Articles tagged with: Rodman Hall

  • Brock alumna returns to speak with VISA students

    Brock alumna, Natalie Hunter, spent the afternoon with VISA 4F06 students as they discussed their upcoming exhibitions. Back row from left: Teresa Badgley, Amber Williams, Shawn Serfas, Sarah Martin
    Front row from left: Gianna Aceto, Emma Hutchison-Hounsell, Cynthia Richards, Natalie Hunter


    On Feb. 7, Brock Visual Arts students in the VISA 4F06 Honours course were visited by Brock alumna Natalie Hunter (BA ’11) to discuss their upcoming exhibitions that begin in March. Hunter and the students discussed the pieces they are working on and how to move forward in order to create a cohesive exhibition. During each student’s session, they received a small piece of translucent film that Hunter used in her exhibition, Staring into the Sun, which is currently on view at Rodman Hall Art Centre.

    During her time at Brock, Hunter was part of the VISA 4F06 Honours course, where students work all year to put together an exhibition in Rodman Hall. Staring into the Sun features photo-based sculptures and installations that explore the relationship between memory and physical space. The exhibition runs until April 28.

    At the Bottom of Everything, the first of two Visual Arts Honours exhibitions, runs from March 23 to April 7, with the opening reception on Friday, March 22 at 7 p.m. at Rodman Hall.

    The second exhibition runs from April 13 to 28, with the opening reception on Friday, April 12 at 7 p.m. at Rodman Hall. More details to come.

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    Categories: 4F06 Honours Exhibition, Alumni, Current Students, Events, News

  • Rodman Hall readying for two exhibition openings

    The work of Brock alumna Natalie Hunter will be featured in one of two exhibitions opening Jan. 31 at Rodman Hall. Hunter’s Staring into the Sun runs until March. (Image: Natalie Hunter, “Songs of May” (detail), 2018, Giclée prints on transparent film.)


    (From The Brock News, January 28, 2019 | By: Alison Innes)

    Two powerful exhibitions featuring the work of clients from Start Me Up Niagara (SMUN) and Brock alumna Natalie Hunter, respectively, will open at Rodman Hall Art Centre Thursday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m.

    The first of two new Rodman Hall offerings, the Art Me Up Niagara group show is a play on the name of the organization that works with individuals facing significant life challenges, such as poverty, addiction, homelessness, mental illness and unemployment.

    SMUN participants have created artwork in response to Rodman Hall’s current Northern Oracle installation, which aims to inspire people to share their message, whatever it might be, with the world and have their voice heard.

    “In developing the public programs activating this installation, I was guided by inquiry into why this work might be important to the Niagara community, and homelessness immediately arose as a critical issue,” says Elizabeth Chitty, Interim Grants and Programming Officer at Rodman Hall. “We will all benefit from seeing and listening to the artistic voices of those with lived experiences of homelessness in St. Catharines.”

    The second exhibition, Hunter’s “Staring into the Sun,” features photo-based sculptures and installations that explore the relationship between memory and physical space.

    Hunter (BA ’11) uses vibrant colour filters and multiple photographic exposures in her creation process. The works are printed on translucent films that hang, ripple and drape to interact with architectural features of the exhibition space.

    Each viewer’s experience of the pieces, which allude to enduring routines and the passage of time, shifts with subtle changes in light.

    Hunter will give a public talk about her work on Thursday, March 28 at 7 p.m. at Rodman Hall.

    In addition to the launch of the Art Me Up Niagara showcase, another event will be held this week related to the Northern Oracle exhibition. Rodman Hall is partnering with the American Sign Language Community of Niagara to present a public lecture by deaf Bahamian photographer and graphic designer Will Henfield at the art centre on Friday, Feb. 1 at 6:30 p.m.

    A full list of community events related to the ongoing “Northern Oracle” exhibition by Heather Hart can be found on the Rodman Hall website.

    The Art Me Up Niagara and Staring into the Sun exhibitions run until Feb. 10 and April 28, respectively.

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    Categories: Alumni, Events, Exhibitions, News

  • Three exhibits this week for Visual Arts

    This is a busy week for exhibitions under Brock’s Department of Visual Arts (VISA).

