MA Students

Amitai Heyl

MA GRADUATE STUDENT

Amitai Heyl finished his undergrad at the University of Toronto where he double majored in art history and astrophysics. Amitai’s art historical interests are twentieth-century art, the interwar period, as well as early settlers in Canada. Amitai also completed an internship at Corkin gallery in Toronto which led to a part-time position during his Senior Year, sparking an interest in contemporary Canadian artists as well as historic photography. Amitai’s experience with astrophysics focused on celestial bodies and variable stars.

Amitai’s artistic practice explores humanity and temporal spaces; one of his exhibited works made use of street flyers to represent the passage of time. For this installation he made 60 photocopies of the same flyer and posted them around Toronto.

Amitai's research interests revolve around the twentieth-century transatlantic diaspora, and his most substantial project examined the practice of Armenian photography through a case study of the Armenian photographer, Kazar Sarkis Melikian, who immigrated to Massachusetts in the wake of the Armenian genocide.

Keywords: Photography, Transatlantic diaspora, Early 20th century art.

Bijan Karim

MA GRADUATE STUDENT

Bijan Karim is an independent filmmaker with professional credits as an actor, writer, editor, cinematographer and director. I have experience working both in the film industry and in the independent film community of BC. To date, I have completed three feature films of my own and several shorts. Some of my favourite projects I've worked on are collaborations. I have strong ties to my countries of origin, Iran and Turkey, which I enjoy visiting. Particularly, I am fond of poetry from my region and its influence on cinema.  

As a writer and essayist, I hope to explore broader topics that have to deal with my worldviews and other fields of interest, namely my fascination with asian martial arts which I continue to practice. In the future, I am interested in creating a teaching method based on life lessons I've learned as an artist.

Sally Li

MA GRADUATE STUDENT

Sally Li is a visual artist whose current research focuses on cultural identity, cross-cultural narratives, and contemporary art practices. As a Chinese artist studying abroad, my work is rooted in my personal cultural background; I draw inspiration from Chinese mythology, traditional motifs, historical texts, and family memories, and reinterpret these cultural symbols through ceramics and printmaking. I examine how culture is understood, misinterpreted, or reconstructed during its transmission, translation, and presentation across different regions. In particular, I aim to engage with the cultural imaginaries shaped by Orientalism and the ways in which Chinese culture is represented in international contexts.

My research will center on “Information Asymmetry and Cultural Narratives,” exploring how traditional culture is reinterpreted in the contemporary era and which so-called traditions are, in fact, “Invented Traditions.” At the same time, I am also interested in the complexities of cultural authenticity: how cultural symbols continually acquire new meanings through different perspectives and contexts once they enter the global art and museum systems. Through my artistic practice, I aim to foster cross-cultural understanding and rethink the expression and dissemination of traditional culture in contemporary society.

Keywords: Cross-cultural Narrative, Cultural Identity, Information Asymmetry, Orientalism

online.fliphtml5.com/nltor/Sally-Li---2026

Paniz Mani

MA GRADUATE STUDENT

Paniz Mani is an immigrant emerging artist of Iranian background, living and working on the unceded ancestral lands of the səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples, where the District of North Vancouver is located. Paniz holds a Certificate in Graphic Design and a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Major in Photography from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. She has developed a practice working with photography and media art focusing on archival and multimedia work, especially working with family archives and found footage. Through these techniques, she has approached themes of immigration and identity within Canada’s multicultural landscape.

Research has become an increasingly integral part of Paniz’s practice. Her research examines the powerful role of images in shaping history and identity, with a focus on how global economic forces and Western cultural hegemony interact with Iranian society. In her work Paniz explores the intersection of Iranian media, culture, and gender studies within the context of Western capitalism, globalization, and patriarchy.

Paniz's work has been exhibited in events and galleries including the Capture Photography Festival (Vancouver), Seymour Art Gallery (North Vancouver) and Gallery 881 (Vancouver).

Lindsay Nyman

MA GRADUATE STUDENT

Lindsay Nyman is a documentary filmmaker with a background in theatre. A graduate of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, she began her career developing programs that provide blind and low-vision actors and filmmakers with industry access and infrastructure. Her documentary practice explores women-led narratives, access, and grassroots organizing. Her short documentary They Call Me The Tattoo Witch, screened internationally and qualified for the 98th Academy Awards. Her research examines first-person narrative storytelling across media, with a focus on shifting the ethical storytelling paradigm from filmmaker-led protection toward participant-led agency, equity, and well-being. Alongside her research, she is launching a nonprofit providing funding and resources to support filmmakers around the world in authoring stories from within their own communities to advance gender equity.

Keywords: Documentary Ethics, Participant Agency, First-Person Narrative

leadingwomanfilms.com

María Estrada Piñera

MA GRADUATE STUDENT

María Estrada Piñera is from Mexico City, Mexico. She studied a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Visual Studies with a minor in Film Studies at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Her background brings together cinema, art history, and cultural education, always with a focus on sharing stories and connecting with audiences.

María has experience as a film producer and educator, working on projects such as Hypnos Lullaby in Vancouver and Menarca in Mexico City, where she co-wrote scripts, secured funding, and led production teams through every stage of the process. She has also taught film courses at the Centro Universitario de Integración Humanística in Mexico, covering topics from the French New Wave to Mexican cinema, while collaborating with cultural institutions and museums to create engaging programs and activities for diverse audiences.

Beyond her professional work, María’s interests extend to literature—especially magical realism—as well as theatre and the visual arts. She is passionate about exploring how these different artistic forms intersect and open up new ways of understanding stories, memory, and human experience.

