TORONTO, March 3, 2008 -- York University’s Department of Visual Arts serves up a visual feast this month with Brainstorm, a spectacular open house featuring over 350 works in all media by more than 200 upper-level undergraduate students, and Under Construction, a group exhibition showcasing work by graduate students in the Visual Arts Master of Fine Arts program.
Brainstorm, taking place Wed. March 12 from 3 to 7pm, highlights the work of rising young artists poised to make their mark on the professional art scene in the next few years. The pieces on display were chosen by a selection committee in each studio area: drawing, painting, print media, photography, sculpture and time-based art.
“The work of these young artists is bold, interdisciplinary and critically engaged with our contemporary world,” said Visual Arts Department Chair, painter and curator Janet Jones.
Brainstorm will transform the entire Joan & Martin Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts at York into one giant art gallery, with works on view on all four floors throughout the building. Music students and a DJ will provide live entertainment. Artists will be on hand to welcome and tour visitors through the show.
Under Construction runs March 10-14 in the Gales Gallery, the visual arts department’s outstanding new student-run exhibition facility in York’s Accolade West Building. The opening reception will be held Wed. March 12, 5:30-7pm.
The aptly-named show offers a selection of works by 11 artists pursuing advanced studies at York. The exhibition was curated by Stuart Reid, director/curator of the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery in Owen Sound (and an alumnus of York’s visual arts program). Artists represented in the show are Laura Barron, Thomas Blanchard, Melissa General, Myung-Sun Kim, Melanie Lowe, Asma Mahmood, Kate McQuillen, Lisa Neighbour, Stephanie Reynolds, Kristi Ropeleski and Jennie Suddick.
While Under Construction encompasses a diversity of media and conceptual approaches, the works in the exhibition also reflect some shared sensitivities and common fields of investigation. Reid notes that there is a strong predilection towards the domestic environment as subject matter and as a realm of intrigue.
“The artists find eloquent ways to evoke the domestic, drawing upon new-found comfort levels with technologies and an understanding of how those tools can construct identity,” said Reid. “The seemingly benign and reassuring materials, surfaces, objects and spaces found in the home are shown to hold strong narrative powers, both personal and universal. Several works focus on the phenomena found in the everyday: moments when circumstances converge to allow a glimpse of the perfect symmetry of a shared moment across time.”
The artists, Reid and exhibition coordinator Yvonne Singer, director of York’s Graduate Program in Visual Arts, will be on hand to introduce the show at the opening reception on March 12.
York University’s visual arts department has been the seedbed for a generation of leading Canadian artists. Alumni of the program include painters James Lahey, John Abrams, Jennifer Lefort and Scott Waters; installation artist Lyla Rye; photographers Larry Towell, Sue Lloyd, Rafael Goldchain and Vid Ingelevics;
sculptors Marla Hlady and Judith Schwarz; and performance artist Paul Couillard.
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Brainstorm and Under Construction are part of the third annual York Fine Arts Festival, running March 11-31 and celebrating the resident talent in the Faculty of Fine Arts at York University. Other visual arts contributions to the Festival include undergraduate group exhibitions in Drawing (March 10-14), Time-based Art (March 17-20) and Print Media (March 24-28). The York/Sheridan Joint Program in Design joins the Festival with Field (Mar 17-21), an exhibit of applied communication design. Into the Woods (March 17-20), MFA student Jennie Suddick’s solo show critiquing notions of national identity, is presented as a curatorial project by art history graduate students. And Windows on Fine Arts Cultural Studies (March 26) offers interdisciplinary, interactive and new media presentations. Full festival schedule at www.yorku.ca/finearts/festival
Chronological Exhibition Summary
March 10 – 14
Under Construction – MFA Group Show
10:30am to 4:00pm
Opening reception: Wed. Mar. 12, 5:30-7pm
Gales Gallery, 105 Accolade West Building
March 10 - 14
Drawing Area Exhibition
8:30am to 4:30pm
Special Project Gallery, 102 Joan & Martin Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts
March 12
Brainstorm – Visual Arts Open House
3:00 to 7:00pm
Joan & Martin Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts
March 17 - 20
Time-Based Art
8:30am to 4:30pm
Special Project Gallery, 102 Joan & Martin Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts
March 17 - 20
Jennie Suddick: Into the Woods
10:30am to 4:00pm
Gales Gallery, 105 Accolade West Building
March 24 - 28
Field – Design Exhibition
8:30am to 4:30pm
Special Project Gallery, 102 Joan & Martin Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts
March 24 - 28
Print Media Exhibition
10:30am to 4:00 pm
Gales Gallery, 105 Accolade West Building
March 26
Windows on Fine Arts Cultural Studies
11:00am to 6:00pm
103 Accolade West Building
Admission is free. All events take place at York University, 4700 Keele St. Toronto [Map]
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Media contact:
Amy Stewart, Communications, Faculty of Fine Arts, York U
416.736.2100 ext. 20421 | amy.stewart@yorku.ca
