Maddie Alexander is a trans artist, arts facilitator, archivist, and educator. They hold a BFA in Photography from OCAD University, an MFA from NSCAD University, and are currently a guest on the unceded territory of Miꞌkmaꞌki. Their work examines representations of queer and trans experience in pop culture and mass media. They approach this through a community-oriented practice and utilize DIY techniques to produce environmental experiences. They pull from sourced materials, as well as personal narrative to explore themes of desire, failure, connection, and dissonance. They have exhibited locally and internationally, have participated in numerous residencies, panels, artist talks, and lectures.

See more on Maddie’s website: maddie-alexander.com or Instagram.

Nicholas Chapman is an arts worker originally from Lower Sackville NS, and currently living in Halifax. He is interested in sociopolitical theory,  internet archiving, psychogeography, treasure hunts, organizing and pranks.  Nicholas uses a variety of media art tools to create and install games for viewers to play, with a focus on individual experience, and curiosity driven exploration of the work.

Nicholas spent the majority of his time in the VANS program learning to navigate the grant application process, and to improve the administrative side of his arts practice. Nicholas hopes to be awarded an ArtsNS grant for 2021 in order to continue production on this series of “dummy books” which will act as props in a future installation project.

See more on Nick’s Instagram: @karlmarx12345678.

Jessica MacDonald is an interdisciplinary artist working in new media, film, theatre, music, performance and community arts. A graduate of NSCAD University, she works with Wonder’neath open studio and sits on the boards of various local arts societies. Her art practice touches on themes of play, process, identity, objects, invisible illness, consumerism and obsolescence, often using humour to examine the relationships between people, technology, things, the environment, and permanence versus ephemerality. Through the use of reclaimed materials, interactivity and immersion, Jess works with the subversion of expectations towards a radical reimagining of what art can mean.

See more on Jess’s website: macjess.com, Instagram: @whyisitlikethat, @jessmacartist, YouTube: Jess Doing Things, or Soundcloud.

Molly MacLellan is an artist from Nova Scotia who has recently returned home after spending the last five years in Europe. MacLellan began her studies at NSCAD in 2010, in 2015 she transferred schools and received a BFA from The Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, The Netherland in 2016. After her Bachelor studies MacLellan attended residencies internationally and helped to found an artist space in Berlin, Germany where she lived for over two years. In 2020 MacLellan graduated with an MFA from LUCA School of Art in Brussels, Belgium. MacLellan is happy to be back in Nova Scotia and is working on her practice at the newly established artist space, 2482 Maynard Street where she just completed the Visual Arts Nova Scotia New Grad Program.

Artist Statement:
Over the last three months I collected lots of objects and materials but not for their intended purposes, I used them to make abstract forms. I’m interested in pairing different materials, objects and forms. When the separate parts come together it gives them the authority to exist outside of the systems of use and value they are usually bound to. This drives my practice.

This work was made with support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

See more on her website: mollymaclellan.com  or Instagram @molly.maclellan.

Fern Pellerin is a nonbinary lesbian interdisciplinary artist from McKinney Texas, land of the Wichita, Tawakoni and Kiikaapoi Indigenous peoples. They are currently based in K’jipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia). They are a graduate of NSCAD University with a major in interdisciplinary arts and a minor in illustration and art history. Fern’s illustration and textile art practice is currently influenced by past experiences growing up LGBTQ+ and overcoming past hardships. They are inspired by comics and cartoons, nostalgia, dreams, memory and their own queer Romani identity.

Artist Statement:
My art practice is currently inspired by nostalgia, memory and past experiences growing up 2SLGBTQ+. I enjoy handling these themes through a childish, dreamlike lens with an emphasis on visual narrative.

My practice focuses on many themes, but I would say that it is currently focused on my own personal experiences and allowing myself to reclaim them. I am allowing myself to heal, cope, let myself be a kid again. Growing up 2SLGBTQ+ and mentally ill, I feel like I have given a lot of my childhood away to figure these things out. Now, in my early twenties, it’s like having a second childhood, experiencing many new things and learning as I go. My current practice is heavily inspired by this feeling, and the warmth that comes with acceptance and love.

See more on Fern’s website: fernpellerin.wixsite.com/artist, Instagram: @fernpellerin, Tumblr: @fernpellerin, and
Twitter: @fernpellerinart.

I am expanded field painter but can probably be more aptly described as a whirlwind of diverging ideas. I am artist activist and believe the material of and how we make is a big part of the message we send as artists. I use the inbetweens of ideas and mediums to break down the doors of how we collectively see the past, present and future. Over the next several months I will be exploring experimental short films incorporating the use of costume design, virtual reality, animation, 3D rendering, and whatever I comes across along the way. My practice invites you to imagine and re imagine the world around you and the future we all share.

See more on Anna Lisa’s website: annalisashandro.art and Instagram @annalisashandro.art

Andrew Thorne is an interdisciplinary artist and a recent NSCAD graduate. Woodcut, and other print mediums are all vital to the artist’s work. However, Thorne is not limited by these materials. Whether the medium is sound, installation or otherwise, the interrogation of the Canadian media complex and the performance of mass media is always given the hotseat. Thorne is also focused on materials that hold the capacity to share. His practice is one of recording, and collecting the bits and pieces of our lives that make up the magic of our day to day.

During the New Grad program, I spent most of my time making the Here and Now/Communication carving. This piece explores the idea of space, what spaces might say and what ideas might be buried within them. The size and scale of this carving allowed me to fall into a massive, cartoonish world of deviance, where symbol and word can be deconstructed, rearranged, and laughed at.

See more about Andrew on his website: murderandcrimecafe.hotglue.me and Instagram: @listentoyerselfchurn.

Sydney Wreaks is an Interdisciplinary visual artist of Kanien’keháka and euro-settler decent, currently living as an uninvited guest in Mi’gma’gi. They Graduated with a BFA from NSCAD University in 2020.

Their art practice shifts between painting, field notes/ archiving, printed matter, and curating; more recently they have started connecting with community and culture through Beadwork. Within their beading practice they are trying to upcycle materials from previous works. They are taking time to connect to beadwork as medicine, and have started to reconnect their family’s knowledge through learning their Haudenosaunee Kanien’keháka teachings, histories and language.

Presently, they have been using art as a way to challenge colonial eurocentric ways of understanding, and shifting the narrative with Calls to Action.

See more on Sydney’s Instagram @sydneywreaksart