ANRAN GUO
Making the Unfamiliar Familiar: (Trans-)Cultural Recontextualization of Historical Objects in Contemporary Art Practice
A program of
Anran Guo: With All Due Respect
With speakers Anran Guo, Maria Hupfield, Jason Lujan, and Brandon Vickerd, moderated by Wang Zi, this panel takes Anran Guo’s work as a point of departure. It brings together artists and art educators to critically examine the recontextualization of historical objects within contemporary art. The discussion will investigate how everyday objects, carrying historical and cultural significance, are transformed into powerful artistic statements. The panel will address the commercialization of art with critical practice, the recovery and refabrication of narratives, issues of authorship, and material integrity in contemporary art practice.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Anran Guo (b. Dalian, China）is a queer female artist currently based between Hamilton and Toronto. She grew up in China and moved to Canada in 2014. Guo holds an Honours Bachelors of Art in Art and Art History and a Master of Visual Studies in Studio Art from the University of Toronto.
Guo’s practice focuses primarily on sculpture and installation. Her works are metaphorical and playful, offering layered readings that critique social and political systems. Employing semiotics in the manipulation of the visual information on, or the form of found objects, Guo constructs visual fables. Her works transform simple everyday objects through minimal intervention. The everydayness of these objects makes Guo’s work accessible and provokes critical reflection on the invisible power dynamics at play in society.
Guo’s work has been exhibited at the Art Gallery of Mississauga, Hamilton Artist Inc., Centre[3] for Artistic and Social Practice, and the Art Museum at the University of Toronto. She was the Juror Award recipient in the 2018 University of Toronto Shelley Peterson Student Art Exhibition and the First Place Award recipient in the 2020 Visual Arts Mississauga 42nd Annual Juried Show of Fine Art. Guo's works have been collected by Sheridan College and by private collectors in North America.
Maria Hupfield (she/her), a transdisciplinary artist, crosses boundaries at the intersection of performance art and design. She is deeply invested in embodied practice, Native feminisms, and ethical collaborative processes. Her work positions the art object as active belongings, with sculptures becoming performers in a form of object choreography between artist, audience, and art gallery; her works are engaged in an ongoing series of relations with community, places, ideas, and materials. She is an urban off-reservation member of the Anishinabek People belonging to Wasauksing First Nation in Ontario. Hupfield is the inaugural City of Toronto artist in residence and was awarded the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Prize 2023. Her art travelled nationally with “Beat Nation”, grunt gallery, Vancouver; as a solo project “Nine Years Towards the Sun” at the Heard Museum, Phoenix Arizona USA; and internationally with “The One Who Keeps on Giving”, The Power Plant, Toronto. Her work was also shown at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Galerie de l’UQAM, Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada, NONAM – Nordamerika Native Museum Zurich, National Museum of the American Indian, Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Abrons Arts Center, Center for Art – Research and Alliances (CARA), BRIC House Gallery, The Bronx Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and SITE SANTA FE amongst others. Hupfield is represented by Patel Brown Toronto and Galerie Hugues Charbonneau Montreal.
Jason Lujan is originally from Marfa, Texas. He brings the experience of a 20 year career as an artist and arts administrator in New York City managing departments with the Dia Foundation, Museum of Modern Art, United Nations, Park Avenue Armory, and Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Jason has contributed to, planned, constructed, and managed productions and exhibitions by Ryoji Ikeda; Royal Shakespeare Company; Tom Sachs; Merce Cunningham; Janet Cardiff; Ann Hamilton; Paul McCarthy; Marina Abramovic; Douglas Gordon; Martin Creed; Taryn Simon; Herzog & DeMueron; Ai Wei Wei; The Met’s Costume Institute Ball; Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection; Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Church; Camp: Notes on Fashion, and more.
Associated projects involve assisting with fashion runway installations for Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Tommy Hilfiger, Marc Jacobs, and Y3, among others.
As an artist, he creates tools for understanding and interpreting the processes by which different cultures approach each other as a result of travel and communication. Largely integrating visual components rooted in North American and Asia, the work focuses on the possibilities and limitations of the exchanging of ideas, meanings, and values, questioning the concepts of authorship and authenticity. Jason is represented by Toronto galleries MKG127 and, as the collaborative project Native Art Department International, by Patel Brown.
Brandon Vickerd is a Hamilton based artist and Professor of Sculpture at York University, where he also serves as Chair of the Department of Visual Arts and Art History. He received his BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (1999) and his MFA from the University of Victoria (2001).
Purposely diverse, his studio work straddles the line between high and low culture, acting as a catalyst for critical thought and addressing the failed promise of a modernist future predicated on boundless scientific advancement. Whether through craftsmanship, the creation of spectacle, or humor, the goal of his work is to provoke the viewer into questioning the dominate myth of progress ingrained in Western world views.
Vickerd has received numerous awards and grants from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Toronto Arts Council, and the Ontario Arts Council.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Wang Zi 王紫 (b. Nanjing, China) is an artist-educator based in Toronto. Zi attained her bachelor’s degree in design from OCAD University. As a Guggenheim Bilbao scholarship recipient, she completed her Master’s degree at SDA Bocconi in Milan, Italy. She has shown works in the Ontario Legislative Assembly, Métis Space (HK), Art Bank Canada, and Richmond Hill Public Library. She has curated arts and cultural programs in various institutions, including the Royal Ontario Museum, City of Ottawa and CAMH. Zi works with her mother, writer and illustrator Zhu Dandan, as a mother-daughter collective. Their community-based art program, “Homecoming - Project Cocoon”, 回箱 - 绞丝旁计划 will be co-launched by the Toronto Public Library - Albert Campbell branch Fall 2024.