Teacher Ball

Wingeds Calling, 2012; Murmur I, 2013; Wind Play, 2012; Wind Play Variation II, 2015 Meryl McMaster Ask questions that all people can think about. “I do have strong symbolism within my work which draws from my aboriginal heritage. But I also want to make the images accessible to not just aboriginal people, but people of all cultures. I’m asking questions that all people can think about within themselves. I’m always going to explore my aboriginal heritage and what that means to me . . . but I’m influenced by many different things, and I don’t want to limit myself to talking (about) or being represented as only one thing. I’m an artist, and I’m going to talk about identity. Within that there are branches, there are threads.” She hopes that anyone can look at her work and consider “how we construct the self, how we construct that sense of self.” ottawacitizen.com #111ForTheBirds #MerylMcMaster #CreeContemporaryArt #IndigenousContemporaryArt #🇨🇦ContemporaryArt

Red Ookpik with Harness, 2022; Garfield Ookpik, 2022; Yaletown-Roundhouse Station Kablusiak Invite viewers to (re)consider ‘Inuvialuk artist Kablusiak embraces the wideness of Inuit experience, encompassing in their work joy, despair, sexuality, and, as an Inuk living outside Inuit Nunangat, displacement. Across an agile practice that includes drawing, sculpture, installation, and video, Kablusiak pushes the conventions of modern Inuit art with wit, irreverence and camp. … At Yaletown-Roundhouse Station, the artist presents large-scale photographs of their mischievous Ookpik sculptures. Looking askance at the handcrafted doll’s fetishistic popularity in the Canadian imagination, Kablusiak draws on the respective intimacies of the mass market and the subcultural, emphasizing a place for both in contemporary Inuit life.’ cagvancouver.org ‘The first Ookpik snowy owl doll was created by Jeannie Snowball at the co-operative in Kujjuaq, Nunavik (formerly Fort Chimo, Quebec). After it was presented as the Canadian mascot at the 1963 international trade fair in Philadelphia, the dolls’ popularity exploded. Here, Kablusiak has remade the iconic Ookpik, inviting viewers to (re)consider how Inuit art and artists are defined.’ National Gallery of Canada #111ForTheBirds #Kablusiak #InuitContemporaryArt #🇨🇦ContemporaryArt #🏳️‍🌈ContemporaryArt

The Sun Coming Up Doesn’t Always Bring the Light, 2026 stained glass, solder, cyanotype on glass, mazda protege Brody McQueen Reconsider who is allowed to occupy a sacred space. ‘The Sun Coming Up Doesn’t Always Bring the Light is a stained glass installation fitted onto a Mazda Protege. The front panel’s doubled peacock motif draws from a common 1930s stained glass pattern in which two male birds were paired for symmetry, creating inadvertent queer symbolism. Here, the motif becomes a way of showing queerness hidden in plain sight. A sprig of lavender rests between them, referencing its historical ties to queer identity and coded forms of connection. On the rear glass, a large cyanotype on glass depicts an offering: a bouquet of lavender. The cyanotype on glass introduces the body into the work as a presence within the sanctuary the car provides. The gesture of presenting lavender is a way to recognize and honour the long history the automobile has had as safe places for queer individuals; the offering of lavender is an offering to the past, and to those who have come before me. Cars have long functioned as mobile sanctuaries for queer individuals denied refuge in religious or familial spaces. Their anonymity, especially in unremarkable vehicles like this rusty, battered Protege, offered concealment and a place to be oneself. By replacing both the windshield and rear glass with stained glass, the work visually sanctifies this space. The Sun Coming Up Doesn’t Always Bring the Light asks viewers to reconsider what constitutes a sacred space and who is allowed to occupy it, honouring the sanctuaries queer people have long forged in ordinary places.’ #111ForTheBirds #BrodyMcQueen #🏳️‍🌈ContemporaryArt #🇨🇦ContemporaryArt

Woodpecker Column, 1997 FASTWÜRMS Provide a perch. ‘This concern for Mother Nature has found its way into much of Toronto’s public art. A local, two-person collective called Fastwürms has transformed the city’s mostly underground Convention Center into a simulacrum of the natural world. A 100-foot-tall industrial steel and glass structure, Woodpecker Column, leans at an angle in the outside plaza, and provides a perch for a pileated woodpecker and a yellow-bellied sapsucker.’ sculpturemagazine.art ‘The striking 100-foot Woodpecker Column features a Pileated Woodpecker and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker perched on its surface. Created by Toronto artist duo Fastwűrms (Kim Kozzi and Dai Skuse), the sculpture glows at night through colored glass embedded in its many holes. Positioned near a ceremonial entrance, it draws inspiration from the tradition of the sacro bosco—an enchanted garden meant to surprise, inspire, and provoke thought.’ mtccc.com #111ForTheBirds #Fastwürms #🇨🇦ContemporaryArt

