• Dong-Kyoon Nam: proce-ss-emblage|distanced-matters

    Exhibition: April 25 – May 16, 2024

    The Artlab Gallery presents Dong-Kyoon Nam's PhD thesis exhibition, titled "proce-ss-emblage|distanced-matters". You're invited to the opening reception on Thursday, April 25 from 5pm to 7pm. Additionally, join us again on Wednesday, May 1 at 2pm to bring your questions, concerns, doubts, and inspirations related to your thoughts, observations, and experiences from the exhibition. Dong-Kyoon Nam will briefly discuss his ideas and practice with Steven Debruyn, an MFA candidate. Following this, we'll open up the floor for a community discussion on everyone's responses to the exhibition.

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  • Annual Juried Exhibition 22: FCG Feature Award Winner

    May 16 - June 1, 2024

    For many years, Forest City Gallery (FCG) has supported the Annual Juried Exhibition (AJE) through the contribution of the FCG Feature Award. The AJE 22 jury, which convened earlier this semester, awarded second-year student Alexai Wilson with this year’s FCG Feature Award because her AJE-exhibited work demonstrated a great deal of conceptual experimentation, technical accomplishment, and attention to the history of her medium. Join us for the opening reception on May 16, 7-9PM at FCG.

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  • In Conversation: Matt Bahen & Matthew Ryan Smith | McIntosh Gallery

    April 27 at 1pm

    Join the McIntosh Gallery on Saturday, April 27 at 1pm for a live discussion between exhibiting artist Matt Bahen & guest curator and PhD alum Matthew Ryan Smith. This event is free and open to the public. All are welcome, no registration required!

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  • CSC mentioned in CBC Arts feature

    By Chris Hampton, CBC Arts, April 11, 2024

    The CBC Arts article titled "How do we make public art in a climate crisis?" features the Centre for Sustainable Curating among various Canadian artists and groups who are "dedicated to the exhibition of temporary public art to discuss how they can responsibly do their work — and how the nature of that work changes — in the midst of a climate emergency."

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  • The Coves Collective: unclaim. unsettle. belong | McIntosh Gallery

    April 1 - June 1, 2024

    unclaim. unsettle. belong is on view in the McIntosh Gallery until June 1. This exhibition brings together works by The Coves Collective members Kristin Bennett, Paul Chartrand (MFA '17), Reilly Knowles (BFA '20), Professor Sheri Osden Nault, and Michelle Wilson (PhD '22).

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  • Could we ever know each other...? presented by Jamelie Hassan

    Tuesday, April 16, 2024

    SASAH and The Faculty of Arts and Humanities welcome Jamelie Hassan to Western University on Tuesday, April 16. Jamelie Hassan's work involves interdisciplinary projects. Research in archives, both public and private, has been a significant aspect of her work. Curatorial, collective and collaborative projects based on archival materials as well as some of her artworks will be included in this presentation.

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  • Professor Sarah Bassnett recently published an open-access article in Oxford Art Journal

    “Rescue Politics: Richard Mosse’s Thermal Imaging and the Containment of Migration,” Oxford Art Journal 46, issue 3 (Dec. 2023): 471-492.

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  • PhD candidate Blessy Augustine recently published an essay in the journal Photography and Culture

    Blessy Augustine, “The Francis Effect and the Significance of Gestures and Images,” Photography and Culture, 16 no. 3 (2023): 253-256.

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  • PhD candidate Anahí González recently published an essay in the journal Photography and Culture

    Anahí González-Terán, “Exhibiting Migration Stories: An Exploration of Poetics in Moysés Zuñiga’s Photography,” Photography and Culture, 16 no. 3 (2023): 235-242.

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  • Sydney McArthur: Subtitles Speak: Building Bridges Through Text and Image

    Sydney McArthur, MA Candidate in Art History and Museum Studies presents her curatorial project titled “Subtitles Speak: Building Bridges Through Text and Image,” in the JLVAC, April 22-26, 2024. McArthur notes, "This project connects film stills with contemporary art on the use of subtitles to relay deeper meanings. The subtitle has its origins in film for the purpose of translation and accessibility. This mini exhibition uses subtitled film stills as a symbol of otherness, translation, and understanding between the viewer and art."

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  • Studio Tour 2024 | Good Sport

    April 27th to 28th

    Good Sport is delighted to bring you another edition of their highly anticipated Studio Tour this April 27th to 28th as part of Canadian art hop, a nation-wide studio tour event organized by Art Dealers Association of Canada (ADAC/AMAC)! Good Sport is a member-driven gallery and studio space that exists for the development and exhibition of emerging artists. Come hang out in our art gallery and studios, meet with our resident artists, and purchase art directly from the collective’s vast selection of paintings, prints, drawings, zines, apparel, and so much more!

