GAS Collective
Curator-in-Residence
April – September, 2026
Material Conversations
Natural paint-making
with Michelle Peraza
Saturday, April 25, 2026*
Risograph Printing
with Howsem Huang
Thursday, May 21, 2026
Paper-making
with Masumi Rodriguez and Elena Kirby
Thursday, June 25, 2026
Material Conversations
Material Conversations is a curatorial research project that explores materials as a shared ground for knowledge exchange and alternative models of collaboration among curators, artists, art businesses, and communities. The project is conducted by GAS Collective (Steffi Sin Tung Ng and Gizem Candan) and builds on their ongoing interests in sustainable curatorial cycles and material recirculation.
Taking the material research and process-based practices of four artists–Michelle Peraza, Elena Kirby and Masumi Rodriguez, and Howsem Huang–as an entry point, GAS will develop a publication that inquires into how these knowledges can be put into tangible conversations and transformed into exhibition-making strategies for curators as well as creative solutions for other arts practitioners and a wider community use.
GAS considers curating as a collaborative action in which the curator is an active contributor in exhibition-making, creating a space for mutual learning, support, and growth both for the artists and the public. Artists’ material knowledges serves as the nexus to explore curators’ role in materials and materiality. Why should curators care? How can they learn from artists and mobilize their artistic and technical material strategies to exhibition design? What (new) material kinships might emerge between curators and artists?
Material Conversations aims to move beyond the traditional, one-off model of collaboration between artists and curators towards a more reciprocal and sustainable ecosystem. This research hopes to serve as a shared resource that inspires a more circular framework for collaborative material research that can extend beyond the art world.
PUBLIC PROGRAMMING: CURATORIAL WORKSHOP
Due to limited venue capacity, please use the RSVP link for each workshop to express interest. Confirmed attendees will be notified 10 days before the event. If you receive an invitation, please confirm your attendance within 48 hours to secure your spot.
Natural paint-making with Michelle Peraza
Date: Saturday, April 25, 2026 * To be confirmed
Location: To be announced
Time: To be announced (Afternoon, 2-3 hours)
RSVP: Registration opens April 1, 2026
In this workshop, Michelle Peraza will demonstrate her gouache-making practice using ashes. We will explore how to translate natural paint into sustainable vinyl or other exhibition-making strategies. Paint samples will be given to each participant to try the colour on paper.
Facilitator Bio
Michelle Peraza is a visual artist of Cuban and Costa Rican descent. She holds a BA from Western University; BFA from OCAD University; and MFA from York University. Peraza has completed residencies at Mauser EcoHouse (Costa Rica), Vermont Studio Centre (United States), Arquetopia (Mexico), Art Gallery of Ontario (Canada), Sustainable Colour Lab Summer Institute at OCAD University (Canada), and Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts (Mnisiing/Toronto Islands Canada). She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards and has exhibited in public and artist-run galleries including Maison de la Culture Claude-Léveillée, Niagara Artists Centre, Cambridge Art Galleries, Sur Gallery, TAP Centre for Creativity, Guelph Civic Museum and upcoming at Tom Thomson Gallery and Neutral Ground. She teaches in the Faculty of Art at OCAD University and works and lives in Toronto/Tkaronto.
Risograph Printing with Howsem Huang
Date: Thursday, May 21, 2026
Location: To be announced
Time: To be announced (Evening, 2-3 hours).
RSVP: Registration opens April 1, 2026
Howsem Huang will facilitate a Risograph printing workshop centred on zine-making and collaging. Participants will have the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of the Risograph and how this knowledge can be applied to curatorial practice, from the making of exhibition brochures and other marketing materials to exploring new ways of printing with artists and photographers.
Facilitator Bio
Howsem Huang is a Toronto-based graphic designer and multidisciplinary artist. He holds a Master of Design degree from Emily Carr University in Vancouver and BFA degrees in graphic design and photography from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. His primary practices include publication design, publishing, and Risography. He previously worked as a design fellow at Chronicle Books, where he has designed books such as Young Queer America, Living While Black, and LEGO In Focus. As a self-publishing artist, he explores his Cantonese-Chinese identity and experiences as a Chinese émigré through artist’s books and zines. His works have been showcased in the Boston University Art Galleries, IS A GALLERY, and SF Camerawork.
Paper-making by using invasive plants with Masumi Rodriguez and Elena Kirby
Date: Thursday, June 25, 2026
Location: To be announced
Time: To be announced (Evening, 2-3 hours)
RSVP: Registration opens April 1, 2026
Masumi Rodriguez and Elena Kirby will share their knowledge of using invasive plants to make paper. They will discuss the inner workings of their papermaking processes, and explore the possibility of incorporating handmade paper into curatorial strategies. Participants will have the opportunity to create their own paper to take home.
Facilitator Bio
Masumi Rodriguez and Elena Kirby are an artist-duo living and working between Tiohtià:ke/Montréal and Tkaronto/Toronto. Their ongoing project, Touch Me Don’t Forget Me, is a shared research practice involving material making and fibre processing of “invasive” plant species, specifically the dog-strangling-vine and the relationships connected with these plants. Their PAPER LABS series is a recurring aspect of their collaboration where they seek to start conversation across disciplines with the public. PAPER LABS invites exchange between artists, ecologists, community-organizers, field technicians, designers, and scholars to speak about “invasivity” and socio-political relationships to more-than-human environments while processing dog-strangling vine plant fibres.
CURATOR BIO’S
GAS Collective is a curatorial collective formed in 2024 by Gizem Candan, Ann Tong Li and Steffi Sin Tung Ng. Taking the initials of their names, the members came together during their MFA studies in the Criticism and Curatorial Practice program at OCAD University, connected by their identity as women of colour working in the arts. The Collective’s fields of interests include collaborative ways of knowledge-sharing, diasporic relations, circular curatorial models, and ecological balance and tension.
Their work has been exhibited at Xpace Cultural Centre (2024), and they have recently received Onsite Gallery’s Delaney Family Emerging Curator’s Prize (2026). Their exhibition Metabolic Loop is presented at Onsite Gallery from January – May 2026.
Li has since relocated to China and will not be part of this project. The residency will be carried out by Candan and Ng, who are actively developing a collaborative practice and research together in Canada.
Sin Tung Ng (Steffi) explores the complexities within Asian immigration experiences through curation and photography. Interweaving both artistic mediums, Ng seeks to develop site-specific curatorial projects and installations to make space for joyful encounters across diverse cultures. Her recent interests include investigating relationships with long-distance families and friends through archival materials and AI image-making. Steffi’s curatorial and artistic work has been exhibited at DesignTO, Xpace Cultural Centre, Mckay Art Centre, Unit 270 and the Graduate Gallery. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Ng is currently based in Tkaronto.
Gizem Candan is a curator and visual artist based in Montréal/Tiohtià:ke, with a focus on interdisciplinary practices, invasive plants, earth pigments and sustainability. Her curatorial and artistic practice delves into the tensions and interactions between humans and their surroundings in the ecological crisis, envisioning a reimagined harmony based on identity, culture and individual experiences.
Candan has exhibited internationally at spaces such as London Design Festival, London, UK; Articule, Montréal; Sivarulrasa Gallery, Almonte; TD Gallery at Toronto Reference Library; Elgiz Museum; Pera Museum; Akbank Sanat, Istanbul; Arkas Art Center, Izmir; and Cermodern, Ankara. Candan has also curated exhibitions at Ignite Gallery; Xpace Cultural Centre; and Onsite Gallery, Toronto.