Coldest Winter / Sweetest Spring

Curated by: Lesia Miga

Project Space

OPENING

Coldest Winter / Sweetest Spring references popular culture, personal archives, divinatory practices and board games as a method of seeking wonder amidst boredom. Piecing together fragmented narratives of life, loss, love, Ocampo passes time by daydreaming beyond ordinary moments and alluding to nostalgic sensibilities. Set against a tonal backdrop of the changing of seasons, this body of work reflects on how the lessons of turbulent and/or mundane adolescence never cease to be relevant. They mirror lifelong insecurities, challenges, and doubt - but also processes of healing and growth.

Philip Leonard Ocampo (b.1995) is an artist and arts facilitator based in Tkaronto, Canada. Ocampo’s multidisciplinary practice involves painting, sculpture, writing and curatorial projects. Exploring worldbuilding, radical hope and speculative futures, Ocampo’s work embodies a curious cross between magic wonder and the nostalgic imaginary. Following the tangents, histories and canons of popular culture, Ocampo is interested in how unearthing cultural zeitgeists of past / current times may therefore serve as catalysts for broader conversations about lived experiences; personal, collective, diasporic, etc.

He holds a BFA in Integrated Media (DPXA) from OCAD University (2018) and is currently a Programming Coordinator at Xpace Cultural Centre and one of the four founding co-directors of Hearth, an artist-run collective based in the city.