Alleah Bowring

Distance // To Feel Close

March 28 - April 1, 2022

Gordon Snelgrove Gallery

The artist, Alleah Bowring, is currently completing two honours projects in studio art and psychology. Her psychology research asked participants to create art in response to their pandemic experience which has been incorporated into and forms the inspiration for the installation.

The installation is divided into two spaces; the first portrays a living room, reminding us of time spent at home, isolation, and quarantine. It is filled with many items reflective of hobbies adopted during the pandemic. A sense of unease and anxiety is accentuated within the details and décor. Adorning the walls, where we would normally see art or photos, COVID-19 charts of death counts and safety measures occupy the frames. A homemade blanket, that would typically bring warmth, safety, and comfort, is made from masks, evoking a sense of ‘dis-ease’ and discomfort.

In the second part of the exhibit, sanitizer, plexiglass, and taped-off paths on the floors mimic the health and safety, and social distancing measures set in place in the public sphere; however, here the crowd control markers are arranged in a way that misdirects the viewer and leads to an experience mimicking the uncertainty and confusion faced while navigating the pandemic over the past two years. A participatory element asks you, the viewer, to reflect on your pandemic experience and to feel connected to our shared experience of it: what does it mean to inhabit a space, to connect, and to feel close?

About the Artist

Alleah Bowring is a Saskatoon based artist currently completing a double honours degree in studio art and psychology through the University of Saskatchewan with art therapy as her focus. Her art practice is multifaceted in its approach, combining many interests and mediums such as painting, clay, and printmaking within the digital realm. Tying together her interests of psychology and art, her work aims to create a visceral experience that reminds us of our connections to nature and to each other.

Keitha McClocklin

Metamorphosis

March 28 - April 1, 2022

Gordon Snelgrove Gallery

Metamorphosis is a playful, juxtapositional take on the everyday experiences of youth. Inspired by Ovid’s 8th Century AD poem, “Metamorphoses,” which brought awareness and awe into otherwise overlooked moments of the everyday, the term is used here to similarly address the transformational period between childhood and adulthood.

This exhibition depicts the light-hearted and complex themes of the teenage years, including competition, independence, and expectation. My work mines the scenes of daily life, often adding a fun twist such as juxtaposing imagery of inebriated teenagers with a sober dog in Desire and Reason, or by depicting tough female hockey players preparing for a game whilst also braiding each other’s hair in Tender Roses or Prickly Thorns. These paradoxical elements serve to keep the narrative open and offer the viewer a ‘slower read’ of the paintings.

Grounded in art history, a love of math, perspective and geometry, these works reference compositions by historical artists such as Piero della Francesca, Degas, and Artemisia Gentileschi, while simultaneously using a contemporary approach at the junction of figuration and abstraction.

I work in a range of disciplines including painting, drawing, and printmaking, often weaving techniques from one practice to another. Characterized by the use of layers, multiple media, chromatic colour, and a playful mixture of simultaneously rendering form and flattening pictorial space with collage and pattern, the pieces are both playful and visceral. I challenge the viewer to make links between the layers in order to reveal a complexity; to tell a story that captures Ovid’s observation: “time flies on and follows…What was before/Is left behind.”

About the Artist

Keitha is a Saskatchewan-based contemporary artist working in a range of disciplines including painting, printmaking, and drawing – often weaving techniques from one discipline to another. Her work is characterized by the use of chromatic colour, layers, multiple media, and a playful mixture of rendering form while simultaneously flattening pictorial space through collage and pattern. Keitha was one of thirty students selected from across Canada to participate in the National Undergraduate Printmaking Exhibition in 2021. Her print, Tale of the Temple, was awarded third-place prize. Keitha’s techniques and subject matter are at the junction of figuration and abstraction which give her work its unique contemporary feel.