ACROSS LATITUDES | Artists in Conversation

Join us at the Art Gallery of Mississauga for an engaging artist talk featuring Soheila Esfahani, Heidi McKenzie, and Zinnia Naqvi, the artists behind the captivating works in Across Latitudes, which is curated by the AGM’s Senior Curator, Shannon Anderson.

This conversation, moderated by Zainub Verjee, will offer insights into their artistic practices and explore themes like identity and migration in their artwork.

Registration recommended but not requited…. Refreshments will be served. All are welcome to join!

This special event is generously funded by TD Bank Group, Rama Gaming House Mississauga and Charitable Gaming Community Good.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Soheila Esfahani currently lives in Waterloo, Ontario. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the 2016 Waterloo Region Arts Awards (Visual Arts category). She has exhibited her work across Canada, with recent exhibitions at the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris, the University of Waterloo Art Gallery; the Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant, Brantford; the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto; and Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound. She received her MFA from the University of Western Ontario and her BA in Fine Arts from the University of Waterloo. Esfahani is an Assistant Professor at Western University and a member of Red Head Gallery in Toronto.

Heidi McKenzie has exhibited her work across Canada and internationally, in the United States, Europe, and Scandinavia. Among her recent solo exhibition is Reclaimed: Indo-Caribbean HerStories at the Gardiner Museum, Toronto in 2023. The recipient of numerous grants, she has participated in residencies in Denmark, Ireland, Hungary, Australia, China, and Indonesia. McKenzie was a finalist for the Shantz Award, Canada’s national emerging ceramics award in 2022, and she was inducted into the International Academy of Ceramics that same year. She curated the exhibition Decolonizing Clay at the Australian Ceramics Triennale in 2019, and recently participated in the Indian Ceramics Triennale in Delhi, India. McKenzie completed her MFA at OCADU and is currently based in Toronto.

Zinnia Naqvi’s work has been shown across Canada and internationally, with exhibitions in New York, Iceland, Pakistan, and United Arab Emirates. She is a 2022 Fall Flaherty/Colgate Filmmaker in Residence and recipient of the 2019 New Generation Photography Award organized by the National Gallery of Canada. Naqvi is a member of EMILIA-AMALIA Working Group, an intergenerational feminist collective. She received a BFA in Photography Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University and an MFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University, Montreal. Currently based in Toronto, she is a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Zainub Verjee, C.M., is a leading public figure and senior arts administrator in the Canadian cultural sector, widely recognized as an institution builder, strategic thinker and leader, and an influencer in the international arts and culture sector. She has shaped culture policy at all levels of government as well as the growth of cultural institutions and organizations. Verjee won the 2020 Governor General’s Visual and Media Arts Award for Outstanding Contribution and holds honorary doctorates from OCAD University and NSCAD University. Her executive roles include developing Mississauga’s first Culture Master Plan as Director of the Office of Arts and Culture, serving as Senior Policy Advisor at Canadian Heritage, and leading initiatives in Digital Culture and Artist as Researcher at the Canada Council for the Arts. Verjee lives in Mississauga and currently serves as the Executive Director of Galeries Ontario/Ontario Galleries.