Department of Visual Arts & ArtLab Gallery at Western University

Currently installed in the Artlab, collaborative installations from Soheila Esfahani's SA 2643: Intro to Sculpture and Installation class. Titled "Everyone Here Has Something in Common," the exhibition prompted students to explore ideas of "where are you coming from?" with a focus on "your culture." Here, "culture" is interpreted both as culture in everyday life, as well as more specific historical and ethnic cultural backgrounds. Students explore cultural connections, exchanges, and crossings by using readymades and found objects. Here: Charlotte Cao & Linjing Qian's collaboration, "RevisionTea House," and Aly Rana & JoAnna Weil's "Untitled."

Launching today on the Artlab's website: "...And on That Day, I Went for a Walk," A Virtual Exhibition by students in SA 2602A: Studio Seminar with Professor David Merritt. Diverted from destinations we went for a walk. Stirred by Ólafur’s Eliason’s Institute of Spatial Experiments, walking alongside the ghosts of Guy Dubord and the Situationists, we set out to explore thinking doing, to let slip the screens of charts and maps, and seek the open. Some ventured in groups, some... alone; some during day, some during night; some guided by curiosity, some by the deflecting directives of Dérive apps uploaded to smartphones. We brought back personal notation of our encounters to share in small groups before individually fashioning artworks in response. The pieces presented here comprise a final rounding a yield of three collaborative digital works formed from intersecting paths. Shown: a detail from work by Lara Stamenkovic from "A Little Spot In My Mind," a collaboration between Holly Granken, Lara Stamenkovic, Karlee Pattenden, Liv Pattinson, and Isabella Springett. View the exhibition: https://www.uwo.ca/visarts/artlab/current.html See more

Did you miss fall preview day? Watch this recorded session from our Undergraduate Chair, Tricia Johnson, to learn more about our programs and tips and tricks on submitting your portfolio.

Launching virtually next week: collaborative dérive works by students in SA 2602A: Studio Seminar, with course instructor David Merritt. Diverted from destinations we went for a walk. Stirred by Ólafur’s Eliason’s Institute of Spatial Experiments, walking alongside the ghosts of Guy Dubord and the Situationists, we set out to explore thinking doing, to let slip the screens of charts and maps, and seek the open. Some ventured in groups, some alone; some during day, some during... night; some guided by curiosity, some by the deflecting directives of Dérive apps uploaded to smartphones. We brought back personal notation of our encounters to share in small groups before individually fashioning artworks in response. The pieces presented here comprise a final rounding a yield of three collaborative works formed from intersecting paths. Image courtesy of Makenzie Marie Ermel, Megan Lynn Goddard, Clementine Leong, and Noelle Mahoney. Hosted by the Artlab Gallery: https://www.uwo.ca/visarts/artlab/ See more

Students from SA 2643: Introduction to Sculpture and Installation with instructor Soheila K. Esfahani are spending this week installing works for their upcoming exhibition, "Everyone Here Has Something in Common," opening Monday, Nov 23 at Artlab. Installation art is a genre that challenges the boundaries of traditional art. Its history dates back to the 1960’s and early 1970’s, in which it provoked a reversal to the modernist sculpture’s relationship with the pedestal. The p...edestal disconnected the sculpture from the space or stated its indifference to it, allowing the work to possess independence from its environment. By contrast, installation art is directed by the space in which it is constructed. Students currently have valuable time to work within the Artlab's space to carry out their collaborative installations. Keep watch here next week for more information, documentation of the final exhibition, and coverage from student critiques See more

Congratulations to Michèle Pearson Clarke! (@mpclarke on Instagram) Suck Teeth Compositions (After Rashaad Newsome) has been acquired by the National Gallery of Canada! On view now at @forestcitygallery The Art Now! Speakers' Series welcomes Michele Pearson Clarke for an online lecture tomorrow, Thursday, October 29, 2020, 7:00 pm ET, on Zoom. Co-presented with the @forestcitygallery... Visit: https://www.uwo.ca/visarts/speakers.html for the Zoom link! As a Trinidad-born artist, writer and educator working in photography, film, video and installation. Using archival, performative and process oriented strategies, her work explores the personal and political possibilities afforded by considering experiences of emotions related to longing and loss. Based in Toronto, she holds an MSW from the University of Toronto, and she received her MFA from Ryerson University in 2015. From 2016-2017, Clarke was artist-in-residence at Gallery 44, and she was the EDA Artist-in-Residence in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media at the University of Toronto Scarborough for the 2018 winter semester. Clarke’s writing has been published in Canadian Art, Transition Magazine, Momus, and The Toronto Star and in 2018, she was a speaker at the eighth TEDxPortofSpain. Most recently, Clarke has been awarded the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts 2019 Finalist Artist Prize, and she was a nominee for the 2019 Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award. She is currently the inaugural 2020-2021 artist-in-residence process-oriented at the University of Toronto’s Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, and the Photo Laureate for the City of Toronto (2019-2022). image credit: @forestcitygallery

