UNews - Nova Scotia College of Art

Lasting Images - John Clark

trevor.kenney — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:35:11 +0000

John Clark was born in England in 1943. He studied painting and printmaking at Hull College of Art in England until receiving a Fulbright Scholarship, which he used to study painting at Indiana ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. He eventually earned his Master of Fine Arts there in 1968.

Arnaud Maggs, John Clark in his studio, 1988. From the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection. Gift of the artist, 1989.

Clark then returned to Hull College of Art, this time as the Senior Lecturer of Painting. In 1978, he moved to Canada to take a position at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, which lasted until 1983. During the 1980s Clark exhibited at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery and later came to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge as a visiting artist. In 1986, he was hired permanently as associate professor of art and he remained at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge until his untimely death at the age of 46 in 1989.

John Clark, Pam Reading, 1971. From the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection. Gift of Pam Clark, 2000.

Clark had an antagonistic view towards "conventional newness", as he called it in a journal entry from 1989, and as a result his paintings often explored ideas of figuration, transformation and the metaphysical.

Rosemary J. Preuss describes Clark's later works best in John Clark: Transformation and the Void Volume One, where she stated that, "throughout all the challenges in his mature oeuvre, art making remained for Clark an existential activity in which the search for meaning was of the essence. He resisted the literal and the illustrative in his painting, and sought a transformational art, an affirmation of being in the face of the void."

John Clark, The News, 1980. From the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection. Purchased in 1985.

Therefore, from this loss perhaps there is comfort in the notion that Clark's time spent searching for meaning was achieved by the end of his life, evident through the memories of his colleagues, friends and family, as well as through his many artworks included in the U of L Art Collection.

This story first appeared in the May 2013 edition of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Lasting Images - Rita McKeough

trevor.kenney — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:29:36 +0000

Rita McKeough was born in 1951 in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. She received a BFA from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary and a MFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design before settling in Calgary, where she currently teaches at the Alberta College of Art and Design.

Rita McKeough, Two Urban Scroungers, 1984. From the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection; Gift of the artist, 1994.

McKeough has been a committed multi-disciplinary artist for over 30 years, and has exhibited extensively in group and solo exhibitions across Canada and internationally, including exhibitions at the Walter Phillips Gallery (Banff), Plug-In Gallery (Winnipeg), Nuit Blanche (Toronto) and the National Gallery of Canada. In 2009, McKeough was the recipient of the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, and the following year was selected for the Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Alberta.

McKeough's practice is informed by her interest in social issues, idealism and a belief in art's ability to spur social change. Her performances and installations – often complex, collaborative efforts – touch on issues such as displacement, domestic abuse and ecological damage. Though her subject matter is often politically charged, McKeough opens a dialogue with the viewer through a disarming sense of humour and play.

Rita McKeough, Urban Uprising, 1984. From the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection; P.U.L.P. print gift, 1984.

McKeough's Urban Scroungers multi-media piece creates an interactive environment for the viewer through sound and sculptural objects, and points to McKeough's concern over urban sprawl and the voracity of corporate expansion.

McKeough's newest installation, The Lion's Share, is on view in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Main Gallery until Jan. 5, 2012.

This story first appeared in the December 2011 issue of the Legend. If you'd like to see the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Lasting Images - Ron Moppett

trevor.kenney — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:15:47 +0000

Ron Moppett was born in England in 1945 and immigrated to Canada in 1957. He attended the Alberta College of Art and Design and went on to teach and curate at his alma mater as well as the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

Moppett's paintings, drawings and assemblages have been exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions across Canada and internationally, and his work is represented in many private and public collections including the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Canada Council Art Bank, Glenbow Museum, Musée d'Art Contemporain, The National Gallery of Canada and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection.

Moppett's work is well known for its exploration of texture, shape and layering, and often features references to popular culture and daily life collaged into abstracted planes. His sculptural assemblage, Match, is currently en route to be exhibited at Vancouver's Contemporary Art Gallery this summer.

Further collage artworks from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection will be exhibited in Collage aux folles, running from June 11 to Aug. 28 in the Helen Christou Gallery.

Gallery News

trevor.kenney — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:12:52 +0000

Annual Juried Student Exhibition

Each year a prominent Canadian arts professional is invited to jury an exhibition of undergraduate student work. This year it will take juror Jen Budney a long week of studio visits and talks with students to select the work that will fill the U of L Main Gallery from Mar. 13 – Apr. 9. The exhibition opens on Mar. 13 at 8 p.m. with a reception and the presentation of the Visual Arts Awards presentation.

"This is a great opportunity for students to gain the professional experience of having their work judged by someone new to their work and having it presented in an exhibition," says Josephine Mills, director/curator.

