Our apologies that in the Spring 2012 edition we reported Kalen Lortscher as a 'she' instead of a 'he' - it was a typo and thank you to Lisa Cerny for spotting it first!
Noor ul Ain, Painting 2012, is the 2012 Alberta Region winner of the BMO 1st Art! Invitational Student Art Competition. As Canada's only national graduating artist competition, BMO 1st Art! honours visual arts excellence in post-secondary institutions from coast to coast. Her piece, "In and around the shows that I follow and about the shadows you follow," is a delicate-looking wire, fabric and thread structure which examines the nature of time and memory.
Jill Allan, Glass 1999, was part of the Fireworks! exhibit over the summer at the Seymour Art Gallery in Vancouver.
Ashleigh Bartlett, Painting 2006, had a July exhibit presented by London's Michael Gibson Gallery titled: "Skipping Stones". These paintings examined the space between representation and abstraction. A multitude of sources informed this work including cartoons and everyday objects (Miss Piggy, Ninja Turtles, Pac Man) while also referencing the history of painting (Miro, Magritte, Matisse).
Bee Kingdom -Berlin Glas eV announced the four artists of the Bee Kingdom collective - Timothy Belliveau, Phillip Bandura, Ryan Marsh Fairweather, Kai Georg Scholefield - were resident artists during the Pictoplasma Conference and Festival 2012 last April and presented, together with Nadania Idriss Contemporary, BEE KINGDOM: RISE OF THE BEES. In 2011, the Bees relocated and partnered with Nadania Idriss to start Berlin Glas eV - the first fine art glass blowing studio in Berlin´s history!
Curated by Jane Kidd, the exhibition "Negotiating Traditions: Five Approaches to Contemporary Tapestry" at the Alberta Craft Council Feature Gallery runs until the end of September and brings together five artists working with the demanding process of tapestry weaving: Jolie Bird, Murray Gibson, Judy Brown, Linda Wallace and Melissa Wong. Throughout their post-secondary education these artists negotiated the use of the traditional materials and processes associated with tapestry weaving within the context of contemporary art and craft. Each has developed a dynamic contemporary practice that embraces the material identity of tapestry and acknowledges tapestries narrative traditions.
Anthea Black, Drawing 2003, is teaching at the California College of Art in the new Craft Specialization area; she is the visiting artist/scholar for Fall 2012 before heading to Western University to teach a special topic art history course called Queer Geographies on Screen and to curate a new exhibition for the McIntosh Gallery.
Jason Blower, Visual Communications 2008, had a series of eight paintings, entitled "The Sunny Side of Edmonton," on display at the SNAP gallery last June.
Chris Boha, Glass 2003, is the winner of the 2012 National Student Art Glass Prize for his work 'Pile of Bones', an exploration of home, distance and emotional territory. The Prize is a competition established to reward and to promote innovation and excellence in contemporary glass within the student sector. This biennial competition is an initiative of the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery. Chris is a doctoral candidate at the South Australian School of Art, University of South Australia. Chris was awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to attend master classes at North Lands Creative Glass in Scotland, one of the world's most renowned centres for the practice and development of art glass. Stay tuned and follow Chris on his journey at: www.nsagp2012.blogspot.com.au
Hunter Bonyun, Visual Communications 2011, won the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future international art contest. She qualified for the top 12 illustrators and won $500, plus an all-expenses paid trip to Hollywood to participate in a week-long workshop on how to market oneself and break into the industry. At the week's end Award Ceremony, Hunter won the Grand Prize Golden Brush Award for $5000.
Alysse Bowd, Ceramics 2011, has an exhibition "Exaggerated Adventures and Frequented Daydreams" until October 28 at the Corridor Gallery, located in the basement of the Rec Centre (outside of the Drawing studios), in Red Deer, Alberta.
Isla Burns, Sculpture 1974, has an exhibit "Samskara" until October 2, 2012 at the Peter Robertson Gallery in Edmonton. "Samskara is a Sanskrit word meaning deep memories or impressions that come from the subconscious or from past lives. Samskara marks us unforgettably in a profound way and is permanently stamped into our psyche.
Chris Cran, Painting 1974, had The National Gallery of Canada purchase five of his works this summer. They will be in an exhibition at the NAC in Ottawa in October.
