MEET THE 2021 ARTISTS
Meet the AR Artists of our first ever VMF Winter Arts! February 12th-28th, 2021, public space across Vancouver’s core were transformed into an interactive, open-air gallery featuring Augmented Reality (AR) art by local and international artists. There were 24 AR pieces available to explore outside while safely distanced.
We’re grateful that despite travel limitations, we were able to connect artists–virtually–from around the world to create incredible augmented reality art to engage our local community!
IHEARTBLOB (UK/AUSTRIA)
iheartblob is an award-winning mixed reality architecture studio and research collective with a strong focus on the Architectural Object and the role of emerging technologies within architecture.
The work is meant to both enchant and reflect on the crisis of thought which runs through architecture today by investigating new and established ideas as though they were materials, engaging seriously with hard-hitting agendas, whilst remaining at a distance from full immersion.
KENXXXOOO (JAPAN)
An AR artist with a background as an Art Director and Videographer, who uses AR in collaborations with graffiti artists from all over the world.
Ernest Swanson, who holds the traditional Haida name, Giinowaan, is a Haida artist from Old Massett, British Columbia, who currently lives on Vancouver Island. As a matrilineal descendent of iconic Haida artist Charles Edenshaw and a grandson to the late Rufus Moody, Ernest continues his family’s legacy by creating traditional Haida art.
In 2004, he began to work with artists such as Jim McGuire, Christian White and Chief Edenso “James Hart”. Ernest has continued to display his works on regional, national, and international scales, working in wood, silver, gold, and argillite.
Krista is a 2D/3D artist based out of Roberts Creek, that loves the wonderful world of 3D art.
Continually striving to develop and expand her work, she uses AR to help create immersive interactive experiences.
Syrus is a Vanier scholar, visual artist, activist, curator and educator. Syrus uses drawing, installation and performance to explore social justice frameworks and black activist culture, and he’s shown widely in galleries and festivals across Canada.
He is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter-Canada and a core-team member of Black Lives Matter – Toronto, a part of the Performance Disability Art Collective, and an ABD PhD candidate at York University in the Faculty of Environmental Studies. His on-going curatorial work includes That’s So Gay (Gladstone Hotel, 2016-2019) and BlacknessYes!/Blockorama. He is the co-editor or the best-selling Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada (URP, 2020)
Saida is a freelance 3D artist and motion designer who works in styles that can be described as cosmic renaissance & magical dream aesthetics.
She crafted visuals for music idols like Dua Lipa and worked with various global brands. Saida's personal artworks been showcased in New York, Los Angeles and Art Basel.
AKA Collective designs and creates experiential installations and artworks that explore the intersection of physical and virtual worlds. They believe that art as commentary, design as a medium and installation as a form can enable and facilitate meaningful moments.
T'uy't'tanat - Cease is an interdisciplinary artist who works with new media, performance and interdisciplinary arts and is a community engaged and public artist.
Her works range over 29 years and have always focussed on sustainability, permaculture techniques, Coast Salish Cultural elements and have included themes of ethnobotany, Salish weaving and digital media technology. Cease has been focussing on connecting to her Polynesian roots through weaving and digital media projects and has recently been given opportunities for collaborating with Indigenous peoples from throughout Oceania, specifically Polynesian peoples.
Will Selviz is an Afro Caribbean multidimensional designer based in Toronto, ON.
His personal work is heavily influenced by the juxtaposing cultural experiences growing up in Venezuela and Kuwait. A tech geek and designer, Will is constantly integrating emerging technologies, such as VR, AR, 3D animation and 360 video. As the founder of RENDRD Media, a Black-led experimental media studio, he seeks to provide opportunities and mentorship for BIPOC youth and the community at large in the ever-growing creative economy.
ZACHARY GEORGE
Zac George is a member of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. He was born and raised in North Vancouver and now lives in Chehalis, BC. His work is inspired by his late grandparents, Chief Dan and Amy George, and Robert and Betty Edge. Zac studied carving with Don Joe of Chehalis and is proud to use the Coast Salish artistic style. He lives the rich cultural lifestyle of the Salish People: he is a hunter and a fisherman and follows the traditional spirituality practised by his people for centuries.
Casey Koyczan is an international Tlicho Dene interdisciplinary artist from Yellowknife, NT, that works with various mediums to communicate how culture and technology coincide together alongside the political, economic, and environmental challenges of the world.
A portion of his large scale installation work utilizes earth materials to evoke the idea of nature reclaiming architectural space. Inspired by sci-fi and Indigenous Futurisms, Koyczan implements various techniques of interactivity, audio-video, VR/360/XR, and the engagement of the bodily senses within his creations.
MEDIAH is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist who weaves graffiti/street art forms with painterly techniques and digital media to create cinematic environments.
Heavily inspired by avionics, mechanical engineering and schematics, MEDIAH’s abstract work utilizes speed, motion, dynamism, and force to depict otherworldly dimensions. MEDIAH strives to create visual content that inspires, intrigues and uplifts his audience.
