Space Fictions
Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen, Juan Ortiz-Apuy
A Space Main Gallery
February 1 – March 15, 2014
Curated by: Vicky Moufawad-Paul
Opening Reception Saturday February 1st from 2 – 4pm
Artist Talks on Saturday February 1st from noon – 2pm.
Noon - Screening of Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen’s film, followed by her artist talk
12:30 - Artist talk by Juan Ortiz-Apuy
1 pm - Panel Discussion with the artists
The exhibition is presented by A Space Gallery. The artist talk is presented as a collaboration between A Space Gallery and Gendai Gallery’s Model Minority Series.
A Space Gallery is pleased to present projects by artists Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen and Juan Ortiz-Apuy. Both artists make archival recoveries that reveal the ongoing fictionalizations of national spaces. Nguyen’s video, “1967: A People Kind of Place” is an exploration of the world’s first UFO landing pad that was built as a celebratory Centennial project in the small Alberta town of St. Paul. The welcoming of beings from other planets into Canada was concurrent with the implementation of Trudeau’s point based immigration system. Ortiz-Apuy’s “The Freedom Fighter Manual” is the inversion of a 17-page CIA manual that was airdropped over Nicaragua in 1983, with the goal of overthrowing their revolutionary government. By using anachronistically humorous moments in history as foils to view the present, Nguyen and Ortiz-Apuy’s find ways to fray the boundaries between nations, migration and politics.
Biographies
French-Canadian of Vietnamese origin, Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen is a research-based artist currently living and working in Brooklyn (NY) and Stockholm (SE). Nguyen completed the Whitney Independent Study Program in 2010-2011, and obtained her MFA and a post-graduate diploma in Critical Studies at the Malmo Art Academy in 2005. Amongst selected exhibitions, Nguyen’s work was shown internationally such as the Kunstverein Braunschweig (2013); apexart in New York City (2013); VOX: Centre de l’image contemporaine (2012); the ICA Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia (2011); the Mason Gross Galleries in New Jersey (2011); the Galerie Im Regierungsviertel in Berlin (2010); Gasworks in London (2010), Pictura Gallery/Skanska Konstmuseum in Lund (2009). Upcoming engagements in 2014 include solo exhibitions at Or Gallery in Vancouver; and Momenta Art in Brooklyn; a workshop series in collaboration with Gendai Gallery at the Art Gallery of Ontario; and the Koerner Artist in Residence at Queens University in Kingston.
Juan Ortiz-Apuy was born in Costa Rica and currently lives and works in Montreal. Ortiz-Apuy has a BFA from Concordia University, Montreal, a Post-graduate diploma from the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, and a MFA from NSCAD University, Halifax. Recent exhibitions include The MacLaren Arts Centre in Barrie, Sporobole Contemporary Art Centre in Sherbrooke, Gallery Birch Libralato in Toronto, and Eastern Edge in Saint John’s. In 2012 his work was shortlisted for the Art Gallery of York University’s ABotM, while other recent awards include winning the 2011 Halifax Regional Municipality Contemporary Visual Art Award. In 2013, Ortiz-apuy completed an Artist-In-Residency at Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, and participated in Vendu/Sold at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Upcoming solo exhibitions include ARTSPACE in Peterborough, and The Kelowna Art Gallery in British Columbia, as well as participation in the upcoming Quebec City Biennial: Manif d’Art 7. Ortiz-Apuy is represented by galerie antoine ertaskiran.
Vicky Moufawad-Paul is a Toronto based curator and writer. She is the Director/Curator at A Space Gallery. She has curated exhibitions at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Carlton University Art Gallery, Gallery 101, MAI: Montreal arts interculturels, Latitude 53, Museum London, McIntosh Gallery, Contact Photography Festival, InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, A Space Gallery, and 16 Beaver. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Western Ontario and an MFA in Film and Video from York University. Moufawad-Paul has published texts on several artists including Harun Farocki, James Luna, Emily Jacir, Wafaa Bilal, Paul Dennis Miller, Deirdre Logue, Mohammed Mohsen, Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen, Juan Ortiz-Apuy, Basil AlZeri, Erica Lord, John Halak, Rehab Nazzal, Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin, Akram Zaatari, and Yto Barrada.