Meet the Artist
Ella
Gray
Researcher
“In this thesis I explore how the Baroque has never vanished for those who truly understand its quality of existence. As religious power faiths a crowd to succession of what they want to believe; enduring control in overwhelming spectacle parallels life within our contemporary society. Everyday, everywhere, consciously (or not), we operate under overwhelming chaos that is cascaded aside for individual pleasures, which are all in a meticulous facade to distract. I aim to compare representations of 15th-Century idyllic art; re-positioned in advertisements, fashion, and media; coupled with the frescos of Baroque architecture, so detailed, are revived as an endless scroll of content. The consuming gaze of the spectacular is always reworked and utilized by businesses for coerced domination; in this age of social media, one finds reasonings for these forces of control; as the movement of Baroque art stays enhanced by its nature to invite and persuade, such stays the same for our current society as it strives for known pleasures: a spectacle for the suffering.”

Ella Gray is graduating from OCAD University’s Visual & Critical Studies program (BA, Honours). As a researcher, she is interested in the historical implementation of organized power systems, and how they continue to permeate into contemporary culture — where art is a lingering memory and a propaganda guise for a spectacle in experience. As our societal presence becomes increasingly tied to online personas, she investigates the ways in which we’ve come to behave; as institutionally conditioned. She hopes to educate future generations to consume visual culture intentionally.
Research Writing Collage Performance
2023, APRES QUOI
OCAD U - ODESI Gallery
2025, Third Year Visual & Critical Studies Writing Award
OCAD U
