Mind and Body – November Vernissage

Come join us for an evening of art and celebration!  Friday November 6th, 6:30-8:30pm at the Ottawa Trans Library.  Featuring the artwork of:
Maddie Alexander:
Maddie Alexander (They/He) is a trans artist, archivist, and arts worker based in Halifax, NS. He holds a BFA from OCAD University (2016), and an MFA from NSCAD University (2020), where they received The Reznick Family Fund for Student Creativity. Their work has been exhibited locally and internationally, with participation in residencies such as CSAV– Artists’ Research Laboratory at Fondazione Antonio Ratti (Como, Italy), and Haystack Open Studio Residency (Maine, USA). He was a 2025 AGO x RBC Emerging Artist-Researcher, as well as an Artist in Residence at the SPAO Photographic Arts Centre. His practice has been supported by Arts Nova Scotia, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
His artistic practice explores lived queer and trans experiences through an autoethnographic approach, blending archival materials and personal records. Their research based projects centre themes of desire, failure, care and dissonance and are often site responsive and rooted in community collaboration. While his work reflects contemporary concerns, it frequently draws on the visual and cultural histories of 1980s and ‘90s queer activist aesthetics, primarily the DIY print and installation practices of that era. Blending analogue and digital processes is a reflection on the fluid and layered nature of their trans experience, coming together to construct something that feels real and whole.
His current work uses sunprinting and video documentation as a medium to explore his research into the historic and ongoing barriers trans folks face in accessing care. They feel a deep kinship between the chemical, time-based nature of sunprinting and the process of HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy)— both requiring patience, faith, and a sense of magic. Through this, they see their work as an act of reclamation: of narrative, of agency, and of time itself. Using medical ephemera and documentation, this work is deeply informed by their own experiences accessing care as a trans person.
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Kay Nordman:
Artists Statement – The piece explores how it feels to exist in a marginalized body, particularly a trans and queer body, where I feel simultaneously either fetishized or discriminated against because of the body I occupy. Placing the figure in such an intimate way reflects the vulnerability that comes from being marginalized.
As for a personal artists statement – I’m Kay Nordman (they/them), a Fine Arts student studying Drawing and Painting at OCAD University in downtown Toronto. I enjoy making art that intersects gender and sexuality theory with the body and our contemporary/digital age.
Wake Darrah Cook-Kero:
Wake Darrah Cook-Kero (he/they/hir) is a neurodiverse transmasc comic illustrator, writer, and character/creature designer. His family occupies the unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people in New Brunswick, and he is a settler on the unceded territories of thexwməθkwəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. He earned a BFA at Emily Carr University of Art & Design in 2020 and a diploma of Youth Justice at Douglas College in 2026. His comics and illustrations centre the beauty of the trans body, the connection between the visually monstrous and the socially marginalized through fictional graphic narrative, and hot babes with swords. Through Wildstar Press, Wake has published the body-horror comic Iris and was featured in the pirate-themed anthology Songs of the Sea. Other projects T4T: A Transmasc Zine, Cryptid Crew, and Sex Ed for Trans Men created alongside his husband, River Huckleberry Kero. Their current project is Starstruck, a queer romantic sci-fi graphic novel, and Wake’s latest exhibition was at the Vancouver Outsider Art Festival 2025.
Arthur Alves: I make art about my everyday experiences and trans existence. I love to include as many details as I can and I love to capture moments and dreams and fantasies that would otherwise be passed by
Sameena Anis:  Sam is a Queer, Brown and Disabled artist. They use many mediums, such as illustration,
comics, printmaking, fabric and textiles, ceramics, resin and other sculptural work, and digital
such as film and animation. They love playing with colors, characters and conceptual visuals to
share stories.
I am a South Asian, queer, disabled, new generation, multi-disciplinary artist, working in craft
(textiles—embroidery, rug making, weaving, ceramics and paper) and visual arts (drawing,
painting, printmaking, zines and comics).
Born in India, I moved to the UAE, and immigrated to Canada in 2014. I found it isolating, lonely,
and had difficulty making friends, these are the themes I explore in my art—not belonging here
or anywhere. I express this through visual characters and fiction storytelling, using imagery of
loss and loneliness and colours to express moods. I embrace each medium in the craft,
usability, and storytelling, e.g. in ceramics, I embed stories visually while making it functional.
As a low-income artist I find affordable materials such as fabric from thrift stores and free
community-based supplies. That is how I got into zine culture (small, independently published
books); where the focus is affordable, DIY art for the community, and include experimental craft,
e.g. pins and embroidery patches. I enjoy combining mediums as I find multidisciplinary art to be
more expressive and unique.I am inspired by zine culture to apply a sense of community and
reusability in craft. I continue to make art as a form of therapy and using storytelling I can
address my loneliness, struggles with relationships, and isolation.
I seek to continue experimenting and developing my skills in various craft mediums so I am able
to express myself more authentically and find community through my characters and worlds…