Advertise on podcast: Curator on the Go Podcast

Vancouver-based artist Amy Stewart has been drawn to the interconnections of art, play and nature since her childhood in 108-Mile House, British Columbia, where she spent most of her time outdoors. That first northern home continues to dominate much of Amy’s current artistic world. The memories of childhood and nature shape her adult imagination, and they are reflected in her paintings’ rich textures and vibrant tones. Her pieces are often inspired by the feelings that come both from the natural world and from engaging fully in her community and with her loved ones. “I paint how I feel and who I am,” Stewart explains. And that sense of humanity—the private experiences of suffering and celebration—is evoked by her canvases’ unique explorations of colour, which range from exuberant bursts of brightness to contemplative reflections on darkness. Learn more about the artist here. Learn more about the podcast here.

Canadian artist Bibiana Hooper lives in the beautiful Okanagan, British Columbia. She moved with her family from the city a decade ago to live in the country with expansive views of vineyards, orchards, lakes, mountains and sky. As a self-taught artist, she began exploring her skills in 2018 when she joined a collective art gallery. Bibiana's art practice is all about capturing the beauty of flowers and landscapes through a contemporary and poetic brush stroke. Her passion for nature shines through her with the flow and organic elements in everything she creates. Bibiana paints in her home studio and she's also an integral part of the Naramata Art Group. You can find her artwork hanging in galleries and private homes all around the world.  Learn more about the artist here. Learn more abou thte podcast here.

Billie Rae Busby is an award-winning contemporary artist who uses a precise hard-edge painting technique and colour theory to reinvent her surroundings. Her abstract landscape paintings evoke wonder and possibility by depicting mood, memory, movement and time. Based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, she is inspired by both the complexity of urban architecture and the vast rural landscape. She strives to interpret ordinary places in a fresh, new context. Learn more about the artist here. Learn more about the podcast here.

Claire Crawford (née Gaulin-Brown) is an artist and illustrator living and working in San Francisco, California. Claire uses surrealism and abstract tools to inquire about nature culture dualism as a place to imagine a post anthropocentric world. Learn more abou the artist here. Learn more about the podcast here.

Andrea Soos is well known for her playful abstractions that combine creative mark-making, patterning, and gestural application of colour. Working with a fresh modern palette, Soos’ paintings allow the viewer to freely journey around the canvas, enjoying the twists and turns of her engaging compositions. Although she may not know the outcome of the piece when she begins, the artwork evolves as a visceral and therapeutic practice, driven by music and song lyrics. Viewers of Soos’ work connect with the many visual entry-points and feel at liberty to apply their own experiences and history to the marks on the canvas. Soos lives and works in Victoria, British Columbia, where she also trained for her BFA. Soos’ work has been collected across Canada and in the USA, and works to release new series’ of artwork year-round.  Learn more about the artist. Learn more about the podcast.

Jodi Miller is a contemporary Canadian impressionist painter whose landscapes explore our sense of belonging and how we interact with our natural environment. She is a veteran of the Royal Canadian Air Force, following a 20 year career as an aerospace engineer working in aircraft maintenance and project management.  Jodi pivoted to become a full-time artist in 2015, returning to the prairies where she grew up on a family farm. She now finds inspiration in the vast land and skies. Jodi paints in response to her time in nature and her work represents optimism where the artist sees metaphorical life journeys in the many paths carved out in nature. Jodi’s work has been recognized for “capturing Canadian identity through landscape” and she has been named one of “28 Contemporary Canadian Artists You Need to Know” by Create Magazine. Her work has been requested at shows across Canada and is held in private collections world-wide.  Learn more about Jodi Miller here. Learn more about the podcast here.

Jennifer L Mohr is an acrylic and mixed media painter living and creating in Airdrie, Alberta, Canada (the traditional territories of the Treaty 7 Nations in Southern Alberta, and the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3).  She began exploring visual arts in early childhood, later earning her B.F.A. in painting at the University of Saskatchewan in 2003.  With a nostalgic palette, expressive, layered marks, and lingering, ground-level perspective, Jennifer’s paintings place the viewer within the landscape, allowing them to experience the beauty and complexity of self-reflection within nature.  Her paintings are part of private collections across the globe and have been featured in publications, including Create! Magazine, The Jealous Curator blog, and the popular website, My Modern Met. Learn more about the artist here. Learn more about the podcast here. 