CASPIAN KAI (AUSTRALIA)
Caspian Kai is a Freelance Motion Designer and 3D Artist with a focus on digital environments and nature.
Born and raised in Melbourne, he has called Vancouver home for the past 6 years. Caspian's experience in Architectural Visualisation, Landscape Photography and Electronic Music all inform and enrich his work. Experimenting with new techniques and mediums like AR and VR is important for the future evolution of Caspian's work. Using these as tools for world building and interactive art brings him much excitement.
Laine Butler is a Vancouver-based media artist working in visual and sound.
His work has been shown at Shambhala, Bass Coast, New Forms, Pretty Good Not Bad, and various festivals and art galleries around North America. Laine is a member of Chapel Sound Art Collective. He has collaborated with various artists on music videos, album art, stage design and social media campaigns. Laine's latest project is Ashwell Woodland, an ambient music/visual art project. Find the first release '460215' on Sensing Waves Records.
ERIC WAGLIARDO (USA)
Eric Wagliardo is a mixed media artist and creative director. He recently directed an AR music video for Childish Gambino.
He also directed a volumetric AR short film about homelessness call 'In Their Shoes'. In 2018 he presented a large scale kinetic sculpture for World Water Day at Grand Central in NYC in partnership with Matt Damon and Water.org. Eric also presents personal art in XR and video projects and is hands on developing projects in UE4.
ELECTRIFLY (USA)
Electrifly is an award-winning immersive art and merchandise company based in Detroit, Michigan.
They are a team of digital creatives working closely with artists and organizations to execute their visions, and turn their dreams into unique augmented reality experiences.
Tracey Kim Bonneau (Syilx) is a media artist, writer & veteran producer residing on the Penticton Indian Reserve, B.C.
In 2016, she received recognition from the Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Foundation of British Columbia garnering 4 Leo nominations for her documentary series, Quest OutWest - Wild Food. In 2020 she was awarded a significant professional artist grant to further develop her Virtual Reality ECO Project: “Huckleberry”.
Tracey is a Media Matriarch with the IM4 Lab created by Indigenous filmmaker, Loretta Todd in partnership with Emily Carr University.
BB Iskwew is a Cree-Métis artist from Treaty 8 territory in Northern Alberta, and has family ties in Sawridge Cree Nation and Bigstone Cree Nation.
BB Iskwew symbolizes her Cree name, Baby woman, gifted from nôkum (my grandma) at birth with the intention that she'd be a healer. BB Iskwew uses art to share good medicine with the world manifesting light, healing, and hope for a future that is matriarchal again. Kayla Bellerose (BB Iskwew) graduated from the University of Calgary with a Fine Arts Degree in 2020, and chooses art as her storytelling medium and encourages young generations to keep the Indigenous storytelling and arts movement strong as it will help heal the earth.
EXTRA CRUNCHY (ISRAEL)
Extra Crunchy is a duo of artists originally from Tel Aviv. For the past five years they have been performing their art in music festivals and graffiti festivals worldwide. They’re creations had them traveling to India, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, USA and more. In their work they are combining AR experience with large scale murals and animations to merge between the digital and the physical realms.
Chrystal Sparrow is a Coast Salish artist and female carver from the xʷməθkʷəyə̓m (Musqueam) First Nation. She was traditionally mentored by her late father Irving Sparrow with Coast Salish designing and carving techniques. Chrystal's work represents unique feminine designs and movement that explore her Coast Salish, Cree and Shuswap bloodlines. She designs red and yellow cedar panels, houseposts, and works with other mediums. Her public art can be seen at the YVR Airport, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver School Board; Starbucks Canada, BC Children's Hospital and other locations. Chrystal believes her work is a part of a living art language that conveys the importance of Coast Salish culture and history for generations to come.
NGÔ KỲ DUYÊN AKA JO (VIETNAM)
Jo or Ngô Kỳ Duyên is a Saigonese visual artist whose work is associated with moving images, virtual reality, augmented reality, new media and code art.
With a media and design background, she aims to reach more audiences in a stronger narrative form about social justice and sustainability matters with high-tech support and advocate for the creative community to go beyond the traditional mediums.
Atheris is a 3D artist currently studying Masters of Digital Media.
She was born and raised in China, graduated as an interior designer from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2019. After that, she found out how fascinating it was to create characters and objects in 3D.
Yuan Zhang was born in China in April 1995. He lives and works in Vancouver, where he graduated in Master of Digital Media in 2020. From 2014 to 2018 he studied sculpture at Virginia Commonwealth University where he learned traditional sculpture and started approaching computer graphics and digital sculpting. From 2019 to 2020 he studied Digital Media at Simon Fraser University where he started exploring how to combine traditional art and digital media. His work exists in both the digital and the real world. For Yuan, the virtual world is like a dream machine, he likes the idea of mixing the digital and real worlds, and his works are a bridge between the two. Most of Yuan’s works are playful and interactive, he thinks that art should be enjoyed, not worshipped.
