Louie Fermor is an autistic visual artist and writer based in Moh’kins’tsis, in Treaty 7, i.e. Calgary, Alberta. They have published and exhibited in venues across Canada and attended programs with Sync, the Banff Centre, NYU, and the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights. They have won awards in visual art, writing, community organization and autistic
advocacy.
As a disabled and trans artist living and working in Alberta; they have experience strategizing for well-being in a politically fraught landscape— and also one that is
environmentally beautiful. This means they can provide a critical voice that speaks to making art within antagonistic infrastructures, and one that is also grateful for the abundance we do have.
They use their work in art and public service to join others in advocating for D/deaf, disabled
and neurodivergent futures. They are currently painting oil portraits of local flora and writing their first fiction novel.
I believe artists have always been on the leading edge of cultural change; we have a responsibility to witness the beauty or horror, the desperation or the magic of our world, and to also challenge its society, governments, and— most importantly— how we live within those. I believe Sync and this residency is a part of that change. I’m grateful to be a part of it.