As a founding program of Shorefast, Fogo Island Arts (FIA) places art at the centre of our work by fostering connections between the local and the global.
In 2025, we continued to embody the concept of “holding on and reaching out” through new residencies, exhibitions, publications, and projects on Fogo Island and across the world. Here is a selection of moments from a year that demonstrated how rooting ourselves in place creates work that resonates far beyond it.
Sharon Lockhart’s WINDWARD opens on Fogo Island
After several summers spent filming here, Sharon Lockhart shared her work with the people of Fogo Island. On May 10, 2025, WINDWARD opened at the Fogo Island Gallery, where many generations gathered to experience the film installation, unveiling the island’s striking geological formations, unique climate, and austere beauty, brought to life through portrayals of youth.
In a review for International Cinephile Society, John Lynn wrote:
“It’s not nostalgia or romanticization but, a reminder that human life once felt slower, more spatially aware, and embedded in places. WINDWARD becomes a study of how people inhabit land rather than extract from it and how nature sets the terms of existence rather than serving as a resource or a forgotten part of our existence.”
While the film that inspired it, Colin Low’s The Children of Fogo Island, stirred dialogue among the island’s communities, WINDWARD created a conversation between Fogo Island and the world. The work premiered at the 63rd New York Film Festival in September and is part of the Sharon Lockhart exhibition at the Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff until January 7, 2026. It’s also featured at the 15th Shanghai Biennale, Does the flower hear the bee? until March 31, 2026, and will travel to Toronto’s The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in 2026.
Sharon immersed herself in the island’s communities; through WINDWARD, she commands a similar commitment from the viewer. In Lynn’s words: “…Windward asks the viewer to slow down and to experience time the way the winds and waves do, and also to observe how humans used to live in slower, less technologically addictive times.”
Two new residencies knit tradition to the global art world
This year, Fogo Island Arts launched two new residences: the Residency for Emerging French Artists and the Newfoundland and Labrador Artist Residency.
The inaugural French artist-in-residence, Maxime Cavajani, spent two months on Fogo Island, forging relationships throughout the communities. Maxime integrated fragments of our heritage into their work, inspired by the specificity of this place. The artist learned about a red paint, hand-made using red ochre and cod liver oil, that colours many of the island’s fishing stages and sheds. This Fogo Island red, in all its variations informed the works developed during their residency and exhibited at the 15th Shanghai Biennale, where Maxime is among the 67 participating artists from all around the world. Lillian Dwyer and Millicent Dwyer, from the Winds and Waves Artisan’s Guild of Tilting, contributed to one of these pieces, which borrows from the island’s craft tradition of rug hooking.
The second emerging French artist–in-residence was Alexia Trawinski, based in Strasbourg. Alexia’s practise is centred on gestural drawing, painting, and architecture, and often involves natural materials, connecting her work to place. While in residence, she and fellow artists-in-residence organized an event, In Progress, to showcase the work they made while on Fogo Island.
A common thread connects Maxime Cavajani’s time on Fogo Island to Ashley Hemmings, the first recipient of the Newfoundland and Labrador Artist Residency. Based in St. John’s, Ashley draws on their family history and playful narratives to create hand-stitched quilts and hooked rugs.
During their residency, they joined the weekly rug hooking group, led by Joyce Coffin and organized by Shorefast at the Community + Business Hub, where Ashley completed a rug for the 30th Anniversary of the Rug Hooking Guild of Newfoundland and Labrador. The event gathered 150 rug hookers on Fogo Island to celebrate the guild, which started on Change Islands three decades ago. Ashley’s piece was inspired by the ferry terminal in Farewell, where every journey to Fogo Island begins.
Local foodways meet contemporary interpretations
Fogo Island’s foodways—the ways food intersect with our culture—are singular to this place; they’re essential to our identity and heritage. Through the Labrador Current Foodways Residency, artists collaborate with Fogo Island Inn’s Executive Chef Timothy Charles to incorporate traditional ingredients and culinary practices in their work.
