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Jessica Karuhanga is a first-generation Canadian artist of British-Ugandan heritage whose work addresses issues of cultural politics of identity and Black diasporic concerns through lens-based technologies, writing, drawing and performances. Through her practice she explores individual and collective concerns of Black subjectivity: illness, rage, grief, desire and longing within the context of Black embodiment.

She was the 2020 - 2021 recipient of Concordia University's SpokenWeb Artist/Curator In Residence Fellowship. Karuhanga has presented her work at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery (2021), SummerWorks Lab (Toronto, 2020), The Bentway (Toronto, 2019), Nuit Blanche (Toronto, 2018), Onsite Gallery (Toronto, 2018) and Goldsmiths University (London, UK, 2017). Karuhanga's writing has been published by C Magazine, BlackFlash, Susan Hobbs Gallery and Fonderie Darling.

 

She has been featured in AGO's Artist Spotlight, i-D, DAZED, Visual Aids, Border Crossings, Exclaim!, Toronto Star, CBC Arts, esse, filthy dreams, Globe and Mail and Canadian Art. She earned her BFA from Western University and MFA from University of Victoria. She is an Assistant Professor at Western University.

 PRESS

2023

Interview, Jessica Karuhanga navigates space through performance, Remai Modern Currents

 

2022

Feature, Say Hello to Fall on CBC: There's plenty to keep you entertained, CBC

Feature, From Bros to Bowie, 10 reasons this will be the queerest TIFF ever, CBC

Feature, Jessica Karuhanga, "ground and cover me", Institutional Model

Interview, Performance, Dublin Art Life

Feature, Queer City Cinema presents Qualeidoscope: Queer Film and Performance on tour, GCN

2021

Feature, Listening Feels, by jamilah malika abu-bakare, Canadian Art Magazine

Interview, xviix

Interview, Breakaway, CBC Radio

 

2020

Feature, Winnipeg's WNDX Festival of Moving Image Details 2020 Edition, Exclaim!

Feature, Artist Spotlight, Art Gallery of Ontario 

 

2019

Review, Queer Arts Festival's show Relational rEvolutions questions the future by Alexander Varty, The Georgia Straight

Feature, the new new york, i-D

 

2018

Feature, Six Toronto artists pushing their city into a more progressive future, by Ashleigh Kane, DAZED

Feature, 5 best bets at Nuit Blanche, by Murray Whyte, Toronto Star

Column, McMichael gallery showcases archive of Canadian hip-hop culture, by Chris Hampton, The Globe and Mail

Review, Exhibits prob identity and vices, by Joe Belanger, The London Free Press

Review, Seeds of discontent at OCAD nature-derived art show, by Murray Whyte, Toronto Star 

Review, The Sunshine Eaters, by Liz Ikirko, PUBLIC

Review, The Sunshine Eaters, by Anna Kovler, Border Crossings

2017 
Feature, 10 Artists Who Are Taking Care, by Amber Berson, Canadian Art Magazine 

Review, all our days are full of breath: a record of momentum, by Coman Poon, C Magazine

Feature, by Adam Barbu, esse magazine

2016

Feature, Art and HIV: This powerful public poster series is challenging how we look at the virus, by Theodore Kerr, CBC Arts

Column, Dead Tired Of Being So Bloody Positive: PosterVirus Reflects AIDS Activism Now, by Emily Colucci, filthy dreams

Interview, A Conversation with Jessica Karuhanga, by Luther Konadu, Public Parking

Interview, A Conversation with Jessica Karuhanga, by Heather-Campos Castillo, Heart-Beats

Review, The Artists Newsstand, by Emily Fitzpatrick, C Magazine

Column, PosterVirus 2016, Visual Aids

2015

Interview, Tribal Dances of the Black Female Body, by Kofi Fosu Forson ARMSEYE

 

 

 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

 

2023

Blue as the insides, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Canada

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

 

2023

of many worlds in this world, ArtLab, Western University, Canada

 

2022

From Remote Stars: Buckminster Fuller, London, and Speculative Futures, Museum London, Canada

After Care, Mitchell Art Gallery, MacEwan University, Edmonton, Canada   

2021

Undeliverable, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Canada

Collective Offerings, Art Gallery of Guelph, Canada

Léuli Eshrāghi and Jessica Karuhanga: Projections, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, Canada

