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Destination Canadian Art
Contemporary Art
Changing Exhibitions

401 Riverside Drive West
Windsor, ON N9A 7J1

Gallery Hours:
Open today from 10 am - 5 pm

Emerging Artist Residency: Maria Mediratta

The Art Gallery of Windsor is excited to announce that Windsor-based artist Maria Mediratta has been selected as one of three artists that will complete a residency in 2022! Maria will create new works of art, onsite at the AGW from March 1st, through May 30th, 2022.

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Maria Mediratta (she/her) is a 25 year old artist and educator currently based in Windsor, Ontario. Primarily, she is a print, zine, illustration and mail artist playing with the tension between the virtual and the tangible world. She holds an MFA in Visual Arts (2021) and a BA in Visual Arts, Communication, Media & Film (2018). She has also been working in Windsor’s Arts and Culture sector for just under five years. She has been contracted by the University of Windsor, The Greater Essex County District School Board, Vanguard Youth Arts Collective, and more recently, Artcite Inc.

Artist Statement:

I am a mixed-media artist making illustrations, prints, zines and mail art as a practice of self-care, connection, and communication. My work plays with the tension between the virtual and tangible worlds we encounter every day. Illustration, collage, watercolour and printmaking are my favourite ways of communicating and I actively use them to participate in artist exchanges and collaborative projects. My creative process also includes quick sketches, field notes, foraging, and collecting which all relate to documenting my thoughts in different environments.
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I often use a combination of these processes to reflect on moments in time where I am thinking about the relationship between landscape and the digital sphere, and how physical spaces can be extensions of mental space. I work intuitively, linking colour, texture, and balance to what I experience in my environment and in my mind at the time. Some works are minimal while others are more complex to show the ever-changing nature of one's mindset, environment, and the complexity of the tension and in-between feeling. I often use a square format to reference the window, the pixel and the grid. While I typically opt for sharing work and conversation with others in physical space, I have shifted to a stronger reliance on the virtual given the global stresses over the last couple years.

 

Call for Submissions: Mail Art and Interactivity

This open studio encourages us to think critically about methods of care, connection and communication through the magic of mail art! Emerging Artist in Residence Maria Mediratta will guide you through creating a postcard or mail art work that responds to your thoughts and feelings about the real world and the digital world. This project can be done from anywhere, at any time and is a great way to share your unique perspective. 

Here's how you can participate: 

At the Gallery: 

  1. Drop-in on the second floor AGW Education Studio to create a piece of mail art. 
  2. Create a mail art piece that responds to one of the questions below: 
    • What does technology mean to you? And what role does it play in your day?
    • How do you connect with others? What does that look like?
    • What do you love about your environment? 
    • How do you show care for others? Is it physical? Is it virtual?
  3. Drop your work of art in our onsite Mailbox. Your work will become part of a growing onsite installation at the AGW over the next few months!

From Home: 

  1. Gather your materials and use what you have at home (cardstock, mark-making tools, collage materials, etc...) 
  2. Create a mail art piece that responds to one of the questions below: 
    • What does technology mean to you? And what role does it play in your day?
    • How do you connect with others? How does it make you feel?
    • What do you love about your environment? 
    • How do you show care for others? Is it physical? Is it virtual?
  3. Mail OR deliver your mail art to the Art Gallery of Windsor, located at 401 Riverside Dr W, Windsor, ON N9A 7J1.
  4. Address your work to Maria Mediratta / Mail Art Project, 401 Riverside Dr W, Windsor, ON N9A 7J1
  5. Your mail art or postcard it will become part of a growing installation at the AGW over the next few months!

  

Abstract Worlds Workshop

 

About the Residency:

Three emerging artists from Windsor-Essex are set to complete a 3-month residency at the Art Gallery of Windsor over the course of 2022. The AGW Emerging Artist Residency is a paid opportunity for early-career artists in Windsor-Essex who want to learn, grow, develop, and show their art while engaging with the public in a series of community programs. In addition to creating new works of art in the AGW Education Studio, the artist will create digital content and install an off-site window solo exhibition at the Dry Goods Gallery, at 1012 Drouillard Road, in Ford City.

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This program is generously sponsored by the WindsorEssex Community Foundation.