GET NOTICED 2024
Curated by Na’ama Freeman and Erin Szikora
December 4 – 21, 2024
Opening Reception: Thursday, December 5, 5:30 – 8 pm
Mo Mouhie, I love to lay in bed and daydream (detail), 2024, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
Get Noticed is a bi-annual exhibition of artists who do not have formal representation staged at the Red Head Gallery. This year’s edition of Get Noticed was juried by Na’ama Freeman and Erin Szikora. The exhibition features 18 artists across a broad range of styles and media.
The exhibition features work by Joy Adeola, Jude Akrey, Oksana Berda, Miguel Caba, Carolyn Cheng, Sofia Escobar, Raha Fard, Sylvia Galbraith, Paul Gravett, Bram Locknick, Kaeli Macdonald, Billie MacFarland, Mo Mouhie, William Peltier, Fabrizio Sclocco, Amber Smith-Quail, Lucia Volker and Noel Yardley.
“In reviewing the submissions for this year’s Get Noticed, we were deeply impressed by the creativity, diversity of mediums, and technical skill shared across artists. This made our task both challenging and incredibly rewarding. Throughout the process, our aim was to showcase a wide range of artworks across mediums, reflective of the diverse artistic practices seen today. Slowly, a thread began to emerge – one centered on personal narrative, fleeting intimacy, and the tacit connections that bind us all together. The final selection embodies this shared pulse, capturing a spectrum of voices, experiences, and perspectives through distinct expressions of colour and form. We hope you enjoy this collection and perhaps find that it invites reflection on the ways which art can speak to the complexities that shape our lives.”
- Erin Szikora and Na’ama Freeman
GET NOTICED 2024 ONLINE
In addition to the exhibition in-gallery, there is an online edition of Get Noticed featuring the work of Timothy Birchard, Chelsea Brant, Paige Bromby, Omar Chris Canales-Cisneros, Roberto Centazzo, Michael Julian Thomas Dawson, Bri Dyer, Matthew Shaun Ferguson, Jill Hobson, Helen Mak, Claire McNamara, Ana Norton, Ariel Schneider, Erin Shadoff, Sheida Shekarian, Heejung Shin, Xiao Fan Wang and Betty Wood.
ABOUT THE CURATORS
Na’ama Freeman (MFA, BA) is an independent curator based in Toronto, Canada. In 2024, she joined NAMARA as Curatorial Associate. Na’ama works at the crossroads of art and business, seeking to build and support cross-sector creativity, collaboration, and engagement. She has overseen research and provided curatorial support on numerous contemporary art exhibits and currently oversees a corporate art commissioning programme dedicated to supporting emerging local artists.
Community-focused art spaces dedicated to nurturing local and emerging artists are central to her practice. As a testament to this commitment, Na’ama co-founded naka collective in 2021, a curatorial collective geared towards supporting emerging local artists in alternative exhibition settings. Additionally, in 2022, she co-initiated Garden Creative, an arts collective aimed at fostering collaboration and support through creative actions.
Na’ama Freeman. Photo by May Truong
Erin Szikora is a curator and beadwork artist. Born and raised in Guelph and currently based in Toronto, she holds a BA in Art History and Visual Studies from the University of Toronto and an MA in Contemporary Art, Design, and New Media Art Histories from OCAD University. She has held curatorial and research positions at the Art Gallery of Guelph, the University of Toronto, OCAD University, McMaster Museum of Art, Brock University, and The Robert McLaughlin Gallery. In 2024, she joined the Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough as Interim Curator.
Erin's curatorial practice is rooted in a deep belief that art can change the world. Often working with emerging artists, she is interested in projects that deconstruct assumed authority and hierarchies, carving space for the building of new, more just futures. Her work follows an ethos of care and places relationship and community-building in its core.
Erin Szikora
