Kendra Yee: Shallow End

Curated by Holly Chang

Shallow End
Solo exhibition by Kendra Yee

Curated by Holly Chang

May 27 – August 3, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 27, 2023, 5 – 8PM
NAMARA Projects, Toronto
Hours: Thursday – Saturday, 12-5pm, and by appointment: info@namara.ca

NAMARA is proud to present the second exhibition of our Host Programme–Exhibitions resulting from our open call for curatorial proposals.

The exhibition Shallow End explores the alchemy of pottery and how process based approaches to ceramics can create new narratives around so called ‘familial objects’. This solo exhibition highlights the work of Kendra Yee in a site-specific installation that culminates works created over the past five years. The pieces are gathered in the space to invent new narratives, offering moments of reflection on the processes and manipulations of pottery. This ‘familial object’ centers around the activation of clay; clay as a familiar form, a medium we interact with through daily rituals; dinner wear, objects of beauty and building blocks. Centered in the gallery sits a fountain, acting as a mechanism to trace time. Fountains represent life cycles and quiet moments of introspection or contemplation; what does it mean to explore timekeeping, collections, growth, duality and symmetry through clay? This installation culminates the deeply interconnected process of circulating ceramic forms. From its origins as dirt, to the heat of the sun and water, a transformation occurs moving from a motionless body of clay into a vessel. This cycle is paralleled through the centerpiece with moving water and reflections of a Shallow End.

Holly Chang. Photo by Sarah Bauman

About the Curator

Holly Chang is an artist and curator based in Tkaronto/Toronto who has recently completed her MA in Communication and Culture at TMU/York University. Chang – as a second-generation Chinese Canadian – maintains cultural ties with her cross-cultural identity and draws on her hybrid background for inspiration. Chang makes use of a variety of media including textiles, photography and natural dyeing. She recently exhibited her work in her first solo show with Gallery 44 in April 2022 and participated in the Banff Artist in Residence program in Spring 2022. This year, Chang was the recipient of the Middlebrook Prize for young Canadian curators and will be curating an exhibition with the Art Gallery of Gueplh this fall.

Kendra Yee. Photo by Jacqueline Ashton

About the Artist

Kendra Yee (b. 1995, Tkaronto/ Toronto) is an arts practitioner that seeks to materialize the truths and fictions of memory. Yee pulls tales from; personal stories, lived experience and collective narratives to develop site-specific installations that carve alternative archives. Yee has programmed and exhibited with: Patel Brown (Toronto), Heavy Manners (Los Angeles), The Artists Project (Toronto), Juxtapoz (NYC), The Letter Bet (Montreal), Xpace Cultural Centre (Toronto). Upcoming projects include a solo exhibition at Patel Brown (June 22) and The RBC Emerging Artist Residency Program at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Spring 2024).

About NAMARA Projects

Located in the Dupont Arts Building, NAMARA Projects is a new venue for research, deliberation, and presentation of curatorial work. NAMARA works around the fluctuating borders of the traditional art world. The explorations conducted in the Project Space inform both independent and commissioned presentations. Through our work, we celebrate thoughtful work by contemporary artists; challenge traditions, experimenting with untested methods; and welcome new collaborators and audiences.

#103 – 915 Dupont St, Toronto
info@namara.ca
@namaraprojects

Level of accessibility: Partially Accessible

About NAMARA Curatorial

NAMARA is a curatorial firm under the direction of Natalie MacNamara. NAMARA bridges the gap between the art world and broader commercial, public, and educational fields. We align partner interests with the goal of producing meaningful and engaging cultural projects. We deliver art strategy, collections, exhibitions, permanent installations, temporary experiential and visual projects in digital and physical space. What sets us apart is our interdisciplinary approach to bringing together client and commissioning bodies’ priorities, with artists’ conceptual and aesthetic faculties. The result is concept-driven, artist-led projects that engage audiences and deliver impact.