Vladimir Kanic is the creator of living algae sculptures that use spectators’ breath as food and convert it into oxygen while mitigating the effects of global climate crisis. His world-building practice imagines the living sculptures as beacons of decarbonized future, where social and climate justice are collaborative public acts as essential as breathing. Solving climate change includes addressing systemic environmental racism, as race and ethnicity continue to be a source of exploitation and abuse at the core of climate injustice. By placing living algae sculptures in polluted urban areas, the effects of climate change impacting marginalized communities could be scaled down.
Kanic’s art practice is informed by his maritime heritage and free diving experience. He uses diving and breathing to access his cultural, ancestral, and personal worlds while exploring memories of the Earth’s geological time deposited within the bodies of living algae. As Earth’s principal carbon sinks, algae produce approximatively 60% of planetary oxygen while consuming gasses produced by burning of Earth’s geological layers, coal, oil and gas.
The artist’s collaboration with living algae, as both an artistic medium and a carbon capture mechanism, embodies a commitment to “cultivating responsibility that feels for both the human and the non-human” (Haraway 2016). It is a call for a symbiotic future, one that reconsiders our place within the Anthropocene and the potential of interspecies collaboration to enhance our artistic practices and deepen our understanding of humanity.
Kanic graduated OCAD University as the Governor General’s Academic Medal and Sir Edmund Walker Award recipient along with the Sustainability Innovation Award, CIBC Fine Arts Award, MITACS Business Strategy Award, Newcomer Arts Award, RBC Emerging Artist Award, and InterAccess Media Prize. His living sculptures have been exhibited throughout Canada and featured on TEDx talk platform. He is currently completing his MFA in Visual Arts at York University.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
March, 2025 Abbozzo Gallery, Toronto. Landscapes of Breath and Hope (upcoming solo exhibition), curated by Ineke Zigrossi. Exhibiting new bioart work and living algae sculptures.
May 26-31, 2024 SP Gallery, Goldfarb Centre for the Arts, Toronto. Points of Soft Resistance (dual exhibition with my late grandmother Eve Golubic). Mixed-Media Sculptural Installation (Kanic); Textiles (Golubic).
April 11, 2024. Globe and Mail Building, Toronto. Night of Ideas, Fault Lines (group exhibition), artist, curated by Nataly de Monte, showcasing activist artists and speakers for Democracy Exchange summit audience. Living algae sculpture.
Nov 17-Jan 2024. Abbozzo Gallery, Toronto. Abbozzo Gallery 30th Anniversary (group exhibition), artist, curated by Ineke Zigrossi. Selection of living sculptures. https://tinyurl.com/2p92zcas
Dec 27-29, 2023. Aga Khan Museum, Toronto. Light up the Dark (group exhibition), curated by Sasha Priewe, commissioned by the museum. Exhibited an experimental animation made from algae filmstock acting as a carbon sink, projected on the museum’s front facade.
Nov 11, 2023 TEDx SFU, Vancouver. The Art of Breathing (solo exhibition), artist, curated by Paul Falkowski, Centre for Performing Arts, Vancouver. Exhibiting sculpture Book of Waves pt200 in addition to a keynote talk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0LD71L59_M
Sept 13, 2023 Clarke Centre for the Arts, Scarborough. Emergence Symposium (solo exhibition), artist, curated by Toronto Arts Foundation. Exhibition and panel speaker.
Jul 7-Aug 12, 2023. Abbozzo Gallery, Toronto. Garden of Waves (solo exhibition), curated by Quincy Shaw and Blake Zigrossi. Selection of seven living algae sculptures.
April 21-May 19, 2023 Industrial Arts Markham. Breath of Origin (dual exhibition), artist, curated by Yuluo Anita Wei. Selection of three living sculptures.
April 13-16, 2023 Artist Project Toronto. Living Algae Sculptures (group exhibition), curated by Emma Friend, commissioned by the Artist Project TO. Selection of four living sculptures.
Jan-Feb 2023 InterAccess Gallery, Toronto. Garden of Waves (solo exhibition), curated by Evangeline Brooks. Selection of nine living sculptures.