    From April 2 to 6, students in the VISA department are presenting three exhibitions: CORESITE-SEER, and (un)hidden.

    Now open in the Rodman Hall Art Centre is the exhibit CORE. VISA students will have their smaller works in Rodman Hall’s Flex Space, which will be imagined as a larger site and a centre from where the work branches out to the other destinations in the show. CORE is open to view at Rodman Hall from now until April 13. Gallery hours can be found on their website and admission is by donation, but free for members and students.

    When visiting Rodman Hall, be sure to see the Brock University Department of Visual Arts Honours Exhibition: just resting my eyes, on display until April 8.

    The second exhibit, SITE-SEER, is an extension of the first. SITE-SEER is a one-night exhibition being held Wednesday, April 4 from 4 to 9 p.m., where the downtown area of St. Catharines will serve as gallery space. Students from Donna Akrey’s Advanced Art Practices course are taking their creations from the CORE exhibit and dispersing them throughout downtown St. Catharines in hopes that their pieces will lure locals into seeing sites in a new way.

    Participating artists for both CORE and SITE-SEER include: Hani Ahmed, Jess Angelevski, Teresa Badgley, Jessica Bradley, Tom Denton, Isabella Domaradzki, Kylie Haveron, Emma Hutchison-Hounsell, Laura Levesque, Avery Mikolic-O’Rourke, Amanda Misale, Anna Podvalni, Victoria Reid, Kourtney Spadoni and Desiree Veino.

    Maps with more information about the artworks, their locations and times will be available at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts on Wednesday night when SITE-SEER is held.

    Change, a contemporary exploration of Hidden Mother photography. One of many polaroid emulsion lifts featured in the upcoming show (un)hidden by Amber Lee Williams.

    Change, a contemporary exploration of Hidden Mother photography. One of many polaroid emulsion lifts featured in the upcoming show (un)hidden by Amber Lee Williams.

    A third show, (un)hidden by Brock Visual Arts student Amber Lee Williams, opens in the Visual Arts Exhibition Space ofthe MIWSFPA on Thursday, April 5 with a reception from 5 to 9 p.m. Williams is both a student and a mother of two, who gave birth to her second child while preparing for this exhibit. She is now in the process of installing her show while carrying her two-month-old baby in a sling.

    In the (un)hidden exhibit, Williams presents photographs, sculptures and installations investigating motherhood, relationships within the family and loss. (un)hidden will be open at the MIWSFPA until Saturday, April 28. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m.

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    Categories: 4F06 Honours Exhibition, Current Students, Events, Exhibitions, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News

  • Two new exhibits open at Rodman Hall, including the work of curator and alumna Emma German

    Always Vessels, an exhibit by nine contemporary Indigenous artists, runs Jan. 27 to March 11 at Rodman Hall. Pictured is Nadya Kwandibens’ work — Emergence Series: Sugar Bush Sessions.

    (Source: The Brock News | Friday Jan. 26, 2018 by Alison Innes)

    The works of nine Indigenous artists will be featured in one of two new exhibits opening at Rodman Hall Art Centre on Saturday, Jan. 27.

    Curated by Alexandra Kahsenni:io Nehwegahbow, Always Vessels features nine contemporary Anishinaabek and Haudenosaunee artists who express their art through a range of media, from beads to photography.

    Using a blend of traditional and modern approaches, the artists explore the processes of learning, making and analyzing how knowledge is transferred and made. The work, informed by contemporary translation of traditional knowledge, offers insight into the range of skills, techniques and knowledge unique to Anishinaabek and Haudenosaunee cultures.

    The exhibit explores how belongings and possessions are meaningful objects that have the ability to carry, hold and transmit memory across time and space.

    Nahwegahbow will speak about the exhibit Saturday at 2:30 p.m. as part of Rodman’s Hot Talk series.

    Also opening on Saturday is Up close and in motion, an exhibit from Rodman’s permanent collection of nearly 1,000 works dating back three centuries. Curated by Brock alumna Emma German (BA ’14), the year-long, regularly changing exhibit will highlight the collection’s purpose as a tool for research, study and interpretation.

