RESURFACING

Department of Visual Arts VISA 4F06 Honours Exhibition

RABIA CHOUDHARY | NAOMI EGBUNIKE | SARAH FORMOSA | JULIE LUTH

KIMBERLEY ROGERS | CHERILYNN TILLEY | CHARELLE ST-AUBIN

Exhibition Run: April 12 to May 12, 2022
Opening Reception: Friday, March 25 from 5 to 8 p.m.
Visual Arts Gallery & Student Exhibition Space, MIWSFPA
15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines

Niagara Artists Centre Gallery
354 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines

This graduating exhibition considers issues of identity, where figuration is a prevalent method for exploring memory and its documentation, personal relationships, connections to cultural traditions, and assertions of self-worth. These seven artists adopt diverse approaches to expressing these themes through painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture. Not unexpectedly, the global pandemic has profoundly impacted these students, generating a shared experience that permeates and connects their practices.

Resurfacing marks a crucial moment in the lives of these graduating students. Over the last two years, they’ve often had to make art in relative isolation, staying connected over video and texts as a network of support. This exhibition reveals the profound resilience of a group of artists who have developed their art practices during troubling times. They have emerged with confidence and tenacity that shines in their work.

Shannon Anderson, Guest Curator and Writer

The works in this final exhibition represent a milestone for the students of 4F06. The unveiling of these works results from two semesters of research and practice that shows the range of material interests, from acrylic painting to natural dyes and inks to handmade paper, wood carving, textiles, and methods of wet-process photography. In each case, the mediums chosen by each student mirrored equally diverse concepts. Together these pairings generated potent forms of engagement by finding a home within social history, diversity, and numerous working methods. Moreover, these material processes used by the students often collided with mass fabrication within a globalized world of capitalized post-Fordist labour. As a result, handmade practices have resurfaced within the post-industrial economy context and are reborn as a testament to how each artist connects with material production.