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  • Sur Gallery is Hiring

    Applications due April 26, 2024

    Reporting to the Director/Curator, the Collection and Database Coordinator (CDC) role will be involved in database enhancement, community programming, and research and documentation of ARCHIVO. Applications due April 26, 2024.

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  • Western grad’s space-inspired artwork leads to 2024 Canada Space Fellowship

    By Emma Hyett, April 04, 2024

    Tassneem Hamed, Visual Arts alum, BSc’22, recently received the prestigious Zenith Fellowship from the Zenith Canada Pathways Foundation (ZCPF), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting equity, diversity and inclusion in Canada’s space sector.

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  • Derek Liddington: the trees weep, the mountain still, the bodies rust | Contemporary Calgary

    April 10, 2024—August 25, 2024

    The trees weep, the mountain still, the bodies rust features a recent body of work by Visual Arts PhD candidate and MFA alum, Derek Liddington in which the genre of landscape is the central focus. This exhibition is on view at Calgary Contemporary until August 25, 2024.

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  • Kirsty Robertson Publishes Review in Momus

    April 4, 2024

    Kirsty Robertson recently published a review of Caroline Monnet’s Uneasy Objects in Momus. "Pizandawatc / The One Who Listens / Celui qui écoute, a recent exhibition at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto (AMUT), draws its title from the traditional name of artist Caroline Monnet’s family, prior to the changing of surnames in her traditional territory of Kitigan Zibi by Christian missionaries..."

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  • Grad Open Studios and Research Presentations

    Saturday, April 13, 2024

    Important update - April 11, 2024: PSAC 610 is on strike, and in solidarity, the graduate students of the Visual Arts Department have indefinitely postponed this year's Open Studios and Research Presentations that were to be held on 13 April at the John Labatt Visual Arts Centre.

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  • Study Trip to Oaxaca, Mexico

    Winter Term 2025

    The Department of Visual Arts is pleased to offer a new course in winter 2025, "Study Trip to Oaxaca, Mexico" is an exciting adventure in learning that combines of Art History and Photography instruction with Professor Alena Robin and Professor Kelly Wood. Students will discover the rich cultural heritage of the city of Oaxaca, Mexico and its fascinating region.

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  • Philip Gurrey: Thresholds | Satellite Project Space

    Opening Reception Thursday, March, 27 from 5-7pm

    Congratulations to Philip Gurrey whose PhD thesis exhibition "Thresholds" opens Thursday, March 28, 2024 at Satellite Project Space and is on view until April 6th 2024.

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  • 2024 UAAC-AAUC conference | Western University

    Session submissions due March 31st, 2024

    The UAAC-AAUC conference will be held in the Department of Visual Arts at Western University from October 24 to 26, 2024. We invite the submission of session proposals until March 31st, 2024. We aim to offer a range of panels, roundtables, workshops and creative sessions that reflect UAACʼs diverse constituents, in terms of membership, scholarship, and research-creation practice. Panels, roundtables, workshops and creative sessions are invited that interrogate all time periods and cultural frames of art history, visual and material culture, studio practice, research-creation, design practice, theory and criticism, pedagogy, and museum and curatorial practice.

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  • Prof. Sarah Bassnett and Blessy Augustine | Photography and Culture

    Professor Sarah Bassnett and PhD candidate Blessy Augustine recently guest-edited a special issue of the journal Photography and Culture on 21st-century migration. We are pleased to share the following essays from the special issue...

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  • Soheila Esfahani: Are You Buying These with Loonies or Toonies? | Tom Thomson Gallery

    March 9 - May 25, 2024

    Prof. Soheila Esfahani's solo exhibition "Are You Buying These with Loonies or Toonies?" responds to the question of “where are you from?”, which many immigrants are often asked, by exploring Tom Thomson’s paintings from a diasporic lens. Esfahani explores the notion of being Canadian by commissioning another artist, MFA candidate, Jessica Joyce to create replicas of three Thomson’s paintings in order to destabilize the notion of original through the act of translation.

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  • Ashar Mobeen at EnviroCon 2024

    March 22, 2024

    PhD Candidate Ashar Mobeen presented his paper titled, “Planting New Worlds: How Astrobiology and Decolonial Theory Can Reshape Sustainable Farming” at EnviroCon 2024 on March 22.

