Medicine Hat College has put the ME in museum with this year’s Visual Communications grad show. Visual Communications Instructor, Poul Nielsen explains, “This year’s exhibition, MESEUM, is centered on the individual student and its theme is simply, ME. I believe that it is essential that each student / artist enter into the mystery of their own existence and unique identity.“

MESEUM is an art and design exhibition showcasing the work of 21 graduating students from Visual Communications program at Medicine Hat College. On display April 13 to 25, 2013 with the opening reception on April 13 beginning at 7 p.m. Opening night will give you attendees the opportunity to speak with the artists and designers about their current work. Live performances and refreshments will be included in the evenings events.

Graduating students have recently wrapped their first community campaign, “Pop Up Portrait Studio”. Students volunteered to attend local events with a large gold frame and photographer to provide free portraits. All portrait participants will be displayed in a photo installation as part of the art and design exhibition, MESEUM.

MESEUM will be launching its “Frame Me” campaign the first week of April. Visit www.meseum.ca for more information about exhibitors and to follow and participate in our events.

Reception starts on Saturday, April 13 at 7PM.
Show open daily from April 14 to April 25.

Centennial Hall
Medicine Hat College
299 College Drive SE
Medicine Hat, Alberta

“To brush history against the grain and write a different account, one that deepens our understanding… one that seeks to reveal the interstices of resistance and pain.”
– Walter Benjamin, Thesis on the Philosophy of History

Portraits of Loss by Safira Lachapelle

Loss as an emotion that shapes history
What role does cultural identity play in the development of individuals and societies? I continually seek perspective to this question through the processes of cultural immersion and documentation. Reoccurring themes within my work reveal ideas of environmental sustainability, obsolescence, impermanence, humanity’s relationship to earth, traditional First Nation’s worldview, kinship, dreams, visions, the soul, and immortality.

The current ongoing focus of my work is an immersion in the personal, cultural, and historical perspectives that surround loss, specifically from suicide and accident. Suicide has been called Canada’s silent epidemic, and along with accident is the leading cause of death in young men, particularly in First Nation’s communities. These forms of loss are unique in that they offer survivors an unexpected life. My interest and experience with unexpected loss and contemporary First Nations culture presents an opportunity to open this dialogue.

Listening as a form of art
The intent of this installation is to continue exploring techniques that can be used to most effectively tell story. Story has the potential to act as impetus for personal and societal growth; this is a fundamental understanding in First Nation’s oral history teaching methodologies. I am interested in coalescing personal oral history collection with the creation of installation art. The documentation of personal stories will act as a primer for the creation of work and offer an open-ended interpretation to a melding of personal, cultural, and historical perspectives. My aim is that these interpretations will evoke memory and help guide the viewer to a greater truth.

I am interested in how media such as drawing, installation, print making, text, sound, and video interact and layer meaning for audience. Is a story interpreted physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually by the viewer? Are cognitive and perceptive processes enhanced when diverse mediums work together? How do auditory, visual, and tactile stimuli affect that response?

Biography:
Safira Lachapelle is born and raised in Medicine Hat. She has just returned to Medicine Hat to finish the last year of her arts degree. This show was made possible through funding from the Saskatchewan Arts Board and Battlefords and District Community Foundation Inc.

Show Info:
January 7 – 11 @ 11am – 8pm
Reception: January 11 @ 7pm
Medicine Hat College Room N159

Another Visual Communications graduation show is upon us! As is the tradition, every year the Visual Communications students throw and end-of-the-year celebration and exhibition to showcase their talent and work. This year’s graduation show, entitled Collect, looks to be very diverse in the work presented and seems to range between all forms of media; from digital, to mixed media, to paintings and drawings, to photography, and much more.

Some of the graduates may already be familiar faces around Medicine Hat, such as Social Threat’s lead singer Kyle Hodgman who has created some cool punk rock designs, Or Gerrit Kat who is a local photographer and the creator of Ginger Kid Studios.