Reagan du Plessis (nee Nielsen), Jewellery 2003, is working as a Jewellery Designer at a jewellery store in Edmonton, AB.
Jane Durham, Ceramics 2011, exhibited "Fun and Fanciful" at the Epcor Centre Window Galleries April to June, 2012, along with Calgary-based artists drunken paw, Kathryn Blair and Stephanie Murray. The exhibit showcased playful and whimsical themes through collaborative drawing, plaster, ceramic and porcelain sculptural installations while expanding traditional notions of what constitutes art-making practices.
Congratulations to all the ACAD Alumni who were part of the Esker Foundation's 44 emerging Alberta artists grand opening exhibition, "The New Alberta Contemporaries", on display June to August.
The Forage Symposium began as a seedling of a thought in the spring of 2012 and then quickly snowballed into a call to action and then an actual event by late August thanks to the collaborative efforts of Mariko McCrae, Kari Woo, Bianca Gignac, Carole Epp, Cathy Terepocki, Louise Chong and Paige Kerns Coull (all but one is a former ACAD student). Originally based on Alt Summit in Utah each year, we, being the 50+ participants, embarked on a summer think tank about creativity and all that that word entails over three days. Participants converged at Feedlot Studios on the little Island of Gabriola, off of Nanaimo, for three days from as far west as Australia and as east as Saskatoon.
Amber Fox (Braunworth), Jewellery 1999 has been living in California for the last 10 years and has decided to get back into metalwork again. Amber has been really active in the street art community and has also been working in Film and Television.
David Foy and Jennifer Saleik (DaveandJenn), Painting 2006, had their inaugural exhibition at TrépanierBaer entitled: The Hinterland Will Find You last April-May. Anchoring this exhibition of new and recent work was also a major new piece titled And then Voyager returned, a stunning double-sided painting that sat atop a set of fantastic cast bronze legs complete with clawed feet.
Congratulations to Jason de Haan who was shortlisted and to Amalie Atkins and Paul Butler who were longlisted for the 2012 Sobey Art Award. Work by the 2012 Sobey Art Award finalists will be showcased in an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto beginning Oct. 24 and the winner will be announced at a Toronto gala on Nov. 16. Good luck Jason!
June Hills, Painting 2008, is working as a Program Coordinator at The Banff Centre, and still making art!
Candice Hopkins, Drawing 1999, gave the inaugural keynote lecture for Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany, together with Australian Aboriginal scholar and curator Hetti Perkins. She also gave a reading of Jimmie Durham's notebook "Material" for the "Reader's Circle" where 100 invited scholars read from the 100 notebooks produced for Documenta.
During the summer, The Works Canadian aboriginal artist program showcased a group exhibition by Indigeneity. Indigeneity features eight ACAD graduates working in various mediums - painting, photography, video, multimedia, performance art and installations. The Calgary group, Indigeneity Artist Collective Society, was incorporated two years ago to "promote new forms of artwork for artists working in experimental and innovative mediums." Artists include: Natasha Alphonse, Terrance Houle, Amy Malbeuf, Christiana Latham, Jesica Campbell, Angel Marie Schenstead, Richelle Bear Hat, Brittney Bear Hat.
Xerxes Irani, Visual Communications 1998, designed two commemorative stamps marking this year's centennial of the Calgary Stampede. The stamps feature a rodeo horse and a silver and gold belt buckle. The high-tech stamps are also the first "Augmented reality" product introduced by Canada Post, allowing users to play games on their smartphones. Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/Fortney+Calgary+Stampede+stamp+thrill+lifetime+designer+Xerxes+Irani+with+video/6639642/story.html#ixzz23qF1ZGjc
Joan Irvin, along with colleagues Sarabeth Carnat and Charles Lewton-Brain, attended the Alberta Craft Council's July opening reception for "SHIFT: A Transformative State of Mind"; a group exhibition of senior students and graduates from the 2012 ACAD Jewellery + Metals Program running until September 29, 2012 in Edmonton. This multi-disciplinary installation imbued with passion and narrative, interpreted through the precious status of jewellery and decorative metalwork, features a diverse group of work showcasing the styles and attitudes that reflect the unique expression of each artist. Check it out!