SANSOISEAUX, 2024; Untitled, 2018, concrete, bird cage; Untitled, 2022, concrete, bird cage For the Birds, 2017 Abbas Akhavan Address birds. ‘SANSOISEAUX is a conceptual artwork that consists of the title’s letters painted in large scale on the rooftop of a building. This project gives rise to a series of contradictions. The letters are only visible from the rooftop itself or, possibly, from a taller vantage point on a neighbouring building. However, the rooftop remains perpetually invisible, as it is inaccessible to the general public and stands as the tallest building in the area. One might expect these letters to be visible from an aerial perspective, for example from an airplane, but that is unlikely because planes fly at too high an altitude. The text implies a threat to the avian species and can only be read “as the crow flies.” Although Abbas Akhavan addresses birds as though they can read, it underscores a deeper message for us: a world without birds would signify a world without humans.’ manifdart.org #111ForTheBirds #AbbasAkhavan #🇨🇦ContemporaryArt #🇮🇷ContemporaryArt

Feeding 1, ca. 2015 Wildman No. 2, 2012; The Feeding, 2015; Ghost Meadows, 2021 Zachari Logan Have a conversation with a ghost. “When I’m in a museum it’s like I’m having a conversation with a ghost. I feel as if I’m conversing with the person who made that object and accessing information from what they left behind.” bordercrossingsmag.org “In my series of drawings from the Feeding series, which is an offshoot of my ‘Wild Men’, I depict myself being fed by birds; this simple shift or reversal of roles revels my thinking on this matter. It is very common throughout the world to see people in parks feeding birds, I just reversed this act as a question to viewers- would you ever be fed by a bird? What might that feel like? It would be a revolutionary act to listen and allow other species to teach humans about the world around us.” quantumartreview.com #111ForTheBirds #ZachariLogan #🏳️‍🌈ContemporaryArt #🇨🇦ContemporaryArt

Untitled (tu reviens toujour sur tes pas), 2016; Adapting, 2016; Cage, 2018; Until lions have their historians, hunters will always be the heroes. 9𝘕𝘦𝘸𝘴, 2025; Michela de Mattei Explore planetary ecology. ‘… part of my ongoing project 𝙐𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙡 𝙡𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙝𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙨, 𝙝𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙗𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙚𝙨, an expanding archive that collects, circulates, and reimagines stories of animal resistance to human control. The exhibition transforms the story of Rome’s parakeets into an exploration of urban environments, planetary ecology, and the entangled histories connecting humans, birds, and cities across millennia.’ @michelademattei #111ForTheBirds #MicheladeMattei #🇮🇹ContemporaryArt

Ojos para volar [Eyes to Fly], Coyoacan Мехісо, 1991; Pájaros en el poste, Carretera, Guanajuato, México/Birds on the Post, Highway, 1990 
Graciela Iturbide Visualize harbingers of death and conveyers of spiritual freedom. “It changed me to know that other worlds exist, very far from and, at the same time, very near to us…Maybe I learned a little how to see with their eyes.” – Graciela Iturbide ‘… Iturbide’s personal epiphanies are visualized in her richly symbolic photographs of birds, as both the harbingers of death and conveyers of spiritual freedom.’ (Elin Spring) whatwillyouremember.com #111ForTheBirds #GracielaIturbide #🇲🇽ContemporaryArt

Huia, Heteralocha acutirostris (2025). Canterbury museum; Toroa, southern royal albatross, Diomedea epomophora, 2024). South Canterbury museum; Tawaki, Fiordland crested penguin, Eudyptes pachyrhynchus (2024). South Canterbury museum. Fiona Pardington Address with respect. ‘One of the first birds Pardington photographed was a huia, which was hunted to extinction. ‘I have a karakia[incantation] that I use before working with each bird, which addresses it with respect. It’s a very quiet process. I’m acutely aware of it being in a museum. It’s been killed. It’s been stuffed – and sometimes it’s extinct. There’s levels of grief that you feel.’ Pardington’s portraits say: ‘Look what we have done. We’ve taken something alive, and in order to keep it, we’ve killed it. Why didn’t they put money into sanctuaries?’ … The portraits in the Aotearoa New Zealand Pavilion will be presented at human scale. ‘So suddenly you lose that idea of what you think a bird is and what your relationship is with them,’ Pardington explains. ‘I wanted to scale them up spiritually as well. The world over, something we have in common is a relationship to birds within our mythological systems and storytelling. Birds are often psychopomps: they move between the heavens and the underworld. They’re messengers.’’ (Dee Jefferson) theguardian.com #111ForTheBirds #FionaPardington #AotearoaContemporaryArt #🇳🇿ContemporaryArt

