Gratefully funded by the Calgary Arts Development Project Grant!
HOME Residency
MEET THE ARTISTS: Thurs-Sat 11am-6pm
For newcomers, home can be a place left behind, a space in flux, or a future still being imagined. For Indigenous artists, home is rooted in ancestral land, community, and resilience, often in the face of historical and ongoing displacement. This residency creates a space for dialogue between these experiences, revealing shared struggles and points of connection while honoring the complexities of each perspective.
Home Residency brings together five Newcomer and Indigenous artists — Kseniia Koshmai, Yu Chen, Shea Iles, Jona Redwood, and Ezgi Türker — whose practices explore different understandings of home through miniature boxes, portraiture, beaded game cards, dreamcatchers and letters.
The residency creates space for dialogue between these perspectives, fostering connection while honouring the distinct histories, relationships, and experiences each artist carries. Over July and August, the artists will explore what home means to them individually, drawing from their own histories, cultures, memories, and lived experiences while also developing a collaborative artwork and offering public workshops.
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I am a Calgary-based Indigenous artist and owner of T & T Dreamcatchers. My work centers on creating intentional, handcrafted pieces that blend modern materials with natural gemstones and designs that step away from the traditional looks. Each piece is made to support grounding, self expression, and personal connection. Through dreamcatchers, jewelry, and interactive craft experiences, I focus on creating accessible ways for people to engage with meaning and mindfulness in everyday life. My practice is rooted in authenticity, respect, and the belief that art can be beautiful, purposeful and healing while offering not just something to see, but something to feel.
Shea Iles (he/him)
IG @shea.iles_
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I’m a Métis beader and musician from Grande Prairie with a love of games of any kind. I bead to connect with my heritage, I play music to learn my ears and my hands, and I play games to explore patterns, rules, and complex relationships. I’m interested in the interaction between composition and improvisation, and how to factor my physicality into my music-making. In my beadwork, I like to recreate symbols, manufactured objects, and other things that feel like “nature” to me, as a self-proclaimed indoor cat. More and more, these things are converging into one unified artistic practice through which I can explore myself and the world around me.
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I am a Calgary-based oil painter working with portraiture to explore identity and belonging, with a focus on immigrant artists from diverse cultural backgrounds. My practice is shaped by my involvement in Hanfu culture and an ongoing interest in cultural exchange. Through oil painting, I create portraits of individuals in their traditional attire, where clothing carries personal and cultural meaning beyond appearance. Each work is developed through interviews, photography, and observation, grounded in lived experience and collaboration, creating space for connection and dialogue across cultures.
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Kseniia Koshmai is a visual artist working in miniature painting and mixed media. She creates detailed works on wooden boxes and objects that can be held and used in everyday life. Her practice grows from personal stories, memories, and places that carry meaning. After moving between countries and losing her sense of home, her work became more personal. She explores what the feeling of home means and how it can be carried with you, even without a permanent place. Through repeated moves and the experience of not having a stable home, she reflects on how we hold onto what matters. Her work connects people with their memories and brings warmth and a sense of closeness into everyday life.
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Ezgi Türker is a Turkish (and Canadian in progress) interdisciplinary artist with a background in social sciences and contemporary dance. She approaches her artistry as a space for critical inquiry, emotional truth, and social transformation using her social science lenses. Her work engages with themes of climate justice, gender, and memory —seeking to translate complex concepts into embodied, affective experiences. She is particularly drawn to the boundaries between self and other, between body and environment, and how these can be stretched, softened, and made more porous.