Curtis Talwst Santiago (born in Edmonton, Canada) is an artist with a decentralized practice. Curtis studied as an apprentice to Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun and has exhibited internationally at venues such as the New Museum, New York; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Pérez Art Museum Miami; and SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah. The artist’s work was also featured in the Biennale de Dakar and SITE Santa Fe, both 2018, and is in the permanent collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Works
Curtis Talwst Santiago at 55 Unwin
Location: The Port Lands
Built of rubble salvaged from construction sites across the city, Santiago’s J’ouvert Temple is a modern-day capriccio—an architectural fantasy informed by the artist’s experience of ancient and modern-day ruins. Santiago’s work draws specifically on a blend of aesthetic influences he encountered in the architecture of Portugal and Italy, and incorporates…
Curtis Talwst Santiago at 259 Lake Shore Blvd E
Location: 259 Lake Shore Blvd East
This installation brings together forty-eight works from Santiago’s Infinity Series, which consists of miniature dioramas housed in reclaimed jewelry boxes that are often assembled using found materials to convey an interior world. Since 2012, Santiago has developed a robust body of work that reflects the complex, intertwined elements of individual…
Programs
In Conversation with Curtis Talwst Santiago
Location: 259 Lake Shore Blvd East
This conversation with Yaniya Lee and Curtis Talwst Santiago opens up the processes and practice behind Santiago’s contributions to the Toronto Biennial of Art. Spanning from the ongoing Infinity Series–which inspired a host of responses from school students participating in facilitated workshops in the Biennial’s Programs–to J’ouvert Temple (2019)–an architectural fantasy…