Jaye Kovach is a multimedia and performance artist who lives as a white Magyar/Scottish settler on Treaty 4 territory (Regina, Saskatchewan). Her work, which has received local and national attention, often engages their queer and trans community, taking as its starting point his positionality as a disabled and neurodivergent, butch trans woman.

In 2019, she was featured in the spotlight section of Canadian Art’s FEMME issue. In 2020, they attended the Intergenerational LGBT Artist Residency. His performance work has been presented at Queer City Cinema/Performatorium, a queer media and performance art festival based in Regina that attracts international artists and filmmakers. 

Jaye is a current participant of Tender Container’s Peer Mentorship Platform, Do Trans People Dream of Non-binary Sheep?. She also facilitated the Capacitor project, a programming channel for Two Spirit, trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming artists with a connection to Saskatchewan, with the University of Saskatchewan (USask) Art Galleries and Collection. Most recently they have been named interim project director for Into The Streets, a Regina-based mentorship program for trans girls and youth affected by transmisogyny.

i position my identity as a queer, disabled, butch trans woman, and a big dyke, at the centre of my art practice. it is from this perspective that i engage in primary and secondary research —  drawing from historical texts, images, films, and other archival sources, conducting interviews with others, and constructing a personal archive of materials drawn from my own lived experiences. this source material leads to works in a wide range of media — drawings, printmaking, performance, handcrafted embroideries and other artist multiples, sound art and noise, new media, and tattoos, generally produced with a raw DIY aesthetic and ethos.

my hand and voice and body are present in the work. this is how i take up and hold space. through esoteric symbols and spells poked into skin, or rendering transphobic statements overheard or received in sweet cursive handwriting, or stitching by hand onto floral fabrics, or screaming loud enough to puncture a sonic wall of feedback in visceral live performances.

my work is often uncomfortable (mostly to those who are invested in cis-hetero patriarchy) but i don’t really care. i think i make dyke art — unlikable work that is challenging but also darkly humorous, that strives to be emotionally resonant and sharply insightful, with a deeply empathetic and ethical core. in an increasingly inhospitable world for trans people, it asks what is necessary to survive, and theorizes joy and futurity.