Author: Zavitz Gallery

The Juried Art Show (JAS, pronounced “jazz”) is an annual exhibition of artwork from the undergraduate students of the University of Guelph’s Studio Art program. Run annually since 1968, JAS is entirely student-run, and is one of the oldest art shows of its kind in Canada. It is a long-cherished tradition of the University, a capstone of community celebration for the school’s emerging artists, and platform for professional development. The Top Ten Show is an exhibit of the ten award-winning artworks selected by the JAS jurors.

This years top ten artworks are by the following artists: Julianna Wright, Hannah Pecyna, Marjan Kaviani, Kali Stadke, Jaida Strand, Nevan, Nerine Cavadias, Wendy Bishop and Avery Riley Mckay, Emma Lippert and Neluka Ameresekere, and Anna Golding.

1st place: Rothko

Julianna Wright

2nd place: Ovulation Beacon

Hannah Pecyna

3rd place: Isfahan

Marjan Kaviani

4th place: Time and Again

Kali Stadke

5th place: Gisinna

Jaida Strand

6th place: Untitled

Nevan

7th place: 5 x 4

Nerine Cavadias

8th place: PoP

Wendy Bishop and Avery Riley McKay

9th place: Fragment

Emma Lippert and Neluka Ameresekere

10th place: I.E.D (Improvised Explosive Device)

Anna Golding

Sarah Fabrizi

This body of work emphasizes experimentation and risk-taking. After having a static and predictable method of art-making for the past few months, I decided to use this exhibition opportunity to push myself to do something different. Perhaps this was a stupid decision, but we all make those every now and again, don’t we? Recently in my work I have been referencing art historical paintings as a way to get the paint onto the canvas. Additionally, with this body of work I tried to do something different or use a new technique in each painting. As I said before, this is kind of an experiment, people.

The most obvious difference between these paintings and my past work is the absence of ornamentation. Removal of the ornament has been suggested to me multiple times ever since last semester. I’ve decided to use that feedback to challenge myself. It forces me to focus more on the marks. Their size, their speed, their shape, their palette, how they might interact with each other. With the ornamentations it was easy to hide bad decisions, and with some of my old work I can’t help but be reminded of the saying: “lipstick on a pig”.

Here, everything is out in the open. There’s not a lot of room to hide.

Sarah Fabrizi is a painter from Oakville, Ontario. She is in her final year of the Arts and Sciences program at the University of Guelph, studying Studio Art and Biology.

@sarahfabrizi.art

www.sarahfabrizi.com

sarahfabrizistudio@gmail.com

Anastatia Flynn

Colleen Alcorn

Colleen Alcorn (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, Guelph based artist who creates work that focuses on tension and spaces between. Working primarily with wood, metal and fabric in various combinations, their mixed-media sculptural assemblages aim to provoke and bring forth questioning. Through their work, they desire to create balance whilst exploring themes of identity, interpersonal connections, upbringing and commonly shared experiences of queer individuals.

Rach Thompson

Sage Turchan

Ash Godley

Included in this show are 10 attempts to find a feeling. 

One that comes at night when you are alone and vulnerable. 

You look behind you as if there is someone following.

There is nothing else here. There is no one there. 

“The void was seen as a place of possibilities rather than realities, an imaginary space not governed by any known laws, filled perhaps with God—the unknowable, the unrepresentable, and the indescribable, empty, infinite nihil.”

Elina Gertsman. The Absent Image: Lacunae in Medieval Books. Penn State University Press, 2021, page 33

Nerine Cavadias

Uninherited Memory revisits images; places, people, and moments, from my family’s past. The photos were taken before I was born, leaving me with little context or sentimentality. I often do not know the people or places I am depicting. This position interested me as an artist, almost assuming the level of familiarity as the viewer when they first encounter my work. My approach to painting through this series has undergone a divergent evolution. The first paintings were produced with a commitment to photorealism. As time progressed, the fidelity towards photorealism faded and an appreciation for my painterly process took priority. This show encapsulates an artistic journey I undertook while exploring photos with nothing but a distant connection. 

Nevan

A collection of things thought and seen between November and January documented on 86 drypoint prints creating a preciousness out of ideas that would have otherwise came and went, unnoticed.

Erin Grant & Gabriel Evans-Cook

Erin Grant is an interdisciplinary artist who often explores distorted boundaries, while also considering the constructions of relationships in a world conforming to society. Her work is often influenced by strangers of Guelph’s nightlife, capturing people’s raw perceptions and emotions within a given moment. By collecting various images/ texts from randomly selected participants, she is able to create new meanings and interpretations within her paintings/drawings.

Gabriel Evans-Cook is an artist primarily interested in photography. His work has revolved around looking outwards into his interpersonal relations and juxtaposing those experiences against a nagging and ever-continuous introspection. His work presents vignettes that reflect lived experiences frozen in time combined with observations deduced from an attempt at self-awareness. His findings are presented through an unpolished and stylized lens.

Both exhibiting artists have been Guelph residents for over half a decade. Each of which relies on the city (or its absence) to evoke their next subject of creation. The walls of What Are You Lookin’ At? hold documentarian styled photography by Gabriel Evans-Cook in combination with mixed media drawings by Erin Grant. Erin and Gabriel incorporated an element of performance in the process behind What Are You Lookin’ At? as the two artists went out into the streets of Guelph, searching for community participation to collect quotes to interpret, drawings to appropriate, and portraits to capture.