Gillian Toliver
Artist member since 2019
Toronto, ON
Gillian Toliver is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in Toronto. Recently graduating from OCAD University for Drawing and Painting, Toliver’s thesis work, Paper Skin Makes Me, Waver in The Breeze was awarded the Drawing and Painting Medal for 2019. As an artist of mixed Scottish and Caribbean decent, her work often explores spaces existing in an in-between, a world caught in a moment of creation. In an honouring and opening of self, her work is a reaction to the absurdity, multiplicity and fluidity of being. Utilizing practices of labour, repetition and ritual, she navigates the condition of body and mind from systematic censorship through creating new forms in which to pour and bind self to. The creation of these new ‘host’ bodies is used in an act of reclaiming physical and mental environments.
Inside the Studio
Q+A
Describe your home in 3 words
big fat orange
In a previous life I was (a) ...
Definitely a tiny bug or a bird. Something that either burrows and nestles into the earth endlessly, or that soars over it taking everything in at once. I often find myself desperately trying to get back to those sensations
Your favourite spot in Toronto right now
My bed
When I'm not making art, I'm (a) ...
Reading. Even while creating art I am often listening to audio books. I'd like to say these books are expanding my knowledge and feeding my craft but often they are deep dives into sci-fi and fantasy worlds....
Select Past Exhibitions
2022
2022
2022
2021
2021
2020
2020
2020
2019
2019
2018
2018
2018
2017
Accolades
2020
2019
2019
Press
2022
2020
2019
Residencies
Education
2019
Social
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