It’s nice to see every year that websites and social media are becoming more popular choices for advertising and sending out invites to the graduation shows. This year the students are advertising their work through Twitter, Facebook and Vimeo. In addition, many graduates have even taken an additional step and created their own websites so they will continue to have a web presence long after the show has run its course.

The show opens the night of April 14th at 7PM and students will be on hand to showcase their work and portfolios and will be available for questions and comments. The show will continue to run until the 22nd. Light refreshments and snacks will be provided followed by an after show party.

More information can be found at the official website: http://www.collectgradshow.com/

The Esplanade Art Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of two new exhibitions, Z’otz* Collective and The Faculty Show, on display until December 18. There will be a reception with the artists on November 24 at 7 PM, part of the Downtown Artwalk and in conjunction with Midnight Madness.

Z’otz* Collective

“It is said that when bats arrive in a new place, they form clusters. This is a central premise for the members of Z’otz*, a Toronto-based art collective comprised of Nahúm Flores, Erik Jerezano and Ilyana Martínez, three artists who initially united because of a shared heritage — all have Latin American roots… Zotz is the Mayan word for bat, represented in pre-Columbian Maya hieroglyphics as the stylized head of a leaf-nosed bat. Rich in dualities, the bat was worshipped for both its dark and light qualities… For this ancient culture, bats were a symbol of dreaming, intuition and vision — of ideas taking flight.” Independent art curator, Mark Laliberte.

The art of Z’otz* tells stories where hybrid beasts and wild characters inhabit odd and imaginary lands. Z’otz*’s quirky and often outrageous work reflects a combined sense of humour that fills their drawing sessions with endless laughter and fun. This exhibition presents Z’otz*’s recent drawings and ceramics and is curated by Mark Laliberte. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication produced in partnership with the Thames Art Gallery, Chatham, Ontario, and the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery, SK.

On November 23-24 Nahúm, Erik and Ilyana will publicly create a 30 foot-long wall mural in the Esplanade Art Gallery, filled with beasts, fables, and humour.

The Faculty Show

Every two years the art and design instructors of Medicine Hat College’s Visual Communications Program show Medicine Hat their all-new paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, graphic design and projected video. The exhibition gives a snapshot of their current creative interests and the issues underlying their work, and showcases their impressive range of artistic techniques. It’s a big biannual show by artists of today, who teach artists of tomorrow.

Medicine Hat College approached the City of Medicine Hat last year with a proposal to gain full use of the Cultural Centre for the expansion of the Visual Communications Program. The City agreed to work with the College and key stakeholders to look at viable solutions to relocate the current City supported user groups, but City Council has determined it is not financially feasible for the City to relocate the groups from the Cultural Centre.

“The College has been notified of the City’s decision and operation of the Cultural Centre will continue to be a shared responsibility of the City and the College,” said Ray Barnard, Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Medicine Hat.

The Cultural Centre opened in 1983 as a shared project of the City and the College and will continue to be a place for Arts and Culture to thrive in the Medicine Hat Community.

“Our goal has been to find an affordable way of serving the needs of our students, and I offer my thanks to the City for the energy and time they committed to their evaluation,” said Dr. Ralph Weeks, President & CEO of Medicine Hat College. “Our motivation to steward resources intended for post-secondary education, and provide appropriate space for our students, continues.”

Medicine Hat College Visual Communications students will be exhibiting their work from April 9-17, 2011 at Medicine Hat College Centennial Hall. The exhibition is open daily from 9:00am – 4:30pm. The reception is being held Saturday, April 9th at 7:00pm.

For those unfamiliar with Medicine Hat:

• Medicine Hat College
• 299 College Dr. SE
• Medicine Hat, Alberta

“This year’s graduating exhibition for Visual Communications students is an examination, exploration and exploitation into the social, moral, and ethical implications of the business of repurposing these axiomatic brands and compositions. The magnifying lens is on how often and how pervasively our culture uses and reuses images and brands for their own purpose.” Nelson Yuen – Instructor

For more information, please contact

• Gail Snider
• phone: 403.529.3959
• Email: gsnider@mhc.ab.ca
• Visit our website

The Roving Art Reception is the first event to happen in the newly launched and formed “The Hive Artist’s Hub“. The art reception is happening from 7:00PM to 10:00PM and will even feature a live band, aptly named, “Art School”. The live and local band will be performing from 7:00PM to 8:00PM.

