The exhibition features several OCAD University community members who, in addition to being faculty, are artists and parents. The works in the exhibition reflect their experiences raising children, teaching and maintaining a studio practice amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Art Amy Swartz as well as Associate Professors in the Faculty of Art JJ Lee and Natalie Waldburger are featured in the show. Each week, beginning on August 8, the works of an individual artist will be foregrounded.
The show was curated during artist and OCAD U alumna, Rachel Grad’s remote residency with the Museum of Motherhood (MoM) and includes weekly blog posts interviewing the featured artists to explore their work and parent experiences.
At different times the women in the exhibition have involved their children in art making while also carving out, an autonomous practice as well. They have also engaged in collaboration with other parent artists. By capturing aspects of their own worlds, while quarantining at home with children and partners, these mothers have been able to express themselves during difficult circumstances.
Artist Bio
Natalie Majaba Waldburger’s current art practice is open-disciplinary and seeks to understand the complexities of respectful collaboration and participatory work in the context of anti-colonial research. In recent years, institutional critique has become the focus for collaborative art practices as a co-founding member of The Drawing Board. As an Associate Professor at OCAD U, Natalie has served as Chair for a number of programs in the faculty of Art including the inaugural Ada Slaight Chair of Contemporary Painting and Print Media and, most recently, Interim Chair of Sculpture/Installation and Life Studies and Grievance Chair for OCADFA. The Life Studies area was the focus of Natalie’s appointment at OCAD U. Life Studies is a specialization positioned in the Faculty of Art that brings together the arts, sciences, and humanities to cultivate interdisciplinary studio art practices. These pedagogical approaches speak to Natalie’s own art research practice positioned at the intersection of sustainability, social justice, and ecologically-respectful art practices.
Artist Interview
Curator
Pandemic Parenting Online Exhibit Curator Rachael Grad, is a mom of three and former lawyer who has studied and worked in the US, France, Italy, Hong Kong, and Toronto. Grad left practicing law to study painting full-time at the New York Studio School and New York University (NYU) before transferring to OCAD University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Trained as an observational painter, Grad has focused on colourful painting that blurs the distinction between abstract, figurative, and representational styles. Read the intro blog about Rachael Grad’s Residency here