Proof is Gallery 44’s annual group exhibition of work by emerging Canadian artists, reflecting a range of current concerns and practices in contemporary photography and lens-based media. Proof is often one of the first exhibitions in a professional context for an emerging artist. Past exhibitions have featured work by Kotama Bouabane, Leila Fatemi, Isabelle Hayeur, Anique Jordan, Laurie Kang, Germaine Koh, Luther Konadu, Meryl McMaster, Elise Rasmussen and Althea Thauberger.
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Shirin Fathi is an Iranian-Canadian artist whose work focuses on cultural changes in relation to gender identity. Through role-play and the use of cosmetics, masks and prosthetics, Fathi uses her own body as a subject to stage ambiguous and often marginalized identities.
Shohreh Golazad is a graduate student at OCAD university in New Media Art History program, currently focused on writing her MRP-major research paper- on Representation of the Middle Eastern Self. She immigrated to Canada in 2014 from her beloved hometown, Tehran, Iran. She was trained as a traditional oil painter in Tehran and holds a four-year diploma in painting and drawing, besides her BA in translation linguistics. She considers herself as a wayfarer in this journey of finding her footing in her artistic practice. Now her medium of choice is, but not limited to, a mixture of photography and fabric art. Her works have won both national and international acclaim and she has been exhibited in both venues. Immigration, although, acted as a hindrance to her artistic practice, yet it has also both informed and inspired her academic and artistic practice. Shohreh Golazad is interested in the questions of identity, decolonial imagination and dreaming.
Karishma Pranjivan b. Toronto, 1994 is a multidisciplinary visual artist living and working between Toronto and New York. She holds a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Creative Direction from the University of the Arts London (2016) and sustains a strong interest in image-making, design, shape, and movement while utilizing a diverse set of disciplines to approach her work. Her most recent works investigate spaces and narratives surrounding South Asian identity, privacy and anonymity.
Xan Shian is an interdisciplinary artist and writer living in Montreal. Her work seeks to bridge the chasm between visual imagery and the written word, while navigating tropic tensions through material, personal and interpersonal relationships. She has published two books, Ontology (Folca Press, 2017) and Threshold (Leaf Press, 2015, in collaboration with poet, Marilyn Bowering). In 2017 she curated the exhibit, Ontology, at Galerie Espace Projet (Montreal) and participated in the group show, Rêverie, at Projet Pangée (Montreal). In May 2018 she held a solo exhibition at the Ou Gallery (Duncan, BC). She has a BA in Communication Studies from Concordia University (2012), and is currently finishing a BFA in Studio Arts, Photography, also at Concordia University (2019).
