In this Online Exhibition Tour, Independent Curator and Gallery Administrator Claudia Arana will share her perspective on Sur Gallery's exhibition 'Extracolonial: Reflections for Action' and how she has adapted her skills and expertise as a curator in the wake of COVID-19.

This event is presented in partnership with Sur Gallery as part of Neighbourhood Arts Network's Newcomer Week programming, which runs from May 18- 22 online. Check out other Newcomer Week activities here.

ASL interpretation is provided by Toronto Sign Language Interpreter Services.

About the Exhibition

EXTRACOLONIAL: Reflections for Action brings together a group of Indigenous and Latin American artists—Ulysses Castellanos, Monica Gutierrez Quintero, Yoshua Okón, and Onaman Collective—whose works examine the relationship between extractivism and colonialism as they have impacted the history of the Americas. These works propose alternate activist models to address the sustained systems of inequality seeded in the legacy of natural resource exploitation, including the uneven movement of capital, expropriation of Indigenous lands, deterioration of the natural landscape, and instances of civil unrest. The exhibition’s title marries the terms extractivism and colonialism to evoke their inextricable relationship, nodding towards the deep and insidious roots of their union throughout the Americas. The subtitle is borrowed from Alberto Acosta’s article “Post-Extractivism: From Discourse to Practice—Reflections for Action,” a manifesto that proposes new ways of living with and within the land to undo the grip of extractivism from Latin America’s various economies.

Responding to global calls for action, the artists in this exhibition offer new points of entry into a series of complex causes and histories centered on the commodification of natural wealth. Looking beyond policy and approaching art as activism, their works expose systems of oppression, putting forward strategies to undermine extractive profiteering.

About the Curator:

Claudia Arana is an Independent Curator, Visual Artist, and Cultural Connector who has installed her practice in the construction of artistic platforms that promote inclusion and diversity from different cultural perspectives. In Canada, she has established a career aimed at promoting a socially and politically viable artistic spectrum, where artists from different cultures are adequately represented and supported by both governmental institutions and non-profit organizations. She studied Art Theory and Critical Thinking at the School of Visual Arts and advanced Critique at the International Centre of Photography in New York. Currently, she is the Gallery Administrator at Sur Gallery, Toronto's first gallery space dedicated to promoting contemporary Latin American artistic practices.

This event is presented as part of Neighbourhood Arts Network's Newcomer Week: Virtual Edition programming and is presented in partnership with Sur Gallery. Visit our website to see what else is on for Newcomer Week at https://neighbourhoodartsnetwork.org/programs/newcomer-day-virtual-edition