Studio Graduate Students

Black, Anthea

BIOGRAPHY
Anthea Black is a Canadian artist, art writer and cultural worker. She has attended NSCAD University, Alberta College of Art and Design, The Banff Centre, the University of Western Ontario and several international conferences on contemporary art and craft. She has most recently exhibited as part of PopSex! Responses to the History of Sexual Science at the Illingworth Kerr Gallery / ACAD in Calgary, Gestures of Resistance at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, OR and QIY: Queer It Yourself – Tools for Survival at the National Queer Arts Festival (USA). Her writing on contemporary art, craft, performance and queer film and video has been published widely and her collaborative research on craft and curatorial ethics with Nicole Burisch is included in new publications The Craft Reader (ed. Glenn Adamson, Berg Press) and Extra/ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art (ed. Maria Elena Buszek, Duke University Press). She has curated SINCERITY OVERDRIVE, SUPER STRING, Echo+Response: lipsynchs and remixes for critical queer geographies and worked to present the work of over 120 artists in her roles as Director of Stride Gallery, Board President of M:ST Performative Art Festival, program committee member for the Fairy Tales Queer International Film Festival and Exhibitions Manager at the Art Gallery of Alberta. Her current research situates craft and collaborative practices by queer and trans artists in relation to the making and mapping of new geographies, utopias, and as a “turn towards” the future.

STUDIO and RESEARCH INTERESTS
Canadian artist-run culture and institutions by artists; critical intersections (and tensions) between art/craft practice and activism; processing futurity, survival and self-sufficiency through a queer lens; feminist mentorship and collaborative exchange as sites for shared creative production; controversy, censorship and curatorial ethics within Canadian public and institutional spaces.

Looking for love in all the wrong places postering evening hosted by Anthea Black at La Centrale/Galerie Powerhouse, Montreal QC, as part of GENDER ALARM! Nouveaux féminismes en art actuel, September 2008. Photo credit: Onya Hogan Finlay

Brown, Kyla My installation-based painting and drawing practice focuses on land-space relationships, and the knowing /experiencing of sentimental space through shape.  I am interested in landscape narratives in terms of Canada’s historical and environmental identities.  Through shaping personal spaces and sourcing maps, aerial photographs and city diagrams, as well as technological mapping events like Google Earth, my research investigates painting as a building process that reflects conceptual and formal aspects of organization.  Here mapping is a way of understanding the places we act in and upon.  I think of space both in and around painting, so that the building of space happens in my work through indexing a real place.

Eurich, Liza

fail·ure –noun \'fāl-yər\

1 
a : omission of occurrence or performance; specifically : a failing to perform a duty or expected action 
b : (1) a state of inability to perform a normal function 
     (2) an abrupt cessation of normal functioning 
c : a fracturing or giving way under stress 

2
a : lack of success
b : a failing in business : BANKRUPTCY 

3
a : a falling short : DEFICIENCY 
b : DETERIORATION, DECAY

4
   : one that has failed

Isaacs, Brad

My practice, using analog and digital photography, involves exploring the liminal spaces where humanity and nature intersect. By looking at how our perceptions of ourselves and the natural world are mediated and constructed, I interrogate the notions of “human” and “natural”, seeking a more considered understanding of our place in the world, in terms of an ontological outlook.

Klassen, Neil

My practice of creating image surfaces in tar has materiality at its centre. My chosen medium and its connotation of a capitalist system reigned by the oil industry are not so central that I am ready to cast off picture making for the sake of conceptual stand-in. Thus, the appropriation of traditional imagery from the realm of Canadian art bolsters my ideas on viewer consumption of commodity, and speaks also to notions of reskilling; a way of maneuvering the conceptual without losing the object.

