Dainesha Nugent-Palache (b. Toronto, ON.) holds a BFA from Ontario College of Art and Design University (2016) where she was the recipient of The Dorothy Hoover Research Award, and an OCAD University Photography Faculty and Friends Award. Her work has been exhibited Nationally through venues such as Patel Brown, the National Gallery of Canada, The Portrait Gallery of Canada, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Gallery TPW, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and TRUCK Contemporary, and internationally in New York, Finland, and Vienna. Her work can be found in The Wedge Collection, Toronto Dominion Bank Art Collection, EQ Bank Art collection, as well as several private collections. Nugent-Palache was a 2021 recipient of the Scotia Bank New Generation Photography Award. She currently lives and works in Toronto, ON. and is a founding member of Toronto artist collective and gallery the plumb.
Through her performative video works and photographs, Toronto-based artist Dainesha Nugent-Palache explores the dichotomies and paradoxes inherent in representations of Afro-Caribbean femininities. Dainesha’s artwork flirts with anthropological and archaeological realms, often produced as a result of her familial digging. Her practice is concerned with visualizations of Black diaspora across pasts, presents, and speculative futures, producing portraits and other still life-based works. With an exuberant approach to colour and display, Daineshas work often negotiates with forms of glamour, excess, and other photographic strategies inherent to the visual cultures of capitalism.