Commissioned for MOCA Toronto’s ongoing Lightbox series, Crown land (2023) is a new interactive work by Patrick Cruz that will operate as playful self-critique, as well as to facilitate discussion around the entangled relationship between contemporary art and real estate, within the legacy of Canadian settler colonialism.
About the Artist
Born in Quezon City, Philippines in 1987 and currently living in Toronto, Patrick Cruz is an artist and educator who draws from 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.