Gardenship, Museum London, Canada

Sensing, Feeling, Being, Glory Hole Gallery, Toronto, Canada                                       

Aural Alterities, SpokenWeb and CURRENT, Canada

2020

Emotional Landscapes, Varley Art Gallery of Markham, Canada

do you feel me?, The Bows, Calgary, Canada

Luminocity, Kamloops Art Gallery, Canada

 

2019

Undercurrents, The Bentway, Toronto, Canada

Ground, Sheridan Gallery, Toronto, Canada

Relational Revolutions, Queer Arts Festival, Vancouver, Canada

 

2018

I continue to shape, Art Museum at University of Toronto, Canada

our roots are here, amongst the grasses, Y+contemporary, Toronto, Canada

Inscapes, Varley Art Gallery of Markham, Canada

Sunshine Eaters, Onsite Gallery, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada

Embodiment, Museum London, Canada

 

2017

all our days are full of breath: a record of momentum, Art Museum at University of Toronto, Canada
WARNING! Mind the Gap, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada

 

2016
Pixelation, Artscape Youngplace, Toronto, Canada 
Finishing Lines, Forest City Gallery, London, Canada

 

2015

25 Multiples Toward a Past and Future, Deluge Contemporary Art, Victoria, Canada
Truth be Told, YBT Gallery, Toronto, Canada

2014 
Exposed, Nia Centre for the Arts, Toronto, Canada
11:45, Xpace Cultural Centre, Toronto, Canada
It wasn't Supposed to be this way, Videofag, Toronto, Canada

PERFORMANCES

2023

ground and cover me, Remai Modern, Saskatoon, SK

ground and cover me, John Labatt Visual Arts Centre, Western University, London, ON

2022

ground and cover me, Pallas Art Projects, Dublin, IE

ground and cover me, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, SK

2020

#Carefree, WNDX Festival of Moving Image, Winnipeg, MB

 

2019

#Carefree, Long Winter, Toronto, ON

 

2018

#Carefree, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto,ON

2017

(Featured Performer) Lido Pimienta, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA

(Featured Performer) Lido Pimienta, Polaris Prize, Toronto, ON

ground and cover me, Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto, ON
through a brass channel, Art Museum at University of Toronto, ON
ground and cover me, OCAD University, Toronto, ON

2016 
(Featured Performer) Ame Henderson and Evan Webber’s performance encyclopedia, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
#Carefree, ASSEMBLÉE, Studio 303, Montreal, ON
#Carefree, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
Carefree, Fine and Mellow, Trinity Square Video, Toronto, ON
(Featured Performer) Christof Migone’s Mixer, The Royal Conservatory,Toronto, ON
Boom Aura, DOORED 24, DoubleDouble Land, Toronto, ON

Shade Shadow Spectre, Forest City Gallery, London, ON

A Still Cling To Fading Blossoms, OCAD University, Toronto, ON

2014 
Bone Black Dust and Sky Lickers, The Drake Hotel,Toronto, ON
A Still Cling To Fading Blossoms, Electric Eclectics Festival, Meaford, ON 
The trip, the fall, and the lost heap of longing, Xpace Cultural Centre, Toronto, ON

(Featured Performer) Brendan Fernandes’ Closing Line, Chance Motives, SculptureCentre, New York, NY

 

 

 

COLLECTIONS

Museum London

 

CURATION

2018

Ineffable Blaze (Trinity Square Video, Toronto ON)

      with Kiera Boult, Jazmine VK Carr, Danièle Dennis, Dainesha Nugent-Palache,

      Marcelline Mandeng, Aurel Haize-Odogbo and Jared Brown

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

2021

Interview, American Artist, Blackwood Gallery

 

2019

Essay, Guillaume Adjutor Provost, Fonderie Darling 

 

2018

Feature, Oliver Husain, Susan Hobbs Gallery

 

2017 

Feature, Kapwani Kiwanga, BlackFlash Magazine

2016 
Review, Simone Leigh, C Magazine 

Column, Francisco-Fernando Granados, C Magazine

Writer-in-Residence, 7a11d International Festival of Performance Art

 

 

SYMPOSIA & LECTURES

2023

Panelist: Black Art/Black Canada (Royal Ontario Museum, Canada)

2022

Panelist: Queer City Cinema (Dunlop Art Gallery, Canada)

 

2021

Lecturer: Talk & Workshop (Université de Yaoundé I, Cameroon)

