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Juliana Pivato

Message to Japan

My thoughts have been with the people of Japan in this time of deep sorrow.  I wish you courage and strength, recovery and renewal.

Artist information

Juliana Pivato is an artist and performer living in Toronto. She completed her MFA in Sculpture at School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BFA in Studio Arts at Concordia University in Montreal. Juliana has had solo exhibitions at Division Gallery in Montreal, at the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie Ontario and has been featured in numerous group exhibitions in Canada, the United States and Italy. This fall she will be teaching at OCAD University in Toronto.


Jérôme Havre

Message to Japan

It is with great sorrow and concern that I became aware of the events that took place in Japan. I was worried for my friends and their families. These tragedies have a strong impact on us all. I have a feeling of solidarity in this time of grief and reconstruction.

Today, the opportunity is given to offer my support in the most humble manner. I hope that this art cooperation will help alleviate your pain.

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C’est avec beaucoup de peine et d’inquiétude que j’ai pris connaissance des événements qui sont arrivés au Japon. J’ai craints pour mes amis et pour leur famille. Ces tragédies ont eu un impact fort sur chacun de nous. Je me sens solidaire en cette période de deuil et de reconstruction.

Aujourd’hui, l’occasion m’est donné d’offrir mon soutien de manière la plus humble possible. J’ose espérer que cet évènement artistique participera à atténuer votre douleur.

Artist information

Jérôme HAVRE is French artist based between Canada and Germany. He completed his studies at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. During his time at the School of Fine Arts he was awarded three scholarships that enabled him to pursue different art practices: silk printing techniques in New York (Cooper Union), printing techniques in Barcelona (Bellas Artes) and painting and video in Berlin (Universität der Künste Berlin – HDK) in the workshop of Marwan Kassab Bashi.

His work interrogates issues of identity, territory and community through the representation of nature. That is, the manner in which it is presented and yet can be more readily perceived through our cultural filters. According to him, “nature is deliberately altered in order to deceive us and keep order.”

He develops in his creation reflexive spaces through immersive processes. He looks for ways to do this through presentation, creation of situations, or setting the stage with his sculptures and extending it to the public who take part “in the show.”

He is inspired by the production of dioramas of natural history museums and zoos and reappropriates the method in his artistic work. He presents “a second nature” which encourages a careful reading.

To design these “shelters,” Jerome HAVRE uses textiles, sculpture, digital prints, photographic images, murals, sound recording, and videos to create scenographic installations.

For him, the use of a technological process is not only to accomplish a specific task, but a necessary form of expression itself.

Since 2001 Jérôme HAVRE has exhibited his works in Europe, Africa and North America. He is represented by the gallery Donald BROWNE in Montréal.


Fiona Smyth

Message to Japan

Love and Strength to you, land of Tanuki, Hanami, and Manga! I was lucky to travel to Tokyo and Kyoto in 2005 through an Ontario Arts Council grant and can’t wait to return one day. Your artistic influence is still with me every day, thank you.

Artist information

Toronto artist Fiona Smyth has exhibited across North America, and in France, Venice, Korea, and Taiwan. Her art practices include drawing, painting, animation, comics, and zines. Her first graphic novel The Never Weres was published by Annick Press in 2011 and she illustrated Cory Silverberg’s picture book What Makes A Baby in 2012. Fiona teaches cartooning and illustration at OCADU.

Official Website: Fiona Smyth