Marvin Luvualu Antonio’s studio is a large, sunlit space off Toronto’s busy (and busily changing) Dupont Street. He shares the space with his partner, and two particularly pretty cats. There are stacks of books, plants, cinderblocks and odd bits and pieces scattered around: some neon-orange mesh construction fencing, pictures taped on walls, bits of foam and plastic.
The studio array is bit like Antonio’s work itself, which often brings disparate materials and pieces together into large installations. (Take his recent exhibition at Clint Roenisch Gallery, which saw the space fenced off and filled with sand and other work.)
“My studio functions as an incubator, but it doesn’t always function as the space that is the most conducive to the stuff that I want to make,” says Antonio, noting that large-scale portions of his installations have to be fabricated in different spots.
It has been a busy year for the artist, who was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and studied at OCAD University. After clinching the 2013–14 Aimia | AGO Photography Prize Scholarship, he’s gone on to have showings at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Gallery 44 in Toronto, Jr. Projects in Toronto, Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa, and CK2 Gallery in Montreal.
Get a look at his process with this studio-visit video by Karly McCloskey.
