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2024 MFA Artist Talks

August 09, 2024 - September 19, 2024

This year, our MFA Candidates will be presenting their Artist Talks alongside their individual thesis exhibitions.

From Above, From Within
Yang Lan
May 15, at 6:00pm 
IN PERSON at the Gordon Snelgrove Gallery

Reverberations
Leanne Read
August 9, at 6:30pm 
IN PERSON at the Gordon Snelgrove Gallery

AJAKUBO (Whirlwind)
Demilade Otayemi
August 15, at 6:30pm
IN PERSON at the Gordon Snelgrove Gallery

LINE OF SIGHT
Jordan Bidyk
August 17, at 2:00pm
IN PERSON at The Gallery at the Frances Morrison Library

Monument to Dust
Jean-Sébastien Gauthier
August 29, at 6:30pm 
IN PERSON at the Gordon Snelgrove Gallery
or ONLINE
 via zoom

coyote dreams of easy prey
Aurora Wolfe
September 19, at 6:30pm
IN PERSON at the Gordon Snelgrove Gallery
or ONLINE
 via zoom

MFA Candidates

Originally from China, Yang Lan is a landscape painter who has spent decades living in the Middle East and a few years in the US. She earned her BFA degree from the University of Jordan, refining her skills in traditional painting techniques. Traveling plays a significant role in her life, deeply influencing her art practice. Nature serves as her primary inspiration for art creation, allowing her to explore the interplay of colour and shapes. Yang's artwork reflects the rhythms of her multi-perspective vision and the dynamic motion inherent in travel. Currently, in the final stage of pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Canada, she delves into themes of intuition, atmosphere, and vision, drawing inspiration from masters like Monet and Constable. Through her art, Yang invites viewers on a journey of discovery, celebrating the transformative power of travel and cultural immersion.

Her MFA Thesis Exhibition, From Above, From Withinran between May 13 - 24, 2024.

Leanne Read is currently pursuing her MFA at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, SK, specializing in interdisciplinary art with a strong emphasis on sculpture and digital media. Her recent artistic endeavours explore the transformative power of materials, particularly focusing on the deconstruction of pianos. Through a blend of hands-on experimentation and digital consideration, she examines how contemporary audiences interact with art, leveraging platforms like Instagram to blur distinctions between live performance and documented expression. Leanne's creative journey is fueled by a profound commitment to reclaiming materials and uncovering their narrative potential, which serves as both a personal exploration and a broader commentary on identity and connectivity in our digital era.

Her MFA Thesis Exhibition, Reverberations, ran between July 29 - August 9, 2024. 

Demilade Otayemi, a multidisciplinary artist from Nigeria, whose work serves as a powerful mirror to the ever-evolving identity and social consciousness of his environment.

His MFA Thesis Exhibition, AJAKUBO (Whirlwind), was on between August 12 - 22, 2024.

Jordan Bidyk graduated with his Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in fine arts from the University of Regina in 2020, completed a post-baccalaureate certificate in visual arts from the University of Regina in 2022, and is a current MFA candidate at the University of Saskatchewan on course to complete his program in 2024. He has received multiple scholarships for his studies throughout his educational journey, as well as acceptance into the minor of architectural studies from the University of Calgary in 2018. Jordan has produced dozens of works in the areas of drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture, a mounted two-person show, and several group exhibitions across Canada and the United States. His current focus lies in depicting abstracted and atmospheric architectural spaces that both follow and defy the pictorial logic of perspective, to add tension and curiosity to otherwise analytical and structured spaces. 

Jordan's MFA Thesis Exhibition, LINE OF SIGHT, and all accompanying events were held at The Gallery at the Frances Morrison Library. It was open between August 14 - 24, 2024.

Jean-Sébastien (JS) Gauthier is an intermedia artist who adopts inquiry and experimentation to create immersive works of art.

His MFA Thesis Exhibition, Monument to Dust, ran between August 26 - September 6, 2024.

Aurora Wolfe is a multimedia artist, researcher, and musician of Cree (Beardy’s and Okemasis Cree Nation) and Scottish descent. Her work centers on the relationships between Indigeneity and institutions, teasing out stories that have been overshadowed by the dominant colonial narrative. She holds an interest in exploring dynamic relationality and creating art that generates acts of kinship with the past, present, and future. 

Grounded within lived experience, her works dance between mediums, genres, and disciplines. Blending a tongue-in-cheek sensibility with historical reference, she unravels what it means to be displaced, and the simple yet complicated rituals of return. Alongside acts of truth-telling, aesthetics serve as both an entry point for viewers and a weapon against the fetishization of Indigenous pain. Through this lens, she firmly locates us in the here and now, and within our own complexities as living, feeling, and interactive beings. 

Her MFA Thesis Exhibition, coyote dreams of easy prey, was on between September 9 - 20, 2024.