Olivia Brouwer is an interdisciplinary artist based in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. In 2016, she graduated from the Art and Art History joint program, specializing in painting and printmaking, at the University of Toronto Mississauga and Sheridan College. Brouwer’s work has been exhibited primarily across Southern Ontario, including the Blackwood Gallery, the Art Gallery of Mississauga, and Tangled Art + Disability. She was a finalist for the 2021 Salt Spring National Art Prize, an award winner of the City of Hamilton Creator Award, and a recipient of various grants from the Waterloo Region Arts Fund, Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts.
As a partially blind artist, Brouwer explores the idea of blindness through her art, melding organic and geometric abstraction with scenes inspired by natural organisms and spiritual teachings relating to vision from both a metaphorical and literal sense. Inspired by the Rorschach Inkblot Test, she addresses blindness by examining ideas surrounding belief, perception, clarity, and sight with an abstract image. Her most recent work explores visual art accessibility, the “viewing” culture of visual spaces, and the activation of human senses beyond the reliance of vision, such as touch and sound, enabling an inclusive experience for both visually impaired and sighted viewers.
As part of this residency, she has been developing a project that will be exhibited in 2026. This project will become an interactive installation piece involving a custom-programmed synthesizer and mixed media materials to create vibration and sound as translation for visual and tactile imagery. The creation of sounds and vibration will activate senses beyond vision to challenge the engager to form their own language beyond speaking or signing. Although this piece did not reach the stage of completion I was hoping for, this Sync experience has brought awareness of internal struggles that I often ignore or don’t have time to process in times of disappointment, loss of control, or transitioning and pivoting.
“The Sync Re-ignite Leadership program has been a safe space to hold vulnerable conversations, to learn and understand our leadership role within my practice, to embrace crip time, and to appreciate a community of like-minded artists who are working towards Deaf and disability advocacy. I feel deeply grateful for and inspired by the people involved in this movement. I have been encouraged to know that I am not alone, and I have been equipped with tools and peers to continue my practice with confidence and a greater awareness of care for myself and others.”
