Category: Exhibitions 2021 – 2022

Sarah Bryant

Hannah Pecyna

You know me too well aims to explore feelings of forced connection, invasion, discomfort and control. It seeks to inspect the feeling of someone digesting you without your consent, of them knowing you too well. 

Marjan Kaviani

In Solemn Silence is an exhibition that explores the relationship between the figure and the atmosphere. Kaviani’s current practice involves referencing photographs of her family through a second lens, one that is catered with feelings of discomfort and longing. She seeks to replicate the feeling of certain moments in life where numerous discrepancies in time, logic and space coalesce creating bizarre existential-like moments, in which she is constantly subject to, especially when she is brought face to face with her culture and relatives. Psychology influences Kaviani’s work immensely as she is completing her double major in Psychology along with Studio Art at the University of Guelph.

You can see more of Marjan’s work on Instagram @kavianigallery and on her website www.marjankaviani.com

Hannah Cattran

As a girl, I was fiery and unafraid. I believed that girls rule and boys drool and that my Mom was the coolest girl in the world. Girls could do anything boys could, especially me. I got older, and in late elementary school, I discovered the term “feminist” and adopted it with enthusiasm. I confidently pointed out sexism in my classmates and took my first formal feminist stance against elementary school dress codes. These works are for that girl who I am trying to rediscover. She was not thinking about how the boys see her. She never made herself small for the attention of a man.

Through a lengthy and intricate process, I created portraits of women that I know. The works begin as large pieces of muslin laid out on a flat surface. Then, I mix acrylic paint and water, stir vigorously and apply the pigment to the canvas as a stain. I use a sponge and a spray bottle to move the colour around the canvas. Once dry, I stitch over a thousand beads onto the canvas. Throughout the processes of staining and beading, a woman emerges from the canvas. I add beads until I am confident in the identity of the portrait.

The process is the most integral part of the work. Working with a large scale engages the entire body in the making process. Using my body and pushing it to its physical limits honours all of the women who came before me, who were not recognized for their contributions. Beads, needles, and thread represent women’s work and attempt to celebrate the sacrifices and strides women have made throughout history. These works acknowledge the profound impact women have had on me individually, and celebrate the condition of womanhood.

You can see more of Hannah’s work on her Instagram @hambonesart

Brennan Munshaw

Anna Golding

• 

RECOVERY FOR ME, RECOVERY FOR ALL, is an in-progress documentation of my recovery from breast reduction surgery. After my surgery in fall 2021 I developed feelings of shame and embarrassment towards my healing body. To ward off these feelings and to cope with my new body I started painting it. 

Take notice of the dried blood underneath the crusted surgical tape and the scarring running down the breasts’ curve, which in some cases are misshapen and bruised. Not only are these once-thought embarrassing details present in the paintings but brazenly emphasized with bold, almost blinding colours. 

I found out quickly that painting the stages of my recovery was important in tracking my physical healing, reaffirming my decision to get the surgery in the first place, and to console and resolve the abuse I’ve been feeding myself internally since the surgery, and long before that. 

I will bring attention to the beauty and strength of my own body, that of which I have only recently discovered, from all stages of my recovery up to the present. Viewers will leave the exhibition with awareness and a changed perspective of the negative stigma surrounding healing bodies. 

This exhibition will be as much for myself as it is for others, hence its title: RECOVERY FOR ME, RECOVERY FOR ALL. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Nerine Cavadias

Unwritten is an exhibition that seeks to explore the infinite possible ways that history could have played out. This work aims to subvert the expectations of a piece of art as something precious and valuable, to call back to the atrocities of the holocaust. Taking pieces from Adolf Hitler’s failed art career, drawing them into a book, then burning it, it felt like a poignant gesture and in a sense, poetic justice. The Holocaust was such a prominent and horrifying part of our history, which happened not even 100 years ago, and should not be forgotten. Rather than to reiterate the past, Unwritten calls to attention the limitless versions of history that did not come to pass due to the actions of one man with a country under his thumb. Almost asking the question; What is Hitler made it as an artist? Would the Nazis have burned so much cultural heritage? Would we have lost the millions of innocent souls? Would we even have had World War II? No matter how many different possibilities there are, we must not forget what happened and learn from the past to prevent history’s repetition.

This piece of art now ceases to exist but in a documented form through a variety of lenses-much alike most of our human history.

You can find more of Nerine’s work on Instagram @theartofnerine

Specialized Studio – Fall ’21

• 

Ben Lang

You can view more of Ben’s work on Instagram @beejlang or online at https://www.benjaminpeterlang.com/.