Tobaron Waxman

Tobaron Waxman (born 1970) is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist, an accomplished filmmaker, curator, educator and singer. His work focuses on gender embodiment and the ways in which it intersects with society, and with religion specifically. He often employs themes of Jewish tradition, combining his heritage with his art.
His work involves the use of contemporary approaches including video installation, performance art, film, photography, and song. In 2015, Waxman spoke as a visiting scholar at the University of California, invited by the Beatrice Bain Research Group. His work is recognized and exhibited at multiple museums, including the Jewish Museum and the New Museum, both located in New York. Waxman has received awards and grants by art councils including the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Toronto Arts Council.
==Early Life and Family==
Waxman was born in Toronto to Sara and Al Waxman. His father, now deceased, made his name as a renowned Canadian actor. Before his passing, Al and Sara initiated the Neo-Natal Unit at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. Waxman's brother, Adam, was born in 1972. He now works as an executive editor for DINE magazine alongside his mother Sara, who is editor in chief.
==Education==
Waxman did course work in integrated media at the Ontario College of Art and Design between 1995 and 1998. He also completed a B.A. in Humanities at the University of Toronto in 1998. He received his M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014. Most recently, he studied traditional Jewish liturgy, music and vocal techniques in various Orthodox Yeshivas spanning from 2003 to 2007.
==Career==
Through his work, Waxman explores the way in which privileged ideals affect embodiment. He uses lens-based media in order to deconstruct the social implications of his own status, by linking gender identity to Jewish tradition.
Waxman has taught courses in video, performance art, history and photography at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the School of Art Institute of Chicago, the University of London and the University of California.
His credibility is notable, as many of his works have been discussed in academic papers and dissertations. Jordy Jones makes reference to Waxman's 'Opshernish' performance in his dissertation on "The Ambiguous I: Photography, Gender, Self". Jones refers to the body as political grounds for social change, and cites Waxman's work as successfully blurring the lines of tradition, and redirecting focus on new and relevant issues surrounding embodiment.
Waxman's academic credibility is further established in an article by Carol Zemel, an associate professor of Art History and Visual Culture at York University, who references the symbolic significance of his work, crediting his ability to dismantle cultural standards. She, and other scholars, including George Doran, have described his art as challenging fixed notions of gender, religion and space.
In 2013, Waxman founded the world's first Intergenerational LGBT Artist Residency. The aim of the residency is to enhance LGBT community building through shared experience. The residency combines curatorial, relational/life art, and sociopolitical praxis.
==Filmography==
* Grrrl (2013) (cinematographer) 
* The Red Window (1997) (actor)
==Video Screenings/Projection Art==
Year	Occasion/Venue 	Title/Name
2016	Smack Melon 20th Anniversary 	Still Life: Israel Eats Itself
2014	National Queer Arts Festival, San Francisco 	how long has it been
2011	'Queering Sex' 	how long has it been
2009	Tekfestival 	True Spirit
2009	'Brooklyn is Burning' 	transgenred anagram
2009	Artneuland, Berlin 	Still Life: Israel Eats Itself
2008	MIX NYC, 21st Annual Experimental Film Festival 	Still Life: Israel Eats Itself
2008	Vidance International Video Dance Festival, Tel Aviv 	Still Life: Israel Eats Itself
2008	Neutral Ground, Regina, SK 	transgenred anagram
2008	Neutral Ground, Regina, SK 	Peytach Eynayim
2007	Vidance International Video Dance Festival, Tel Aviv 	Techiat ha Metim
2007	Form+Content Gallery, Minneapolis, MN 	trans.genred.anagram
2006	Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, WI 	'Techiat ha Metim'
2003	Lesbian Film Festival Berlin 	True Spirit
2003	Lesbian Film Festival Berlin 	how long has it been
2003	Chicago Leather Archives 	how long has it been
2002	Community Centre Project 	how long has it been
2002	Tongue-n-Cheeks Collective 	self-portrait #1: Reverence
2002	New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film and Video Festival	self-portrait #1: Reverence
2002	Transcinema02 Festival of Expanded Cinema 	
2001	Links Hall in 'Performing the Problematic' 	how long has it been
1995	The Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto 	self-portrait #1: Reverence
== Performance Art ==
