Taryn Walker & Nicholas Hertz

This audio is from our virtual studio visit with artists Taryn Walker and Nicholas Hertz, and was originally recorded on March 29, 2022 over Zoom. About Taryn Taryn Walker is a queer, interdisciplinary Indigenous artist of Nlka'pamux, Syilx, and mixed European ancestry whose work explores concepts of identity, tenderness, healing, cycles of life and death, and the supernatural through drawing, printmaking, installation, and video. In 2018 Walker graduated from the University of Victoria’s BFA program. Taryn is currently an Emerging Artist in Residence at SNAP in Edmonton, AB, and will be exhibiting work at the SNAP Gallery in May 2022. Walker was awarded the Diane Mary Hallam Achievement Award by UVic for academic excellence and commitment to the arts in 2018 and in 2017 they were also longlisted for the Philip B. Lind Emerging Artist Prize, presented by the Presentation House Gallery for demonstrating excellence as an emerging video artist and photographer. Taryn’s artistic practice and research has been presented and supported by spaces, events, and granting streams across Western Canada and beyond. About Nicholas Nicholas Hertz (he/they) is a queer white-settler artist based Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton). Their work and research takes an interdisciplinary approach to exploring the liminal space between shame and desire, where he connects to the objectification of the queer body and the anthropomorphizing of environments. In 2019, they received their Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Alberta, where they were awarded the Livia Stoyke Foundation BFA Best of Show Award. Since then, their work has been featured in many exhibitions both locally and internationally. Currently they are an Emerging Artist in Residence at SNAP, with a solo exhibition slated for May 2022. They are also a participant in the Love Lab residency at the Art Gallery of Mississauga, sponsored by Panasonic. They have previously served on the Board of Directors at SNAP, invigilated with the Art Gallery of Alberta, and taught programs with the Art Gallery of St. Albert.