Nov 9 | Panel Discussion
Sunday, November 9, 2025
2 to 4 PM
Free | In-person | Registration not required
About the Program
This fall, across two exhibitions, the Varley Art Gallery delves into the complex relationships artists forge with the natural world. Presenting diverse perspectives, join exhibiting artists Kejie Lin, Stanzie Tooth, and Jess Riva Cooper, alongside curators Yuluo Wei and Anik Glaude, for an insightful and engaging discussion.
About Kejie Lin
Kejie Lin 林可婕 (Richmond Hill, ON) is a first-generation Chinese artist. Her paintings use traditional Chinese painting materials as medium, with a focus on the meticulous technique of traditional Chinese gongbi painting, featuring floral, birds and landscape themes as the main subjects. With 20 years of experience as a landscape designer and an experienced landscape photographer, Kejie has accumulated a wealth of materials for her artwork and draws inspiration from her photographs. Kejie constantly explores and practices new forms of artistic expressions and painting techniques based on the foundation of traditional Chinese gongbi (工笔) painting. Kejie expresses her thoughts, emotions, and reflections on reality in her works, forming her unique artistic style.
About Jess Riva Cooper
Jess Riva Cooper is a Toronto-based multi-media artist whose work integrates clay, drawing, and other materials to create intricate sculptures and installation-based artworks. Her pieces often explore themes of mythology, nature, and transformation, blending human and botanical imagery in ways that evoke vulnerability and resilience. In her sculptures, nature reclaims space, with plant forms sprouting, creeping over structures, and creating preternatural transformations that subvert order and invite chaos.
Cooper holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) and a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Her artistic practice is shaped by residencies at Medalta, The Archie Bray Foundation, and the Kohler Arts/Industry Program, among others. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto and the Cynthia Corbett Gallery in London. Through her sculptures, Cooper addresses ecological concerns and cultural storytelling, encouraging reflection on the interconnectedness of life, decay, and renewal.
About Stanzie Tooth
Stanzie Tooth‘s paintings are deeply intertwined with the forests of southern Ontario, where she spent her formative years. Her accumulated bodies of work draw inspiration from the rich tapestry of art history yet strive to capture a narrative that resonates with a more bodily and intersectional experience.
Tooth earned her BFA from OCAD University and obtained an MFA with distinction from the University of Ottawa. In 2015, she was honoured with the Joseph Plaskett Award for Painting, facilitating her residencies in Berlin, Iceland, Greece, and Italy. Tooth’s contributions have been recognized by Canadian Art Magazine, The Toronto Star, and Now Magazine. Her paintings are included in private and corporate collections, such as The Royal Bank, Toronto Dominion Bank, A.T. Tolley Collection, Equitable Bank, Google Collection, the City of Ottawa, and St. Michael’s Hospital. Tooth is based in Toronto, Canada.
About Yuluo Wei
Yuluo Wei 韦雨落 moved to Toronto with an economics and business background and graduated from the Curatorial Studies master’s program at the University of Toronto. Wei believes art is a transformative medium central to human connection and belonging. As a Chinese woman determined to become an art curator, she is cognizant of cultural sensitivities and strives to refine and reflect on the influential nature of her role in exhibition and programming making. In her research, Wei is interested in overlooked narratives embedded within myths, imaginaries, and ideologies in a cross-cultural context, with a particular focus on the Asian diaspora. Her recent independent curatorial projects include thesis project If a Turtle Could Talk (Art Museum at the University of Toronto, 2020), One through the Other (San Sheng Art Space, 2022), Breath of Origin (Industrial Arts, 2023), and Kejie Lin: The Mind’s Garden (Newcastle Contemporary Art, 2023).
About Anik Glaude
Anik Glaude is an eleventh-generation settler of Franco-Ontarian ancestry. As curator at the Varley Art Gallery of Markham, she oversees the gallery’s exhibitions, collections, and publishing. Some of her curatorial work includes group exhibitions like To go boldly (2024), Refracting the Lens (2023), Refuge (2018), and Mother Tongue (2017). Additionally, she has curated solo exhibitions with Karen Tam, Luke Parnell, Jon Sasaki, Xiaojing Yan, and Brendan Fernandes, among others. She is the recipient of several awards from Galleries Ontario Galleries (formerly Ontario Association of Art Galleries), notably for her innovative works in collections-based exhibitions, including Field Notes (2023) and Moving Through Darkness into the Clearing with works by Greg Staats (2019).
