Gathered Reverence brings together the practices of Snack Witch Joni Cheung and Natalie King to reflect on the complexities of hospitality, reverence, and cultural identity. Through an interdisciplinary exploration of objects, place, and identity, these two artists challenge traditional notions of home and belonging. By honoring the politics of food, language, and tradition, Cheung and King offer nuanced insights into the ways in which cultural reverence and hospitality can be both a source of comfort and a site of resistance. This exhibition honors the intersections of their practices, creating a shared space for reflection and connection.

Natalie King is a queer interdisciplinary Anishinaabe (Algonquin) artist, facilitator and member of Timiskaming First Nation. King's arts practice ranges from video, painting, sculpture and installation as curation.

Often involving portrayals of queer femmes, King’s works are about embracing the ambiguity and multiplicities of identity within the Anishinaabeg queer and 2S experience(s). King's practice operates from a firmly critical, anti-colonial, non-oppressive, and future-bound perspective, reclaiming the realities of lived lives through frameworks of desire and survivance. 

King’s recent exhibitions include POWER at ONSITE gallery (2024), World-builders, Spape-shifters at the Robert MacLaughlin Gallery (2024),  Come and Get Your Love at Arsenal Contemporary, Toronto (2022), Proud Joy at Nuit Blanche Toronto (2022), Bursting with Love at Harbourfront Centre (2021) PAGEANT curated by Ryan Rice at Centre[3] in Hamilton (2021), and (Re)membering and (Re)imagining: the Joyous Star Peoples of Turtle Island at Hearth Garage (2021). King has extensive mural making practice that includes a permanent mural currently on at the Art Gallery of Burlington. King holds a BFA in Drawing and Painting from OCAD University (2018).  Permanent collections include: McMaster University and the Doris McCarthy Gallery.

Photo credit: Samuel Engelking

Snack Witch Joni Cheung is a grateful, uninvited guest born—and knows she wants to die—on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Stó:lō, and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh peoples. They are a Certified Sculpture Witch with an MFA from Concordia University (2023). As a wicked #magicalgirl ✨ who eats art and makes snacks, she has exhibited across Turtle Island and beyond. Currently, they are based on the stolen lands of the Kanien’kehá:ka and Mi’kmaq peoples, working as a part-time lecturer in the Department of Design and Computation Arts at Concordia University and the School of Graduate Studies at NSCAD University.

They have received support from various funding bodies, including the British Columbia Arts Council; Canada Council for the Arts; and Concordia University. 

Aside from art-making, Joni likes wandering down grocery store aisles and drinking bubble tea. 

Photo credit: Lucas Morneau