Surface Tensions: Image Riff

Surface Tensions: Gestures on the Photographic Image

This three-part workshop series explores the fertile space where photography meets painting and mark-making. Through hands-on sessions led by three different artists, participants will experiment with diverse approaches to altering photographic images through gesture, texture and transformation.

Each session introduces a unique method of working across mediums, from painting directly onto photographic prints to drawing with light on light-sensitive materials to using chemistry to paint on negatives. Participants will engage with image-making as a layered, tactile process, expanding their understanding of photography beyond the frame and into the realm of physical intervention, encouraging experimentation and cross-disciplinary play.

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Workshop Description:

Image Riff: Expanding Photographs with Brushstrokes

Image Riff explores strategies for responding to photographs through painted gestures. Set amidst Philip Leonard Ocampo’s Gallery 44 vitrine exhibition, Animorphs*, this workshop asks participants to use ubiquitous photographs and screenshots taken on smartphones or mobile devices as starting points for multidisciplinary image making. From adhering images to painting surfaces to developing graphic and visual strategies in relation to photographs, Ocampo situates these approaches within his own practice while guiding participants in their pursuit of the magic that lies beyond what the lens can capture.

Bio:

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 touchstones 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.

Image Credit: Philip Ocampo, detail of Entry (in process), 16" x 20", Acryla gouache and photo collage adhered onto canvas, 2025

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Host or Publisher Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography