(Re)Connecting
Various Artists
November 25, 2024 - November 29, 2024
Snelgrove Art Gallery
Curated by Laser Diva Tart Collective
Gallery Hours: Monday - Thursday between 10am - 4pm, and Friday from 10am - 12pm Introductory Event: Tuesday, November 26th at 5:00pm Closing Reception: Thursday, November 28th at 5:00pm Image credit:
Tower/Dan (1993)
Ron Kostyniuk
enamel and marbel base on MDF
13.5 cm (width) 33 cm (height) 7.5 cm (depth)
Collection of the University of Saskatchewan,
Gift of the artist, 2002.
About the Exhibition
As we grow older and modern everyday public spaces increasingly resemble the traditional White Cube of a gallery, our classrooms and offices have often become deprived of warmth and coziness. We seek to reimagine the traditional White Cube of the Gordon Snelgrove Gallery into a space that takes up the time before the everyday was defined, focusing on themes of (re)connecting with our sensoria and inviting exploration. This invites (re)connecting with the emotions and experiences reminiscent of the world prior to the enculturation of adulthood. In the process, we will challenge the concepts of what high art is by showcasing a style of modern art similar to artwork* historically looked down on by oppressive forces through exhibitions like the exhibition Entartete Kunst/Degenerate Art held in Germany 1937.
The exhibition title (Re)Connecting, points to the aspect of adulthood in which we often have to reconnect and rediscover our earlier wonder and innocence. By placing the (Re) in parentheses in our title, we acknowledge that some will be entering into this space of wonder again while also welcoming those who never had such experiences to come to this for the first time. In our exhibition choices, we wish to help people reconnect, or newly connect, with the earlier experience of discovering everything for the first time as well as the excitement, wonder, and confusion that accompanies that period of one’s life.
The works we display range from a variety of artists, with each inducing a form of simplicity or imagination whose meaning may not be readily apparent through the analytical lens of an encultured mind. Additionally, we turn the White Cube into an interactive space so that instead of the body being an intrusion, it is encouraged to become participant and of the space. We do this by making the gallery akin to areas of play with bright colours, spatial interventions, and potential reconnections that encourage exploration.
Curatorial Team
Moss Allen is a nêhiyaw artist majoring in Studio Art and Art History and minoring in Sociology. Moss tends to work mainly digitally but likes to experiment with traditional mediums like watercolour, ink, acrylic, and beading. Moss is primarily a figurative artist who likes to incorporate and consider a variety of human experiences into their artworks.
Mileva Elias (she/her) is a student artist currently studying Psychology and Fine Art at the University of Saskatchewan. With studying the perceptual practices of art, she aims to collaborate with artists in learning more about human behavior. She is interested in how viewers navigate space, visual biases that people have, and the role of laterality within artwork.
Aldeneil Española Jr. is a 4th year Studio Arts student exploring the relationship of colour with space in 2D and 3D through painting, drawings, painting and textiles.
Ashley Espino is a 3rd-year Art History student with a keen interest in museum work, particularly in exhibition curation and installation. She hopes to apply what she has learned through this experience and looks forward to working in a museum setting in the future.
Andy Giang is a fourth-year Interactive System Design student at the University of Saskatchewan. Originally from New Zealand and eventually arriving in Canada in 2005, he has an interest in human interaction and utility in relation to software development, specifically creating visually appealing but intuitively functional front-end interfaces.
Stephanie Hanson, from Saskatoon, SK on Treaty Six territory, is a linguistics student who enjoys studying how meaning is constructed through language, art, and storytelling. In her spare time she likes to weave and make macrame.
Mattea Hughes is a 4th year Interactive Systems Design student working towards expanding her artistic repertoire in as many mediums as she can manage. She is interested in the feelings contained in a three dimensional space and hopes to continue to explore that in both interactive art forms and more traditional styles.
Adam Logan is a Canadian-born visual and audio artist, multi-instrumentalist, and educator whose work spans abstract photography, audiovisual installations, and intermedia collaborations; his solo practice includes kinetic visual abstractions, time-based media, and aleatoric and generative soundscapes involving perception, memory, and dimensionality themes.
Madison Neufeld is a fourth year art history student with an interest in how art is used as a medium in response to cultural and societal dynamics.
William is a young queer man who was born and raised in small-town Saskatchewan, but now lives in the city and is a Usask undergrad who approaches curation from the artists’ corner. While he is currently working towards his Bachelors of Arts and Sciences, he does hold a BFA and works primarily either digitally or with various paints, tending to favour people as subject.
Versailles Rizos is a student at the University of Saskatchewan currently finishing her bachelors of art history.
Danaka Stromberg is a Métis artist from Saskatoon currently in the final year of her BFA at the University of Saskatchewan. She is passionate about painting in a variety of styles using acrylic mediums and has recently developed a love for sculpting.
Gracyn Torgerson is an artist from Rose Valley, Saskatchewan, Treaty four territory, who's currently a third year BFA student. With a major in Studio Art, she focuses on painting, drawing and animation.
Melissa Trebish is a third year Art History and Anthropology Student, she was born and raised in Saskatoon on Treaty 6 Territory. Her area of interest is material culture of the past and the ways it is and was interacted with.
Ozen Turkekul Wersch is a Turkish Canadian artist whose abstract practice, focused mostly on painting and drawing, draws from her diverse experiences and explores themes of uncertainty, impermanence, and human fragility through rich textures and contrasts, guided by a process-focused and intuitive approach. She integrates over two decades of geoscience expertise with her artistic vision to create emotionally resonant works that invite viewers to reflect on the complexities of the human experience.
Featured Artists
Ron Kostyniuk (b. 1941 Wakaw, SK) is a Canadian artist who primarily focuses on constructed reliefs and geometric forms. He received a B.A. in Biology and a B.Ed. at the University of Saskatchewan in 1963. After teaching as a Biology high school teacher within Brandon MB and Edmonton AB, he returned to school receiving a B.F.A. at the University of Alberta (1969). Kostyniuk then travelled to Madison Wisconsin, completing an M.Sc. (1970) and an M.F.A. (1971) at the University of Wisconsin. Through sculpture and drawing, Kostyniuk began developing his signature constructivist style in 1963 which would resonate throughout his body of work. His pieces have been exhibited locally and internationally including the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB (1968); University of Calgary Art Gallery, Calgary AB (1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1978); The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago IL (1972, 1973, 1978, 1987); The India International Center, New Delhi India (1986); Kazimir Gallery, Chicago IL (1967); Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale FL (1988); and the World Trade Centre, Rotterdam Netherlands (1989). He has also received multiple awards including a Canada Council Arts Award (1969), and was elected into the Royal Canadian Academy of Art (1975). Kostyniuk is currently working as a sculpture professor at the University of Calgary.
Programming and Events
Introductory Event: Tuesday, November 26th at 5:00pm
Closing Reception: Thursday, November 28th at 5:00pm
