Tau Lewis, "Sparkle" and "Sparkle's Map Home" (2018).
Summer Institute I: SPARKLE PLANET: We have lift-off!
Faculty: Tau Lewis
July 13 – 24, 2020
Application Deadline: Monday, March 30, 2020 by 5pm CST
Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art | 1, 460 Portage Ave | Winnipeg MB | Canada
Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art is now accepting applications for our 2020 Summer Institute I and II. The Summer Institute is an international artist research program for professional artists and cultural workers in all disciplines and media.
Summer Institute I: SPARKLE PLANET: We have lift-off! will be led by Toronto-based artist Tau Lewis, and will run from July 13 to 24, 2020. Participants will build and create with a focus on non-traditional methods of physical and conceptual construction. There will be a strong emphasis on story-telling and the imaginary. Over the course of the residency, participants will be introduced to several “outsider,” self-taught and “vernacular” practices, and will ponder the intersections of craft and fine art, as well as question who has access to art/ art-making, and what sorts of objects can exist as artworks. Participants will also learn how/why outsider practices have existed, and how they historically have leant themselves to the contemporary art world.
Tau Lewis‘ self-taught practice is rooted in healing personal, collective and historical traumas through labour. She employs methods of construction such as hand sewing, carving and assemblage to build portraits. She considers spaces of erasure, what they might hold, and how we can re-access these spaces as generative information centres through storytelling and imagination. Her work is bodily and organic, with an explicit strangeness. The materiality of Lewis’ work is often informed by her surrounding environment; she constructs out of found objects and recycled materials. She connects these acts of repurposing, collecting and archiving with diasporic experience. Her portraits are recuperative gestures that explore agency, memory and recovery. Recent and forthcoming solo exhibitions include: Frieze New York; Atlanta Contemporary; Jeffrey Stark, NY; Shoot the Lobster, NY; Night Gallery, LA; The Hepworth Wakefield, UK; Oakville Galleries, Toronto; Art Basel Miami; COOPER COLE, Toronto. Recent and forthcoming group exhibitions include: MoMa PS1, New York; Chapter Gallery, New York; COOPER COLE, Toronto; Night Gallery, LA; New Museum, New York; Hammer Museum, LA.
Summer Institute I: SPARKLE PLANET: We have lift-off! will be led by Toronto-based artist Tau Lewis, and will run from July 13 to 24, 2020. Participants will build and create with a focus on non-traditional methods of physical and conceptual construction. There will be a strong emphasis on story-telling and the imaginary. Over the course of the residency, participants will be introduced to several “outsider,” self-taught and “vernacular” practices, and will ponder the intersections of craft and fine art, as well as question who has access to art/ art-making, and what sorts of objects can exist as artworks. Participants will also learn how/why outsider practices have existed, and how they historically have leant themselves to the contemporary art world.
Tau Lewis‘ self-taught practice is rooted in healing personal, collective and historical traumas through labour. She employs methods of construction such as hand sewing, carving and assemblage to build portraits. She considers spaces of erasure, what they might hold, and how we can re-access these spaces as generative information centres through storytelling and imagination. Her work is bodily and organic, with an explicit strangeness. The materiality of Lewis’ work is often informed by her surrounding environment; she constructs out of found objects and recycled materials. She connects these acts of repurposing, collecting and archiving with diasporic experience. Her portraits are recuperative gestures that explore agency, memory and recovery. Recent and forthcoming solo exhibitions include: Frieze New York; Atlanta Contemporary; Jeffrey Stark, NY; Shoot the Lobster, NY; Night Gallery, LA; The Hepworth Wakefield, UK; Oakville Galleries, Toronto; Art Basel Miami; COOPER COLE, Toronto. Recent and forthcoming group exhibitions include: MoMa PS1, New York; Chapter Gallery, New York; COOPER COLE, Toronto; Night Gallery, LA; New Museum, New York; Hammer Museum, LA.
The 2020 Summer Institutes are open to visual artists, curators, writers, critics and scholars.
A number of guest speakers will visit the Summer Institutes for additional lectures, discussions, and studio visits.
