Scarborough Spotlight: Mariam Magsi
Scarborough Spotlight is an initiative by Scarborough Arts that highlights the work and profile of community, emerging and professional artists based in, working in, or with a strong connection to Scarbrorough. We are so excited to mark the return of this feature series with this month’s feature: Mariam Magsi.
Mariam Magsi is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and educator whose practice spans photography, installation, performance, poetry and community arts facilitation. Born in Karachi, Pakistan, and based in Toronto, Canada, Mariam explores themes of identity, migration, gender, ritual, and social justice through intimate storytelling and critical visual inquiry.
Mariam holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art, Media & Design from OCAD University and a BFA with Honours in Studio Art and English Literature from the University of Toronto, Scarborough. She has also completed a Digital Photography Diploma at George Brown College and is certified in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction facilitation.
Mariam's work has been exhibited across Canada and internationally, including at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Gallery 44, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Gallery 1065, Moose Jaw Museum & Gallery, Sarajevo Photography Festival, Gallery TPW, Pride Photo Amsterdam, Indian Photo Festival, Art Basel Miami (with LOUPE Art) and more. Her writing and visual works have appeared in the British Journal of Photography, BlackFlash Magazine, Spillwords, Pen & Brush, International Photography Awards, She Does The City, Frst Media, Dawn Pakistan, Toronto Star, CNN Arabia and the Journal of Critical Race Inquiry.
Mariam has participated in residencies with the Art Gallery of Ontario's Artist-In-Residence program, Forecast Journal's Atmosphere Residency in Los Angeles, and Ishtar + SAVAC’s Lamenting Storytelling Residency. Her work is held in the permanent collections at the Doris McCarthy Gallery in Scarborough and COLART Collective in Montreal. Mariam has also received grants from Toronto Arts Council Emerging Visual Artist Grant and the Didihood Creative Fund Grant.
Mariam is an active community leader and creative facilitator, serving as Program Lead for the Healthy Arts for Seniors Program at Scarborough Arts for the past four years, following two years of creative facilitation with newcomer and refugee BIPOC women at the Riverdale Hub.
At the heart of Mariam's practice is a deep commitment to inclusivity, nuance, radical care, creative curiosity and the co-creation of narratives that disrupt linearity. Mariam's work refuses flattening and celebrates the layered complexities of diasporic life, gender, spiritual plurality, and the politics of belonging beyond borders.
Works featured below (in order):
When The Land Dreamed Her Back
Jahez | Dowry
Looking for horizons in tides of solitude
The Persistence of Memory
