September 21 – December 1
The Supernatural Powers of Fabulous Panther (Biimskojiwan) (2024) is a newly commissioned sculptural installation based on three spirals. Made of industrial felt and adorned with silver jingle bells and tin jingles, the work stages a sensory exploration of place and water. Translated as whirlpool, biimskojiwan in the water anticipates the appearance of Fabulous Panther aka miszhibizhiw the most powerful underwater being known in aadizookaang (stories of the Anishinaabe oral tradition).
The work is a grouping of spirals in various configurations, each resonating with the sound of its own materiality. The spirals, born from residencies at The Sally and Don Lucas Artists Residency Program (LAP), Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, and Surf Point Artist Residency, York, represent an ongoing exploration of form, sound, and meaning. The work exists as a living culture, engaging with community, place, space, ideas, and materials. It challenges colonial art display norms, positioning the gallery as a site for active bodies that hold, support, and cushion the art with care.
Maria Hupfield is an artist and urban, off-reservation member of the Anishinabek People belonging to Wasauksing First Nation in Ontario. She is deeply dedicated to embodied practice, Indigenous feminisms, and ethical collaborative methods. Her transdisciplinary work merges performance art with industrial materials, including felt, and activates creations through live performances and collaboration. Her projects introduce nuanced inquiries into objects and the recollections, gestures, or affiliations they evoke.
Commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art and made possible with the generous support of Chromatic Developments, Julia Foster, C.M., and Robert Foster, C.M., the Ontario Arts Council, Galerie Hugues Charbonneau, and the Women Leading Initiative. Special thanks to Beam Paints for providing Maria’s paint for her sculptural installation.
Bio
Maria Hupfield (she/her), a transdisciplinary artist, crosses boundaries at the intersection of performance art and design. She is deeply invested in embodied practice, Native feminisms, and ethical collaborative processes. Her work positions the art object as active belongings, with sculptures becoming performers in a form of object choreography between artist, audience, and art gallery; her works are engaged in an ongoing series of relations with community, places, ideas, and materials. She is an urban off-reservation member of the Anishinabek People belonging to Wasauksing First Nation in Ontario. Hupfield is the inaugural City of Toronto artist in residence and was awarded the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Prize 2023. Her art travelled nationally with “Beat Nation”, grunt gallery, Vancouver; as a solo project “Nine Years Towards the Sun” at the Heard Museum, Phoenix Arizona USA; and internationally with “The One Who Keeps on Giving”, The Power Plant, Toronto. Her work was also shown at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Galerie de l’UQAM, Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada, NONAM – Nordamerika Native Museum Zurich, National Museum of the American Indian, Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Abrons Arts Center, Center for Art – Research and Alliances (CARA), BRIC House Gallery, The Bronx Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and SITE SANTA FE amongst others. Hupfield is represented by Patel Brown Toronto and Galerie Hugues Charbonneau Montreal.
Location
- Accessibility
32 Lisgar St and Park
Accessible entrance
– Note: If you have access needs and are being dropped off at the venue, use ’36 Lisgar’ as the drop-off address instead of 32 Lisgar. This will bring you closer to our entrance.Washrooms
Elevator
AODA compliant building
Parking: Limited Street, Underground Parking (Paid)
There is ample paid parking nearby, including a Green P lot in the building, a lot accessible from the alley between Dovercourt and Lisgar off Sudbury, and street parking on both Lisgar Street and Abell Street.
- Getting There
32 Lisgar St and Park
By subway: Line 1 – From St. Andrew Station, take the 504 King streetcar west to Abell Street, walk 2 minutes. Line 2 – From Dufferin Station: take the 29 Bus south to Queen Street West, walk 7 minutes
By streetcar: Take the 501 Queen streetcar and get off at Abell Street, just east of Gladstone. Or, take the 504 King streetcar. Get off at Sudbury Street, and walk north/west along Sudbury to Lisgar Street.
Donors & Supporters
