In each issue, Broken Pencil asks an artist to curate Folio — a section highlighting creators working in unexpected media and materials.
This Folio is curated by Komi Olaf
“The greatest fear in the world is of the opinions of others. And the moment you are unafraid of the crowd you are no longer a sheep, you become a lion. A great roar arises in your heart, the roar of freedom.” – Osho
When selecting the artists to be featured in this section of the magazine, I was compelled to search for artists that work with unconventional materials. I have observed that when artists are unafraid to go deeper into the exploration of the physicality of their chosen medium, they begin to create original breathtaking work grounded in their intuition.
Photo: Creations of LA
Apanaki Temitayo M
Born in Toronto and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, Apanaki Temitayo M is an author, spoken word poet, actor, multimedia artist and teacher. As part of Workman Arts Art-Cart Program at CAMH, she teaches art to participants with mental health and drug addiction. She has had pieces featured at Workman Arts, Being Scene 16th Annual Juried Exhibition 2017 at the Gladstone Hotel, The Rendezvous With Madness Film Festival, and at Workman Arts for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, 2015. She made her international debut at the North Charleston Cultural Arts Department, 9th Annual African American Fiber Art Exhibition: Maya Angelou, with her original artwork, Mama’s Watching in South Carolina, and her New York debut at The Amazing Nina Simone Documentary Film by Jeff Lieberman, with her piece Nina Simone Fragmented. She honored to be the first woman of color to be in the Room Magazine: Woman of Color Issue for 2016.
More at www.apanaki-temitayo-m.pixels.com.
Oluseye
Informed by Yoruba mythology and the geometric form, Oluseye fuses the human, the sculptural, and the traditional in his search for the archetypal balance between the spiritual and physical self. Combining acrylic, charcoal, pastel and steel wire, he embarks on an intersectional exploration of Black male identity, existentialism, sexuality and outsider cultures.
More at www.olu-seye.com.
Chaka Chikodzi
Chaka Chikodzi is an Ontario-based stone sculptor originally from Zimbabwe. He learned the stone sculpting tradition at the age of 13 under the tutelage of an older brother. Chaka describes his art practice as “a survival technique and a form of translation,” citing Black experience as central to his expression. As an arts educator and activist, Chaka has developed annual youth immersive arts’ programming that has received support from the Ontario Arts Council for seven consecutive years. Run under the banner “Out of the City,” the program is a five-day intensive camp for new Canadian and immigrant youth that fosters cross-cultural exchange and encourages young people to build relationships through interdisciplinary arts exercises, centred around stone sculpting. In 2015, Chaka completed an international residency with Voti Thebe, regional director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, where he explored Indigenous concepts of time and space in a globalised, postcolonial world.
More at www.chakachikodzi.com.