Nicolás Pontón

MA GRADUATE STUDENT

Nicolás Pontón is an Argentinian artist, curator, and educator living and working in Vancouver, BC. He received a Bachelor’s in Visual Arts from the Universidad Nacional de las Artes (UNA) in Buenos Aires and completed the Artists’ Program at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (UTDT).

Across sculpture, drawing, and installation, his work explores the relationships between material processes and the socio-ecological contexts that shape their production and circulation. His practice is informed by an ongoing interest in representation, fiction, and the ways artistic production can operate as a form of collective inquiry.

Nicolás co-founded and co-directs La Copia, a curatorial initiative that engages in experimental collaborative practices and explores expanded notions of authorship.
His current interests focus on heterodoxical approaches to exhibition making, with particular attention to digital mediation, environmental imaginaries, complex system agency and material production.

Keywords: digital mediation, material ontology, algorithmic governance, fragmented temporalities.

www.nicolasponton.com | www.lacopia.com.ar

Kevin Tian

MA GRADUATE STUDENT

Kevin Tian (she/her) is the current working alias of [ Unit:MSC_836 ].

Her designated task: to experience and observe the living conditions of Planet.03 of the local Sol System, in whatever way that most interests her.

During earlier phases, her translocations across this strangely-divided planet and her interest in the history and culture of each location provided valuable data. In particular, her curiosity for the scientific endeavours of the local populace and a certain yearning for cosmic wonder & interstellar travel may suggest a latent awareness of her own origin.

In recent cycles, however, she has taken up practice in a peculiar form of local ritual: a type of low-band electromagnetic wave package delivered as audio-visual experience, referred to as "Cinema". Her initial study focused on the photochemical emulsion & photoelectric sensor variant recording live humxn, tho she has always retained a passion for the tradition of moving illustrations, and the new technology of interactive experience created by humxn-machine computing interface.

Her latest transmission purported an interconnected study of "the eternal magic of the everyday mundane". 

Keywords: cinema, animation, games, the sensibility of analog-era tech, the aesthetics of programming, the history of the mundane, the magic of maths and physics, brewing coffee and making tea

kevintian.carrd.co

Theodore (Xiaochen) Qian

MA GRADUATE STUDENT

Theodore (Xiaochen) Qian is a filmmaker from Shanghai, China, with a BFA in Film from ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles. Working as a director and cinematographer, he is drawn to stories rooted in science fiction, psychological tension, and the surreal quality of dreams. His films often explore inner consciousness and emotional isolation, blurring the lines between the real and the imagined.

He takes inspiration from filmmakers such as Stanley Kubrick, Bi Gan, and Ang Lee, whose works balance technical mastery with deeply human themes. In a similar way, Theodore strives to create visual narratives that are both precise and introspective—using stylized cinematography, carefully constructed soundscapes, and measured pacing to evoke meaning beyond words.

His short films have received multiple awards, including Best Sci-Fi at the Los Angeles Film Awards (LAFA). He has worked with international brands such as Leica, Chery Automobile, and Daniel Wellington (etc.), and is experienced not only in directing and cinematography, but also in lighting and sound. This hands-on versatility allows him to stay closely involved in the creative process, from concept to screen.

Jasmine Wang

MA GRADUATE STUDENT

Jasmine Wang is a dance artist, educator, and the founder of AM Dance Education, with over two decades of professional dance experience and more than ten years of teaching. She holds a BA in Dance Performance from Minzu University of China, and a Med in Arts Education in SFU, and is currently pursuing her MA in Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.

Jasmine’s professional journey spans across China, North America, Europe, and Asia, where she has performed, choreographed, and led cultural exchange programs.

As an educator, Jasmine specializes in Chinese classical dance, Ballet, Acrobatic Arts and Kpop with a strong focus on creativity, expression, and student-centered pedagogy. Her current research interests explore the intersection of traditional and contemporary forms, cultural identity in movement, and dance as embodied storytelling.

Zoe Yang

MA GRADUATE STUDENT

Zoe Yang is an arts worker and curator currently based on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Environmental Analysis from Scripps College, where her interdisciplinary studies shaped an interest in the intersections of contemporary art, ecology, and social practice.

She works as Curatorial Assistant at Surrey Art Gallery and has previously held positions at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Griffin Art Projects. Through both her professional and academic practice, she is interested in how the role of curating can act as a form of research and knowledge exchange that connects artists, institutions, and communities.

Blqees Zuhair

MA GRADUATE STUDENT

Blqees Zuhair is a multidisciplinary artist and curator based in Libya whose practice merges architectural methods, photography, and built heritage to explore how space and social life are shaped by their surrounding regional contexts. Drawing on historical archives, site-specific research, and contemporary cultural practices, she investigates local histories and the representational tools used to narrate them. She earned her BA in Architecture from ARCHIP, Prague, in 2018, later working in professional architectural practices while pursuing independent research. From 2020 to 2021, during her time with Waraq, a Tripoli-based art organization, she co-curated Kashkoul of Collective Resistance, a pandemic-era project set against the backdrop of ongoing violence, and Shifting Sands, which commissioned new works from emerging Libyan artists, architects, and researchers.

In collaboration with Locale, an artist-run collective in Khartoum, she co-curated Until We Meet Publication (2021–2023), examining historical, emotional, public, and collective spaces in Libyan and Sudanese communities. Her residency at Delfina Foundation, London, further developed The Shore is the Land (2019–present), a project on migration histories and local rituals from a Libyan perspective. In 2022, she founded Damous, an architectural and research studio dedicated to documenting Libya’s urban landscapes as living archives of historical and cultural narratives.