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2021/2022

Whyishnave Suthagar

Nuit Connects x DMG Artist-in-Residence

In collaboration with Nuit Blanche / City of Toronto

For the third year, the DMG has partnered with Nuit Blanche / City of Toronto to offer a ten-month artist residency. 2021's artist-in-residence is Scarborough-based artist Whyishnave Suthagar.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Whyishnave Suthagar is an installation artist from the GTA. Her practice focuses on creating site specific installations using projection, light design, thread based weavings and original soundscapes. Her works play with light, space and sound to create immersive meditative experiences.

Themes she explores in her work include ancient myth, dreams, memory and the subconscious mind. More specifically she uses the ideas found in ancient myth to understand the world we live in today. Her work is meant to assess her present surroundings using a lens of the past. As a second-generation Tamil-Canadian, Whyishnave often draws from her heritage, being part of a family who immigrated to Canada from Sri Lanka during the civil war of 1983-2009. Through her art, Whyishnave visually assesses the juxtaposition of her upbringing in a home with Tamil/Eastern beliefs systems, embedded in the landscape of Canada with its respective Western values.

Whyishnave has received her BFA from McMaster's School of the Arts, was a part of the 14.0 Remix Project, and is presently a tenant in the HXOUSE Re-Entry program. To date she has shown her work at the McMaster Museum of Art, MUCH Music HQ, the Gladstone Hotel, Manifesto TO, the Drake Hotel, Stackt Market, MOCA, Artscape Daniels Launchpad, Toronto Distillery District, Gerrard India Bazaar BIA and the Bradley Museum. She has also helped create community-based art and design projects in collaboration with STEPS Public Art, The Daniels Corporation and SickKids.

Upcoming works that are presently in development include installations for the STEPS “No Vacancy” Initiative (2021), “The Sacred” Exhibit for Critical Distance Gallery (2022), and Nuit Blanche Toronto (2022).

ABOUT THE RESIDENCY

Nuit Connects x DMG was established in 2019 as a partnership between the Doris McCarthy Gallery and Nuit Blanche / City of Toronto. Nuit Connects x DMG is a relationship building, mentorship, and knowledge-sharing residency program inspired by the solid and impassioned commitment to community and reciprocity demonstrated by the participants of Scarborough’s inaugural Nuit Blanche.