Mitrow, Laura For Laura Mitrow, an Ontario native, the distant oceans and the life that lives within serves as one starting point for her material driven works. Experimenting with textures and surfaces Laura attempts to create forms that are situated in the space between the organic and formal structure. Referencing many natural structures such as antlers, bone, corals, shells and crustaceans, Laura transforms these into both two and three dimensional abstractions. Using a process of creation in which her work grows in a similar method to the life forms that inspire her, Laura attempts to construct evolving systems that bridge together the organic and inorganic, worlds and merge life with art.

Neudorf, Kim

Kim completed her BFA from Alberta College of Art & Design in 2005. Her paintings have shown in exhibitions in the Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Stride Gallery, the Glenbow Museum, Trianon Gallery, and most recently by Skew Gallery in Calgary. In the Winter of 2005, Kim attended the Optic Nerve Thematic Residency at the Banff Centre. She was on the Board of Untitled Art Society and The New Gallery in Calgary from 2007-2008. Kim's critical writing and essays have been published in FFWD, shotgun-review.ca, Prairie Artsters, and Hamilton Arts & Letters.

In my studio practice and research, some of my recent interests are the smear, scratch, stain and labored gesture as strategies of making visible the conditions of affect within pictorial space.

"In the action of the hand which is raised towards an object is contained a reference to the object, not as an object represented, but as that highly specific thing towards which we project ourselves, near which we are, in anticipation, and which we haunt." (Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception)

O’Connor, Daniel I have been producing and exhibiting works made of steel, bronze, aluminum, wood and plaster. These sculptures are only one facet of my artistic practice, which also includes photography, video, performance and installation. Within these diverse media, I explore two different but interconnected themes. First, I examine the aesthetic potential of processes associated with physical labour and industrial practices. Second, I use the idea of transformation to engage audiences to reconsider familiar objects associated with intimacy and comfort. Time is important in my work: all things take time to make, but the time put into production can be hidden by surface finishes. By allowing surfaces to reveal and express their productive genesis, I provide audiences with a meditative experience. By revealing process and the rhythm of creation, I evoke, in the viewer, an understanding of sculpture as a dynamic act.

Turnbull, Scott My material practice engages painting as a means of investigating unusual and unexpected modes for conveying narrative. The paintings are informed by a specific mode of image appropriation that can be viewed as belonging to a premeditated, or deliberate type of visual strategy that seeks to legitimize the motives or actions of the appropriator(s). Through reference to the vast categories and received genres of art history, my work is involved with the invention of pictorial spaces that through the physical act of painting seek to develop a distinctive visual lexis.

Whitaker, Giles My studio research involves developing interactive systems or “ludic environments”, that are a critique of or alternative to commercial video games. Machinic subjectivities are developed through our interactions with video games and other high-tech tools – and these tend to involve the reinforcing of dominant (capitalist) ideologies. Video games act as instruments of “biopower” -  a concept developed by Michel Foucault to describe the decentralised methods of control in technological societies. Biopower extends into video games, with the mechanisms of play mimicking disciplinary structures in the “real” world. In my research I am seeking to develop interactive systems that are complex, engaging, and arouse curiosity and awareness of one's own processes of perception and cognition, instead of perpetuating normative ideologies or critiquing them in a didactic manner.

Thea Yabut

My main artistic discipline is drawing with which I explore abstraction, materials, and process. The abstraction that I am interested in aims to fuse forms observed in reality with images from my imagination. The result is a collection of semi-abstract images which intend to defy categorisation and stimulate visual associations from the viewer. I view semi abstraction as an “archive” of images that make up personal visual language and identity. I am also concerned with installation and how my drawings may be placed in response to the space in which they are installed. I consider the installed drawings as a family of objects that acquire meaning through the manner of their display.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/jUux9zrMqz1N3CcdT954mDjwxuA4yM5EjjY6aHZU8u0?feat=directlink

Yoo, Diana In my art practice, I am interested in the politics of space, perception and multiple viewpoints. My research is based on how we, as individuals, experience architecture on a subjective level, but also on a socio-political one. I am drawn to the experience of geometric lines, interior corners and various angles that refer to the grid. I feel driven to photograph public spaces that were made for development and growth of individuals. In my work, I question how experiencing public spaces may be vehicles of change, which in turn can legitimate the space of a “place” in contemporary society.

