Sahar Soheilisadigh
March 1, at 12:30pm 
IN PERSON at the Gordon Snelgrove Gallery

I am an interdisciplinary Iranian artist based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. I hold an MA and BA in Visual Communication Design and am currently an MFA candidate at the University of Saskatchewan. I work primarily in photography and Digital Arts.

Fascinated with the mysteries of human perception, I consider them as a source of inspiration for my artistic research and practices. In my research into perception, I became particularly interested in a rare sensory perception called synesthesia, which is a neurological phenomenon with different forms. The type that I consider a source of inspiration, however, is coloured hearing, which involves perceiving auditory stimuli through sight, and seeing sound in the form of shapes, colours or movements. Such a perceptual phenomenon has long inspired many artists, with the luckiest experiencing it literally. Nevertheless, although not many people experience such a perception, it seems to be possible for everyone to make synesthetic associations due to the multisensory feature of perception.

The focus of my artistic practice is the examination of the relationships between sound and images as objects of perception in time-based art. In my work, I employ combinations of aural and visual elements in an iconic, symbolic and metaphoric way to create synesthetic experiences for my audience. I explore surrounding themes of alienation, displacement, anticipation, and solitude.

Shelby Lund
March 1, at 6:30pm 
IN PERSON at the Gordon Snelgrove Gallery 

Shelby Lund is an emerging Canadian visual artist whose practice is an ongoing exploration of her own physicality in relationship to the planetary system that we live within. With a continual yearning to know the mysteries of Earth, her subject matter is most often informed by spaces that pulsate – with life, and death, and infinite potential. Being immersed in her environment to physically explore in unstructured and playful ways is central to her practice. Shelby’s focus is not limited to any one place or point of origin, so instead reflects both her changing geographical locations as well as the interconnectedness of all living and non-living forms.

In Shelby’s artistic practice, painting, photography, and sculpture become visual experiments, recording personal moments of curiosity, intuitive decision-making, and a persistent desire to surrender to uncertainty. Through both historical and current photographic processes, sculptural gestures, and representational and abstract paintings, her ever-evolving relationship with the cosmos and Earth is revealed. It is through experiential learning that Shelby becomes deeply embodied, as her totality is reflected in the mysterious and cyclical nature of our universe, and it in her. With her artwork mirroring the phenomena and relationality of the world, either in creative process or representation of subject matter, vibrancy is revealed.

Shelby Lund is from Saskatoon, Canada, and works primarily in painting, photography, and installation practices. In 2015 she received her BFA with great distinction from the University of Saskatchewan. Shelby is currently completing her MFA at the same institution and is expecting to graduate this upcoming fall, 2023. Shelby is the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, with the most notable being the BMO 1st Art! prize and the SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship. Shelby has shown provincially in projects at the Art Gallery of Swift Current, Mann Art Gallery, AKA artist-run, and PAVED Arts. She has also exhibited nationally in juried exhibitions at the Byward Market Gallery, the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, and the John. B. Aird Gallery.

Brody Burns
March 8, at 12:30pm
IN PERSON at the Gordon Snelgrove Gallery

I produce artwork that examines the connection between indigenous nations' traditional and modern knowledge. In my artistic practice, flux is essential. Energy is vibrational information that changes states. It is transmitted from one generation to the next, but it is also disrupted in several ways. How I can record that change as energy stretches, contracts, and changes throughout time is what interests me. My personal experiences and current world events have an impact on the artwork I create. I use my artistic work to address and heal issues like trauma, loss of language, loss of identity, loss of culture, and so on. Learning traditional knowledge and language is important to me, but I use my artistic practice, which blends traditional and modern techniques, to reimagine this knowledge in my own way.

Narges Porsandekhial
March 15, at 12:30pm
IN PERSON at the Gordon Snelgrove Gallery

While everything has been said before we still yearn to find new ways to enter into conversation to address key concerns and concepts anew. It is particularly this repetition that both bores and excites me. In seeking a connection within the repetition of daily life, I aim to create a familiar condition that welcomes anyone, regardless of their positionality. I believe that art should not be a luxurious object or activity that only a certain group can relate to. In their emphasis on the importance of access to art socially engaged practices and public art best serve my intentions. Through removing any physical or monetary barrier to the experience of art, these fields often exist beyond institutions and invite the new relationships I seek out in the repositioning of the mundane and everyday.

Narges Porsandekhial (she/her) is an Iranian multidisciplinary artist. She primarily works in installation, text-based work, socially engaged, and public art. In her works, she creates the conditions for an experience to happen by removing the artist’s direct presence in the artwork while focusing on conceptual and social practices, and mental health issues, each as a form of inherent institutional critique.