No Turning Back, 2021 Ningiukulu Teevee Showcase traditional and modern perspectives. ‘Her artworks often feature themes related to Inuit mythology, daily life, and the natural environment, showcasing a blend of traditional and modern perspectives. Teevee’s prints and drawings are known for their intricate details and vibrant depictions of Inuit life and folklore.’ nativeartgallery.ca ‘In this exhibition you will see Teevee’s interest in the stories associated with Inuit cultural traditions and traditional tales that have been passed down through generations. Her images include creation stories, tales of mistreatment and its consequences, tales of the legendary traveller, Kiviuq, animal fables, and stories that relate the activities of shamans and the various spirits that inhabit the Shamanic belief system. This includes the powerful female sea spirit variously called Sedna, Nuliajuk, or Taleelayu, who controls the supply of game animals to hunters.’ wag.ca #111ForTheBirds #NingiukuluTeevee #InuitContemporaryArt @ningiukulu

A Wise Parliament, 2018; Gamekeeper’s Mandala, 2018; Brown Snowy Owl, 2018; Hunters, 2018; Forest of Birds, 2018 Rebecca Jewell Convey weightless, magical quality. ‘“Each meticulously hand-printed feather seems a miraculous technical feat that conveys their jewel-like, weightless, magical quality” Gilda Williams, art critic and writer’ kevishouse.com “These collages are made from hand-printed feathers. Each feather has the image of a plant, animal or water, printed using the paper litho transfer process.” RJ @rebeccatjewell ‘Rebecca Jewell had a eureka moment that changed her life. She had always been fascinated with feathers, and had spent many hours learning how to paint them faithfully. However, on this particular day, Rebecca was struck by a thought: what if, instead of painting feathers, I printed images onto them? The insight changed everything. Rebecca developed a unique printing technique (based on paper litho transfer) that helped her create work like nothing seen before. She worked out how to reproduce the natural patterns of exotic bird feathers – and even portraits of the birds themselves - directly on to plain white feathers. Rebecca began to make delicate and beautiful collages, artefacts and charms – all based around her enduring love for wildlife. … All the feathers in these works are ethically sourced. Most of them are moulted white feathers from Rebecca’s own doves. Some come from domestic goose and duck, and are sourced from UK suppliers to the millinery trade. Some of the turkey feathers come from an organic turkey farm in East Sussex. The feathers used have been cleaned and pre-frozen.’ cattogallery.co.uk #111ForTheBirds #RebeccaJewell #🇬🇧ContemporaryArt

Every Dot a Prayer for the Saskatchewan Rivers (detail, full image), 2022 Christi Belcourt Stand in the way. “If you love these rivers as much as I do, speak up for them every chance you get. Stand in the way. Get loud. Water is life.”  — Christi Belcourt  askiy.usask.ca ‘Curator Tarah Hogue has ingeniously woven a web of connections among the objects to tell the stories of Métis people on the Prairies. Her curatorial approach draws on Métis scholar Sherry Farrell Racette’s concept of the storied object. “They remember,” Racette writes in a 2011 essay in Manifestations: New Native Art Criticism. “They remember us. They remember for us.” In the exhibition’s first room, a dazzling Christi Belcourt painting encapsulates this idea. Belcourt, who traces her ancestry to the Métis Cree-speaking community of Manitou Sakhigan (Lac Ste. Anne, Alta.), uses countless juxtaposed dots to create images that refer to Métis beadwork.  Every Dot a Prayer for the Saskatchewan Rivers depicts plants, birds and fish of the prairie ecosystem. Belcourt is voicing concern about the precarity of the Saskatchewan river system, which gives life to millions. The painting’s interwoven composition communicates the interdependence of living things, acting as a visual record of the many threatened species that inhabit this territory, helping us remember, now and in the future.’ (Laura St. Pierre) gallerieswest.ca #111ForTheBirds #ChristiBelcourt #MétisContemporaryArt #IndigenousContemporaryArt