OKAY Collective

Okay Collective is a Canadian artist-run organization focused on curating and promoting events related to the arts. www.okaycollective.com

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OKAY Collective member Sonet Providence | sōˈnet | |ˈprävədəns, -ˌdens. Providence Is a Toronto based multidisciplinary artist, born in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Her current work deals with the distance and proximity of childhood identity to adulthood identification. Providence uses an unauthorized and collaborative authorship to her works through the use of both printed an digital dictionaries. The outcome, a series of “Definitive Prose”, she expands in a poetic structures through repetition of language. Website www.sonetprovidence.com Image Info Part 1: The series is about a distance and proximity of childhood identity to adulthood identification |through the process of aging . 96"x48" Oil on Plastic 2015

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OKAY Collective , member Phuong Nguyen. Nguyen currently resides in Toronto, Canada. She is primarily a painter and has completed her Bachelor of Fine Art at OCAD U in 2014. Nguyen is interested in people and exploring the complexities of our physicality and spirituality through the exploration of the human figure. Her ongoing bodies of work explores the identity of the Asian Canadian/American in the contexts of North American history, post-colonialism, and mass production. Phuong is hugely influenced by anything that makes her angry enough to make art about. Website: www.phuongnguyen.ca phuongnguyenart.tumblr.com Image info "Haunt" 8 x 10 inches oil on panel 2015

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OKAY Collective would like to officially welcome new member Rachel Guglielmelli. Guglielmelli is an Ottawa-born photographic artist based in Toronto, whose practice centres on self-relfexive explorations of the notion of archive and cultural identity. Through process-based image making and presentations, Rachel primarily examines the concept of home in relation to a diasporic identity and its ability to inform an ever-changing representation of self. Utilizing historically based photographic printing techniques such as Van Dyke and cyanotype processes in conjunction with hand-bound book works, Rachel seeks to bring traditional materials and methods into contemporary contexts. Her work will be featured in OCADu's Graduate Exhibition and The Fortune of Having Been There at Project Gallery for the Contact Festival. Website : www.vandykegrrrrl.com https://instagram.com/vandykegrrrrl/ Image info Expectation (from the series Aspetta) 30.5x36.5" Van Dyke on Stonehenge

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OKAY Collective would like to officially welcome new member JD Chai. Chai is a Toronto based artist working predominantly in oil and ceramics. His work deals with topics ranging from internet culture to extensions of the physical plane through digital media. His works, often derived from composite imagery depict cloaked and otherwise obscured figures, which take the form of detailed oil paintings and smaller sculptural works. Chai’s works have recently been shown in the OCADU Festival of the Body 2015 and will be featured in the 2015 OCADU Graduate Exhibition.

Website: forthcoming https://instagram.com/jdchai/

Image info Runway 8” x 10” Oil on Panel 2014

http://www.okaycollective.com/

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OKAY Collective would like to officially welcome new member Chad Gauthier.

Gauthier is a Toronto based painter working with themes of the mundane. His most recent body of work revolves around the idea of isolation through dematerialized figures and the silhouettes created by them. Through wiping away glazes and using contrasting palettes his paintings emerge over an extended period of time. Constantly editing the images, his haunting figures take on a ghostly quality helping to display their own isolated existence. His works will be on display later this summer at Project Gallery and the OCADU 100th Graduate Exhibition.

Website: forthcoming https://instagram.com/ChadGauthier

Image info Feel Good Lost 28" x 38" oil on canvas over panel 2014

http://www.okaycollective.com/

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Emma Edghill Is an artist of dual citizenship of both Canada and Barbados, whose work explores the nature of overlooked landscapes and constructed representations by means of painting. As an emigrant from Barbados, a small Caribbean island revered for its idyllic landscape, mental perceptions of home and the unknown have been a recurring source of pivotal interest... ( Continue on her website)

Image info Beach-Oh (Bicho): Sargasso outside looks in. Oil on canvas , 60"x 84". 2014.

www.emmairisedghill.net www.facebook.com/EmmaEdghillArt

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Greg McCarthy : Is a multidisciplinary artist working out of Toronto Ontario Canada. Working primarily in collage and photography, his works have dealt with promotional advertising in the music industry, tourism in the niagara region, and most recently issues surrounding historic depictions of national identity in Canada. His works have most recently been featured on My Mothers Basement Gallery and Gallery 1313. Image info Cut Out (After William Notman) Digital Print 2014 http://www.gregmccarthy.ca instagram: @theothergregm

