Vladimir Kanic is a transdisciplinary artist whose living algae installations transform spectator’s breath into oxygen, creating participatory ecosystems that embody the possibilities of interspecies collaboration. Informed by his maritime heritage and free diving experience, Kanic’s practice uses breath as both material and method for creating art, accessing cultural, ancestral and geological memories embedded within algae – Earth’s principal carbon sinks, responsible for producing approximately 60% of the planet’s oxygen.

Kanic’s work envisions a symbiotic future where living sculptures function as both ecological interventions and speculative gestures toward climate justice. Collaborating with algae as both artistic medium and carbon capture mechanism, his practice is grounded in ecofeminist methodologies and posthumanist inquiry, drawing on thinkers like Donna Harvey to cultivate responsibility that “feels both for the human and the non-human.”

Recipient of the Governor General’s Academic Medal, Kanic holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from York University. In addition to this visual arts practice, Kanic is an award-winning filmmaker and alum of Locarno film academy and Berlinale Talents, with award-winning films and artworks exhibited internationally.