Inherit
Joi T. Arcand
Zinnia Naqvi
Birthe Piontek
Carol Sawyer
Vivek Shraya
February 04 – April 24, 2022
Inherit weaves together diverse lens-based works by Joi T. Arcand, Zinnia Naqvi, Birthe Piontek, Carol Sawyer and Vivek Shraya. Using video, installation and photography—all mediums with an innate connection to time—these artists revisit or re–enact personal histories, photographs and archives to grapple with loss, longing and identity. Through exploring and confronting ineffable emotions related to dementia, the pervasive effects of colonialism and various complexities of gender and family dynamics, the artists in the exhibition propose alternative narratives, both personal and political, to tell interconnected stories of kinship, resiliency and memory, which can be easily swayed by time.
This exhibition was part of the 2022 Capture Photography Festival Selected Exhibition Program. This Selected Exhibition is Capture’s 2022 Printing Prize recipient. The Capture Printing Prize is generously supported by Wesgroup. Curated by Kate Henderson, Interim Visual Arts Manager.
Image: Zinnia Naqvi, Nani in Grey Suit on the Photo Trunk, 2020, from the series Dear Nani, 2017–. Adhesive vinyl solvent print. Courtesy of the Artist.
About the Artists
JOI T. ARCAND is an artist from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Saskatchewan, Treaty 6 Territory, who currently resides in Ottawa, Ontario. She received her BFA with Great Distinction from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, in 2005. In 2081, Arcand was shortlisted for the prestigious Sobey Art Award. Her practice includes photography, digital collage and graphic design and is characterized by a visionary and subversive reclamation and Indigenization of public spaces through the use of Cree language and syllabics.
ZINNIA NAQVI is an interdisciplinary artist based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal and Tkaronto/Toronto. Her work examines issues of colonialism, cultural translation, language and gender through the use of photography, video, writing and archival material. Naqvi’s work has been shown across Canada and internationally. She received an honourable mention at the Karachi Biennale, Pakistan (2017), and is a recipient of the New Generation Photography Award (2019), organized by the Canadian Photography Institute of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Naqvi earned her BFA in Photography Studies from X University, Toronto, and her MFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University, Montreal.
Born and raised in Germany, BIRTHE PIONTEK moved to Canada in 2005 after receiving her MFA from the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany. Her work has been exhibited internationally, in both solo and group shows, and is featured in many private and public collections, such as the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and the Museum of Applied Arts in Gera, Germany. Piontek is Assistant Professor of Photography in the Audain Faculty of Art at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, and a member of the Cake Collective.
CAROL SAWYER is a visual artist and singer working with photography, installation, video and improvised music. Since the early 1990s, her visual artwork has investigated the connections between photography and fiction, performance, memory and history. Her work has been exhibited in galleries across Canada. Her ongoing and expansive project The Natalie Brettschneider Archive (1998–) was recently exhibited at the Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa; Vancouver Art Gallery; Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; and Koffler Gallery, Toronto. A book produced in conjunction with these four gallery exhibitions, titled Carol Sawyer: The Natalie Brettschneider Archive, was published in 2020. In 2017, the Canada Council for the Arts awarded Sawyer the Duke and Duchess of York Prize in Photography.
VIVEK SHRAYA is an artist whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, theatre and film. Shraya’s visual art practice includes the internationally acclaimed photo series Trisha (2016), featured in Vanity Fair, the Village Voice and India Today and in solo exhibits in New York City and at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge. Her recent photo series Trauma Clown (2019) was featured on the cover of Now magazine and by the Patel Brown Gallery, Toronto. She sits on the board of directors of the Tegan and Sara Foundation and is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Calgary. Shraya is currently adapting her debut play, How to Fail as a Popstar, for television with the support of the CBC.
