A writer, researcher and curator born in Kowloon, Hong Kong, and spent her formative years in and around Edmonton on Treaty 6 Territory. Her writing has been published and commissioned by national and international publications, galleries, museums, festivals, and journals since 2007. Her multifarious curatorial projects have spanned exhibitions, cinematic and live presentations, as well as discursive events across Canada and abroad. “Before I Was a Critic I Was a Human Being” is her first book.
Joni Low is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in exhibition catalogues and in publications such as Yishu, Ricepaper, Fillip and C Magazine. She is interested in the relationships between visual art and language, and in art that exists outside the context of conventional exhibition spaces—art that continues to de-stabilize and create new understandings of the contemporary experience.
An active writer, curator, and artist, J.J. Kegan McFadden is a graduate from the Critical and Curatorial Studies program in the Department of Art History, Visual Art, and Theory at the University of British Columbia (2007) and since graduating has held the position of Director/Curator at PLATFORM. McFadden has organized exhibitions and screenings across Canada and internationally, most notably as part of the Prairie Scene produced through the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, where he curated Quelle Derive: le possible et le Reel de Winnipeg for the artist-run centre, Axe Neo 7 (2011); the double-bill in Regina of As the Sidewalk Bleeds at The Dunlop Art Gallery and Cabin Fever at neutral ground contemporary art forum (2011); and the touring thirty-year survey, 27 x Doug: Portraits by Larry Glawson (2010–2011).
Mehra is a multimedia artist who holds an MFA from Columbia University (New York), and a BFA (Honours) from the School of Art at the University of Manitoba. Her work has been included in a number of exhibitions and screenings across North America and overseas, including the Queens Museum and Lincoln Center (NY), BRIC Contemporary (Brooklyn), PLATFORM: centre for photographic + digital arts and Plug In ICA (Winnipeg), The Images Festival and A Space (Toronto), Groupe Intervention Vidèo (Montrèal), The Beijing 798 Biennale (Beijing, China), and Gallery OED (Cochin, India). In 2012, Mehra will create new work for the exhibition, Oh Canada commissioned by MASS MoCA . This is her first solo exhibition in Vancouver.
A curator and writer based in San Francisco, where she is Curator and Head of Programs at the CCA Wattis Institute. Nguyen was formerly Director/Curator of Artspeak from 2011-2016. Her writing has appeared in exhibition catalogues and periodicals nationally and internationally, with recent texts in catalogues published by Pied-à-Terre (San Francisco), Gluck 50/Mousse (Milan), and the Herning Museum of Art (Denmark). Nguyen is the recipient of the 2015 Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Emerging Curators in Contemporary Canadian Art and the 2016 Joan Lowndes Award from the Canada Council for the Arts for excellence in critical and curatorial writing.
DIVYA MEHRA
November 26–January 28, 2012
Divya Mehra’s practice draws from experiences of displacement, cultural conventions, and hybridization, infusing a biting wit in the execution of her projects. Connecting political and religious icons with popular hip-hop culture, Mehra examines cross-cultural appropriations and the parallels between family tension and nationalistic conflict. Her work investigates the construction and misrepresentation of cultural identity while making reference to layered divisions and the disparity and exploitation of power. Engaging with decay, excess, and failed celebration, Mehra will present an exhibition comprised of new sculptural and photographic work and a performance by a local gospel choir.
Quit India
Title: Quit India: Divya Mehra
Category: Catalogue
Writers: J.J. Kegan McFadden, Kim Nguyen, Amy Fung, Natasha Bissonauth, Kendra Place
Editors: Derek Dunlop, Jessica Antony
Design: Lauren Wickware
Publisher: Platform, Artspeak
Printer: Friesens
Year published: 2013
Edition: 200
Pages: 80pp
Cover: Cloth
Binding: Perfect Bound
Process: Offset
Features: Gold foil on brown cloth covers and spine
Dimensions: 21 x 13.5 x 1 cm
Weight: 216 g
ISBN: 978-0-9697675-8-9
Cost: sold out
Published in collaboration with Platform (Winnipeg), Quit, India, documents and elaborates upon Divya Mehra’s two solo exhibitions : The Party is Over, presented at Artspeak in 2011 and Turf War presented at Platform in 2010.