Hannah Essex, Ardyn Gibbs, and Pippa MacDonald
Curated by Eli Nolet
March 24th – 31st, 2023
Opening Reception: Friday March 24, 7PM
it shapes bodies is a group exhibition curated by Eli Nolet featuring the work of emerging artists Hannah Essex, Ardyn Gibbs, and Pippa MacDonald. Each artist’s practice pulls from personal narrative, and explores the embodied experiences of queer vulnerabilities and realizations of desire.
About the artists:
Hannah R. Essex (she/they) is a Queer settler interdisciplinary artist, who currently resides in (but is longing to escape from) Treaty 3 territory. As a witch and MAD creature Hannah’s practice is a form of ritual and inner excavation, exploring themes of sex and sexuality, queer identity, magic//madness, religious trauma, and relationship to Land. They are currently completing a BFA in Studio Art at McMaster University.
Ardyn Gibbs (they/them) is a queer non-binary, settler-Indigenous artist located on the territories of the Haudenosaunee, Anishninabewaki, Mississauga, Neutral, and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (also known as Hamilton,ON). Through an interdisciplinary lens Ardyn’s work explores the themes of queer futurism, kinship, self and community often utilizing both personal and shared experience as methods of research. Currently a student at McMaster University’s Studio Arts program they aim to graduate with an Honours BFA and a minor in Community Engagement. They are in the process of completing a certificate in Graphic Design and Visual Communication through OCADU. Ardyn’s work is constantly changing, adapting and growing with the world around them.
Pippa MacDonald (she/her) is a queer and white settler multidisciplinary artist based in Muskoka, Ontario but is currently residing in Hamilton, Ontario. She is currently completing her Undergraduate degree in Fine Arts at McMaster University. Pippa developed her skills in drawing and dance from a young age and kept her practice into her young adulthood as a self-taught artist and now also a choreographer. Pippa’s work is heavily portrait and performance based and explores the private and vulnerable emotional moments people have alone, as a way of showing others that opening up and sharing discomfort can bring people together.
About the Curator:
Eli Nolet (they/them) is a queer interdisciplinary artist from the occupied territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and Mississaugas (otherwise known as hamilton, ontario). Currently studying at McMaster University towards a B.F.A. in Studio Art, their practice is conceptually focused and questions the binaries of visible/invisible, normative/transgressive.