ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Neeko Paluzzi (he/him) is an artist who holds a Masters of Fine Arts (2022) from the University of Ottawa and is a graduate of School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (2017). He was the recipient of the Karsh Continuum Photography Award from the City of Ottawa in 2022, had a feature exhibition at the Scotiabank CONTACT Festival in 2019, and was the winner of the 2018 Project X, Photography Grant from the Ottawa Arts Council. In addition, he has participated in artist residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts (2024), at DAIMON Centre (2023), and at l’Ecart (2022). Paluzzi is currently Deputy Director of Education at the SPAO Photographic Arts Centre.

Email: neeko (at) paluzzi.ca

ARTIST STATEMENT

I am a lens-based artist and educator working with images, text, and installation. Drawing on a career in linguistic pedagogy, I approach art as an act of translation, creating intertextual projects that place historical texts within a contemporary framework using my body. Influenced by Jorge Luis Borges, I view translation as unstable and cumulative, with each version bearing the marks of its maker and moment. My projects always begin with another text—the Urtext—and its various adaptations over time, treating these interpretations as equal to the origin. This approach resists hierarchy and colonial readings while opening space for queer theory’s refusal of singular authorship.

My queer body is central to this practice, moving through my work simultaneously as artist and teacher, while also creator and character. Subjectivity shapes the translation, so I embed my body in my installations through digital collage alongside analog processes such as cut-and-paste collage and traditional darkroom practices. This embedment marks a point of convergence where prior authors and my own presence merge into acts of citation that can span decades or even centuries. Authorship in my work is deliberately shared: every reference and visual source becomes a point of collaboration across time and disciplines, acknowledging the interdependence and intertextuality of ideas.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I acknowledge that I live and work on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial. I acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures, languages, and the original Peoples in what we now know as “Canada.” I acknowledge the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and that decolonization is the first step in healing settler trauma.

And, most importantly, I acknowledge the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island are here, have been here, and will always be here. #landback