Conversation: Jessica Karuhanga and Nehal El-Hadi (Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta University of the Arts, Canada)

2020

Lecture: Luminocity Artist Talk (Kamloops, Canada)

​2019

Panelist: Mystique Afrique (Africa Salon, United Kingdom) 

Panelist: TIFF Transforms: International Women's Day (TIFF, Canada)

2018

Conversation: The Unknown and Unknowable with Jessica Karuhanga and Nehal El-Hadi (Trinity Square Video, Canada)

Panelist: Been Here So Long (The Art Gallery of Peterborough, Canada)

Lecturer: Western University's ART NOW Series (Museum London, Canada)

​2017

Panelist: Remembrance and Difference (Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Canada)

Panel: Tender Skeletons (Art Museum at University of Toronto, Canada) 

Panelist: Working with Dancers in Contemporary Art Space (Blackwood Gallery, Canada) 

Moderator: The Un-Othered Body, curated by Esmaa Mohamoud (OCAD University) 

Panelist: Conversations on FORCE, hosted by C Magazine (Gallery TPW, Toronto, Canada)

​2016

Keynote: Archives Matter: Queer, Feminist & Decolonial Encounters (Goldsmiths, United Kingdom)

2015

Panelist: In Conversation: Her Hustle, moderated by Ariella Starkman (Soho House, Toronto, Canada) 

Lecturer: Worn Dialogues: Gallery Conversations (Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada) 

Panelist: Exploring Black Feminine Identity (The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada) 

Panelist: Black Portraitures II (Harvard University and Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, Florence, Italy)

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2022 - Present

Assistant Professor, Visual Arts Department, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Western University, London, Canada

 

2020 - 2022

Part-time Lecturer, Technology, Identity and Creativity, School of Media, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada

Part-time Lecturer, New Media Thesis Project, School of Media, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada

2016 - 2020

Sessional Professor, Performance Art, Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, University of Toronto, Canada

Sessional Professor, Curation: Nature & Culture, Curatorial, Criticism and Curatorial Practices, Faculty of Art, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada

2017 - 2020

Board of Directors, Gallery TPW, Toronto, Canada 

2019

Sessional Professor, Museum Studies, Curatorial, Criticism and Curatorial Practices, Faculty of Art, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada 

2018 - 2019

Sessional Professor, Foundations Studies in Studio, Department of Art, Culture and Media, University of Toronto, Scarborough, Canada 

 

2014 - 2015

Administrative Assistant, Onsite Gallery at OCAD University, Toronto, Canada

2010 - 2012

Sessional Instructor, Drawing - ART 200, University of Victoria, Canada

Studio Assistant, Noah Becker, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

AV Technician Assistant, University of Victoria, Canada        

                                           

2010

Teaching Assistant, Foundations in Studio Art, Western University, London, Canada

AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS

2021

Ontario Arts Council, Visual Arts Creation Projects

Canada Council for the Arts, Explore and Create: Concept to Realization

Toronto Arts Council, Visual Arts Project Grant

 

2017 
Toronto Arts Council, Emerging Media Artist Grant  
Ontario Arts Council, Culturally Diverse Curatorial Projects Grant

2016

Ontario Arts Council, Visual Arts: Emerging Grant

2015 
Toronto Arts Council, Emerging Visual Artist Grant

 

JURIES

2022

Juror: Toronto Arts Council

 

2019

Juror: Animating Toronto Parks Grant, Toronto Arts Council

Juror: New Media Thesis Project, Ryerson University

 

2017 
Juror: Visual Arts Creation Projects Grant, Ontario Arts Council

2016 
Juror: Level One: Emerging Artists Grant, Toronto Arts Council

RESIDENCIES

 

2021

Reader-in-Residence, Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada

M:ST 10 Biennale in partnership with RAVY Biennale, Yaoundé, Cameroon

​2020

SpokenWeb Artist-in-Residence, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

SummerWorks Lab Residencies, Toronto, Canada

The Intergenerational LGBT Artist Residency, Toronto, Canada

​2017

7md8 On-line Residency in partnership with Trinity Square Video, Toronto, Canada

2014

Artist-in-Residence, The Drake Hotel, Toronto, Canada

 

 

 

EDUCATION

 

Master of Fine Arts, University of Victoria, Canada 

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Western University, Canada

  

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