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  • SOGS 38th Annual Western Research Forum

    March 15, 2024

    PhD Candidate Ashar Mobeen presented a poster on his working thesis, “From Stars We Come, To Stars We Return: Exploring Ancient and Indigenous Cosmic Worldviews” at the SOGS 38th Annual Western Research Forum on Friday, March 15, 2024.

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  • Tia Bates and Danielle Petti: Momentarily Unstuck | Satellite Project Space

    March 13 - 23, 2024

    Congratulations to first-year MFA students, Danielle Petti and Tia Bates whose exhibition 'Momentarily Unstuck' is on view now at Satellite Project Space. Please join the artists in the gallery for the closing reception on March 22 from 5pm - 7pm.

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  • Art inspired by advent (or not) of Anthropocene | Western News

    By Keri Ferguson, Western News, March 14, 2024

    "Anthropocene or no Anthropocene, that was the question. And last week, a group of international scientists responded, voting against a proposal to declare the Anthropocene as a new geological epoch to reflect how human activity has altered the planet. The possible naming of the time period was the launching point for visual arts professor Kirsty Robertson’s museum and curatorial students’ year-end project and exhibit meromictic..."

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  • Satellite Project Space is Hiring

    Applications due March 25, 2024

    Satellite Project Space seeks a Gallery Coordinator. The successful candidate will be an organized and personable individual with an understanding of gallery procedures and contemporary art. Working under the direction of the Satellite Steering Committee, this position works closely with faculty, students, alumni, promotional avenues, and the general public.

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  • Sincerely, | Artlab Gallery

    March 28 - April 11, 2024

    Western University’s 4th year Studio Arts Practicum course presents their final exhibition titled "Sincerely,". Please join us in the artLAB Gallery on Thursday, March 28 from 6-8PM for the opening reception. Featuring work by Bridget L Beardwood, Laila Bloomstone, Isabella Bruni, Susy Castillo, Kate Chaksfield, Jack Cocker, Kate Dunn, SiHyun Vision Kim, TK, Megan Muir, Bridget Puhacz, Michaela Purcell, Chloe Serenko, Marissa Slack, Emil Stoetzer, Amelie Swayze, Sacha Veillon, Elina Zhou.

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  • Up With Art | Museum London

    Saturday, May 4, 2024

    Join Museum London on Saturday, May 4, 2024 for the 14th annual arty-party and silent art auction! Featuring artwork by many alum and friends of the Department of Visual Arts! Enjoy London’s most impactful and fun-filled social event of the year while supporting Unity Project for Relief of Homelessness and Museum London.

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  • Call for Submissions from BIPOC Lens-Based Artists | Latcham Art Centre

    Submissions due March 31st, 2024

    Latcham Art Centre welcomes submissions of lens-based artwork made by Black and Indigenous artists and artists of colour for a small group exhibition on the theme of belonging. The deadline for submissions is Sunday March 31st. All artists who are selected for this small group exhibition will be paid in accordance with CARFAC fees, and there is no fee to apply. Image Credit: Installation view of Jeff Thomas: The Indigenous Map Maker’s Room at Latcham Art Centre, 2021. Artwork by Jeff Thomas. Photo: Dennis Hristovski

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  • Francine McCarthy, Curatorial Tour and Talk Defining the Anthropocene in Sediments from a Meromictic Lake

    March 12, 3-5:30 pm

    Dr. Francine McCarthy is Professor of Earth Sciences also appointed to the Department of Biological Sciences and the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre at Brock University, Ontario. She is also Research Associate in Natural History at the Royal Ontario Museum and a voting member of the Anthropocene Working Group. She will talk about her work investigating the potential of the varved sequence in the hydrologically unique Crawford Lake to define the Anthropocene.

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  • See You There | Forest City Gallery

    March 7 - April 27

    Forest City Gallery announces its first FCG Pier Members’ exhibition for 2024. Featuring works by Shane Ackerly, Marla Botterill, Mary Donlan, Anne Hamilton, and SiHyun Vision Kim, See You There reflects the candid relationships artists have with the places they inhabit, or have experienced, and acknowledges the various ways in which locations and cultures affect our artwork. The exhibition engages with ideas of location, memory, home, people, community, and culture. The resulting works encompass a range of media and approaches. See You There is curated by Gallery Intern and BFA student Jack Cocker.

