Welcome to my newsletter! You’re receiving this email because you signed up online or at an event (IDS Vancouver or Artist Project Toronto), or you requested updates from me about my work. Some of you (long-time friends, relatives, friends of the family) are protesting, “I didn’t sign up for this!”…I’m sorry, I added you to my mailing list with flagrant disregard for spam laws. If you prefer to receive updates elsewhere, or not at all, you can unsubscribe at any time - no hard feelings!

Otherwise read on for news about upcoming exhibitions, project updates, and where I’m off to next!

The Prefix Prize 2024

I’m very excited to finally be able to share the news that I am the recipient of the 4th annual Prefix Prize:

“Launched in 2021, the Prefix Prize is awarded annually to a photographic artist of any nationality. Designed to honour artists at any stage of their careers who have yet to receive the recognition they deserve, the prize consists of an exhibition, a publication, and a cash award of $5,000.00. This year’s prize was juried by eight photography experts, including Katya García-Antón, director and chief curator, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum; Michelle Jacques, head of exhibitions and collections/chief curator, Remai Modern; Ritu Kanal, designer, Underline Studio; Scott McLeod, director and curator, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art; Heather Canlas Rigg, artistic director, CONTACT Photography Festival; Jennifer Young and Caroline Laxton, co-chairs, Project Development, Partners in Art; and Jane Zeidler, art consultant”.

A solo exhibition curated by Scott McLeod, Director of the Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, is being presented as part of the Core Program of the Contact Photography Festival in Toronto, at Urbanspace Gallery, running May 3 - July 27th. There will be a tour of the exhibition given by the curator on May 25th as part of Doors Open Toronto, and Prefix is co-presenting my artist talk at Riverdale Hub Gallery on May 4th, as part of my concurrent exhibition there (read on for all the details on that below).

I am so very honoured to have my work recognized in this way by the members of this jury, and can’t wait to share more news about my exhibition and the related catalogue as things become available. Stay tuned!

Artist Project art fair in Toronto, April 11-14

I’ll be returning to the Artist Project again this year - looking forward to seeing everyone I’ve met in years past, and meeting lots of new people! Please come by and say hello, I’ll be in booth 712. Some other artists who will be at the fair that I love and I hope you’ll visit include Kristin Sjardaa, Becky Comber, Heather Cook and Maureen O’Connor.

I have 2 free passes to give away for the Thursday night Preview (that’s Thursday the 11th, 6-10 pm), so if you’d like to come please email me. I’ll send them to the first person to reply.

As always I’d love your recommendations for places in Toronto to eat great food, drink great coffee, and shop for things like mushroom-shaped hair clips or plant-themed merch…

Upcoming Exhibition: In Our Nature at The Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre, Medicine Hat, April 20 - August 31

Beginning April 20th you will find my work as part of a really exciting group exhibition called In Our Nature at the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre in Medicine Hat, curated by Xanthe Isbister:

“In Our Nature features the work of seven Canadian artists whose bonds with the natural world inform and inspire their creative processes. Alana Bartol, Bryce Krynski, Heather Shillinglaw, Jay Mosher, Tyler B. Jordan, Rocio Graham and Julya Hajnoczky each have a deep connection to the natural world, and this connection is the fundamental driver of their artistic practices. Each artist’s relationship with nature influences their conceptual foundations and processes and then visually manifests itself through various approaches. This national group exhibition showcases a diverse collection of works that includes video projections, elaborate garments, large-scale photographs, a forest installation, and an immersive ultraviolet video”.

I’m showing 10 very large pieces, all from my recent artist residency at Terra Nova National Park in Newfoundland, including some that are being exhibited for the first time.

Please stay tuned for more details about the closing event that will be happening in late August, many of the artists including myself will be in attendance. Hope to see you there!

Upcoming Exhibition: Aurora Arborealis at Riverdale Hub Gallery, Toronto, May 1-June 1

I have an exhibition at the Riverdale Hub Gallery in Toronto during the Contact Photography Festival, running concurrently with my Prefix Prize Exhibition. The two shows are completely different so I encourage you to do a little gallery hopping and visit both.

The opening reception takes place on May 4th, 2-4 pm and I’ll be there giving an artist talk at 3 pm. You can RSVP here. This talk is presented in partnership with the Prefix Prize.

A limited number of my new small prints will be for sale at the Riverdale exhibition, and my large works are also available.

Plans for the upcoming field season

This summer I’ll be travelling north to central Alberta to work on an AFA-funded project “It’s a Bad Time to be a Pine” that had to be postponed due to the extensive wildfires of summer 2023. I’ll be making pinhole photographs and solargraphs (like the ones below) of areas affected by Mountain Pine Beetle outbreaks, using beetle-pierced tree bark as a template for creating multi-aperture pinhole cameras. After my summer in the Newfoundland Boreal forest, I’m excited to be exploring a similar landscape in Alberta through a bit of a different lens. I’ll be working in and around William A. Switzer Provincial Park from May 19-25th, and Mount Robson Provincial Park from May 28th to June 2nd, so if you’re in the neighborhood and see someone taking pictures with a cardboard box, please come say hi.

I’m going to grad school!

Last but not least, I have been accepted to the low-residency Master of Fine Art program at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and will be starting my classes from home in Fall 2024. Super excited to be taking this step, and looking forward to hitting the books.

Thanks for reading! You can also follow along on instagram for updates, and find my work in person at Christine Klassen Gallery in Calgary, and Blu Dog Gallery in Oakville ON. See you in the forest!

-Julya