Art History Graduate Students

Anderson, Stephanie

I received my undergraduate degree in Art History from Queen’s University and began the MA in Art History program at UWO in 2010. My primary areas of interest include critical museum studies and identity politics, including feminist and postcolonial theory and practice, and I have become particularly interested in issues of national identity and nation-building, exploring the ways art and culture is mobilized by various government groups in the service of social, political, and economic objectives within, between, and among nations. Following this line of inquiry, my thesis research will examine international exhibitions of Canadian Inuit art in relation to Canadian foreign policy interests and diplomatic relations since WWII, with a particular focus on the evolving issue of Canadian Arctic sovereignty and northern foreign policy development up to and including the present time. I will explore the ways in which the representation of Inuit art in the national image has evolved in response to the shifting relationship between Canadian Inuit groups and the Canadian state as well as the radically evolving significance of the circumpolar world in international politics and will highlight the social, ideological and political goals of Inuit groups in this context, particularly as Canadian and international interests in the Arctic intersect, complement, or conflict with demands for reform and self-determination by Canadian indigenous peoples.

Angove, Samantha

In my research I am looking at Aboriginal-Canadian artist Dana Claxton and Aboriginal-Australian artist Tracey Moffatt and their use of a ‘double colonized’ identity in their videos, I Want to Know Why (1994), and Nice Coloured Girls (1987), respectively. These videos address the historical understanding of a colonized experience and re-contextualize it to better understand the contemporary process of identity formation that currently exist in Canadian or Australian culture. In looking at identity as brought forward by Claxton and Moffatt, I will also focus on the implications of the affective response a viewer has to such identity formation and other postcolonial issues the artists concentrate on in their works.

Below is a link to view Moffatt’s video:
http://www.ubu.com/film/moffatt_girls.html

Bentley, Simon

Franklin, Jordana

I am interested in the potential for art to elicit emotional responses. In particular, I am focusing on the confessional and autobiographical production of artists such as Tracey Emin and Hannah Wilke to analyze how such works draw reactions from the viewers. My interest in this area stems from my experience with art collectors, where I ascertained that art appreciation outside of art historical discourse is often based on how a work makes someone feel. However, as writers like James Elkin have noted, the previous century witnessed a decline in the recognition of art's emotional value. My project draws on the growing interest in affect theory in order to bridge the gap between the politics of art and the emotions it arouses.

Klaric, Stefani

My thesis research concentrates on the immersive experience of panorama paintings. Panorama paintings, which were popular visual attractions in the nineteenth century, provided viewers with a 360 degree view of a particular scene. The viewer entered from below and stood on an unlit and railed observation platform, often with a false terrain populated with three-dimensional objects that worked to conceal the transition from real space to the two-dimensional illusory world of the canvas. The result was a sense that the observer was part of the work and able to enter its world. I argue that by paying attention to the body of the viewer within the illusion of the panorama room, new light can be shed on the attraction of simulated spaces in twenty-first century entertainments such as amusement park attractions (the new Harry Potter Theme Park is a case in point). Such theme parks transport the visitor to a different world, which has the illusion of being real and mimics the type of space one would have seen in film or read in books. A modern desire for entering immersive environments can thus be traced back to popular mass media in the nineteenth century. I will also extend this research to consider how the immersive experience of the panorama functioned, as it may shed light on our own experience in themed spaces.

Quick, Sophie

My thesis investigates long durational performance art concentrating on the implications of the artist, the spectator and the institution. Examining the work of Chris Burden, Joseph Beuys and Vito Acconci, I ask: What are the responsibilities of the spectator? And how do we view long durational performances?

I am also interested in theories of witnessing and spectatorship, historical trauma, representations of memory, theories of embodiment, bodily objecthood, butoh, and performance art involving water and ritual.

