Kristen Hutchinson on the Kiss & Tell Collective
Read more in Kiss & Tell: Lesbian Art & Activism by Kristen Hutchinson (published June 2025).
Jennifer Bowen on the Cree / Métis modern artist Don Cardinal
For Jennifer Bowen, who grew up in Yellowknife, Don Cardinal (1944–1985) was a prolific painter at the centre of a thriving art scene. Yet the name of the inexhaustible artist who created modern representations of mid- to late-twentieth-century Indigenous life in his community in Hay River, Northwest Territories—such as this tranquil depiction of two berry pickers walking together along a path surrounded by forests—remains largely unknown. In her research, Bowen explores Cardinal’s unique signature style and how it presented a new way of seeing. His work combines an Impressionist approach—which he was exposed to while at residential school—with an Indigenous perspective on landscape. As Bowen explains, “If you’re from the North or if you’ve lived in the North, you know it’s a Northern image just by the horizon that he creates.” Through Cardinal, Bowen explores the roots of contemporary Indigenous art and the transformation of traditional art into contemporary expression. Jennifer Bowen is originally from the Northwest Territories and is a member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. She is a PhD student at the University of Victoria.
Coming soon: Don Cardinal: Life & Work by Jennifer Bowen.
Alyssa Fearon on the life and work of William “Billy” Beal
In 1906, the Massachusetts-born Black photographer William “Billy” Beal (1874–1968) made his way to Manitoba, heeding the Canadian government’s call to increase settlement in the Prairies while defying its explicit preference for British and white American immigrants. Despite the country’s overtly racist policies—which would include the 1911 law that banned Black people from immigrating—Beal migrated to rural Manitoba and began documenting homesteading life and creating masterful portraits. His images offer a powerful narrative of his community and reflect his engagement with key issues of his time. Alyssa Fearon’s research examines the significance of Beal’s remarkable photographic archive and considers his work through the lens of Black life in Canada in the early 1900s. Alyssa Fearon is the Director/Curator at Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina. She holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business and an MA Art History from York University.
Coming soon: A critical essay and Teacher Resource Guide about Black life on the Canadian prairies by Alyssa Fearon.
Sandrena Raymond on the worldly affiliations of P.Mansaram
The seventy-year career of the innovative Indian-born Canadian artist Panchal Mansaram (1934–2020)—who stylized his name as P.Mansaram—was just beginning to garner national attention when he passed away in 2020. After moving to Canada in 1966 and settling in Burlington, Ontario, his art practice evolved to include creating mixed-media collages that explore migration, cultural identity, and spirituality. His colour-packed works, including It’s Hard to Give, 1969, investigate everyday life in Canada and in India and often feature images and texts from both countries. In her research, Sandrena Raymond focuses on Mansaram’s role as a cosmopolitan artist who in the late twentieth century bridged the worlds of his native and adopted country to present a picture of South East Asian life in a multicultural Canada. Sandrena Raymond worked with the Royal Ontario Museum to inventory Mansaram’s oeuvre before the institution’s landmark acquisition of more than 700 of his works from 2014–17. She has a PhD in Information, Master of Information, and Master of Museum Studies from the University of Toronto.
Jennifer Orpana on the life and work of Violet Keene Perinchief
The cultural contributions of the English-born Canadian photographer Violet Keene Perinchief (1893–1987) have not been widely studied, except in relation to the work of her mother, renowned photographer Minna Keene (1861–1943). An accomplished portrait photographer in her own right, Violet Keene managed two busy Toronto studios in the 1930s and 1940s, a time when women rarely had careers as professional artists. Her portraits capture a range of subjects, including families, debutantes, brides, and prominent historical figures like aviator Amelia Earhart and writer Aldous Huxley. Dr. Jennifer Orpana will explore how the artist played a formidable role in the history of photography in Toronto by examining Keene’s vast portfolio and considering how her work reflects varied ideas of femininity that manifested privately and publicly during the interwar period. Dr. Orpana’s research will look at what Keene’s images—and her career—can reveal about the changing, nuanced roles of women as consumers, professionals, photographic subjects, and artists in Canada during that time. Dr. Orpana is a photography historian and lecturer who has taught at Toronto Metropolitan University, University of Toronto, OCAD University, Western University, and Brock University.
Tamara Toledo on Latin American women artists in Canada
Faced with a predominantly white settler narrative, it has been a challenge for Latin American diasporic artists in Canada to enter mainstream art discourse, especially when their art practices are perceived as radical or resistant. According to Chilean-born, Toronto-based scholar and curator Tamara Toledo, this lack of representation demonstrates the myth of multiculturalism; these artists’ works have not been shared, recorded, theorized, or archived despite being worthy of attention. Toledo’s project examines the practices of three contemporary Latin American women artists from the Colombian and Mexican diasporas: Claudia Bernal, Maria Ezcurra, and Helena Martin Franco. All three use the presence and absence of the female body in their installation and performance works to critique the factors that determine inclusion within a historically exclusionary canon. Through her research, Toledo will trace the transformative impact that Latin American artists have had on contemporary artistic milieus in Canada. Toledo is the Director/Curator of Sur Gallery, Toronto’s first gallery space dedicated to Latin American and diasporic art practices. She is also the co-founder of the non-profit organization Latin American Canadian Art Projects and a PhD candidate in Art History and Visual Culture at York University.