Winsor Art Projects

Toronto Biennial of Art Dana Claxton

Dana Claxton | Toronto Biennial of Art

Winsor Art Projects is proud to announce Dana Claxton's participation at the inaugural Toronto Biennial of Art this autumn. Claxton will be presenting 5 new LED fireboxes, "testaments to the beauty and resilience of Indigenous women whose portraits feature them wearing their cultural belongings." *

Claxton continues to explore themes of social, political and spiritual importance. Through her upcoming photo-based series Headdress she reflects on the abundance of indigenous culture. Her self-described fireboxes employ LED technology to back-light the photographs; portraits of indigenous women, literally glowing from within. Claxton explains...

The personal collections of five womxn are featured: Jeneen’s collection of beadwork spans three generations from Old Crow Yukon, with designs that are specific to the Vuntut Gwich’in First Nation; Connie, matriarch of beadwork, adorns her own hand beaded pieces; Shadae mixes it up with hip-hop baseball caps, a Coast Salish woven cedar hat, and her husband’s pow wow/peyote fans; Dee and Dana wear pieces of the same inter-tribal collection made by beaders from the four directions. In these portraits, the beadworks cover and espouse the womxn’s silhouettes, becoming more than just objects: the beadworks are cultural belongings, and the womxn are cultural carriers.

Headdress will be installed within the first edition of the Toronto Biennial of Art opening September 21 and running through December 1. There will be more than 90 artists exhibiting over 100 works installed along or near the waterfront. Claxton’s participation reflects the Biennial’s focus on celebrating both Canadian and international talent in one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world and a commitment to “addressing the most pressing issues of our time from a variety of perspectives.”

Updates will be made here as the Biennial approaches.

Toronto Biennial of Art

September 21 - December 1, 2019

20 new commissions, 100+ works installed, 10 sites

On the waterfront between Etobicoke Creek and Ashbridges Bay

Biennial website

Biennial press release

Selected current press coverage featuring Claxton:

Headdress - Dana, 2019, LED firebox with transmounted chromogenic transparency, 60x40 inches

Headdress - Connie, 2019, LED firebox with transmounted chromogenic transparency, 60x40 inches

Headdress - Dee, 2019, LED firebox with transmounted chromogenic transparency, 60x40 inches

Headdress - Jeneen, 2019, LED firebox with transmounted chromogenic transparency, 60x40 inches

Headdress - Shadae, 2019, LED firebox with transmounted chromogenic transparency, 60x40 inches

* Toronto Biennial of Art