"The Chronicles of Migration Through the Valley of Light and Fables" 4'x4' oil paint and linocut print on canvas, 2020, was created by Tia Bates (@tiabates_art on Instagram). Tia is in her 4th year of the Honours Specialization in Studio Art. See more artwork by our students https://www.instagram.com/westernuvisarts/

The Art Now! Speakers' Series welcomes Christina Battle for an online lecture this Thursday, November 19, 2020, 7:00 pm ET, on Zoom. Christina Battle (Edmonton, Canada) has a BSc with specialization in Environmental Biology from the University of Alberta, a certificate in Film Studies from Ryerson University, an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and a PhD in Art & Visual Culture from the Western University. Her artistic practice and research imagine how disaster could... be utilized as a tactic for social change and as a tool for reimagining how dominant systems might radically shift. She has exhibited internationally in festivals and galleries as both artist and curator. image credit: the view from here, large scale billboard series made for the Capture Photography Festival, Vancouver, curated by Jayne Wilkinson, 2019. The Art Now Speakers’ Series is a component of ongoing academic offerings in the Department of Visual Arts at Western University. The Fall 2020 Art Now Speakers' Series will be offered online, via Zoom Webinar. Visit: https://www.uwo.ca/visarts/speakers.html for the Zoom link!

Art wherever you are! Professor Tricia Johnson draws on all her experience and creativity as she transforms her visual arts courses for remote learning during the pandemic. Department of Visual Arts & ArtLab Gallery at Western University Arts and Humanities at Western

For Throwback Thursday, we're sharing a 2018, a group exhibition of undergraduate student work that explored the meaning of time, generations, and adolescence. Through mixed media and sculpture, they created works that referenced the paradoxical inclination of youth to engage with their transience through concrete material. "Days" manifested the importance of how time passes during youth in an uncertain context. Installation images feature works by Sofia Berger, Liam Creed, Olivia Mossuto and Michael Thompson. Pictured: A variety of colourful paintings, as well as floor-based sculptures. Images show the opening reception with people gathered to discuss the works.

Tuesday, November 17 at 7 pm, Art After Dark presents MFA candidate, Rebecca Sutherland! @sutherlandrebecca_ will spend two hours guiding participants as they create a landscape painting. All skill levels welcome. Painters are encouraged to use different colour palettes and take their own artistic liberties! Grab your laptop and prepare to flex your creativity! https://www.uwo.ca/hr/safety/wellness/living_well/ #westernuniveristy #westernuCreates

Congrats to Alumna Niloufar Salimi (MFA'15), whose exhibition "75 Oriole Rd" opens Saturday, October 24 at Support Gallery. Excerpts from an accompanying essay by E.C. Woodley: Perhaps it is not a surprise that the daily drawing practice that produced this exhibition was occasioned by the loss of Salimi’s collective studio to COVID-19 safety measures. 75 Oriole Rd is an urgent retrieval of concentrated attention and seeing, of encounter with physical appearances. @nilofarsalimi http://supportsupport.ca/salimi.html

Sepideh Tajalizadeh Dashti, 'No-East, No-West,' photograph with hair, handwritten fabric. Sepideh's MFA thesis exhibition, To Be Me, opens October 26 at the Artlab Gallery. An Iranian woman who grew to adulthood in Iran and who now resides between Canada and the United States, Dashti has experienced deep feelings of ambiguity in her encounters with different cultural and social expectations. Not all diasporas are the same. Not all female experiences of oppression are the sam...e. Dashti’s experience as an Iranian diasporic woman is fragmented along ethnic, religious, social, political, and class lines. These fragments pose challenges to her attempts to bind with others and find solidarity based in multiculturalism and ethnicity. Dashti establishes her body as an integral material in her art practices to make the explanation of her experiences and challenges possible. Due to COVID-19 safety measures, the Artlab Gallery and Cohen Commons will be operating virtually. In-person visits are not permitted at this time. We will be posting exhibition documentation, videos, and virtual walk-throughs on the Artlab's website: https://www.uwo.ca/visarts/artlab/index.html See more

