Proof is Gallery 44's annual exhibition of work by emerging Canadian Artists that reflects a range of current concerns and practices in contemporary lens-based media. Proof is often one of the first exhibitions in a professional context for an emerging artist.
This year's Proof exhibition includes an essay by Vince Rozario, an emerging Toronto based writer and critic.
Fehn Foss is an artist working in Hamilton, ON. In her work Foss looks at process and gesture. Oscillating between consideration and statement, she takes an idea and works it over with kinetic investigation. She has exhibited works in Hamilton, Toronto, and Montreal.
Claude Labrèche-Lemay explores the possibilities of photography as a medium within different fields, embracing a material approach. Her work interrogates our perception of time, the liminal space occupied by a fixed image and studies translation and systems of communication. She is currently completing her BFA in Photography at Concordia University. She exhibited her work in both Montreal and Sweden.
Cameron Lamothe is an emerging interdisciplinary artist hailing from the woods and lakes of Northern Ontario. A mild-mannered rural-ite with a penchant for disasters, his work is as much informed by the lasting effects of Cold War Era politics on Canadian communities as it is by out-of-control barn fires and the endless network of logging roads carved through the Northern landscape. A recent OCAD University undergraduate, he has had works published within Canada and Internationally, and most recently was an artist-in-residence at Prefix ICA.
Ryan Mathieson is an interdisciplinary artist who folds modes of collecting, foraging, and documentation into his practice. His images are intended to show a balance of tension and visibility for a viewer, suggesting that elements existing just below the surface are as vital to elements closest to plain sight. Mathieson engages with a variety of media, often blending the object and subject to bring about slower phases of looking and closer reading. He holds a Bachelor of Design from the Alberta College of Art + Design and an MFA of Interdisciplinary Studies, Simon Fraser University. He is currently living and working in Powell River BC.
Semira Selman is a photo-based artist living in Ottawa. Her work addresses themes of identity, belonging, and post-war memory. For Semira, photography is a means of self-discovery and self-expression; it is an opportunity to reflect on how she experiences herself and the factors and conditions that have impacted her identity. Semira’s work, directly and indirectly, reflects on her experience of coming of age during wartime in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, being a refugee, and adapting to Canada. Through her work, Semira is examining these experiences and relating them to a broader sociopolitical context.
