Critical Distance PROGRAMMING PUBLIC ART: Billboard on Shaw by Ernesto Cabral de Luna

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 Ernesto Cabral de Luna and a commissioned essay by Kay Rangel, available to download and read here.

La Piñata y La Locura II is on view at 180 Shaw Street, outside Artscape Youngplace, through Summer 2024.

About the OCAD U Career Launcher Recipients

Ernesto Cabral de Luna is a Mexican lens-based artist interested in exploring themes of exile, diasporic identity and immigration.  Altering perception through analog and digital image manipulation, he utilizes his own photographs and family archives to create still images and short animations emphasizing the multi-dimensionality and materiality of the image. Ernesto received his BFA in Photography at OCAD University, and has worked with brands such as the Toronto Raptors, Coors Light and Walmart Canada.

Kay Rangel works with archives, navigating erased history to bring visibility to contemporary artistic practices – particularly those rooted in her homeland, Mexico. She’s also focused on working with theories of place, queerness, and feminism. Her practice, as an artist, relies heavily on words too, pushing the viewer to explore the written language within the visual realm. Kay holds a BFA in Criticism & Curatorial practice with a Minor in Gender & Sexuality studies from OCAD University, where she received the 2024 Nora E. Vaughan Award and the 2024 Critical Distance Centre for Curators Exhibition Essay Commission Career Launcher. She’s also the proud recipient of OCADU’s 2024 Criticism & Curatorial Practice Medal.

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 Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

Image: View of La Piñata y La Locura II, 2024 by Ernesto Cabral de Luna at 180 Shaw Street, Toronto. Documentation by Shani K Parsons and Aman Deshmukh. Essay edited by Alison Cooley.