Dear Western Students, With a busy September behind us, and as we look towards Thanksgiving, I want to provide you with a few important updates. We know you val...ue staying connected and being on campus. We want to foster that experience as much as we can during these uncertain times. Right now, our plan is to continue with the mixed model for the winter term. We expect it to look like the current semester, with approximately 20 per cent of undergraduate and graduate courses taught in person or with an on-campus component, like a lab or studio. Your safety remains our top priority. As we monitor local and provincial case counts, we remain in a modified version of Western’s phase three in our return-to-campus plan, meaning some operations and activities on campus are paused. Our dedicated staff continue to implement enhanced cleaning measures and safety protocols in our classrooms, residences and shared spaces. And we continue to offer COVID-19 testing to students and employees at our own on-campus testing clinic. Some of you may have plans to go home for Thanksgiving to reconnect with friends and loved ones. It’s important to note that today the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) announced they are discouraging non-essential travel to Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City and the Greater Toronto Area, including Peel Region. We continue to work closely with the MLHU to ensure we’re meeting all government and public health directives. If they advise us to change course, we will. I encourage you to heed the advice of the health unit, but if you do travel, I strongly advise you to limit your interactions to your immediate family. Wear a mask, practice physical distancing, and wash your hands to protect yourself and those around you. Federal and provincial authorities are strongly discouraging any travel outside of Canada. If you do travel abroad, you must self-quarantine for 14 days upon your return and register your quarantine plan with Western in advance. Ontario is experiencing a second wave. It’s real. We must continue to be vigilant in the fight against COVID-19. A few weeks ago, I asked you to double down in following all the proper safety precautions to stop the spread of COVID-19. Your response was great thank you so much. Let’s keep it up. Be well and be safe. Alan Shepard President and Vice-Chancellor

Read our latest newsletter for information on our Art Now! lecture this Thursday & the Zoom link to tune in! https://mailchi.mp/a4ab31cd89ef/oct72020

Check out images from our Introduction to Print Media course. The project is titled "Transitions: Mapping & Walking" and involves relief prints, photographed collections and sites.

The Art Now! Speakers' Series welcomes Michèle Pearson Clarke for an online lecture next Thursday, October 29, 2020, 7:00 pm ET, on Zoom. Co-presented with Forest City Gallery . As a Trinidad-born artist, writer and educator working in photography, film, video and installation. Using archival, performative and process oriented strategies, her work explores the personal and political possibilities afforded by considering experiences of emotions related to longing and loss. Bas...ed in Toronto, she holds an MSW from the University of Toronto, and she received her MFA from Ryerson University in 2015. From 2016-2017, Clarke was artist-in-residence at Gallery 44, and she was the EDA Artist-in-Residence in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media at the University of Toronto Scarborough for the 2018 winter semester. Clarke’s writing has been published in Canadian Art, Transition Magazine, Momus, and The Toronto Star and in 2018, she was a speaker at the eighth TEDxPortofSpain. Most recently, Clarke has been awarded the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts 2019 Finalist Artist Prize, and she was a nominee for the 2019 Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award. She is currently the inaugural 2020-2021 artist-inresidence at the University of Toronto’s Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, and the Photo Laureate for the City of Toronto (2019-2022). image credit: Michèle Pearson Clarke, Glitter Face, film still. Visit: https://www.uwo.ca/visarts/speakers.html for the Zoom link!

While some of our studio classes are being offered in-person, a number are also being offered online, and our students are setting up great studios at home! We love seeing and sharing what you're working on like this 4' painting by Jade Williamson (@jadewilliamson_art on instagram), which is part of her endangered species series. Jade is currently enrolled in our BFA practicum class, follow @westernuPracticum on instagram to see more of their work in progress.

Painting of the day: Greenhouse, Acrylic on canvas, 18x24 inches , September 28, 2020, by Practicum student Laura Butler, Follow Laura at @laurabutlermakesart on instagram or @WesternuPracticum to see more artwork by students enrolled in our Practicum Class!

"Each image and object in this piece is a representation of who I am and where I’ve come to." This shadow box was created by Chelsea Hitchen (@chelseamarie_h.art on Instagram) in the Intro to Sculpture and Installation class.

!!! So excellent to be able to view these talks online!

Read our latest newsletter for this week's upcoming events including a Zoom Art Now! lecture Visual Arts News | October 20, 2020 - https://mailchi.mp/aa646a34194e/oct20-2020

Next week, http://store.tongue.beautiful.goods.temporary.feet.web opens at Artlab. This group exhibition features MFA candidates Anahí González, Rebecca Sutherland, Declan Hoy, Tommy Bourque, and Faith Patrick. As Western has returned to a modified Phase Three campus plan, the Artlab Gallery will be operating virtually for the time being. While in-person visits are on pause, we are facilitating and highlighting student work and research. Keep an eye here and on the Artlab's w...ebsite for documentation of our exhibitions and updates regarding in-person appointments. Image: Anahí González, Unidades, photograph. Pictured: A photograph shows stacked boxes for the Mexican company Charras, and cardboard trays stuffed with clothing, outside on the ground in front of Hernàndez Variety. A corresponding text-based graphic reads: "Open an internet browser. Type 'Google Images.' Search for 'Mexican Worksers.' What do you see? Search for 'Canadian Workers.' What do you see?

