Opening reception: Friday, July 3, 2026 from 5pm – 8pm
Exhibition run: July 3 – August 15, 2026
Free and open to the public.
Auditorium and Assembly (Models for Living and Nonliving Things 3). Gum bichromate over palladium, 11″ × 14″, 2026.
Martha Street Studio is pleased to present Models of Models of Living, a solo exhibition by AO Roberts.
Models of Models of Living brings together print, installation, sound, and architectural miniaturization to think about adaptation and interdependence. The exhibition comes out of relational experiences of disability and is framed by early childhood education around tiered classifications of life. At its center is a series of gum bichromate photographs depicting temporary arrangements of knotted strings, cables, and toys. A graphic and text score by Roberts is interpreted by their collaborator, disabled sound artist Alexa Dexa, then shared as an interactive sound installation. Roberts’s translation of sound and images for accessibility follows a path of negotiation and recuperation. Fabric becomes image; images graft onto sculpture; images become sound; dead projects are reanimated, repurposed and folded back into new forms. Models of Models of Living experiments with what is gained as communication moves across the fragile systems holding our bodies and relationships together over time.
The artist would like to thank the Manitoba Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts for their support of this project.
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Artist Bio:
AO Roberts (they/them) is an artist-researcher working across sculptural installation, experimental sound, print, and digital media. Their work examines voice, disability, and the belief systems embedded in contemporary technologies, treating sound as a socio-political material that moves through bodies, shapes space, and echoes power. Roberts’ work has been presented internationally across North America, Europe, and the United Kingdom through exhibitions, performances, and residencies at IMPACT 2025, Pioneer Works, Vancouver New Music, SOUND/IMAGE, and Send + Receive Festival of Sound Art. Roberts is a MacDowell Fellow, Sobey Art Award longlist artist, and PhD researcher in disability sound arts at York University / Toronto Metropolitan University.
Alexa Dexa is a crip xXgrandmacoreXx sound witch, toychestral electroacoustic composer-performer, accessibility artist, and creative technologist creating and leading live participatory online crip ritual operas that activate transformative community care and disabled joy. Using sound to shape change, they craft and cast aleatoric/indeterminate/improvisatory songspells for voice, an ever-expanding collection of toy instruments to rival a playpen, crip resonances, and live/pre-programmed electronics. Their rituals and oracle//composition readings honor our value not as a byproduct of how much capital we’re able to produce for the state, but as something inherent to us as beings alive on this Earth.
For more information on AO Robert’s practice, visit https://www.aoroberts.com/ or @ao_roberts on Instagram.
For more information on Alexa Dexa’s practice, visit https://www.alexadexa.com/ or @xxalexadexaxx on Instagram.
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Hours, Location, Accessibility:
Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 10AM – 5PM
*closed Saturdays of long weekends
Martha Street Studio is located at 11 Martha Street. A loading zone is located on the street at the front of the building. Martha Street Studio is an accessible space with a lift and two accessible gender-neutral washrooms located on the second floor.