At the end of her stay on Fogo Island, Labrador Current Foodways resident Taus Makhacheva worked with the Inn’s culinary team to present Wobbling the Table, a Performative Dinner. Gathering artists and community members around a communal table, the experiential feast began with a Primordial Soup and ended with Eating the Imaginary, among 8 courses designed to nourish memory and the mind, as well as taste buds.
Fellow Foodways artist-in-residence Maria Simmons’ project shared a temporal nature; she makes art that eats itself. On Fogo Island, she developed a series of fermentations using bog berries. She also made “bog butter,” inspired by the ancient European tradition of preserving butter in wooden boxes that are buried in peat bogs. The artist buried four bog butters—one near each of Fogo Island Arts’ studios—to be unearthed in a year. Before leaving the island, Maria invited community members to the Punt Premises to sample her art, created with what can be found and foraged on Fogo Island.
Curators convene on Fogo Island
Part of the work of the Shorefast Institute for Place-Based Economies involves immersive convenings that facilitate peer learning. This November, Fogo Sessions invited 22 American and Canadian curators to Fogo Island to discuss the current state of the curatorial profession. The convening created a network and facilitated conversations that will continue to resonate and unfold. The guests gathered for a series of conversations, interspersed with excursions to Fogo Island’s cultural landmarks, as well as Fogo Island Workshops, Winds and Waves Artisans’ Guild, and the J.K. Contemporary art gallery.
Fogo Island Arts alumni expand their reach
Through Fogo Island Arts’ international residency program, we have created a global network of artists from a range of disciplines. Their stories continue to be intertwined with our own long after they leave our shores.
The 2025 Bonavista Biennale featured two former artists-in-residence: Brian Amadi and Ethan Murphy. While on Fogo Island, Brian created Speech that Traps, a series of textile sculptures exploring the power of words to filter, skew, and determine how we relate to other people. Ethan showcased a series of photographs, many taken on Fogo Island. The artist’s story on ferry-reliant islands in Newfoundland appeared in The Globe and Mail, bringing national attention to the lives of people in outport communities.
The works of two more FIA alumni, Abbas Akhavan and Lisa Oppenheim, were featured in the 15th Shanghai Biennale, along with Sharon and Maxime. Abbas will also represent Canada at the 61st edition of the Venice Biennale in 2026.
Nelson White was longlisted for the 2025 Sobey Art Award. He also published Mimajimk (Living/Vivre), a celebration of Indigenous kinship, beauty, and resilience.
In the fall, FIA and Sternberg Press, in collaboration with the National Gallery of Canada, published A Variability Quantifier, focusing on Liam Gillick’s weather station. The two documentary films made about the work (Variability Quantified and Quantified Variability) are documented in the book and accompanied by an interview between Liam Gillick and art historian Tom McDonough.
Looking forward to 2026
We are now accepting applications for the 2026 Newfoundland and Labrador Artist Residency and the 2026 Residency for Emerging French Artists and Curators. For details and how to apply: Open Calls – Fogo Island Arts.
Join us for Shore Time: Art, Design, Place on Fogo Island, October 1–3, 2026, as we consider the role of aesthetics, materials, and geography in response to the challenges of our time. Shore Time fosters meaningful exchanges, extending the island’s reach to the world and welcoming the world to our shores. Together, on an island off an island, we gather to reaffirm our connections to one another and build a vision of our shared future.
Support Fogo Island Arts
Fogo Island Arts seeks partnerships with organizations and donors to deliver artist residencies, publications, and strategic initiatives that respond to the needs of our time. These collaborations strengthen our ability to support artists, foster cultural exchange, and contribute to the vitality and visitor economy of Fogo Island.
If you would like to learn more about partnership and patronage opportunities, please contact Tara Janzen, Senior Director, Philanthropy and Partnerships at tarajanzen@shorefast.org.
We’re grateful for the many generous supporters of our work, and to every artist who joined us on Fogo Island in 2025:
Brian Amadi, Claudia Arozqueta, Alex Blue, Maxime Cavajani, Emelie Chhangur, Christiane Keys-Statham, Ashley Hemmings, Kapwani Kiwanga, Paul Kolling, Sonia Leimer, Taus Makhacheva, Camille Richard, Maria Simmons, Sarah Stevenson, Caner Teker, Alexia Trawinski, and Kate Wong.