Andrew Wang is a Toronto based mixed media artist.  He has a non-traditional background, coming from two decades in engineering and business.  He left this career 6 years ago to pursue art and has developed into a professional artist showing in galleries, art fairs and public art installations. Andrew uses meticulously folded origami objects to create large scale assemblages. He tells stories of individual journeys and migrations of previous generations.  With his unique background, he draws on science and mathematics for his compositions and metaphors.  Fluid dynamics, planetary motion and weather patterns are often seen in his work. Learn more about the artist. Learn more about the podcast.  I also want to share a new exciting art podcast called In/Tension. In/Tension, produced by Toronto-based The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, is a limited podcast series of intimate, thought-provoking and accessible conversations with emerging, mid-career, and established contemporary visual artists across Canada. Detailing the ideas, inspirations and experiences that fuel their art, In/Tension aims to shed light on the breadth of the Canadian contemporary art scene and provide a platform for diverse artistic voices to dive deep into their creative intentions. Learn more here. 

Cobie Cruz was born in Manila, Philippines into a family of artists. He started his career in advertising as an art director, then became a director of television commercials before starting to paint professionally. Cruz participated in several group and solo exhibitions before emigrating with his family to Canada in 2005. Cobie Cruz's paintings are an exploration of composition, color and texture. The bold and determined brushstrokes are created by both intention and spontaneity and reflect his interpretation of the world around him. Cruz is curently represented by Canvas Gallery, Petroff Gallery, Arta Gallery in Toronto and Galerie Bloom in Montreal. Learn more about Cobie Cruz here.  I want to share a new exciting art podcast that will be premiering next week, called In/Tension. In/Tension, produced by Toronto-based The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, is a limited podcast series of intimate, thought-provoking and accessible conversations with emerging, mid-career, and established contemporary visual artists across Canada. Detailing the ideas, inspirations and experiences that fuel their art, In/Tension aims to shed light on the breadth of the Canadian contemporary art scene and provide a platform for diverse artistic voices to dive deep into their creative intentions. Learn more here.  Learn more about the podcast here.

Carol Loeb is a Canadian acrylic and mixed media artist who has always been fascinated with nature and our relationship to it. Carol’s main subject is the landscape, both rural and urban. She works mainly in acrylics, usually blocking in dark and mid-tone areas first then adding thin layers of saturated color to create luminosity and depth. The result is a realism that goes beyond a photographic representation or record of place. In the lead-up to Canada’s 150th anniversary, she conceived and executed the Trans-Canada 150 art project, a cross-continental documentation of the Canadian landscape along the Trans-Canada Highway from coast to coast, culminating in a series of 52 studio paintings and a book. More recently, as travel had been restricted by the global pandemic, she has concentrated on industrial and urban landscapes. Learn more about the artist here. Learn more about the podcast here.

Canadian-born artist Ramona Nordal began her art exploration at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia. Here she studied lithography, colour theory, painting and drawing and later focused on anatomy drawing and painting. Colour theory has always been a huge part of Nordal’s process and she is quickly becoming known for her richly evocative colour palette. The central theme that unites all of her work is the mixture of the traditional with the unconventional. Her work is a representation of her interest in the human form, pop art culture and capturing the presence of her subjects. Nordal is hyper aware of art's relationship with human emotion and her subjects reflect this as they captivate you and entice you into their world. Her work can be found in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Australia, Honk Kong and Europe. Learn more about the artist here. Learn more about the podcast here.

Chicago-based visual artist Britni Mara is innately drawn to paint as a medium and has a sensory attachment to the physical push and pull of pigment. Intuition and years of experience guides her work as she seeks a meditative state to curate chaos towards intentional happenstance. She strives to bring a sense of structure to coincidence. Mara finds freedom in gestural energy and peace in the color field interplay which is rooted in post-war abstract expressionist movements. Her original artworks have been sold and shown all over the world.  Britni is also deeply passionate about creating platforms for emerging artists to thrive. In 2020, Mara founded the hallway gallery, which is an alternative pop-up style gallery dedicated to showing female and non-binary artists in the Chicago area. The goal is to turn the empty walls of hallways into opportunities and provide support to first-time and upcoming artists.