Out of Line is an annual mentorship and group exhibit program, created and led by and for trans and gender-non-conforming artists. Up to nine artists are selected through an open call, with applications assessed by a peer jury of trans artists. Throughout the year, they take part in monthly gatherings, skill-sharing, and mentorship with established guest artists, which culminates in a summer group exhibition.
Our open call for next year’s program will be announced this summer <3
OUT OF LINE 1: www.khyber.ca/out-of-line-01
OUT OF LINE 2:
The Khyber is excited to announce Out of Line 2, a multidisciplinary group exhibition of new work by Pax Romana, Zonghua “Zee” Ai, Jacey Byrne, JB Nelle, Marley O’Brien, Oliver “Oli” Oldfield, Fern Pellerin, drue ess, and Sam Smedley.
This year’s annual program was facilitated by Marley O’Brien with Out of Line founder Mo Glitch as advisor and mentorship from guest artists Arielle Twist and Dr. Syrus Marcus Ware.
You are invited to attend the opening reception, panel discussion, and exhibition during gallery hours or by appointment. Food and drinks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic options, will be served at both events. The panel discussion will include ASL interpretation.
EXHIBITION:
Location: The Khyber Centre for the Arts (1880 Hollis St)
PUBLIC EVENTS:
Opening Reception: 6-8PM on Friday, June 26th
Panel Discussion: 6-8PM on Wednesday, July 15th
For press inquiries contact info@khyber.ca
CURATORIAL STATEMENT:
Out of Line, a collective of eight trans artists, gathered in recurring sessions over nine months at the Khyber Centre for the Arts throughout 2025/26. Monthly meetings became a space for commiserating, sharing resources, laughing, and collaborating.
Marley O’Brien is a queer and trans painter, performer, filmmaker, and facilitator of white settler colonial descent, working and living in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, NS. She has an acute interest in transfeminine perspectives and pop culture. O’Brien is best known for her evocative oil paintings, her drag persona Moist Towlette, and her performances in Atlantic Canadian short films. She holds a BFA from NSCAD University, where she received the Arthur Lismer Award for Academic Excellence, and has exhibited widely across Nova Scotia. Marley was a participating artist in the inaugural year of Out of Line and has been the facilitator of Year 2. | @marley_o_brien
Pax Romana (he/they) is an Abenaki/Assamese Indigiqueer interdisciplinary artist and full-time Scorpio. Originally from New York (Haudenosaunee land), he has had the privilege to be a neighbour, friend, cousin, and community member in Kjipuktuk. Pax’s art and curatorial practice bears its teeth at the traditional white-box gallery with a firm belief that art should be accessible. They’re in a phase of loving installations & sculpture and identify as a mean crip. He loves questions and secrets and threads them into each project. | @yourgothbf.bsky.social
Zonghua “Zee” Ai (they/them) is a Chinese crafter, forager, and food scientist based in Punamu’kwati’jk/Dartmouth, NS. They use poetry and embroidery to explore the impact of land-based learning on food security. They hold an MSc in food science from Dalhousie University with a research interest in traditional plant food and medicine of Eastern Turtle Island. | @zephyrhonk
drue ess (they/them) is a media artist from Kjipuktuk (so-called Halifax). drue uses a collage based approach across time-based mediums to consider fragmentation and transformation within bodies, systems, and culture.
Jacey Byrne is an interdisciplinary artist from Labrador City, NL, living in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, NS. Through illustration and sculpture, they explore ideas of home, memory and comfort, and how those ideas interact with individual and societal biases against fat people. Byrne’s work in this exhibition is a funeral for their childhood home, which was sold early this year. They are processing the complicated grief of losing access to a building that was the backdrop to their tumultuous upbringing, and of a hometown they no longer recognize. | @Jacey.bees
JB Nelles (they/them) is an emerging set and costume designer currently based in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, NS. JB’s work focuses on designing and building costumes, scenery and puppets for theatre, film and live performance. They enjoy using alternative materials in unconventional ways, and working to find sustainable practices to bring worlds and characters to life on stage. They have worked with Neptune Theatre (Mad Madge, Wizard of Oz, Little Shop of Horrors), Eldritch Theatre (Requiem for a Gumshoe, Macbeth: A Tale Told by an Idiot, Zombocalypse), Living Edge Theatre ((SAINT) JOAN), and North Barn Theatre (Swamp Life Parade at Sappy Fest 2025).
During their time with Out of Line, JB has been expanding on their puppet-building skills and exploring themes of memory, gender, and self-identity. They’ve also had the opportunity to work with Eric Woolfe of Eldritch Theatre and Cassie Seaboyer to learn more methods of puppet construction. They are very grateful to each of them for the mentorship they have provided over the last year and are excited to be exhibiting work alongside this wonderful collective of trans artists. | @thecostumewitch
Oliver “Oli” Oldfield is a 26-year-old, queer, trans, and neurodivergent graphic designer / art school dropout / lifelong artist of many disciplines. Oli’s practice is exploratory and ever-changing (both in its media and contents). Oli has focused on expanding his painting and illustration practices throughout Out of Line; exploring aqueous media and recycling old eyeshadow pigments into acrylic paints. Using media to process grief, he has worked to honour memories (good and bad) of past versions of self. | @olioldsart
Fern Pellerin (1998) is an artist based in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, NS. They make comics, illustrations, fiber art and zines. Pellerin’s work is influenced by their lived experience, exploring the resilience of queerness in an unpredictable and precarious future. They are currently querying agents and publishers to make Where Things Grow their debut graphic novel. Fern received their MFA from the Center for Cartoon Studies in 2025 and their BFA from NSCAD University in 2020. | www.fernpellerin.com | @fernpellerin
2025 CALL FOR PARTICIPATION:
Out of Line will be a trans artist group of 7-9 participants. Submissions are open to local trans and gender non-conforming artists and creative people working across all disciplines and stages of practice. This opportunity is initiated by Post Portal Project in collaboration with the Khyber Centre for the Arts. Artist and past participant Marley O’Brien will facilitate this year’s program.
