Past Residents
Past Resident2024: Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport of Austria
Irina Lotarevich
Irina Lotarevich’s sculptural practice emerges at the intersection of her personal experience and broader systems. She primarily works with metal fabrication and casting techniques, creating sculptures with minimal yet intricate forms that reference architecture, bureaucracy, labor, language, and parts of her own body, as well as the conditions of the material’s production and circulation.
Irina Lotarevich has exhibited work at Sophie Tappeiner Gallery, Vienna; FUTURA Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague; and Belvedere 21, Vienna, among others.
Irina Lotarevich, Compressed Structure, 2024, brass, 37 × 14 in. (93.98 × 35.56 cm).
Irina Lotarevich, Modular Body (container ship cross-section), 2023, steel, aluminum and metal shavings, 68 1/2 × 62 × 15 1/2 in in. (68 1/2 × 157.48 × 15 1/2 in cm).
Irina Lotarevich, Housing Anxiety 6, 2022, aluminum, stainless steel screws and locks and keys, 59 × 39 × 2 3/4 in in. (149.86 × 99.06 × 2 3/4 in cm).
Irina Lotarevich, Overtime and Pedagogy, 2023, steel, metal residue from bandsaw, plexiglass and rust, 30 3/4 × 9 1/2 × 9 in. (30 3/4 × 9 1/2 × 22.86 cm).
Irina Lotarevich, Stuffed Cells, 2024, brass and stainless steel, 2 1/2 × 16 × 3 in. (2 1/2 × 40.64 × 7.62 cm).
Residents from Austria
Past Resident2024: Canada Council for the Arts
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.
Xiaojing Yan, Lingzhi Girl #10, 2017, lingzhi mushroom, mycelium and woodchips, 16 × 18 × 18 in. (40.64 × 45.72 × 45.72 cm).
Xiaojing Yan, Spirit Cloud, 2017, Medium: fresh water pearls, filament and aluminum, 128 × 118 × 528 in. (325.12 × 299.72 × 1341.12 cm).
Xiaojing Yan, Far from where you divined, 2017, mycelium, cultivated lingzhi mushrooms, wood chips and wood, dimensions variable.
Xiaojing Yan, Nebula, 2019, lava stone beads and golden thread, 157 × 236 × 157 in. (398.78 × 599.44 × 398.78 cm).
Xiaojing Yan, Stamen, 2023, wax and cotton thread, 144 × 108 in. (365.76 × 274.32 cm).
Residents from Canada
Past Resident2024: Creative Australia
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.
