Join artist Patrick Cruz and the founders of four local artist-run spaces, Rowan Lynch (Hearth), Danica Pinteric (Joys), Daniel Hunt (the plumb) and Parker Kay (Pumice Raft), for a discussion around alternative gallery models, community building and the precarious nature of autonomous cultural spaces within the context of Toronto.
This talk has been developed in relation to Cruz’s Lightbox commission, Crown land, which is part of MOCA’s Spring 2023 programming. The event will take place on the museum’s Ground Floor, which is always free to visit. Registration is not required.
About the Panelists
Patrick Cruz
Born in Quezon City, Philippines in 1987 and currently living in Toronto, Patrick Cruz is an artist and educator who creates installations that draw on aspects of diasporic experience, play and folk spirituality. He received the Thirteen Artist Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2021, was long-listed for the Sobey Art Award in 2019 and won the 17th RBC Canadian Painting Competition in 2015. Cruz is an Assistant Professor in Studio Art at the University of Toronto's Scarborough and Daniels campuses, and is a co-founder of the curatorial collective Kamias Special Projects, which hosts the Kamias Triennial. Cruz holds a certificate in Pochinko Clowning and an MFA from the University of Guelph.
Rowan Lynch
Rowan Lynch lives and works in Toronto. Their practice involves writing, visual art and design, and organizing events and exhibitions. They are a graduate of OCADU’s Criticism and Curatorial Studies program and one of four founding members of Hearth, a project space started in 2019. Hearth seeks to present projects within a context that values collaboration, experimentation, and community. Hearth is committed to working towards an anti-oppressive, queer positive environment, and welcoming marginalized and racialized folks through programming that celebrates the work of a diverse range of emerging collaborators. As a structural element in the makeup of a house, and a tool providing warmth, light, and food; a hearth gathers us towards itself, and towards each other.
Danica Pinteric
Danica Pinteric is a curator, writer and founding director of Joys based in Tkaronto/Toronto. Joys (est. 2022) is an independent gallery located in a laneway garage in the Wallace Emerson neighbourhood. Its program explores the politics of vulnerability through exhibitions and events that emphasize plurality, poetry, play and process as viable methodologies for being in the world.
Daniel Hunt
Daniel Hunt (b. 1993) from Toronto/Tkaronto, Canada is the Director of Hunt Gallery, a gallery for contemporary art in the city. From 2015 to 2018, Hunt co-directed Y+contemporary, a 1200 square foot artist-run centre located in Scarborough. Hunt currently co-directs the plumb, an artist-run project started in June 2020. the plumb was created to offer exhibition space to emerging artists, foster dialogues with established voices, and provide a platform for culturally diverse artists and curators.
Parker Kay
Parker Kay is a curator and writer currently working in Toronto. Kay’s practice implements experiential research and qualitative mapping to explore how place-making permeates our lives and marks our landscapes. In 2018, Kay founded Pumice Raft, a registered non-profit organization in Tkaronto/Toronto. Pumice Raft's activities began from an ecological activist approach to the display of visual art and the facilitation of related education. This means that the guiding principles of the organization are rooted in a conception of place that begins with the protection of people and the planet.
