About the Artists
Beau Gomez
Beau Gomez is a lens-based artist whose practice is informed by ideas, challenges and conversations around cross-cultural narratives, as they relate to positions of queerness and community. His work is grounded in image-making as a conduit between individual and collective experience, giving permission to shared means of learning, nurturing, and renewal. He has exhibited and facilitated community-building practices through various establishments, including TIFF, Reel Asian, Gallery 44, Vu Photo, AIDS Committee of Toronto, The 519, Critical Distance Centre for Curators, and Artspace Gallery. You can find more of his work on his Instagram profile and his portfolio website.
Leila Fatemi
Leila Fatemi (b. 1991, Milan) is a contemporary visual artist currently based in Tkaronto/Toronto. Rooted in research and process-based approaches, her practice unfolds across a variety of mediums including photography, collage, archival materials, textile, pattern and printmaking. Bridging themes of postcolonialism, gender, and spirituality, Fatemi´s work challenges viewers to consider their role in relation to the representational accuracy and cultural consequences of Orientalized subjects. Often employing methods of subversion and reclamation as tools to resist imperialist legacies, her work offers alternative perspectives surrounding the colonial gaze, ethnic representation, and collective numinous experiences.
Fatemi received a BFA in Image Arts: Photography Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University. Her work has been exhibited in Canada and internationally and has been featured in online and print media. She was the first-place recipient of the Clyde & Co. Art Award for excellence in visual art, a finalist for the Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award in 2020 and is the 2022-2023 Black, Indigenous, People(s) of Colour Residency recipient at Open Studio. You can find more of her work on her Instagram profile and portfolio website.
Angel Fonseca
Angel Fonseca is a fine art and commercial photographer who has been shooting photos since 2014. His special interest is shooting cars and car culture in Toronto and LA. He recently completed his degree in Photography at Toronto Metropolitan University. Photography is his outlet, allowing him to capture moments and emphasize the beauty of simplicity. You can find more of his work on his Instagram profile and portfolio website.
Audrey Persaud
Audrey Persaud (she/her) is a Caribbean artist specializing in live event and portrait photography for theater, film and fashion. By Bringing an artistic eye to a commercial practice, Audrey strives to produce authentic and diverse images with a focus on identity. Currently based in Toronto, Ontario she is pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography at Toronto Metropolitan University. Audrey has captured a wide range of events and artistic endeavors, most recently “An Ode to Fashion In Film” with the Canadian International Fashion Film Festival and has had work featured in Function Magazine. You can find more of her work on her Instagram profile and portfolio website.
Andrew Moreno
Andrew Moreno is a Toronto-based photographer of Portuguese descent working across lens-based mediums. In his artistic practice, he emphasizes place, identity, and belonging through the use of archival photographs. Through these images, He is looking for meaning and understanding of who he is and where he came from. As a child of a first-generation immigrant, He feels as if he’s constantly drifting further and further away from his culture. He grieves for the lost time in which he could’ve spent with his grandparents and extended family, and is often left wondering about the person he could’ve been.
He’s inspired by the artistic practice of Zineb Sedira, particularly her piece “Mother Tongue” (2002), which successfully articulates the language barrier between generations of immigrant families. Portuguese-Canadian photographer Danny Custodio and his work with Azulejo tiles, as well as his Flower Carpet series, has helped him better understand his hybrid perspective as a Portuguese-Canadian. You can find more of his work on his Instagram profile and portfolio website.
Shaun Fernandes
Shaun Fernandes is a lens-based artist holding a BFA in Photography Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University. His practice combines performative photographs, sculpture, and object studies that investigate the role of place within the formation of identity. You can find more of his work on his Instagram profile and his portfolio website.
Image by Emily Battaglini.
Ananna Rafa
Ananna Rafa is a photographer and painter born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and based in Toronto, Canada, whose work oscillates between places, memories, and identity. She completed her BFA in Photography Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University and is currently an MFA candidate at York University, Toronto. Her work explores themes of gender and sexuality, negotiating collective and complex identities arising out the effects of migration and colonialism on the South-Asian diaspora. You can find more of her work on her Instagram profile.
Mamoundu Mardis-Chatwin
Mamoundu Mardis-Chatwin is an emerging photographer originally from British Columbia and currently based in Toronto, ON. With a specialization in portrait and editorial photography, Mamoundu's artistic journey revolves around the exploration of words and their transformation into visual expressions. Through her work, she seeks to share her unique interpretations and understanding of written pieces, infusing her art with a poetic and narrative essence. You can find more of her work on her Instagram profile and portfolio website.