Opening at the Artlab on October 5: http://store.tongue.beautiful.goods.temporary.feet.web is an exhibition of works by our Department's 2nd-year MFA candidates. While Western has returned to a modified Phase Three return-to-campus plan, the Artlab Gallery will be operating virtually. In-person visits are not permitted at this time, but we are continuing with exhibitions and are committed to highlighting student work and research. Keep an eye here and on the Artlab's website ...for documentation of our exhibitions and updates regarding in-person appointments: https://www.uwo.ca/visarts/artlab/ Image: Faith Patrick, shipping boxes, plaster gauze, wheels, push pins, rice paper. Pictured: An image of a sculptural work made of shipping boxes, plaster gauze, wheels, push pins, rice paper. A corresponding text-based graphic asks: got stuff? out of space? EVERYONE NEEDS MORE NOW! @faith1patrick

#ThrowbackThursday #tbt Back in 2019, students enrolled in the Studio Arts Drawing Class, SA3611, undertook a series of figure drawings during the event Creating Dance. This performance included various dance styles showcased by students who choreographed and created Dance Composition. These drawings were later displayed in the Cohen Commons. Pictured: a series of images showing live dance performance, people gathered live to do sketches and gesture drawings, and the resulting works installed on the wall of the Cohen Commons.

Read our latest newsletter for a link to tonight's 'Art Now!' Lecture and information on Homecoming! Visual Arts News | October 15, 2020 - https://mailchi.mp/0e63780e1706/oct15

Join us as the Art Now! Speakers' Series welcomes Katie Bethune-Leamen for an online lecture, Thursday, October 1 at 7pm ET. Visit: https://www.uwo.ca/visarts/speakers.html for the Zoom link. Katie Bethune-Leamen is a visual artist currently living in Toronto, Canada--the traditional territory of nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples. Bethune-Leamen works in sculpture and installation. Recent s...olo exhibitions include: La douche écossaise (Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto), Tom Selleck. Orchid mantis. Hats. (Gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover.) Also hats. (University of Waterloo Art Gallery), Shiny, Object, Person. (Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, CA); group exhibitions at: Aldea (Bergen, NO), MOCA Tucson (USA), Thames-Side Gallery (London, UK); residencies with: Nordic Artists Centre (Dale, NO), Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada Council for the Arts Paris Residency (Cité Internationale des Arts), and Fogo Island Arts. In 2020 she received an Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Fellowship Grant to research histories of the 16th c. aesthetic of the ‘grotesque,’ and the historical Parisian theatre of gore, horror, and schlock, Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol. Recent writing on her work has appeared in Artforum, C Magazine, Border Crossings, and Peripheral Review. She received her BFA from Concordia University and her MFA from the University of Guelph. image credit: K. Bethune-Leamen, studio view, Oct. 2019.

Join us as the Art Now! Speakers' Series welcomes Wayne Dunkley for an online lecture, Thursday October 15, at 7pm ET. As a graduate of Ryerson University and the University of Toronto, Dunkley has worked in both commercial and art photography. He was awarded the Paul D. Fleck award for Innovation in the Arts from the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity and a commission from the Banff New Media Institute. He has worked as a consultant on interactive storytelling and digital st...rategy with the National Film Board and served as a panelist and advisor for the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, Royal Ontario Museum and the Dak’Art Biennale of Contemporary African Art. Dunkley’s practice includes photography, digital media & storytelling, cultural mediation, lectures and workshop facilitation. He is also a trained voice actor. Wayne has lived and worked in Montreal, Edmonton and San Francisco, and currently resides in Toronto. image credit: Wayne Dunkley, #whatdoyoufeelwhen. Visit https://www.uwo.ca/visarts/speakers.html for the Zoom link!

Have you visited the Artlab Gallery? This is a huge exhibition space for undergrads, grad students, and Faculty from the Department of Visual Arts to experiment with, install, and showcase their works. The Artlab is well-suited for large-scale sculpture and installation, performance, media, as well as more traditional wall-based works. It hosts four exhibitions each semester, including MFA thesis exhibitions and Faculty shows. It also teams up with other campus and London-bas...ed spaces to offer exciting programming and events. Exhibiting with the Artlab means working with a professional team, including our awesome installation Preparator Dickson Bou, the Gallery manager, the Artlab Intern, and Work Study students who will support and promote your work. Visit the Artlab's website to see a full archive of past exhibitions and notifications about upcoming works. https://www.uwo.ca/visarts/artlab/ See more