2024-2025 Cohort
Sandra Jabbour
Sandra Jabbour is an interdisciplinary artist whose work blends painting with video projection. She graduated with distinction from the University of Windsor's Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts program in 2023, where she was awarded the Jill Dyan-Perry Memorial Bursery for outstanding portfolio work. She is currently a Master of Fine Arts candidate at the University of Waterloo. She served as Vice President of the Vanguard Collective at the Arts Council Windsor-Essex for one year, having been an active member for four years prior. She has exhibited her work in both solo and group exhibitions. Jabbour explores themes related to her Lebanese and Syrian heritage, family dynamics, and childhood nostalgia. Inspired by family photos and home movies, she incorporates nostalgic imagery and early 2000s technology, such as television static and VHS fonts, to evoke familiarity and warmth. By reflecting on her parents' memories and cultural traditions, she preserves fading elements of her childhood environment. Her work sparks nostalgic conversations with family, enhancing emotional connections. Frequently titling her paintings in Arabic, she invites viewers to engage deeply, balancing openness with introspection and encouraging personal reflection.
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Breanne Jeethan
Breanne Jeethan (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist and designer originally from Toronto. She has a passion for photography, textiles, and handmade practices. Major themes in her work include, women, the body, individuality, race, cultural practices, and religion. The connection between the work and the audience has allowed her to share personal stories in a visual matter. With interests in healthcare, Breanne's current MFA focus involves internal scans of the body in relation to mistreatment among the population.
Breanne graduated from OCAD University (Toronto, Ontario) in 2019, with a Bachelor of Design. She completed a major in Graphic Design as well as a minor in photography. Breanne is currently an MFA student at the University of Waterloo. Her work has been exhibited in The Small Arms Inspection Building, Xpace Cultural Centre, and OCAD University.
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Maddie Lychek
Maddie Lychek is a conceptual lens-based artist and curator. Working in video, performance and installation she explores how her body and its consumption can be used as a radical act of self-discovery. Lychek creates a tension between abjection and eroticism engaging with conversations around power and play.
She has presented in venues like Xpace Cultural Centre, and InterAccess and curated for Ed Video Media Arts Centre, InterAccess, and Platforms Project. Maddie holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art, with Distinction from the University of Guelph. Lychek has served as a juror for the Ontario Arts Council, a board member of the Independent Media Arts Alliance and as the Program Director at Ed Video Media Arts Centre.
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Jordan MacDonald
Jordan MacDonald (she/her) is a versatile multi-disciplinary artist, originally based on the unceded traditional territory of the Syilx (Okanagan Valley, British Columbia). Today, she calls the traditional territories of the Attawandaron, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples, situated on the Haldimand Tract (Waterloo, Ontario) her home.
In 2023, Jordan achieved a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia in Kelowna, British Columbia in 2023. Her art practice explores the intricate connection between nature and the human experience. Rooted in her sensory perception of the world, her creative expression takes shape through various mediums, such as painting, sculpture, and mixed media, resulting in a unique fusion of emotions and reflections. Jordan's artistic endeavours have found a platform in both group and solo exhibitions across Canada.
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James Malzahn
James Malzahn is an interdisciplinary artist whose work examines the weaponization of technology and its impact on public autonomy. By combining traditional mediums with electronics, advanced technology, artificial intelligence, and glitch techniques, he investigates themes of surveillance, misinformation, and control. With a background in electronics, data recovery, and audio-visual technology, James creates immersive installations that challenge audiences to confront blurred boundaries between truth and fiction while reflecting on the ethical implications of technology in society.
James holds a BFA with Honours from the University of Manitoba School of Art and is currently pursuing an MFA at the University of Waterloo. His innovative approach to art and technology has been recognized through numerous grants and awards. By blending craftsmanship with cutting-edge innovation, James invites viewers to critically engage with the forces shaping privacy, autonomy, and digital culture today.
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Azadeh Pirazimian
Azadeh Pirazimian is a practicing multidisciplinary artist art educator based in Toronto and formerly a lecturer in Iran. With a passion for exploring themes of self-expression, communication, daily resistance, and social injustice through diverse media, Azadeh's artistic practice merges various disciplines, including drawing, painting, mark-making, photography, video, performance art, and sculpture. Her methodology has been consistent throughout her career, resulting in her own distinctive visual language.
Over the years, Azadeh has showcased her works at multiple exhibitions in Iran, Canada, and the Netherlands. Her art has received recognition and awards, including the RBC Space Award(2023) from the Toronto Arts Foundation, The Newcomer and Refugee Artists Mentorship Grant(2021) from the Toronto Arts Council, the RBC Space Award(2021), and the RBC Art Access Fund(2016) from the Toronto Arts Foundation among others.
Azadeh holds a bachelor's degree in painting and a master's in visual communication from Iran. Additionally, in 2023, she completed Centennial College's Arts Management program in Canada.
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Visit Azadeh's website: www.azadehpirazimian.com
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Elise Popa
Elise Popa (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, working primarily in experimental sound art, which she then translates into visual forms such as drawings and sculptures. Sound is an integral element of her artistic practice, offering a versatile medium through which she explores the intersections of language, visual art, and sensory experience. Influenced by contemporary sound poetry, Elise experiments with the phonetic deconstruction and reconstruction of words to generate new meanings. Language, as a manipulated material is at the core of her creative repertoire, opening pathways for deeper engagement with sound-based art. Elise is experimenting with ceramic sculpture and glazing techniques within her MFA, hoping to merge this medium with her sonic explorations.
Elise graduated from Brock University (St. Catharines, Ontario) in 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree. She completed a major in Studio Art and a minor in English Literature. Elise is currently a Master of Fine Art student at the University of Waterloo. Elise’s work has been exhibited across Ontario and continues to be exhibited to date.
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Paige Smith
Paige Smith is an interdisciplinary artist whose work investigates felt experiences of being othered through moving-image, installation, performance, and print material. She received her BFA in Film and Post Baccalaureate Diploma in Contemporary Art from Simon Fraser University, and is currently an MFA candidate in Studio Art at the University of Waterloo. Her artistic-research has been supported by various institutions including the Social Science and Humanity Research Council of Canada and the British Columbia Art Council. Additionally, she has exhibited internationally in France, the United States, and Canada, including recently with the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) and University of Waterloo Art Gallery (UWAG). Her work can be found in the permanent collection of Video Out Distribution.
Paige has taught as a fine arts sessional lecturer at the University of Waterloo and workshop instructor with numerous arts organizations including the Contemporary Art Gallery and VIVO Media Arts Centre. Additionally, she supports arts community development, previously with SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement and currently as the Program Coordinator with the University of Waterloo’s Student Art Innovation Lab.
Paige lives in Waterloo, Ontario, which is situated within the Haldimand Tract, land that was granted to the Six Nations of the Grand River, and within the territory of the Attawandaron, Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples. She was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations.
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Cree Tylee
Cree Tylee is a multimedia artist whose work is a convergence of materials and recollection through photographic and sculptural investigations. Tylee explores how interactions with organic ‘altars’ allude to emotional environments that explore memory, loss and longing. Tylee navigates the concepts of time, labour and weight through considerations of personal histories and allegory.
Tylee studied at Haliburton School of Art + Design, located on the traditional territory of the Mississauga Anishinaabe covered by the Williams Treaties. Receiving a Visual and Creative Arts Diploma along with a certificate in Photo Arts, Tylee later returned to complete a certificate in Ceramics. Tylee graduated with honours from Brock University in Studio Art with a minor in The History of Art and Visual Culture. Tylee currently lives on the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples (St. Catharines, ON).
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