David Janzen, Painting 1983, was a finalist for the inaugural Eldon and Anne Foote Edmonton Visual Arts Prize.
Stephanie Kingston, Painting 2011, is currently teaching children in South Korea. She her website at: www.stephaniekingston.com
Jen Kitagawa, Visual Communications 2011, moved to Brooklyn, New York in the fall of 2011 to intern for designer and illustrator Mike Perry and for Nylon Magazine. Currently, Jen is a designer for the design studio Premise in downtown Toronto.
Heather Konschuh, Glass 2005, has a solo glass exhibition "Spectrum", being held at the De Morgan Centre in London, UK until the end of September!Spectrum will explore the interplay of light through different translucencies of glass. The exhibition will demonstrate Konschuh's masterful techniques of glass blowing, which involves heating glass up to 2000°F and using a series of tools including tweezers, paddles and diamond shears to shape the glass into flowing forms. See: www.konschuh.com
Kari Lehr, Visual Communications 1987, has spent twenty years illustrating for various agencies, corporations, and studios across North America. Currently living in the Crowsnest Pass, she and neighbor Karen Tamminga-Paton had an art show in the spring at the Lebel Mansion in Pincher Creek.
Over the summer, Mike Weiss Gallery presented "God For You Son" by Patrick Lundeen, Painting 2001. For his first New York City solo exhibition, Patrick brought together seemingly disparate objects-from flags to rugs to posters to keyboards to grocery store dailies and magazine pages-into cohesive works resembling anthropomorphic masks.
Audrey Mabee, Painting 1960, has an Opening on September 20, 2012 for "Encounters & Disguises" at Axis Contemporary Art. The exhibition continues to October 13, 2012.
Michael Markowsky, Drawing 1999, recently went up to the North Pole with the Air Force as part of the Canadian Forces Artists Program, to do plein-air landscape paintings in the -45oC. In April 2013, Michael is headed to KIAC in Dawson City to paint a portrait of every person in town, in only one month! See his blog at: There are some photos posted on my Blog (http://markowsky.blogspot.com/).
Kari McQueen, Drawing 1992, is now a practicing media artist working in video, with screenings including Calgary International Film Festival, GAMA, and FIFA (Montréal). Kari worked as a media arts programmer with EMMEDIA for over 6 years and with Springboard Performance for the containR project at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games and the Fluid Movement Arts Festival. She co-founded the Calgary Underground Film Festival (2003), was an awards jurist for Images Festival (Toronto, 2009), and is currently an arts administrator with Fairytales Presentation Society. Kari continues to make video, contract as a videographer/editor and even draw a bit on the side.
Internationally-based photographers Mark Mennie and Waldy Martens, Photography 1988,
have been awarded the 2013 Calendar Contract for the Canadian Football League's
Calgary Stampeders Cheerleading Dance Team, the Outriders.
Bill Morton, Textiles 1967, is exhibiting "Tinctorium" Stride Gallery in Calgary until October 19, 2012. Mackenzie Frère, Textiles 1998, contributed the text for this exhibition.
Suzen Green, Fibre 2007, is exhibiting "The Mummers Party" at Stride Gallery in Calgary until October 5, 2012.
Kim Neudorf, Painting 2005, is concerned with how a painting might provoke a tactic of mimicry and invention wherein the subject positions of artist, art work, and viewer are caught up in each other. Her paintings attempt to lay out a lexicon - a call and response - where painterly events act as an invitation for viewers to extend this lexicon - socially, affectively, in criticism and in conversation. Her "Call and Response" MFA thesis exhibit was presented through August in collaboration with University of Western Ontario's Department of Visual Arts. http://www.uwo.ca/visarts/art_lab.html
Misa Nikolic, Painting 1997, is currently in the MA program in art history at the University of Alberta. He is researching the Marxist historian Eduard Fuchs and then intends to enter a doctoral program. Misa had previously completed the MFA program at UBC in 2001. Since then he has switched to oils from acrylics and is continuing to paint while in school.
Mateusz Odrobny, Drawing 1999, recently had an interview printed regarding his art practice. PDF version is at: http://sfere.ro/nsphere/dl/nSPHERE_may2012issue.pdf or the issuu.com link is a nice way to flip through the magazine: http://issuu.com/spheres/docs/nsphere_may_2012_issue. Mateusz's interview is at page 60.