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Today, Thursday March 5th OKAY Collective member, Greg McCarthy will be showcase at Gallery 1313's Window Space. Opening Reception 7 pm - 10pm. "The window box show, curated by Lisa Anita Wegner, examine traditions in Canadian photographic history and the role of William Notman's Photos in shaping images of Canadiana. The show will coincide with the opening of the OCADU Sculpture and Installation thesis show That Was For This, so come out and support the SCIN thesis class while you are at it. " Event link here: https://www.facebook.com/events/810344205686982 Link to Greg McCarthy website here: http://www.gregmccarthy.ca

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Sebastián Benítez Visual Artist Sebastián Benítez is a Toronto-based artist born in Caracas, Venezuela. Sebastián explores issues of memory and identity through photography and installation. His recent works explore the role of objects and images in the construction and maintenance of notions of identity. He has been  a part of exhibitions in the United States, Canada, Finland, South Korea and China. Image info Untitled from Material Beauty. 16x20in Inkjet Print. 2014 www.sebastianbenitez.com Instagram: @sebastian.benitez http://www.okaycollective.com

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Following the successful opening of BLACK FUTURE MONTH 3015 : The 3rd Annual Afrofuturism Art Exhibition at OCAD University last Sunday (Feb 22nd ), OKAY Collective would like to say congratulations to all the artists involved it an amazing OCAD U first. The show which was Curated by Danilo McCallum featured the works of 15 OCAD U students (Quentin “Vercetty” Lindsay, Ekow Nimako, Ola Ojo, Javid JAH, Komi Olaf, So Tee Oh, Chris Ak, Danilo McCallum, Odinamaad, Aaron Jones, Danisha Nugent, Stephen Surlin, Curtia Wright, Kanyika Yorke, and Dheeko Kinte.) all working to showcase the many skills of OCAD U's Black artists in a variety of media. Up coming event : ORBITING AROUND WOMEN IN AFROFUTURISM - BLACK FUTURE MONTH PANEL DISCUSSION https://www.facebook.com/events/408758625967226 Black Future Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/blackfuturemonth3015 Photograph/ write up by : Sonet Providence

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It was a cold cross city opening night for members of OKAY Collective; Phuong Nguyen and Emma Edghill last night. Both shows ( Estranged Spaces, at Creative Blueprint , and Cognitive Release at Yellow House Gallery) brought warmth to the city however. With the island scenes of Edghill's home island Barbados, and Nguyen's blanket cover self portraits. Photos by: Sonet providence

OKAY Collective website : http://www.okaycollective.com

Emma's website: http://www.emmairisedghill.net/

Phuong's website: http://phuongnguyen.ca

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Congrats to Sebastian Benitez, and the many other amazing photographer on the opening of HERE last night at Autumn​. The show runs until Sun, Feb 15, 2015 6:00pm.

See more event info at http://www.autumntoronto.com/events/2015/2/5/here

A photography exhibit showcasing work from 10 emerging OCAD U artists exploring the self as a performative subject within the photographic frame. Curated by: Madelyn Alexander

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My Mother's Basement Gallery is currently running an online feature with members of OKAY Collective ( Phuong Nguyen, Bryan A. Bermúdez, Greg McCarthy , Sebastián Benítez and Chad Gauthier) curated by Devan Patel (Co-Director at Project Gallery ). Take a look here -

http://www.mymothersbasementgallery.com/

OKAY Collective site here: http://www.okaycollective.com/

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OKAY Collective would like to congratulate member Phuong Nguyen on the success of her first solo (mini) opening : PASSIVE/AGGRESSIVE which took place at Gallery 1313, in Toronto last night ( Jan 15th, 2014). 

Link to Nguyen's official site here : http://phuongnguyen.ca/

Photos by : Sonet Providence 

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Today's inside the artist studio OKAY Collective's, Sonet Providence (Details from plans of her current work )

Things to note : She's learning Icelandic , "...ég veit." .

She write's "definition prose", - she's seriously considering being a recluse, perhaps in Iceland. She has a phobia of yellow that's why it's never in her work.

Check out the her official site here : http://www.sonetprovidence.com

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Today's inside the artist studio OKAY Collective's, Bryan A. Bermúdez (Details from his studio session) 

Things to note : 1 Major and 2 Minors later you'll probably have to flip a coin as to whether he's in the painting studios or the jewelry studios. On second thought he's probably out getting food... 

Check out the his official site for a look at works... updates coming soon 

See Bermúdez official site here :http://www.bryanbermudez.com/

photos by : Sonet Providence

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Today's inside the artist studio OKAY Collective's, Phuong Nguyen. (Details from her studio space) 

Things to note : Why take a selfie when you could paint self-portraits. If you're thinking , "to save time", she's got this. She's Viet-Canadian, and she's " ...hugely influenced by anything that makes her angry enough to make art about."

Check out the her blog and official site for a look at current works. 

See Nguyen's official site here :http://phuongnguyen.ca/

official blog : http://phuongnguyenart.tumblr.com/

photos by : Phuong Nguyen