Year	Event/Venue 	Location 	Title/Name
2015	Kampnagel Festival of Choreography and Protest/hamamness 	Hamburg, Germany 	'The 71st FACE'
2015	St. Gertrude's Church 	Cologne, Germany 	'Singing with Architecture: Cologne'
2014	NU Festival of Performance 	Tallinn, Estonia 	guest soloist, 'Chicks on Speed'
2014	Gorki Theatre 	Berlin 	guest soloist, 'Tsu Libe Beylen'
2014	Cattle Depot Artist Commune 	Chinese University of Hong Kong	'The 71st FACE'
2014	Donau Festival 	Austria 	guest soloist 'Marriage to the Soil'
2013	New Museum 	New York City 	curator, 'NEA 4 In Residence: Performing Beyond Funding Limits'
2012	Lentos Museum 	Austria 	'The 71st FACE'
2012	Dixon Place 	New York City 	'The Diary of Ponim71'
2012	Dixon Place 	New York City 	'Singing with Architecture: Cologne'
2010	Kulturlabor ICI Berlin 	Berlin 	'Mechitza 7.1'
2010	Kulturlabor ICI Berlin 	Berlin 	voice performance, 'Overscore'
2010	Palais de Tokio 	Paris 	'GenderfluXXXors UnCoded'
2009	Sonic Art Radio 	Copenhagen 	invited artist
2009	Harvestworks SoHo Night 	New York City 	'Block of ice +1/60'
2008	Queer City Cinema Biennial International Media Arts Festival 	Regina 	'Iechem oni/prusa'
2008	International Electroacoustic Music Festival Conservatory of Music	Brooklyn College 	'Still Life: Israel eats itself'
2008	Buddies in Bad Times Theatre 	Toronto 	"Still Life: 'Israel eats itself'
2008	Peacock Visual Art Centre 	Aberdeen 	'Block of ice + 1/60'
2002	Chicago Athaneum 	Chicago 	"Mercy" chorus, Meredith Monk
==Installation/Photography==
Year	Venue 	Title/Name 	Curator/Organizer
2015	Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, NY 	'Irreverent: A Celebration of Censorship' 	Jennifer Tyburczy & Leslie Lohman
2015	La Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris 	'(Up)rooted: A prospect on today's Northern Culture' 	Charles Garcin
2014	Momenta Art, Brookkyn 	'Nu Age Huste' 	Katie Cercone
2013	Stamp Gallery, Maryland 	'Queer Objectivity' (group exhibition) 	Kris Grey
2013	Lentos Museum, Vienna 	'Vollmilch - The beard as signifier' 	Thomas Edlinger
2012	AIR Gallery, Brooklyn 	'Illegitimate and Herstorical' 	Emily Roysdon
2009	Jewish Museum, NY (& Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco)	'Reinventing Ritual: Contemporary Art and Design for Jewish Life	Daniel Belasco
2009	Diaspora, NYC 	'Dark Room/Homme Made' 	Avi Feldman & Daneyal Mahmood
2008	The Project, NY 	'The Left Hand of Darkness' 	Salvia Jasso & Yasmin Dubois
2006	CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY 	'Deviant Bodies 2.0' 	Lawrence Brosse
== Awards/Residencies ==
Year	Group/Council 	Award/Residencies
2016	Sante Fe Art Institute 	'Immigration/Emigration' thematic residency
2015	Beatrice Bain Research Group 	visiting scholar
2015	Canada Council for the Arts, Visual Arts	Paris Residency, La Cite Internationale de Arts
2014	Ontario Arts Council 	"The 2014 Intergenerational LGBT Artist Residency"
2014	Canada Council for the Arts 	Visual Arts: "Chimera Project"
2013	Ontario Arts Council 	Curatorial/Research Grant
2013	New Museum 	NEA 4 Performing Beyond Limits
2011	Smack Mellon 	Studio Artist Fellowship
2010	BRIC Rotunda Gallery, BCAT Media Centre 	BRIC Media Fellowship
2010	Jewish Museum 	Audience Award for "Opshernish"
2010	Toronto Arts Council 	Fine Arts Division
2008	Toronto Arts Council 	Grant
2008	Henry Moore Foundation for Sculpture 	"Block of Ice + 1/60"
2007	Harvestworks 	Van Lier Residency
2006	ACO Art and Culture Outreach 	Artist Residency
2006	Canada Council for Art 	Grant
2005	Canada Council for Art 	Grant
2005	Paved New Media 	New Media Artist Residency
2004	Atlantic Centre for the Arts 	Associate Artist
2004	Canada Council for Art 	Grant
2003	Experimental Television Centre 	Recognition
2003	Franklin Furnace 	Performance Art Award
==See also==
* Bell, Shannon. & Noam Gonick, (eds) "Tobaron Waxman's Post Queer Pallette," Canadian Dimension Magazine, May 2009.
* "Diaspora in Permanenz," featured artist interview, StadtRevue Koln, 2014.
* Hauser, Reine. "Body of Work," Afterimage Magazine, 2007.
* Jacobs, Katrien. "Tobaron Waxman: GenderFluXXors Uncoded," Hong Kong SexxxChange, 2006. 
* Nahmod, D.A., "Open, Affirming and Diverse," Bay Area Report, 2010. 
* Nuit, Banai, "The Left Hand of Darkness," Time Out New York, Issue 671, 2008. 
* Palmieri, Francesco. "A right to the City/Trans in the Landscape", 2012. http://www.prettyqueer.com/2012.06/08/right-to-the-city-trans-in-the-landscape/
* Steinbock, E.A., "Shimmering: Towards a Trans-Erotic Film Aesthetic," (diss), Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam, 2011.
* Vaughan, R.M., "Shows that Rocked, Shocked, and Taught: Tobaron Waxman Gender Diasporist," featured artist interview, C Magazine, June 2012.
Category:1970 births
Category:Interdisciplinary artists
Category:Canadian people
Category:Filmmakers
Category:Curators
Category:Educators