    The first installation of this exhibit focuses on recent acquisitions of contemporary Canadian art, many of which will be displayed for the first time.

    What: New exhibits opening: Always Vessels and Up close and in motion.

    Where: Rodman Hall Art Centre

    When: Saturday, Jan. 27, 2 p.m.

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    Categories: Alumni, Events, Exhibitions, In the Media, News

  • Brock photographers snap up art show awards

    Danny Custodio collaborated with his father to create compositions exploring tar’s organic forms and textures.

    (Source: The Brock News | Wednesday Dec. 6, 2017 by Alison Innes)

    Two Brock photographers were recently honoured for their ability to capture compelling imagery.

    Visual Arts student Denise Apostolatos and Administrative Assistant Danny Custodio, from the Rodman Hall Art Centre, both won awards at RMG Exposed: Out of this World, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery art show and charity auction held Nov. 25.

    Oil and Vinegar by Visual Arts student Denise Apostolatos, received first place in the youth category at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery Exposed: Out of this World annual photography show and auction.

    Oil and Vinegar by Visual Arts student Denise Apostolatos, received first place in the youth category at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery Exposed: Out of this World annual photography show and auction.

    Apostolatos’ work, Oil and Vinegar, won first place in the youth category from a shortlist of 40 works from across North America. 

    She says it was “truly an honour” to be named the winner of the youth category, and to receive two consecutive acceptances to participate in RMG Exposed.

    “As an undergraduate student, these opportunities are unique in that they provide a professional outlet to gain recognition and network in a larger context,” she says.

    Apostolatos credits the artistic and professional guidance she receives in the Visual Arts program for fostering her development as a creative professional.

    “As an undergraduate artist, it is important to see her work outside of the classroom and in the professional art community,” says Visual Arts Professor and Department Chair Donna Szoke. “We are thrilled to see Denise’s work being celebrated.”

    The award is also a means to recognize the “talent being produced here in Niagara in our Visual Arts program at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts,” she says.

    Rodman Hall’s Danny Custodio took first place in the Conceptual/Non-Representational category at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery’s Exposed: Out of this World annual photography show and auction. He is pictured with award sponsor Mason Bennett of Johncox professional Corporation.

    Rodman Hall’s Danny Custodio took first place in the Conceptual/Non-Representational category at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery’s Exposed: Out of this World annual photography show and auction. He is pictured with award sponsor Mason Bennett of Johncox professional Corporation.

    Custodio received the Conceptual/Non-Representational Prize for his image Tar, which explores themes of blue-collar labour.

    “Tar is a commonly used substance in roofing, the profession my father worked for 45 years,” says Custodio, who collaborated with his father to create compositions exploring tar’s organic forms and textures.

    RMG Exposed: Out of this World brings together artists, collectors and curators to celebrate digital photography and support free arts programming for kids and families. The event, now in its eighth year, includes both live and silent auctions of images carefully selected from 466 submissions.

    The event is designed to recognize contemporary photographers and draws artist submissions from across Canada and the United States.

    The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is a public art museum in Oshawa and features a collection of over 4,500 works including Canadian contemporary art and photography.

    To view this year’s images, visit the RMG Exposed website.

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    Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Exhibitions, In the Media, News

  • Colour Constructs at Rodman Hall/Constructions en couleurs à Rodman Hall

    Pictured is a view of the exhibition Material Girls at Rodman Hall Art Centre. (source: RHAC)

    In fall 2017, Rodman Hall invites visitors to experience the exhibition Material Girls, which brings together Canadian and international female artists from across artistic disciplines and cultural backgrounds. Giving particular attention to the colourfulness and jubilance of this exhibition, in Colour Constructs, students in Visual Arts, Studies in Arts and Culture, and French Studies explore the materiality of colours in their own diverse ways. Student works are complemented by graffiti art by Niagara-based artist Mat Vizbulis, a classroom guest during the semester. Curators Catherine Parayre and Shawn Serfas. /

    A l’automne 2017, Rodman Hall invite ses visiteurs à découvrir l’exposition Material Girls, qui regroupe des artistes femmes du Canada et d’ailleurs, dont les pratiques artistiques et l’environnement culturel diffèrent. En s’inspirant des couleurs et de la gaieté de cette exposition, des étudiants-e-s en Arts visuels, Arts et cultures et Etudes en français explorent dans Constructions en couleurs la matérialité des coloris par le biais d’approches variées. Les graffitis de l’artiste Mat Vizbulis, établi dans la région du Niagara, complètent les oeuvres des étudiant-e-s. Commissaires: Catherine Parayre et Shawn Serfas.

