Studio at 1 Wiltshire, Toronto, Canada
Biography
Tonya Hart is a Canadian artist based in Toronto. Her artwork is known for its use of light, energy, and magnetism to create a connection with the natural world. Her light-based sculptures vary in scale and aim to evoke the energy found within natural phenomena, Hart’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2018.
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Project Highlights
Quantum Light for Daniels Corp.
Quantum Light was commissioned by Daniels Corp, for Evolv Rentals located in downtown Toronto, Canada. The large-scale light-based sculpture is installed in the front lobby of the new condo. It incorporates light, brass spheres, and blacken brass strips to portray quantum mechanics' wave-particle duality. This visibility of dynamic structures is poignant symbolism to celebrate the Regent Park neighborhood.
Gladstone House
The Gladstone House reopened in the fall of 2021 with artists selected to create new works to adorn the rooms. Tonya Hart was commissioned to create Aurora Skylight, a ceiling piece that uses an array of colored acrylic to depict the aurora. She also loaned the hotel a work from The Random Attraction Series that create maps of attraction and deterioration with handmade paper and crushed magnets added to the pulp, that once dry, are coated with iron filings to reveal its random pattern.
Venice Architecture Biennale 2018
In 2018, Tonya Hart was invited to participate in the Venice Architecture Biennale with the GAA Foundation and the European Cultural Centre in the Time, Space, Existence exhibition. She contributed new work to the biennale under the title of ANIMATE FIELDS AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE UNSEEN LANDSCAPE that sought to visualize dynamic structures and engage in dialogues on chaotic geometries in context with art and architecture.
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INFRA
INFRA, an early public art project, rendered a pack of wolves in light and infrared patterns on fiberglass casings. Infrared or thermal imagery visualizes the electromagnetic impulses created by energy. Thermal energy is intrinsically present in nature as a by-product of an organism’ vitality. The wolves are represented as pure energy, which metaphorically draws on the perception of non-human animals as more attuned with their instincts. INFRA aimed to disconnect the abstraction of nature and reveal the connection of energy that we all share.