This audio is from our virtual studio visit with artist Kiona Callihoo Ligtvoet in conversation with Michelle Campos Castillo, and was originally recorded on October 25, 2022 over Zoom.
Reading List
Kiona and Michelle shared some of their favourite graphic novels during this episode. Below is a list of the books we discussed. Purchase from your fave indie bookstore or directly from the publisher if you can!
About Kiona
Kiona Callihoo Ligtvoet (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist practicing in amiskwaciwâskahikan on Treaty 6 Territory. She grew up West of the city near the hamlet of Calahoo where she lived with her relatives on scrip land. Her family lines are Cree and Métis descending from Michel First Nation, as well as Dutch and mixed European.
Kiona works in painting, printmaking, and drawing, recollecting personal stories of grief and tenderness. Her practice uses a non-linear telling of her memories through narrative work as a form of diaristic archiving. It draws from feelings of loss and enfranchisement, but also from deep belly laughter, and a gentle fondness for where the histories between herself and her family overlap and disperse.
She’s recently exhibited work at Ociciwan Contemporary Art Centre (2021), Latitude 53 (2021, 2022), Khyber Centre for the Arts (2021), Harcourt House (2022), and Neutral Ground (2022). She co-curated the soil between plants with Making Space (2022), and What’s Held through TREX NW and the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie (2022). Additionally, Kiona was a recipient of the Lieutenant Governor Emerging Artist Award (2022), and just finished her debut graphic novel with Conundrum Press, titled We Were Younger Once (2022).
Working alongside other artists in initiatives of community care, Kiona co-organizes Making Space in partnership with Sanaa Humayun. She likes visiting her moshom on the farm, and gossiping with her mom, relatives, and friends on the prairies.
About Michelle
Michelle Campos Castillo is a Salvadoran visual artist living in Edmonton. She has been the recipient of several public art commissions from the City of Edmonton, including Platanos, a set of three sculptures on permanent display at Belvedere Transit Centre, and is finalizing artwork for the LRT Valley Line in the west end of the city. Her most recent exhibits are a solo show, Terremoto, presented in the summer of 2022 at grunt gallery in Vancouver, BC and as part of Imborrable at the National Gallery in San Salvador, El Salvador. She is currently working on a graphic memoir titled Colonia, based on her life in El Salvador during the country’s civil war.