    Article from the Brock News: Bilingual exhibition to shed light on Material Girls
    TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2017 | by Darien Temprile

    A new Rodman Hall exhibition aims to help visitors experience Material Girls in a new way.

    Geo, a piece created by third-year Visual Arts student Lilliana Pagliaro, will be featured in the Colour Constructs/Constructions en couleurs exhibition opening at Rodman Hall Thursday, Nov. 30.

    Colour Constructs/Constructions en couleurs, opening at the downtown St. Catharines art centre Thursday, Nov. 30, features works by students in Brock’s Visual Arts (VISA), Studies in Arts and Culture (STAC) and French Studies (FREN) programs.

    The exhibition, curated by Brock Professors Catherine Parayre and Shawn Serfas, initiates a sophisticated dialogue with Material Girls, an ongoing exhibition that opened at Rodman Hall Sept. 14.

    Material Girls is a large-scale group exhibition of work by Canadian and international emerging, mid-career and senior female artists from different artistic disciplines and cultures. Curated by a team from the Dunlop Art Gallery, a unit of the Regina Public Library, it explores material process and notions of excess as they relate to the feminized body, gendered space and capitalist desire.

    For Colour Constructs, students reacted to words, colours and visuals directly related to Material Girls.

    STAC students contributed nine texts based on words and expressions found in the curatorial statement of Material Girls; FREN students provided eight written fragments in French, describing colours from Material Girls; and VISA students, in their own paintings, reference the vividness of artwork presented in Material Girls.

    In addition to the work of students, the exhibition will include a new large commission by local graffiti artist Mat Vizbulis, who describes his work as ‘genre graffuturism.’

    “As the images unfold in layers, we understand that it is truly something unexplainable,” he said. “We are then daring to define things.”

    Earlier this year, Vizbulis led Brock students in experiential learning about graffiti and its role in both high art and popular culture.

    The opening reception of Colour Constructs/Constructions en couleurs takes place Thursday, Nov. 30 at 5 p.m. at Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Cres. The exhibition will continue until March 4.

    Material Girls continues at Rodman Hall until Dec. 30.

    Admission to Rodman Hall Art Centre is free, although donations are accepted. For more information in French or English, visit ExperienceBU.

    UPDATE:

    French student Amandine Faivre, right,
    speaks about her poetry with French Professor Renee-Claude Breitenstein at the opening of Colour Constructs Thursday, Nov. 30. Curated by Professors Catherine Parayre and Shawn Serfas, the exhibition is a collaboration by students in Studies in Arts and Culture, Visual Arts and French Studies. Student artwork is complemented by work by local graffiti artist Mat Vizbulis, who worked with STAC and VISA students over the course of the semester. Colour Constructs is on at Rodman Hall Art Centre until March 4.
    Exhibition: Thursday Nov. 30, 2017 – Sunday Mar. 4, 2018

    Opening Reception: Thursday Nov. 30, 2017 at 5:00pm

    GALLERY HOURS:
    Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday: 10 am to 5 pm
    Thursday: 10 am to 9 pm
    Saturday & Sunday: 12 pm to 5 pm
    Closed Mondays, statutory and University holidays

    Free community event however donations accepted (suggested $5).

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    Categories: Current Students, Events, Exhibitions

  • HOT TALKS 2017-2018: Professor Derek Knight speaks at Rodman Hall, November 09

    Geoffrey Farmer, “A Way Out of the Mirror”, 2017, Canada Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennale. Image courtesy of Derek Knight.

