Past Resident
2024: Canada Council for the Arts

Artist

Xiaojing Yan

Xiaojing Yan’s art reflects her cultural journey, culminating in a distinct personal vocabulary. Her unique perspective bridges past and present, exploring themes of identity, nature, and transcendence. Drawing on ancient Chinese traditions, rituals, and materials, Yan uses natural elements to evoke mystical and philosophical reflections on life, death, and humanity’s connection to the natural world. Her work is rich with symbolism that remains as relevant today as it was historically, engaging with issues such as environmental sustainability.

Xiaojing Yan has exhibited work at Suzhou Museum, China; Royal Ontario Museum, Canada; and Sharjah Art Museum, United Arab Emirates, among others.

I'm fascinated by how technological advancements give humans the illusion of power over nature. I explore this through collaborations between human and natural elements, designing controlled environments that give way to organic processes. For my lingzhi sculptures, I put woodchips and lingzhi spore mixtures into molds, controlling humidity, temperature, and light. Once the mycelium binds the woodchips, I remove the mold and place the mixture in a greenhouse to grow. This process creates transformative sculptures, covered in delicate brown spores. My female bust series extends this concept, highlighting the lingzhi mushroom's properties and its role in environmental sustainability and contemporary art.

Xiaojing Yan, Lingzhi Girl #10, 2017, lingzhi mushroom, mycelium and woodchips, 16 × 18 × 18 in. (40.64 × 45.72 × 45.72 cm).

Spirit Cloud is a hanging work made of over 33,000 freshwater pearls suspended by clear filaments, forming a three-dimensional pointillist painting. Inspired by Chinese garden stones and auspicious clouds, the curvilinear form symbolizes the fusion of water, air, sky, and earth. In Chinese mythology, gods and immortals ride on clouds, which also serve as signs of weather changes. The pearls mimic the structure of a cloud, creating the illusion of a solid form and capturing a moment of its shifting nature, evoking continuous energy and movement. This work also highlights the impact of environmental change on natural elements.

Xiaojing Yan, Spirit Cloud, 2017, Medium: fresh water pearls, filament and aluminum, 128 × 118 × 528 in. (325.12 × 299.72 × 1341.12 cm).

I'm fascinated by how technological advancements give humans the illusion of power over nature. My lingzhi sculptures explore collaborations between human and natural elements, starting with woodchips and lingzhi spore mixtures in a mold. Controlled humidity, temperature, and light allow the mycelium to grow and bind the woodchips, which are then placed in a greenhouse to develop into transformative sculptures covered in delicate brown spores. This hybrid science/art experiment highlights the properties of the lingzhi mushroom, such as adaptation and self-healing, while addressing themes of environmental sustainability. My work evokes traditional Chinese medicine, mythology, and religion.

Xiaojing Yan, Far from where you divined, 2017, mycelium, cultivated lingzhi mushrooms, wood chips and wood, dimensions variable.

Inspired by volcanic eruptions and cosmic explosions, I suspend thousands of lava stone beads on golden thread to capture the universe's beauty and power. These natural phenomena symbolize creation and destruction, with lava beads representing past eruptions and explosions, and golden thread embodying the energy that holds everything together. My installation evokes the mystery and wonder of the cosmos, illustrating how volcanic activity and astronomical events create new possibilities. It reminds viewers of the interconnectedness of all things, highlighting how our actions ripple through the world, shaping our environment and future.

Xiaojing Yan, Nebula, 2019, lava stone beads and golden thread, 157 × 236 × 157 in. (398.78 × 599.44 × 398.78 cm).

In this project, I use tens of thousands of artificial flower stamens to create a satellite image of a storm, representing the effects of climate change. The stamen, a flower's male reproductive part, is essential for plant growth, and here, artificial stamens symbolize human intervention in nature. This artwork highlights how climate change impacts pollinators and plant populations, similar to the butterfly effect. The storm cloud imagery and an olfactory component, emitting the scent of rain, remind viewers of climate change's power and potential consequences, blending synthetic materials with natural elements to reflect humanity's attempts to control and preserve nature.

Xiaojing Yan, Stamen, 2023, wax and cotton thread, 144 × 108 in. (365.76 × 274.32 cm).

Residents from Canada

Braxton Garneau

Canada

Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, Edmonton Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts

Studio #202

Jude Griebel

Canada, United States

Canada Council for the Arts

2016

Alice Wang

United States, Canada

Canada Council for the Arts

Studio #213

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Australia

Past Resident
2024: Creative Australia

Artist

Tom Polo

Tom Polo works across painting and installation, creating material forms that capture exchanges between people. His practice draws from a rich accumulation of social encounters, keen observations, and personal histories, recording the emotional and performative relationships between the self and others within social, theatrical, and psychological spaces. Through a blend of abstraction, text, and figuration, Polo explores how conversation and gesture become embodied acts of portraiture, simultaneously masking and revealing the complexities of our inner worlds.

Tom Polo has exhibited work at Art Gallery of New South Wales; Art Gallery of South Australia; and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), all in Australia, among others.

Tom Polo, I still thought you were looking, 2019, painting installation, dimensions variable. Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

Tom Polo, free fall, 2022, painting installation, dimensions variable. 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia.

Tom Polo, The Most Elaborate Disguise, 2019, 40 mixed media works on paper and acrylic wall painting, 478 × 158 in. (1214.12 × 401.32 cm). The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.

Tom Polo, If you want to, feel to, 2023, acrylic, Flashe and wax pastel on canvas, 54 × 71 in. (137.16 × 180.34 cm). Courtesy of AMES YAVUZ, New South Wales.

Tom Polo, other options (a mask for a mask), 2022, acrylic, Flashe and wax pastel on canvas, 77 × 83 in. (195.58 × 210.82 cm). Courtesy of the artist and STATION, Melbourne.

Residents from Australia

Caroline Garcia

Australia

The Dr. K. David G. Edwards & Margery Edwards Charitable Giving Fund, Creative Australia

2020

Liz Nowell

Australia

Creative Australia, The Dr. K. David G. Edwards & Margery Edwards Charitable Giving Fund

2023

George Egerton-Warburton

Australia

Creative Australia, The Dr. K. David G. Edwards & Margery Edwards Charitable Giving Fund

2022

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Germany

Past Resident
2024: Telos Foundation, Holtmann Collection

Artist

Charlie Stein

Charlie Stein’s work explores dominant cultural aesthetics and challenges traditional modes of perception in our digitized, visually overstimulated world. Through extensive research, she translates her insights into drawings, installations, sculptures, and paintings that address social structures, digital media, and communication. Her paintings reflect on contemporary aesthetics, creating a visual language that deconstructs and recontextualizes digital imagery. With degrees in fine art, sociology, and literature, Stein studied under Christian Jankowski and Rainer Ganahl. She is currently a visiting professor at HfbK Hamburg.

Charlie Stein has exhibited work at Manifesta 11, Zürich; Songjiang Art Museum, Shanghai; and SİNOPALE 6, Turkey, among others.