Alia Al-Sabi is a writer and curator. She recently earned an MA in Curatorial Practice from the California College of the Arts, where she focused her research on the politics of space and the intersection of art, architecture, and urban studies—an interest inspired by her background in architecture. Prior to moving to the Bay Area, Al-Sabi was based in the United Arab Emirates, where she worked at the Sharjah Art Foundation and Bidoun Magazine. She has previously contributed writings to Al Manakh: Gulf Continued, Canvas, and Bidoun.
Using strategies of asymmetry and organic mirroring, Julia Westerbeke explores abstraction as a vehicle of human imagination and a catalyst for subconscious thought. The artist cites science fiction and the biology of natural forms as two of her main sources of inspiration, and her paper-based explorations evoke a certain duality inherent within organic life—the ordinary morphing into the extraordinary, the mundane inspiring spurts of wonder.[…..]
Toronto-based artist Tavis Lochhead has a knack for the surreal. In his photo collage series Habitat, large sections of industrial sites are digitally manipulated into semi-abstract compositions that disrupt the mundane aesthetics of manufacturing zones. In each work, the central figure—what the artist describes as “a sculptural element floating in space”—is an assemblage produced by an elaborate process of merging, mirroring, and stitching. Initially trained in[…..]