    HOT TALKS

    Artist Talks and Gallery Conversations at the Rodman Hall Art Centre
    Admission by donation ($5 suggested); Members and Students Free
    Sponsored by Partridge Wealth Management/RBC Dominion Securities Inc., St. Catharines

    November 09: Professor Derek Knight,
    Department of Visual Arts, Brock University

    “Art Confidential: Trends and Obsession(s) in Recent Art”

    Thursday, November 9, 7 pm
    2017 saw the confluence of the Whitney Biennial, Münster Sculpture Project, Kassel’s Documenta 14, and the Venice Biennale. Derek Knight, Associate Professor, Visual Arts, Brock University discusses the pros and emerging cons of the international blockbuster exhibition as well as his top picks, from Pierre Huyghe to Phyllida Barlow to Geoffrey Farmer.

    Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St Paul Crescent, St Catharines, ON L2S 1M3

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    Categories: Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, News

  • VISA graduate Lauren Regier & Rodman Hall’s Marcie Bronson nominated for St. Catharines Arts Awards!

    The Department of Visual Arts is proud to announce that VISA graduate Lauren Regier has been nominated for an Emerging Artist Award at the 2017 St. Catharines Arts Awards! Lauren’s work explores the relationships between plants and machines through her photography. (Brock University Humanities featured her on their blog and in Brock News earlier this year.)

    Marcie Bronson, acting director and curator of Rodman Hall Art Centre, has also been nominated for the “Making a Difference” award for “playing a central role in the transformation of Rodman Hall into a nationally recognized institution of excellence that promotes local artists.”

    More information can be found at this news entry on the main MIWSFPA website. Congratulations to both of you, and good luck!

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    Categories: Alumni, Announcements, News

  • Upcoming exhibition at Rodman Hall: Donna Akrey’s “Also Also”

    (Source: Rodman Hall Art Centre)

    DONNA AKREY
    Also Also

    Curated by Marcie Bronson

    February 11 to April 30, 2017

    Opening Reception: Saturday, February 11, 3 pm

    HOT TALK: Thursday, March 2, 7 pm
    Donna Akrey in conversation with Marcie Bronson

    Donna Akrey is interested in how habit shapes the way we experience and engage with the world around us. Rooted in her astute observation of patterns of communication and consumption, her work humorously intervenes to raise discussion about social and environmental issues, often responding directly to a particular site or community. Using common, surplus, and discarded materials to construct sculptures and installations that she describes as “ruminations on the spectacle of the unspectacular”, Akrey draws attention to the futility of the notion of “the ultimate” and the richness in the space between intention and result. Akrey explains: “I imagine the absurd as real, because sometimes the real is so absurd.” Alongside selected works from the last 15 years of her practice, this exhibition presents a site-specific outdoor installation created in collaboration with neighbourhood residents.

    Donna Akrey, Middle Ground, 2016, mirror, wood, foam, casters.

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    Categories: Events, Exhibitions, Faculty & Instructors, News

  • Abstract/Abstracted: “This is not a tree”

    December 3, 2016 – February 12, 2017
    Opening Reception: Thursday 8 December (18:00/19:30)

    Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre,
    109 St Paul Crescent, St. Catharines, ON
    Curators: Catherine Parayre and Shawn Serfas

    Reflecting on the exhibition A Painter’s Country: Canadian Landscape Paintings Selected from the Permanent Collection (curator: Stuart Reid) presented at Rodman Hall during the summer of 2016, Abstract/Abstracted: ‘This is not a tree’ presents works by Karel Appel, Frederick S. Coburn, Hans Hartung, Kazuo Nakamura, Carl Schaeffer, and Tony Tascona. Put together, these artworks, also from Rodman Hall’s permanent collection, explore a different problematic. How much abstraction is there in representation? In turn, to what extent is an abstract work abstract? Abstract/Abstracted highlights, but also questions the contrasts between abstract and figurative art.

    Brock University students in “Intermediate Painting” respond in selected artworks, while students in “Interpretive and Critical Writing in the Arts” provide critical texts that explore these questions.
    The catalogue will appear in the 2017 issue of A Journal of Text-and-Image Criticism/Creation

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    Categories: Events, Exhibitions