Plug In ICA invites applications from participants who will work collaboratively in a peer-to-peer environment based upon their own interests and projects, as well as by exploring and aligning their work with collaborative or group activities which will be planned during the session.
This critical discursive opportunity will take place in Plug In ICA’s purpose-built facilities, with an adjoining workshop, art research library, gallery, bookshop and neighbouring café. Plug In ICA is located in the heart of downtown Winnipeg on the University of Winnipeg’s campus and adjacent to the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and within walking distance to various amenities for new visitors to the city.
There is no application fee for this program and everyone is welcome to apply. All other costs associated with participating in this program is the participant’s responsibility: meals, accommodation, travel, travel insurance, materials and related production costs. Once accepted, participants must also be Plug In ICA members in good standing for a fee of $30 CDN.
Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by the end of April 2020.
See our Summer Institute Blog for interviews, and images of past Institutes.
All applications should be sent to Nasrin Himada: nasrin@plugin.org
If you have any questions, please contact info@plugin.org.
A number of guest speakers will visit the Summer Institutes for additional lectures, discussions, and studio visits.
Plug In ICA invites applications from participants who will work collaboratively in a peer-to-peer environment based upon their own interests and projects, as well as by exploring and aligning their work with collaborative or group activities which will be planned during the session.
This critical discursive opportunity will take place in Plug In ICA’s purpose-built facilities, with an adjoining workshop, art research library, gallery, bookshop and neighbouring café. Plug In ICA is located in the heart of downtown Winnipeg on the University of Winnipeg’s campus and adjacent to the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and within walking distance to various amenities for new visitors to the city.
There is no application fee for this program and everyone is welcome to apply. All other costs associated with participating in this program is the participant’s responsibility: meals, accommodation, travel, travel insurance, materials and related production costs. Once accepted, participants must also be Plug In ICA members in good standing for a fee of $30 CDN.
Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by the end of April 2020.
See our Summer Institute Blog for interviews, and images of past Institutes.
All applications should be sent to Nasrin Himada: nasrin@plugin.org
If you have any questions, please contact info@plugin.org.
Bannock Point early in the morning. Image courtesy of the artist.
Summer Institute II: Water Knowledge
Faculty: KC Adams
August 17 – 28, 2020
Application Deadline: Thursday, April 9, 2020 by 5pm CST
Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art | 1, 460 Portage Ave | Winnipeg MB | Canada
Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art is now accepting applications for our 2020 Summer Institute I and II. The Summer Institute is an international artist research program for professional artists and cultural workers in all disciplines and media.
Summer Institute II: Water Knowledge will be led by social practice artist KC Adams. In Anisninaabe teachings, women are water carriers and are taught Gage’gajiwaan; water flows forever and everywhere and all around. This residency is about passing on water knowledge bundles to better understand our relationship with water. The first week Adams will lead the participants onto the land so they can receive knowledge bundles through elders, texts, walks, and workshops with Anishinaabe-Métis lawyer Aimée Craft. The second week, participants will be encouraged to produce individual work based on the knowledge bundles they received. The residency is open to visual artists, writers, critics and scholars who identify as women and non-binary. The second session will run from August 17th to August 28th, 2020.
KC Adams is a Winnipeg-based artist who graduated from Concordia University with a B.F.A in studio arts. Adams has had several solo exhibitions, group exhibitions and been in three biennales including the PHOTOQUAI: Biennale des images du monde in Paris, France. Adams participated in residencies at the Banff Centre, the Confederation Art Centre in Charlottetown, the National Museum of the American Indian and the Parramatta Arts Gallery in Australia. Her work is in many permanent collections nationally and internationally. Twenty pieces from the Cyborg Hybrid series are in the permanent collection of the National Art Gallery in Ottawa and four trees from Birch Bark Ltd, are in the collection of the Canadian Consulate of Australia, NSW. She was the scenic designer for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Going Home Star: Truth and Reconciliation. She helped design a 30-foot public art sculpture called Niimama for the Winnipeg Forks and a piece for the United Way of Winnipeg called Community. Adams was awarded the Winnipeg Arts Council’s Making A Mark Award and Canada’s Senate 150 medal for her accomplishments with her Perception Photo Series.
