Critical Distance Profile Type Artist

John Climenhage is a painter. In conversation with poets, philosophers, fellow painters, and other artists over his 30+ year career, he has engaged in concerted formal and conceptual exploration and creation of charged and abstracted spaces en plein air as well as in-studio, that are deeply informed by current socio-political conditions and events, both local and global. Even before the 2015 release of the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) report made soberingly clear the implications of landscape painting in Canada (specifically how the painterly capture of “wild spaces” can serve to mirror and amplify the deleterious impacts of the doctrine of Terra nullius), Climenhage was exploring different kinds of space in painting beyond direct representation. Informed by a longstanding interest…Find out more

Jenelle Smith is a first generation Jamaican-Canadian visual artist based in Toronto. Smith is an emerging artist whose dreamlike work delves into intricate concepts of the mind. Working in digital and analog image-based media, Smith addresses topics such as mental health, technology, race, and family.  A recent graduate from the OCAD University Photography program, she strives to challenge conventional perceptions and spark conversations through her work.Find out more

Agustine Zegers is a Chilean artist, writer, and bacterial community dedicated to the worlds of olfaction and symbiosis. Their work uses text, olfaction, and ritual in an attempt to comprehend and commune with flows of ecological collapse as well to question the pervasive systems that produce them. Their work has been exhibited at Critical Distance in Canada, Galería Metropolitana in Chile, and the Sharjah Art Foundation in the UAE. Their work has been published by the Institute of Queer Ecology, the Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology, DIS Magazine, and Genderfail Press. They currently live on Powhatan land (colonially known as Richmond, Virginia).

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Chez Moi Books is a collector first, who sells a curated selection of secondhand and rare books that are separate from their collection.

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Grace Vali is a multidisciplinary illustrator based in Toronto and Mississauga. She recently graduated from OCAD University with a BDes in Illustration.

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