Tom Thomson Shack Artist Residency: Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka
June – October 27, 2024
About the Exhibition
For the month of June, the McMichael will welcome Toronto-based artist Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka to the Tom Thomson Shack for an artist residency. During the residency, Hatanaka will use the shack where Thomson painted some of his most beloved canvases as her studio space, creating a new large-scale work that will remain on view until mid-October.
Hatanaka’s practice incorporates historical print and papermaking techniques and engages deeply with slow, land-based materials including natural dyes and washi, a Japanese paper made by hand using fibers from the inner bark of trees and shrubs.
The artist invites visitors to drop-in and learn more about her work in the Thomson Shack from 1 to 2pm, Thursdays and Fridays in June.
*** Please note that the Thomson Shack will be closed from October 12-14.***
About the Exhibition
In June 2024, Toronto-based artist Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka (b. 1988) undertook an artist residency in the historic Tom Thomson Shack at the McMichael. The resulting project, Final Gasp of the Nervous System, responds to the natural environment and evokes personal and collective resilience in response to mental health struggles and the looming climate crisis. Using traditional Japanese washi paper and other handmade paper from southeast Asia, Hatanaka’s works combine various printmaking, dyeing, and painting techniques.
Displayed on the left is the linocut assemblage Faultlines and Loneliness (2024) a work that contrasts imagery of the landscape with a line that traces the increased use of the word “loneliness” in publications over time. In Aftershocks (2024), displayed at the centre, gyotaku (traditional Japanese fish prints) are sewn together with linoprints of rolling landscapes, ink brush paintings, and traditional paper. On display at right is a lino block print matrix used by Hatanaka in the printmaking process.
The Thomson Shack will be open to the public on Friday, October 11 and Friday, October 18 from 12 to 3 pm, please stay tuned to our website for further updates about the viewing schedule.
About Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka
Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka is a Japanese-Canadian, queer and disabled artist based in Toronto, an identity that sculpts her practice. Hatanaka draws from her training in print and papermaking techniques, connecting to her intentional use of historical land-based materials and processes. Her adaptations of traditions, in the form of large-scale print installations and wearable sculptures, address contemporary questions of climate change, mental health, and survival. Recurring motifs related to landscape, fish, and bodies of water together speak about personal and collective experiences of struggle and resilience.
Hatanaka’s practice is informed by her experience-based research and collaboration, including long term community-engaged projects in the high Arctic, and performances that integrate and reinterpret kamiko, garments sewn out of washi, Japanese paper.
Hatanaka has exhibited her work at the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, CA), Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, CA), The British Museum (London, UK), Toronto Biennial of Art (Toronto, CA) the Guanlan International Printmaking Base (Shenzhen, China), Nikkei National Museum (Burnaby, CA), Ino Cho Paper Museum (Kochi, Japan), and Harper’s (New York, USA).
IG: @alexahatanaka
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