Critical Distance PROGRAMMING PUBLIC ART: Billboard on Shaw by Jenna FitzGerald

OCAD University’s RBC Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers (CEAD), in partnership with Critical Distance Centre for Curators (CDCC), is pleased to present this Public Art Billboard and Exhibition Essay Career Launcher featuring artwork by Jenna FitzGerald and a commissioned essay by Annapoorane Rajagopal Valarmathy, available to download and read here.

foraging is on view at 180 Shaw Street, outside Artscape Youngplace, through Summer 2026.

About the OCAD U Career Launcher Recipients

Jenna FitzGerald is a multidisciplinary artist from Toronto whose work explores the intersection of technology and nature, inspired by both organic and digital imagery and materials. Her artworks reflect impermanence in the digital age and create new mythologies to reveal the magic in the world all around us, as well as our current moment within the Anthropocene. FitzGerald employs a variety of mediums throughout her work, including photography, film, graphic design, 3D modelling, and experiential installations.

Annapoorane Rajagopal Valarmathy is a design practitioner. She is interested in how thoughtful systems and experiences can influence the way people think, interact, and create. Her work explores how design can scaffold people through moments of transition.

Since 2016, Critical Distance has programmed the Billboard outside our former home at 180 Shaw Street between Dundas and Queen streets. Thank you to Youngplace for their continued support and participation in this long-running public art initiative.

Thanks to OCAD University’s RBC Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers for their support of this Career Launcher Partnership.

Critical Distance gratefully acknowledges funding support from the
Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

Image: Installation view of foraging, Jenna FitzGerald, 2024, double-exposed film, digital scan.
Documentation by Shani K Parsons.
Essay edited by Alison Cooley.