The Debut Katrina Jurjans Called "Hence Living, Hence Magical"
On June 13, 2024, The Untitled Space opened a solo exhibition of paintings by Toronto-based artist Katrina Jurjans, titled "hence living, hence magical," and The Untitled Magazine's coverage frames the show as her debut appearance in the United States. Confirmed is a name, a title, a venue, and a date; what the paintings depict, how many of them hung on the wall, and what drew the artist south of the border first are not settled by the material gathered here.
The Untitled Magazine, reporting from New York, published its account on June 20, 2024, a week after the show it describes had already opened. The exhibition, presented at The Untitled Space on June 13, carried the title "hence living, hence magical," and the artist behind the paintings on view was named as Katrina Jurjans, identified in the piece as Toronto-based. The outlet's own framing does the rest of the work: it calls the show her "U.S. debut," a phrase that draws a line between a career built elsewhere and a wall now hung in New York. Past the title, the date, the venue, and that single framing claim, little else has reached this record.
A Debut Measured in One Sentence
To call a show someone's debut in a country is usually to imply a body of work that existed before it, somewhere else, waiting for this particular wall. Whether Jurjans had shown extensively in Toronto or elsewhere prior to June 2024, how many paintings made up "hence living, hence magical," and what medium or scale they worked in beyond the general term "paintings" are all questions the gathered material does not answer. What can be said is narrower and more exact: a Toronto-based painter had a solo exhibition at a New York venue in June 2024, and an outlet covering it chose to describe the occasion as her first appearance on American soil.
The Title Names What the Paintings Don't
"Hence living, hence magical" reads as a chain of consequence — one thing following from another, twice — but whether the phrase belongs to Jurjans herself, to a curatorial statement written around her work, or to the outlet's own headline construction is not settled by what has been collected. No wall text, no artist statement, and no quotation attributed directly to Jurjans appears in the record. The title is the closest thing to her voice that survives here, and even that arrives without an explanation of what in the paintings makes the living "hence" or the magic "hence."
What the Record Confirms
- The Untitled Space presented a solo exhibition of paintings on June 13, 2024
- The exhibition was titled "hence living, hence magical"
- The artist is Katrina Jurjans, identified as Toronto-based
- The Untitled Magazine, reporting from New York, covered the show on June 20, 2024, describing it as her U.S. debut
- The number of works on view, their medium beyond "paintings," and any statement from Jurjans herself are not included in the material gathered here
A Debut Left at the Doorway
LIBURE will not fill in a body of work, a curatorial rationale, or a biography from a headline and a single summary sentence. What is in hand is a title, a date, a venue, and a claim that this was Jurjans's first American show — enough to mark that a debut happened, not enough to describe what hung on the walls that made it one.
When did Katrina Jurjans's U.S. debut exhibition open?
On June 13, 2024, at The Untitled Space.
What was the exhibition called?
"Hence living, hence magical," a solo show of paintings by Katrina Jurjans.
Where is Katrina Jurjans based?
She is identified in the coverage as Toronto-based.
Who covered the exhibition, and when?
The Untitled Magazine, reporting from New York, published its account on June 20, 2024, a week after the show opened.
Does the coverage describe what the paintings depict?
No. Beyond the title and the "U.S. debut" framing, the material gathered here does not detail the number, medium, or subject of the works on view.