DANA PRIETO



I am a settler (Argentine-Canadian) artist, educator, and researcher, born in Buenos Aires and based in Toronto.  My site-responsive work examines our deep relations with colonial institutions and infrastructures through a careful attention to the ground, and the different forms of living and dying within it. 



Contact: 

info@danaprieto.com
instagram
CV


Education
 MASTER OF VISUAL STUDIES in Studio Art
University of Toronto
2017-2019

                BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS
Ontario College of Art and Design
2013-2016


Select Art Shows The Soil Speaks, curated by Daniela Bosco, OCAD U Graduate Gallery
2025

GUT_BRAIN: Destructive Desires and Other Destinies of Excess, curated by Irmgard Emmelhainz & Christine Shaw, Blackwood Gallery, Mississauga
2024

How can I know you?, curated by Suzanne Morrisette, Art Gallery of Burlington
2024


Shoaling, curated by Lillian O’Brien Davis, commissioned work in collaboration with Reza Nik for Nuit Blanche Etobicoke, Humber Lakeshore Campus, Etobicoke
2023

Persisting Multiplicities, curated by Esmond Lee, Doris McCarthy Gallery Vitrines, Scarborough
2023

True Currency, curated by Leila Timmins, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa
2022

Spoil, Artcite Inc, Windsor [solo]
2022

What Water Knows, The Land Remembers. Toronto Biennial of Art, curated by Candice Hopkins, Katie Lawson and Tairone Bastien, 
Commissioned work for Small Arms Inspection Building, Mississauga
2022

Of Several Depths, curated by Miles Rufelds, The Plumb, Toronto
2021

Paraísos Artificiales, Commissioned work for BienalSur, curated by Florencia Qualina, in Museo Evita Palacio Ferreyra, Córdoba, Argentina
2021

Grounding, Commissioned work, curated by Maya Wilson-Sánchez, Art Gallery of Guelph 
2020

Common Ground, collaboration with Katheryn Wabegijig, Workers Art and Heritage Centre, Hamilton 
2020

University of Toronto MVS Studio Program Graduating Exhibition, University of Toronto Art Museum, Toronto
2019

Museo del Neoextractivismo, curated by Natalie Revale, La Tribu, Buenos Aires
2018

Eco|Femin|Isms, curated by Vicky Clough, White House Project, Toronto
2018

De Monstruos y Regalos Malditos, Museo del Hambre, Buenos Aires [solo]
2018

In search of the blue-eyed scallop, cur. by Lillian O’Brien Davis & Kate Whiteway, Little Sister, Toronto
2018

Ragged Along, Idea Exchange, Preston Gallery, Cambridge [solo]
2017

Nut, MAW Gallery, New York City
2017

Out of Place, Xpace Cultural Centre, Toronto [solo]
2017



Employment Research Associate & Project Manager, Finding Flowers, led by Lisa Myers. Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, York University
findingflowers.ca
soundslikeland.ca
2019-2025

Facilitator & Founding Member, SHEEEP school, an experimental learning & creative space in Tkaronto
sheeep.school
2023-2025

Course Instructor, Visual Strategies JAV130, Bachelor in Visual Studies, Univerfsity of Toronto
2019

Teaching Assistant, Visual Concepts JAV120 Bachelor in Visual Studies, U of Toronto
2018

Visual Arts Instructor, Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts, Hamilton
2018-2019

Artist Facilitator, Legacy Collective Stitching Stories. North York Community Housing & Neighborhood Arts Network. 
Collaboration with Paola Gómez
2017-2018



Writing on my work
 El arte frente al despojo. Experiencias artísticas contemporáneas contra el neoextractivismo. Cecilia Casablanca, Centro de Investigaciones en Arte y Patrimonio UNSAM-CONICET, 2024

Ecological debt and extractivism, Tatiana Roa Avendaño, Routledge Handbook of Latin America and the Environment, Routledge, 2023

Cooked Earth: Ambivalence in Terracotta, Zoë Heyn-Jones, CMagazine
2022

Diálogos visuales sobre el neoextractivismo, Cecilia Casablanca, Heterotopias
2022