Cassandra Paul and Nate McLeod, Painting 2010. Since graduating, Cassandra has had two of her works purchased by Encana for inclusion in the New Bow Building downtown as well as completed commissions for the City of Calgary. Most recently Paul has shown her work at the Epcor Centre, UAS and has shows coming up in the Calgary Biennial and Stride Project Room. Nate McLeod was invited to participate in Nuit Blanche: Art Souterain in Montreal, QC in early 2012. He had a show in the Stride Project Room and will be showing in the Calgary Biennial.
Leah Pavlick, Visual Communications 2006, is Senior Designer and Art Director at a design and marketing agency in Calgary.
Glass artists Tyler Rock and Julia Reimer, will be the first Alberta artists to be finalists in a major international art prize, the Ranamok Glass Prize. The finalists will be competing for a $15,000 prize and will have their work featured in a traveling exhibition. The Ranamok exhibition will open on August 15th at the Canberra Glassworks, where the winner will be announced, and then travel throughout Australia to Brisbane and Sydney.
Bill Rodgers, Drawing 1975, has the exhibit "RoadTrip" on display at the SKEW Gallery until September 27, 2012.
Carey Shaw and Danielle Tuchelt have started a blog called Not Nowhere as a resource to showcase Saskatchewan designers and photographers (either based in, or with roots in the province), strengthen the visual communications community and share inspirations. Check out: http://notnowhere.com
Cat Schick, Photography 1987, is happy to say that she's still a practicing artist! Her last exhibition was in 2011 in Calgary at the Sugar Cube Gallery, with her photo collective. The photo collective started in 2009 and is interested in street photography. Previous to that was a show in 2009 at Truck Gallery (with Sharon Stevens and Tomas Jonsson). She has also become more involved in fibre arts in the last couple of years. On the volunteer side, Cat was active on the board of Elephant Artist Relief from 2008 - 2011. She has been involved with This is My City Art Society since 2008, when it was a City of Calgary program which engaged artist-mentors in bringing art-making opportunities to the homeless community. She is currently on the programming committee of TMC (and was on the board for a year). Cat is an artist-mentor as well as helping to build the organization's capacity. Another volunteering commitment is at The New Gallery.
Watch for Melissa Skowron, Victoria Sanchez, Kyle Nylund, Chelsea Klukas and others who are involved in the November runway show "Make Fashion" at Endeavor Art Gallery. The MakeFashion initiative is a collaboration of great minds who want to demonstrate that the convergence of Technology and Art can result in a form, fashion and community brand new to Calgary. See: /ww.makefashion.ca/
Laurel Smith, Painting 1998, celebrated the annular solar eclipse that took place on May 20, 2012, by launching her original edition 1 of 12 art book in conjunction with the launch of her seminal RedRocket used as an art component in Smith's currentRed Glare exhibition at the SKEW Gallery. RedGlare is a site-specific collection of new works inspired by Smith's process of writing her dissertation for her Ph.D
(GyoZo) Ron Spickett's Wooden Rider, 1969, from the Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, was on display as part of The West exhibit at the Glenbow Museum from June to September 2012.
Malcolm Sutherland, Printmaking 2002, was the winner in the Animation Category at the 2012 Vimeo Festival + Awards for his short animated film "Umbra".
Kerry Toole, Ceramics 1980, has taught Art for 20 year for both the Public and Separate School Boards, doing Racu Masks and body and face casting.
Carl White, Visual Communications 1992, had exhibitions in Calgary at the Art Gallery of Calgary and at Jarvis Hall Fine Art; "Espirina" is currently showing at the Agnes Bugera Gallery in Edmonton until the end of September.
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In Memory of Isabel Levesque
April 14, 1919 - July 8, 2012
Noted Alberta artist and ACAD alumna Isabel Levesque passed away July 8 in her home at the age of 93. Attending art school in the 1940's, Isabel pursued her passion for art for over 70 years. Her paintings hang in many private and public collections. We had the absolute delight to visit with Isabel last November when she told us many stories and showed us her latest painting projects. We send our condolences to Isabel's family, especially Leon who shared in our visit, and D'Arcy who has been a great support to ACAD over many years.