Out of Line features monthly gatherings, skill-sharing, mentorship, a group exhibition, and public events at the Khyber from October 2025 to July 2026. More details are outlined below.
Applications are now open.
APPLY BY MIDNIGHT SEPTEMBER 14TH, 2025
2025 APPLICATION:
We encourage submissions from trans and gender non-conforming artists, as well as creative individuals who may not currently identify as “artists” but are seeking to grow their practice, build relationships, and expand their professional networks.
Out of Line is designed to activate collective learning and peer connection while supporting individual art practices and career development. We welcome applicants working in any medium, with any focus, and at any stage in their creative journey. Applicants must be 19 years or older.
Please email your application to submissions@khyber.ca before the deadline. We accept materials in text, image, video, and/or audio formats. Submit using the combination that works best for you.
APPLICATION CHECKLIST:
- Artist Bio
- Artist CV and/or list of relevant experiences
- Artist Statement and/or description of your current practice
- Why would you like to participate in Out of Line?
- How will Out of Line support your art practice?
- Commitment to Participation: Confirm your availability to attend monthly in-person meetings at the Khyber. Meetings will be held on the last Thursday of each month (except December) between October 2025 and June 2026, with two additional sessions outside of these dates.
- Support Materials: Images, video links, artist website, social media, reviews, and/or articles
All applications will be reviewed by a peer jury of trans and/or gender non-conforming artists.
Questions? Contact: submissions@khyber.ca
www.postportalproject.com | www.khyber.ca/out-of-line
OVERVIEW:
Out of Line is a 10-month initiative running from October 2025 to July 2026. It was created intentionally by and for trans and gender non-conforming artists, with a focus on social engagement, collective learning, and community building. The program will bring together 7-9 artists through a public call and be hosted in person at the Khyber.
Participants will take part in monthly in-person meetings and a final group exhibition with a reception and artist panel discussion that reflects their shared experience.
Out of Line is committed to centering the voices, practices, and lived experiences of trans artists, challenging cis-normative narratives, and creating space for connection and belonging within trans artist communities.
Last year’s program details can be found here: www.khyber.ca/out-of-line-01
MONTHLY MEETINGS & FACILITATOR:
Sessions will be facilitated by Marley O’Brien and held once per month for 2.5 hours. Each gathering will combine structured sharing and feedback with informal conversation and peer connection. These meetings are intended as reflective, generative spaces to support participants’ practices and reduce artistic isolation.
Marley O’Brien is a painter, performer, and filmmaker working and living in Kjipuktuk, Halifax, Nova Scotia, with an acute interest in queer perspectives and pop culture. She is best known for her self-indulgent oil paintings and her performances in Atlantic short films. O’Brien’s practice is driven by her sensibilities and intuitions. She pursues beauty, passion, humor, and joy in all of her work as she does in her personal life. Whether she’s painting, acting, dancing or producing, O’Brien strives for her experiences as a queer and trans woman to colour her work and its reading. Not all of her work is overtly about her transition, but none of her work could exist without her transition. O’Brien endeavors to create evocative images that exploit and subvert more recognizable iconography from the canons of painting, filmmaking, and popular culture.
“The inaugural round of Out of Line was a spectacular experience that deepened my connections and supported my artistic development and career, so I couldn’t be happier about the prospect of participating in the next round as project facilitator. I love how this program lends a powerful form of support to the trans art community while also being fun and silly! I have a sneaking suspicion that the next generation of Out of Line is going to be a tremendous success and I cannot wait to see what beauty will emerge from this coming year of collaboration and connection!” – Marley O’Brien
GUEST SPEAKERS & MENTORSHIP:
This program will also invite 2 established guest artists, Arielle Twist and Dr. Syrus Marcus Ware, to present solo artist talks and mentorship to the cohort. Speaking about their artistic practices and professional experiences, these guest artists will share how they have navigated the production and presentation of their work within the art world.
Dr. Syrus Marcus Ware is an Assistant Professor at the School of the Arts at McMaster University. A Vanier scholar, visual artist, activist, curator and educator, Ware uses drawing and painting, installation, and performance to explore social justice frameworks and Black activist culture. His work has been shown widely across Canada in solo and group shows, and his performance works have been part of local and international festivals. He is part of the Black August Arts Residency Collective and a cofounder of Black Lives Matter-Canada. Syrus is curator of the That’s So Gay show and a past co-curator of Blackness Yes!/Blockorama. In addition to penning a variety of journals and articles, Syrus is the co-editor of the best-selling “Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada (URP, 2020).”
Arielle Twist’s (b. 1994, George Gordon First Nation and Sipekne’katik First Nation, Cree) interdisciplinary practice blends poetics and visual modes of creation to explore the realities and legacy of Indigenous and Trans* life and grief. Exploring and experimenting through mediums such as textiles, painting, performance, literature and language. Recent exhibitions include Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self Determination since 1969, Hessle Museum of Art, New York; Indigenous Joys, Neutral Ground, Saskatchewan; Twist has received awards from Writers Trust of Canada, Indigenous Voices Awards, Arts Nova Scotia for her debut poetry collection Disintegrate/Dissociate (2019, Arsenal Pulp Press).
GROUP EXHIBITION & EVENTS:
The program will culminate in a group exhibition at the Khyber in June-July 2026, including a reception and public artist panel. Participants will present new or existing work developed or deepened through the program.
Artist fees will exceed CARFAC (Category 1) recommendations.