Lee Frketich
2025–2026 Artist-In-Residence

ARTIST BIO

Lee Frketich (he/they) is a contemporary dance artist originally from Hamilton, ON and currently based out of Winnipeg, MB. They are a graduate of the The Professional Program of the School of Contemporary Dancers affiliated with the University of Winnipeg, where they are currently completing their Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Dance and Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science.

Lee has performed with Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers in “Game On” and “Elusivity”, NAfro Dance Productions in “Semba”, Stephanie Ballard’s “Landscape Dancing” and New Dance Horizons in “Secret Gardens.” As well as participating in performances in the Multipla Dança Festival in São Paulo, Brazil.

In 2022, he founded Wind Flower Dance Co., a performance collective of emerging artists looking to explore collaborative processes. Through Wind Flower Dance Co. they have produced, choreographed for, and performed in “field notes from this side of nowhere” at Vancouver Fringe and “Twenty Four” at Winnipeg, Kingston and Guelph Fringe Festivals.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Lee Frketich and Sontje Skabo are collaborating on a shared residency project titled Body Heat.

This work will explore body heat as both a physical experience and as a symbolic and emotional connection between people. We want to investigate the contrast between the exact ability to measure and display the change in body heat as a result of various actions and the emotional implications of these actions as an intangible experience. The work is going to investigate how warmth equals presence, using temperature as a measure of closeness and contact.

We are interested in heat, a medium we constantly feel, but rarely see, becoming visible as a form of expression and communication. The project will explore the traces we leave behind through our body temperature, on objects, in our environment, and on each other. We want to experiment with materials that respond to temperature, like thermochromic pigment, to add a visual layer to this invisible concept.

“Body heat” is currently in the research and experimentation phase. We have been researching thermal imaging from art and science, as well as the symbolic use of temperature in literature and myths. Our next steps include testing different materials and their reaction to heat, as well as getting into a studio and exploring the body heat shared in movement, through partnering.

RESIDENCY DATES AND EVENTS

Residency:
November 24 – December 5, 2025

Open Studio:
Saturday, November 29, 2025
1:00 – 3:00pm
Space to Create – 2B-468 Main Street
Pay What You Can
TICKETS

Accessibility Information:
17-step staircase
Gender-inclusive washrooms
ASL interpretation offered upon request

Public Sharing:
Friday, December 5, 2025
7:00 – 8:30pm
The Output – Artspace – 100 Arthur Street
Pay What You Can
TICKETS

Accessibility Information:
Physically accessible
Gender-inclusive washrooms
ASL interpretation offered

Facilitator: Bárbara González Segovia
Essayist: Daniela Smith-Fernandez

Bárbara González Segovia (she/they/ella/elu) is a brown, queer, Latinex immigrant, deeply passionate about community, Human Rights and social justice.

She studied Arts with a focus on Cultural Promotion, and completed postgraduate studies in Human Development.

For the last decade, Bárbara has been working with grassroots and nonprofit organizations, particularly in issues related to environmental protection, Indigenous governance, women’s empowerment, and, most recently, the intersection of human rights and technology. Whether through program coordination, organizational development, facilitation or community organizing, she is committed to working from an anti-oppressive and people-centered lens.

Above all, Bárbara is a caring and joyful soul who loves the Amazon forest, her grandma, water bodies, crafts, and her chubby cat.

Daniela Smith-Fernandez is a multimedia artist and writer who is Chilean-Canadian by birth, francophone by choice. Varied life experiences have led her to travel in Central America, live in a tent, spend six years in Montreal, work in theatre and teach art to children. This also includes a degree in cultural anthropology and studying tailoring, textile surface design and French language education. When not making art, she works as a bartender. She is a member of Miradorx Art Collective, a group of women and gender diverse Latin artists on the prairies. Passionately multilingual and multicultural, she makes her home in Saint Boniface.

WRITTEN ESSAY BY DANIELA SMITH-FERNANDEZ

Lee Frketich and Sontje Skabo’s 2025-2026 YLDE Artist Residency Public Sharing, December 5, 2025. Photo credit: Pablo Riquelme

This residency is made possible with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Manitoba Arts Council, and the Winnipeg Arts Council.