The reception will be featuring the art of: Kelsie Risling, Alana Holst, Mitchell Martin, Chelsea Scott, Kristian Jungk and Tobie Laliberte. It’s almost a post-Visual Communications show in a sense with that line-up.

The Hive is located at 569 2nd Street SE.

All the Colours of the Spectrum is also happening tonight as part of the Roving Art Exhibition, please view the full post here.

Reconciliation Invite Image

It seems Medicine Hat Media has been left out of the Visual Communications graduation show media release for the second year in a row. This is the last time we will advertise for them! Just kidding… or am I?

The exhibition for the graduation show is open daily between April 3-12 from 9:30AM and 4:30PM in the Medicine Hat College’s main lobby. The reception happens on Friday, April 9th, at 7:00PM, which coincides with The Children’s Hour that starts up at 7:30PM on the 9th.

I have received an invitation through my place of employment for the grad show, but it does not give too much information about what you can expect by attending the show. So judging by their website, reconcilehere.ca, it looks as though there are drawings, paintings, photographs, graphic design and perhaps sculptures.

The branding for the grad show  is done again with a straight Helvetica type face. The website is a minimalistic WordPress theme, which unlike past years, allows everyone with access to the back-end of it to log in and upload their own photos. The website allows users to “Reconcile“, whereby the user can post any reconciliations they have, which will then automatically be posted to the website. I posted one:

I am a sad panda that this website was not submitted to http://www.medicinehatmedia.com to raise awareness for the reception!
-Sean

I hope this years graduation show is not advertised to be environmentally friendly, like last year’s Lost & Found show, whose organizers purchased huge amounts of corrugated cardboard to be connotative of the theme, which was probably just thrown out afterwards.

The reception should be host to food and alcoholic/non-alcoholic beverages, music and dancing. Come down, check some art, hear some music and get your fill of food. THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »

Painting by Dean Smale

In this issue of Art Exposure I will be talking about Dean Smale – a Medicine Hat based musician, artist, and teacher for the Visual Communications course at the Medicine Hat College.

Dean is undoubtedly an amazing painter. His paintings are highly realistic, going so far as to depict the flow of blood under the papery skin of an elderly subject in some cases. They say that you cannot paint every leaf on a tree, but Dean only takes that statement as a challenge. Many of the subjects of his paintings are rendered in the nude, or are elderly, but in many cases both. His painting style involves building up textures, light, and shadows by using many layers of paint: undoubtedly a lengthy process.

In Dean’s paintings only by peering deep into his work can all the connections be made. For instance, in the portrait to the side, the woman’s earrings are hourglasses that have run out; a symbol of her age.

His illustrations are often amusing, but if you lack a modern or youthful sense of humour, they will just seem very perverse. Similar to his paintings close observation of Dean’s illustrations is required to see what is going on, since body parts can be so easily disguised.

His exhibits can often be seen in Medicine Hat, but are frequently in cities such as Edmonton and Calgary. Dean’s work has  even be seen in American galleries.

As a teacher, Dean encourages his students to produce good work at any cost. In one instance he went so far as to tell me that I should quit my job and rob a bank, all in an effort to spend more time creating art. I am pretty sure he was joking… or was he?

In addition to visual arts, Dean is also an accomplished guitarist. It is not unusual to see him perform at Visual Communications art shows. I have heard his style of playing described as “Way the f- out there! I don’t even know what to call it!”

Check out the galleries after the jump:

THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »

The First Year students in the Visual Communication program at The Medicine Hat College are holding an exhibition at the Medalta Squared Gallery to showcase their best work so far in their career as artists.

The show runs from January 21st to February 1st and the opening reception is on Friday, January 29th at 8:00PM.

There will, as usual, be snacks and drinks for guests to partake in. Go have a looksee.