Resident Artists
Berta Biondic is Toronto-based designer-illustrator whose evocative, narrative-driven creations fuse storytelling, refined elegance, and the city’s architectural soul. A graduate of Fashion Production and Design at Toronto Metropolitan University, her illustrations appear on apparel, home goods, children’s books, and at live-sketch events. During the residency, Berta will develop Gladstone House Echoes: narrative illustrations and surface patterns inspired by the hotel’s architecture, history, and the vibrant lives of its past and present guests.
Shaney Herrmann is a photographer from Montréal, now based in Toronto. Being a second-generation Canadian has deeply informed her art practice. Growing up away from places that were important to her prompted her to pick up a camera. Shaney is drawn to narratives of home, comfort, rituals, and folklore and has worked primarily on contemporary-documentary photography series to examine how those themes are related to landscape and place. During the residency, Shaney will be working on a mixed-media project about wild-swimming and grief that combines photography and watercolour painting.
Kalmplex is a painter and photographer who is fascinated by people. Kalmplex’s canvases are consumed by large faces whose exaggerated features demand the viewer’s complete attention. During the residency, Kalmplex will be working on new material including series called Rastas Resting After Reasonings, paintings based on photo of friends that depict Rastafarians resting in various places such as hammocks, restaurants and living rooms. Kalmplex is a fixture in the Toronto art and music scenes and has shown work at venues across the city.