Ritchie, Laura

I came to the UWO Department of Visual Arts with a Background in Collections Management and Arts Administration. After serving as the Registrar at New Brunswick’s Beaverbrook Art Gallery, and then as Executive Director of the New Brunswick Crafts Council, I have returned to academia to further my knowledge of contemporary art practices and to expand my curatorial interests.
My research at Western is focused on the social and institutional histories of artists groups, arts organizations and collectives, with a particular interest in labour movements, their potential impact on the production of artistic works, and issues of the arts worker as labourer. To date I have taken particular interest in modern painting (post WWI) and the relationships between modern schools in America and Canada. I also intend to further examine the relevance of the 1941 Kingston Conference and subsequent Massey Reports on artist groups and artistic production in the Atlantic Provinces.

Romano, Natalie

My Thesis interests are generally concerned with contemporary public art exhibitions that interrogate, expose, and reformulate the discourses that govern cultural knowledge. The subject of my thesis is Toronto’s Nuit Blanche, an annual one-night public art exhibit. My intention is to outline the emergence of the public art exhibit, drawing on the history of the salon and biennial. More specifically, I want to show how public art exhibitions like Nuit Blanche create a ‘carnivalesque’ atmosphere. Cultural theorist, Mikhail Bakhtin introduces the idea of the ‘carnivalesque’ as those moments in society when societal norms are turned on their head. Just like the Black Out in August 2003 in Toronto, Nuit Blanche is a fleeting moment that seeks to bring people together in different ways. I will reference post-structural theorists, which will assist me in answering and arguing my questions: What do public art exhibits, like Nuit Blanche seek from us? What are they asking of us more than out physical involvement? What are their ideological cultural functions? And how have they evolved?

Ruhloff, Melissa

At present, I am concentrating on Canadian contemporary art and artists who visually reference specific historical and canonical artworks and artists.  I am attracted to how artists question, confirm or resist “the canon” through the adaptation and/or imitation of specific canonical works.  Issues central to my area of interest include, but are not limited to canonization, originality, influence, authenticity, authorship and appropriation.  I am currently researching artists Damian Moppet, Kim Adams and Diana Thorneycroft.

Skinner, Morgan

I am interested in the work of the artist Cao Fei as a model for understanding how art depicting utopian ideals can permeate society as a form of activism. Cao Fei’s ideal society is realized in her creation of RMB City which is present in the virtual world of Second Life. I want to apply the work of Miles Malcolm, who explores alternative settlements as a space for the possibility of utopian ideals to exist, to the work of Cao Fei. I am positioning my argument to privilege fantasy as the fuel of the world showing how the virtual or fantastical can be more tangible than what exists outside the realm of the imagination. I will utilize the theory produced by Zhai Zhenming on the ontological equivalency of the ‘real’ world and virtual worlds to support this notion.

Cierra Webster

In the UWO Master’s program, I am working on an integrated-article thesis that examines contemporary art practices through queer methodological frameworks. Particularly, my thesis will examine the Hide/Seek Smithsonian exhibition, Kent Monkman’s paintings, and General Idea’s FILE Megazine publication. I situate Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture and its censorship controversies in queer politics and the homonormative movement, and ask, what are the implications of Hide/Seek as the first successful major gay art exhibition? Furthermore, in analysing Kent Monkman’s painting series from 2010, I argue that Monkman mutually imbricates queer studies and settler colonialism to deconstruct and unsettle the stereotypes and mythologies found within the dominant art culture. Lastly, I argue that General Idea’s FILE Megazine, published from 1972 to 1989, sought new modes of presenting and expressing queerness that distanced itself from the growing gay mainstream ‘alternative’ movement. Applying these concepts to very different but equally important areas of visual culture should generate a rigorous examination of queer theoretical ideas and shed light on how they can help us better unpack particular art practices. As such, my thesis will be situated in queer theory discourse, but will also contribute to opening up new avenues for art theory.