Mitra Fakhrashrafi and Vince Rozario
Curated by Mitra Fakhrashrafi and Vince Rozario, 2021 recipients of the Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators, Collective Offerings responds to the compartmentalization and fragmentation produced by colonialism and deepened by this period of unprecedented political, ecological, and public health crises. Recognizing the particularly heavy toll exacted on racialized, migrant, disabled, and low-income communities, the curators will work with artists Meech Boakye and Christina Kingsbury, Shirin Fahimi, LAL (Rosina Kazi and Nicholas Murray), Jessica Karuhanga, and Shaista Latif, whose performance and new media practices speak to collective interdependence, mitigating the impacts of isolation for communities, networks of care, and our bodies themselves.
This year’s Middlebrook Prize jurors included Nicole Caruth (independent curator and cultural strategist), Sally Frater (former Curator of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of Guelph; current Director, Oakville Galleries), and Denise Ryner (Director/ Curator, Or Gallery, and Associate Curator, Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin). “Rozario and Fakhrashrafi’s project is an excellent example of place-based curating that considers local histories and demographics in the development of their proposal,” suggests Ryner, “They propose precise formats of engagement that extend their curatorial concepts into tangible experiences of inclusion and exclusion, which in turn supports the research and dialogical functions of their exhibition.”
Jessica Karuhanga, being who you are there is no other (digital still), 2018, 2-channel video installation
Organized by the Art Gallery of Guelph and presented with the support of the Centre Wellington Community Foundation Middlebrook Social Innovation Fund, the Guelph Community Foundation Musagetes Fund, and private donations.
About the curators
Mitra Fakhrashrafi
Beginning in street art, Mitra Fakhrashrafi (she/her) is a mixed media artist and curator interested in placemaking, anti-surveillance, and border abolition. Mitra is co-founder of Way Past Kennedy Road, a collective supporting artists living at the margins in producing, exhibiting, and profiting from their storytelling practice. In her spare she listens to music that emerges from Toronto; a since-always queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and diasporic city.
Vince Rozario
Vince Rozario is an independent critic, curator, writer, arts administrator, and community organizer based in Tkarón:to/ Toronto. Born in Bangladesh, raised in Dubai, and eventually settling in Canada, they attempt to map out trajectories of modernism, queerness, decolonial futures across multiple transnational axes- with a specific emphasis on South Asian diasporas. As a curator and organizer, they are interested in collaborative modes of cultural production which transgress traditional institutional hierarchies. Their practice interrogates the ethics of representation and the role of art in building, as well as undermining, solidarity across racial, classed, and socio-economic divides.
They have presented curatorial projects at Xpace Cultural Centre, the Gladstone Hotel and the Canadian Filmmakers’ Distribution Centre, as well as contributing to exhibition texts for Whippersnapper Gallery, InterAccess and Gallery 44. They were the winner of the 2018 C New Critics Award and have published criticism in C Magazine and Momus. They are a co-founder of Bricks and Glitter, a grassroots, intergenerational QTBIPOC (Queer and Trans Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) arts festival, and currently serve on the board of Whippersnapper Gallery.
Artists
Meech Boakye and Christina Kingsbury
Shirin Fahimi
Jessica Karuhanga
LAL (Rosina Kazi and Nicholas Murray)
Shaista Latif
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