BigArtTO at Aga Khan Museum

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BigArtTO at Aga Khan Museum featuring Artists Mahnaz Nezarati, Kim Luong, Liliya Eruysal, and Mohammad Abdullah

Presented with OCAD University

Wednesday October 20 - Friday October 22, 6:45 pm to 9:45 pm nightly.

The West-facing façade of the Aga Khan Museum will be fully illuminated by OCAD University Student Artists. Watch the activations from the beautiful adjacent park and serene landscaped garden.

The Aga Khan Museum provides visitors with a window into the artistic, intellectual, and scientific contributions of Muslim civilizations to world heritage.

OCAD University, the largest and most comprehensive art, design and media university in Canada, encourages students to explore animation across disciplines. This collaboration with BigArtTO provides opportunities for students to explore media art, graphic design, drawing and critical practices as they relate to the moving image, interactivity and the virtual. The focus is on innovation, experimentation, imagination, creativity and critical thinking.

Mahnaz Nezarati is a multidisciplinary artist, based in Toronto Canada. Her recent area of focus is observing, analyzing, and defining female identity. As a woman born and raised in Iran who immigrated to Canada in 2014, Nezarati started to look deeper into social and cultural placement of women in her homeland. She references to her own experience and memories as a foundation for her research around diasporic Iran. She questions and investigates many of the cultural facts, expectations, standards, and beliefs, which were forced upon her as a female. In her diverse practice of drawing, painting and illustration, Nezarati also experiments with traditional oil-paint on glass animating technique and different forms of installation, which allow her to use a variety of visual languages in communicating her narratives and concepts.

Ngan Kim Luong is a Toronto-based Artist, animator and student from OCAD University's DPXA program. Born and raised in Australia, she currently hopes to pursue an artistic career here in Canada. As a first generation immigrant with a Vietnamese background, much of Kim's work draws inspiration from her culture and asian media. Luong has a wide range of work which experiments liberally with different mediums and visual styles. Her art centres around themes of nostalgia and whimsical dream-like imagery, using harmonious colour palettes to highlight the narrative elements in her work.

Liliya Eruysal, also known as Printer, is a third year art student at the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCADU). She is currently enrolled in a Digital Painting and Expanded Animation program. She is skilled in Photoshop, Maya, Toon Boom Harmony, and After Effects, expecting to continuously gain more experience in a variety of program during her post-secondary education. She aspires to work as a concept artist, animator, illustrator, and character designer in the future.

Mohammad Abdullah, was an Indian born and raised in Ras Al Khaimah, U.A.E. Abdullah has gained experience in meeting different people with various cultures that influence his work. Abdullah’s art-style stems from his passion in creating web-comics which encapsulate his dynamic and explosive artworks. To invoke the mood of hyperactive energy, he utilizes high contrasting colors and vibrant music from his peers. This has translated towards his approach towards frame-by-frame animation as he often fills the roles of a cleanup artist, colorist, sketcher, inbetweener, compositor and video editor.

About BigArtTO: Explore Art Across The City

Experience art illuminated at BigArtTO, a city-wide public art celebration featuring free access to temporary public artworks projected onto local buildings and landmarks. Created by Toronto artists, the projections will play on a loop so that visitors can arrive at any time. Part of ShowLoveTO.

BigArtTO is the result of a collaboration between the City of Toronto with OCAD University and AVA Animation & Visual Arts Inc.

View all BigArtTO events here.