Oct 1, 2022 Nuit Blanche Toronto. Living Algae Sculpture (group exhibition), curated by Julie Nagam and commissioned by the City of Toronto. Exhibited one living sculpture at Humber Lakeshore Campus.
Aug 18–19, 2022 Collison Gallery, Toronto. HiveMind (group exhibition), artist. Exhibited one living sculpture.
July 14-17, 2022 Hamptons Fine Art Fair, US. Abbozzo Gallery Booth (group exhibition), artist, curated by Ineke Zigrossi and Abbozzo Gallery. Exhibited one living sculpture.
June 25-30, 2022 502 Bad Gateway (group exhibition), artist, curated by Alice Huang, 915 Dupont Street, Toronto. Exhibited one living sculpture.
Nov 2021-May 2022 Abbozzo Gallery, Toronto. Book of Waves (solo exhibition), curated by Ineke Zigrossi. Selection of seven living sculptures.
Aug 12-Sept 4, 2021 Abbozzo Gallery, Toronto. Fresh Voices (group exhibition), curated by Blake Zigrossi. Exhibited an interactive video installation Mirror Without Organs.
Oct 28, 2020 Big Art Toronto (group exhibition), artist, curated by the City of Toronto, Stephen Leacock Community Centre. 2500 Birchmount Rd, Scarborough. Projection mapping on the building.
April-Dec, 2020 EyeCANdy (touring group exhibition), artist animator, curated by Chris Robinson and Ottawa International Animation Film Festival. Worldwide. Experimental animation Only Lovers Leave to Die.
AWARDS & HONOURS
2024: CSA Group Research Award
2024: Canada Research Council Award (SSHRC)
2024: Enbridge Sustainability Award
2024: York Sustainability Innovation Award
2023: CIBC Fine Arts Award
2023: Arts Across Canada, Canada Council for the Arts
2023: Governor General’s Award / Silver Academic Medal
2023: Toronto Arts Foundation Newcomer Arts Award
2023: Sir Edmund Walker Award
2023: CEAD Career Launcher Award, OCAD University
2022: The Power Plant Gallery Emerging Artists Network Alumnus
2022: Nuit Blanche Independent Project Commission, City of Toronto
2022: InterAccess Media Prize
2022: Mitacs Business Strategy Award, MITACS, Toronto
2022: Integrated Media Faculty Award, OCAD University
2021: Poggetto Award for Best Academic Achievement, OCAD University
2021: CRSC Student Award for Canadian Colour Research, CRSC
TALKS/CONFERENCES
June 17-20, 2024 Collison Conference, Living Algae Sculptures as Sustainable Cleantech, artist and entrepreneur, curated by Web Summit, Enercare Centre Toronto.
Apr 11, 2024 Democracy Xchange Summit, Emerging Leaders Driving Impactful Policy and Community Change, Panel Speaker, curated by OCAD University.
Nov 11, 2023 TEDx SFU; Centre for Performing Arts, 777 Homer Street Vancouver, Unmasking the Art of Breathing; Keynote Speaker.
Sept 13, 2023 Emergence Symposium: Art & Equity Leading Social Change; Clarke Centre for the Arts, 191 Guildwood Pkwy, Scarborough, Harmonizing Art and Climate Action: Illuminating Pathways to a Sustainable Future; Panel Speaker and Exhibition.
June 9, 2023 OCAD University Convocation, Valedictorian Keynote Speaker, Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto.
Feb 21, 2023 Night of Ideas; OCAD University, El Mocambo, 464 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Mitigating Climate Change with Living Algae Sculptures; Guest Speaker.
Jan 28, 2023 Garden of Waves; InterAccess, 950 Dupont St, Toronto, Mitigating Climate Change with Living Algae Sculptures; Artist Talk.
May 4, 2022 The Art We Want: Democratizing Public Art; Humber College, Toronto, Redefining Public Art in Toronto. Guest Speaker.
March 6, 2022 Reinventing Environmentalism; University of Toronto, Living Algae Sculptures – Intersection of Art and Environmentalism. Keynote Speaker and Artist Talk.
