Playful Impressions
OCAD U 2021-2022 | Masters Thesis Exhibition

Submission Deadline: December 15th 2021

With all of the health regulations that have been introduced in the wake of Covid-19, our shared public spaces have been transformed into something foreign, and we are left to re-evaluate what it means for us to interact and engage with others, especially when it comes to play.

We are asking artists “How has COVID-19 affected play?” in an effort to create a conversation around play, distance, and what it means to connect with something.

Playful Impressions is a OCAD University Master’s Thesis exhibition organized by Avery Creed.

Hosted on a dual platform of outdoor and virtual performances, this exhibition is an exploration into playful curation where selected artists will be asked to collaborate with the curator in designing unorthodox presentations that will serve to highlight their artworks hosted within the show.

The goal of these artist-curator collaborations is to explore how interactive technologies and interventions can enhance art in the public space, highlighting the artist’s creative practice while simultaneously creating opportunities for playful visitor engagement.

We welcome submissions from artists working in any media, but we are especially interested in exhibiting the works of multimedia and performance artists. We want to explore emotion and action, curiosity and excitement, and how these affect our ability to connect and communicate with what’s around us.

Artist Fee: Artist will be provided with a small honorarium {to be determined by department budget.}

Submission Requirements: Portfolio must be submitted by email to: avery.creed@gmail.com

Please include the following material:

  • Artist Statement addressing the relevance to the proposed exhibition (250 words max)
  • Bio (one paragraph, 150 words max)
  • Current CV (2 pages max)
  • Portfolio (3-5 examples of work):
  • If you wish to submit video work, please upload to a site such as YouTube or Vimeo and provide a link in your application. Please provide full videos although the selection committee might view the first five minutes of each submitted video.
  • Please number and label your visual submissions, for example (01_name.jpg, 02_name.jpg, etc.). If you are submitting large files you can send us a link via a file hosting service such as DropBox, etc.

Please include an image list with the title, date, medium, and dimensions, and any additional information.