Akimbo Review: Toronto Biennial of Art 2022, Terrence Dick, Akimbo 2022

Why this artist made a 'gold mine' fragrance, Mickal Aranha, CBC Arts
2022

Grounding at the Art Gallery of Guelph, Juilee Raje, Peripheral Review
2021

Of Several Depths, Miles Rufelds, Exhibition Catalogue 2021

The Politics of Extraction, Rea McNamara, Studio Magazine, Issue 15 
2020

At the Border, Mary Baumstark, Studio Magazine
2019


My writing
 Ecologies in Practice: Environmentally Engaged Arts in Canada. Ed. French, E. & White, A., “1:10000,” Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2024


Finding Flowers: an interdisciplinary approach to understanding pollinator-plant-human relations in the current context of intersecting social and ecological change, co-authored with L. Myers and S. Colla, Taylor & Francis Special Issue on “A Relational Turn in Sustainability”, 2024 (in print)


On tending the fog, the stone, the chisel and the marrow. Essay for Tanea Hynes’s Workhorse Catalogue, The Rooms, 2021


How Wet’suwet’en butterflies offer lessons in resilience and resistance. Co-authored with Lisa Myers and Sheila Colla PhD, The Conversation, 2020            


Awards Neighborhood Arts Network, Art Space Award
2024

A rtist Prize Finalist, Toronto Friends of Visual Arts
2022

David Buller Memorial Scholarship, University of Toronto
2018

Sugerman Orling Memorial Fellowship, University of Toronto
2018

Lobko Benjamin Hart Travel Award, University of Toronto
2018

Neighbourhood Arts Network, RBC Mentorship Award
2017

University of Toronto Graduate ARCLA Fellowship
2017


Grants Ontario Arts Council, Visual Arts Creation Project Grant
2023

Toronto Arts Council, Visual Arts Creation Grant
2022

Canada Council for the Arts, Arts Abroad Grant
2022

Ontario Arts Council, Visual Arts Creation Project Grant
2020

Toronto Arts Council, Individual Visual Artist Grant
2020

Ontario Arts Council, Visual Arts Project Development Grant
2017


Artist in ResidenceSchool of Cities, Early Career Canadian Urban Leaders, University of Toronto
2025-2026

Interlude Residency, Hudson Valley, NY USA 
2023

IDEAS Residency at University of Toronto Scarborough Campus
2022

Toronto Biennial of Art Rabbit Hole Residency
2021

Museo del Hambre, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2018

Centre 3, Hamilton, On
2018            


Skills
Interdisciplinary Research 

Arts Instruction + Lesson Plan

Creative & Academic Writing

Graphic Design

Website design & development

Adobe Suite & MS Office Suite

Social Media Management

Fluent English & Native Spanish      






Last Updated Fall 2025
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For almost a decade, I have been utilizing ceramic processes and working with soil-derived materials to reflect on the technologies of containment that shape the places where I live and work: from mines to mounds, bodies and vessels, walls to fences, vaults, and land.

I hold a Master of Visual Studies from University of Toronto, and my work has been presented in national and international galleries, public spaces and informal cultural venues. Recent commissions include: Footnotes for an Arsenal, at the 2022 Toronto Biennial of Art curated by Candice Hopkins, Katie Lawson, & Tairone Bastien, and Caementarium, at the 2023 Nuit Blanche, Humber Lakeshore Campus, curated by Lillian O’Brien Davis.

I am a founding member and facilitator at SHEEEPschool, a collective dedicated to creative and critical spatial practice. Part of my work focuses on learning from and cultivating radical learning communities that are building more just environments.

As a Research Associate for Finding Flowers (EUC York University), I work closely with Anishinaabe artist, curator and professor Lisa Myers, studying contemporary Indigenous art practices and their work revitalizing language and plant ecologies. We recently launched Sounds Like Land, a podcast broadcasting seeds for Indigenous languages.


I am the 2025/6 Artist in Residence at the University of Toronto School of Cities.

Message me if you want to chat or collaborate on something.



Image Credit: Monica Gutierrez