Erika DeFreitas is a Scarborough-based multidisciplinary conceptual artist. She explores the influence of language, loss and culture on the formation of identity with textile-based works, and performative actions that are photographed; placing an emphasis on process, gesture and documentation. DeFreitas is a recipient of the 2016 Finalist Artist Prize from the Toronto Friends of Visual Arts, the 2016 John Hartman Award, and was long listed for the 2017 Sobey Art Award (Ontario). She is a graduate of the Masters of Visual Studies Program at the University of Toronto. Exhibition sites have included Project Row Houses in Houston, Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art in Newark, New Jersey, the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Art Souterrain festival in Montreal, The Art Gallery of Windsor, Platform Centre for Photographic & Digital Arts, Centre [3] for Print and Media Arts, Gallery 44, The Art Gallery of Mississauga, the Pollock Gallery at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and the Houston Museum of African American Culture.