Utopian Aesthetic: Jason Lujan in Conversation with Rachel Deiterding

Date: March 14, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Fee: Free! Registration Required

Join artist Jason Lujan in conversation with Rachel Deiterding, Curator at the MacLaren Art Centre, as they discuss Lujan’s touring exhibition Utopian Aesthetic. This interactive conversation invites audience members to gather in the space and take a closer look at the details of the exhibition and Lujan’s creative practice. Lujan will share the story behind the exhibition and the ways it seeks to be in dialogue with institutional spaces, while also delving into the many ways that his practice encourages viewers to be open to other ways of looking, especially when uncovering the nuances of how different cultures approach each other as a result of travel and communication.

Jason Lujan: Utopian Aesthetic is curated by Darryn Doull and circulated by the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery.

Jason Lujan is originally from Marfa, Texas, and lives in Toronto, ON. As an artist, he creates tools for understanding and interpreting the processes by which different cultures approach each other because of travel and communication. Largely integrating visual components of commercial and political design rooted in Asia and North America, the work focuses on the possibilities and limitations of the exchanging of ideas, meanings, and values, and questions the concepts of authorship and authenticity.

Lujan is an Assistant Professor at OCAD U and one of two artists behind Native Art Department International (NADI), a project in collaboration with Maria Hupfield. His work has exhibited at the University of Toronto Art Museum (ON), MOCA Toronto (ON), Mercer Union (ON), Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares (CDMX), Art Mur (QB), Museum of Contemporary Native Art (NM) , Five Myles Gallery (NY), Art Gallery of Guelph (ON), and the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum (FL). Professionally, Lujan has contributed to, planned, and managed exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Dia Art Foundation, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Park Avenue Armory. He is represented by MKG127 in Toronto.