Summer Institute II: Water Knowledge will be led by social practice artist KC Adams. In Anisninaabe teachings, women are water carriers and are taught Gage’gajiwaan; water flows forever and everywhere and all around. This residency is about passing on water knowledge bundles to better understand our relationship with water. The first week Adams will lead the participants onto the land so they can receive knowledge bundles through elders, texts, walks, and workshops with Anishinaabe-Métis lawyer Aimée Craft. The second week, participants will be encouraged to produce individual work based on the knowledge bundles they received. The residency is open to visual artists, writers, critics and scholars who identify as women and non-binary. The second session will run from August 17th to August 28th, 2020.
KC Adams is a Winnipeg-based artist who graduated from Concordia University with a B.F.A in studio arts. Adams has had several solo exhibitions, group exhibitions and been in three biennales including the PHOTOQUAI: Biennale des images du monde in Paris, France. Adams participated in residencies at the Banff Centre, the Confederation Art Centre in Charlottetown, the National Museum of the American Indian and the Parramatta Arts Gallery in Australia. Her work is in many permanent collections nationally and internationally. Twenty pieces from the Cyborg Hybrid series are in the permanent collection of the National Art Gallery in Ottawa and four trees from Birch Bark Ltd, are in the collection of the Canadian Consulate of Australia, NSW. She was the scenic designer for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Going Home Star: Truth and Reconciliation. She helped design a 30-foot public art sculpture called Niimama for the Winnipeg Forks and a piece for the United Way of Winnipeg called Community. Adams was awarded the Winnipeg Arts Council’s Making A Mark Award and Canada’s Senate 150 medal for her accomplishments with her Perception Photo Series.
The 2020 Summer Institutes are open to visual artists, curators, writers, critics and scholars.
A number of guest speakers will visit the Summer Institutes for additional lectures, discussions, and studio visits.
Plug In ICA invites applications from participants who will work collaboratively in a peer-to-peer environment based upon their own interests and projects, as well as by exploring and aligning their work with collaborative or group activities which will be planned during the session.
This critical discursive opportunity will take place in Plug In ICA’s purpose-built facilities, with an adjoining workshop, art research library, gallery, bookshop and neighbouring café. Plug In ICA is located in the heart of downtown Winnipeg on the University of Winnipeg’s campus and adjacent to the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and within walking distance to various amenities for new visitors to the city.
There is no application fee for this program and everyone is welcome to apply. All other costs associated with participating in this program is the participant’s responsibility: meals, accommodation, travel, travel insurance, materials and related production costs. Once accepted, participants must also be Plug In ICA members in good standing for a fee of $30 CDN.
Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by the end of April 2020.
See our Summer Institute Blog for interviews, and images of past Institutes.
All applications should be sent to Nasrin Himada: nasrin@plugin.org
If you have any questions, please contact info@plugin.org.
A number of guest speakers will visit the Summer Institutes for additional lectures, discussions, and studio visits.
Plug In ICA invites applications from participants who will work collaboratively in a peer-to-peer environment based upon their own interests and projects, as well as by exploring and aligning their work with collaborative or group activities which will be planned during the session.
This critical discursive opportunity will take place in Plug In ICA’s purpose-built facilities, with an adjoining workshop, art research library, gallery, bookshop and neighbouring café. Plug In ICA is located in the heart of downtown Winnipeg on the University of Winnipeg’s campus and adjacent to the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and within walking distance to various amenities for new visitors to the city.
There is no application fee for this program and everyone is welcome to apply. All other costs associated with participating in this program is the participant’s responsibility: meals, accommodation, travel, travel insurance, materials and related production costs. Once accepted, participants must also be Plug In ICA members in good standing for a fee of $30 CDN.
Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by the end of April 2020.
See our Summer Institute Blog for interviews, and images of past Institutes.
All applications should be sent to Nasrin Himada: nasrin@plugin.org
If you have any questions, please contact info@plugin.org.