the accumulation and meaningful destruction of imagery.

BEING+: Text