This year's juror is Jen Budney, the associate curator at the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, Sask. She has held previous positions as curator at the Kamloops Art Gallery, program officer in the Visual Arts at the Canada Council, artistic director of Gallery 101 (Ottawa), and news editor of Flash Art magazine. Budney has a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and an MA in Anthropology from Carleton ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, where her thesis focused on racial attitudes and access/participation in Brazilian contemporary art.

Serendipity

Serendipity is the theme of the annual exhibition of work by the U of L Dept. of Art faculty and staff and the U of L Art Gallery staff. The exhibition is in the Trianon Gallery from Mar. 7 – Apr. 18 and the gallery is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibition provides the opportunity to show the range of work produced by the artists who work and teach at the
U of L.

First Faculty Work Featured

First Faculty is the next exhibition in the Helen Christou Gallery, Mar. 20 – May 29. Curated by Jane Edmundson, First Faculty presents the contribution to the development of Lethbridge's art community made by the founding and early faculty in the Art Department.

Probing beneath the surface

trevor.kenney — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:10:28 +0000

While you cannot see individual waves of light, they collectively compose a spectrum that allows our eyes to perceive emerald hills and brilliant blue oceans.

Digital photography has opened up ways of capturing light and colour far beyond what the human eye detects, but traditional formatting methods (like JPG) have limited the information the camera preserves to keep files small, explains ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge alumnus Christopher Myhr (BFA '08).

This changed several years ago with the emergence of RAW: a format that captures unadulterated digital images in still photography. The result? Greater editing options and the ability to shoot images that were previously too difficult or expensive.

While professionals jumped on board, academia and the art community has been slow to explore RAW's full range of possibilities. Myhr has been working to fill this void. As an undergraduate student in the Department of Art, he systematically explored the tool's technical possibilities, largely by incorporating new techniques in his own works. His accomplishments earned him the J. Armand Bombadier CGS Masters Award.

This fall he'll start his master's degree at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, where he hopes to examine RAW's impact on society and the art world.

"Essentially, digital technology is now ubiquitous – it's everywhere. I'm interested in looking at how tools like RAW are affecting people and the history of photography," he says.

Like Myhr, Craig Wheaton has focused his studies on an often overlooked subject: the creation of biodegradable plastic.

Wheaton, a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is working to develop catalysts – chemicals that trigger particular reactions – involved in the creation of polylactide polymer.

Derived from renewable resources like wheat and corn, the plastic is currently on the market (it can be found in certain kinds of food packaging), but there's a need to create cheaper, more efficient ways of producing it. A better chemical catalyst can make this happen, says Wheaton, who recently earned a doctoral scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

"I really believe in the development of plastics made from renewable resources - this is a sustainable way of developing materials. I'm really quite interested in environmental issues, and I would like to do a little bit to make a difference if I can."

Wheaton, who published six times as an undergraduate and master's student, chose doctoral studies at the U of L over larger institutions. "It has a good balance between the resources of a large school and the atmosphere and learning environment of a small school."

Ambra Gullacher has also aligned her academic career with a strong drive to make a difference. The undergraduate health sciences student is gearing up for a career in nursing and says recent research experience has changed her view of the profession.

Gullacher has been participating in an interdisciplinary, international research study of the impact of wildfires on rural communities. Led by nursing researcher Dr. Judith Kulig, the research team represents a wide range of disciplines and locations (Canada, the U.S. and Australia).

"What we're looking at, on a community collective scale, is what has t

he community's response to the fire been both immediately and in the aftermath?" says Gullacher. Gullacher has been working as an undergraduate project leader on a program examining two communities which experienced wildfires in the last decade: La Ronge, Sask., and Barriere, B.C. In 2003, Barriere was evacuated for a month when forest fires ripped through BC's interior. La Ronge was affected by forest fires in 1999, though the impact has been long-lasting. "Some people talk about it as if it happened yesterday," she says.

While the SSHRC-funded research is ongoing, some themes have already emerged.

"A lot of people have identified a sense of community as a factor in resiliency," she says. "When you live in a community that's smaller and is farther away from the city or other services, you're more dependent on each other. And because of that dependence, there's a bond there."

She's been amazed to discover that in some ways, the fires ben

efited the communities.

In Barriere, a mill where most of the community worked was slated to be shut down before the fire, and property values were expected to plummet.

When the fire destroyed the mill, it didn't re-open, but ex-employees received insurance and relief money from the loss of their homes, and were able to either relocate or rebuild.

"There's been a bit of a rejuvenation – a reclaiming of the community's sense of pride and spirit – whereas before there was a sense that things were going downhill."

Gullacher's work has earned her a Canadian Institutes for Health Research Health Professional Student Research Award and an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Summer Studentship Award. It's also taught her that health isn't just a matter of physical well-being; it's impacted greatly by how a community affects people emotionally and socially.

"Being able to see how a community works together, and how it acts as its own little organism gives me a better perspective."

UNews - Nova Scotia College of Art

Lasting Images - John Clark

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Probing beneath the surface

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