Collection in Conversation: Natalie King and Alex Jacobs-Blum

Natalie King and Alex Jacobs-Blum will discuss their work as artists and curators, and the importance of nurturing your spirit while pursuing a full-time career as a professional artist.

This talk is presented as part of the ongoing series Collection in Conversation, in which artists with works in the Doris McCarthy Gallery Collection participate in discussions about their work, practice, and approach to artmaking, with other contemporary artists.

Natalie King's series Mino-Bimaadiziwin was acquired by the Doris McCarthy Gallery in 2024 with the generous support of the City of Toronto through ArtworxTO: Toronto's Year of Public Art.

This program is free and will take place in the Student Lounge at the University of Toronto Scarborough Library. Space is limited, registration is required. If you have accommodation needs, please let us know through the registration form or contact dmg.utsc@utoronto.ca. This is a seated program.

Natalie King is a queer interdisciplinary Anishinaabe (Algonquin) artist, facilitator, and member of Timiskaming First Nation. Often involving portrayals of queer femmes, King’s video, painting, sculpture, and installation works are about embracing the ambiguity and multiplicities of identity within the Anishinaabe queer femme experience(s). King's practice operates from a firmly critical, anti-colonial, non-oppressive, and future-bound perspective.

Alex Jacobs-Blum is a Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ (Cayuga) and German visual artist and curator living in Hamilton, whose research focuses on Indigenous futures and accessing embodied Ancestral Hodinöhsö:ni’ knowledge. The core of her practice and methodology is a strong foundation in community building, fostering relationships, empowering youth, and Indigenizing institutional spaces. Her creative process is rooted in cyclical storytelling and challenging hierarchical power structures.