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  • Museum London: Call for 2024 Scholarship Applications Honouring Colleagues Melanie A. Townsend & Steve Mavers

    Application Deadline April 22, 2024 at 5pm

    Museum London is delighted to announce two prestigious scholarship opportunities for students at Western University: the Melanie A. Townsend Scholarship for Museum and Curatorial Studies and the Steve Mavers Scholarship for Arts Education. To apply for the Melanie A. Townsend Scholarship, eligible students must be enrolled in any Museum and Curatorial Studies module at Western University. To apply for the Steve Mavers Scholarship for Arts Education, eligible students must be enrolled in the Faculty of Education at Western University

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  • Prof. Sarah Bassnett Publishes Article on Trevor Paglen

    Spring 2024

    Professor Sarah Bassnett recently published an open-access article on how Trevor Paglen’s work offers insight into the age of machine vision. “Trevor Paglen’s Border Abstractions in the Age of Machine Vision,” photographies 17, no. 1-2 (spring 2024): 25-42.

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  • 2024 Western Sustainable Impact Fund Success

    Congratulations to Katie Lawson and Ashar Mobeen, PhD candidates, along with post-doctoral fellow Amanda White from the Department of Visual Arts, in collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Curating, for securing funding for their projects through the Western Sustainable Impact fund. For more details about each funded project, please visit the Western Sustainability website.

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  • Anthropic | Cohen Commons

    February 29 through March 14, 2024

    The group exhibition "Anthropic" is on view in the Cohen Commons Exhibition from February 29 through March 14, 2024. The artworks in Anthropic ask of viewers: What does it mean to be in relationship with the self, other, and environment in the Anthropocene? Organized by Professor Sheri Osden Nault and featuring artworks by undergraduate students: Payton Atkinson, Patricia Barwicz, Genevieve Buchanan, Mariah Cowan, Stephanie Davey, Anastasia Fedorova, Cheyne Ferguson, Arlen Griffiths, Hannah Khiavi, Megan Lee, Venus Nwaokoro, Niyati Sahdev, Maggie Shook, Natasha Tacconelli, Mady Teeter, Emma Whitehouse.

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  • Professor Sarah Bassnett Co-Publishes Article on Retrieving Images From Tarnished Daguerreotypes

    Professor Sarah Bassnett collaborated with Chemistry Professor T.K. Sham and colleagues on an open-access article about retrieving images from tarnished daguerreotypes titled “Retrieving Images from Tarnished Daguerreotypes using X-ray Fluorescence with an X-Ray Micro Beam with Tunable Energy,” in the Journal of Cultural Heritage, May – June 2024 issue.

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  • tba journal, PLASTIC, volume launch

    February 8, 2024

    The editorial team at tba journal is thrilled to launch the 5th peer reviewed volume, PLASTIC, that has been digitally published on their platform at tbajournal.ca

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  • Rylee Rumble: Achy Awfulness | Ascent Gallery

    February 28 – May 2, 2024

    In this solo exhibition by alum Rylee Rumble (MFA 23), colour is explored as a means of documenting the artist’s raw and vulnerable experiences with depression, anxiety and ADHD. 'Achy Awfulness' continues through May 2, 2024 at Ascent Gallery in Toronto.

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  • Bruno Belli Crafts an Awesome Personal Project at the Art Gallery of Ontario

    By Lexi Taciak, Architectural Photography Review, February 9, 2024

    "Today we’re taking a little trip to Ontario with architectural photographer Bruno Belli! Bruno has sublimely photographed Frank Gehry’s expansion of the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). “I shot these over the course of three days there, trying to get the right light and mood for each of the angles. Some of the interesting challenges were incorporating the vibrant life outside the gallery and having to shoot all of the interiors handheld,” Bruno starts off. Let’s jump on in and see his (very cool) images!"

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  • Tracing Labor Territories | Sur Gallery

    January 25 to March 30, 2024

    The artists in the exhibition deconstruct the politicized spaces that lie between territory and labor, outlining the imperial and colonial relationship of the North and the South. Four artists listen and interpret migratory flows between borders, they shift the margins and narratives with various artistic proposals and mediums. From photography to video installation to sound art, the artists Anahí González, María Hoyos, Martín Rodríguez, and Victor Vargas offer counter-narratives and a perspective of the migrant worker who is often marginal, silenced, and exploited, within a settler colonial state that profits of their labor force while making their presence invisible.

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  • Pasts Refracted: Indigenous Histories on Film Beyond the Cinema by Prof. Christine Sprengler

    December 18th, 2023

    Professor Christine Sprengler recently published a chapter titled "Pasts Refracted: Indigenous Histories on Film Beyond the Cinema" in "The Routledge Companion to History and the Moving Image". This volume addresses moving image history through a theoretical lens; modes and genres; representation, race, and identity; and evolving forms and formats.

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  • Patrick Thibert | TAP Centre for Creativity

    February 6th to February 17th, 2024

    Patrick Thibert will be showing a selection of works on paper at TAP Centre for Creativity covering a period from 1971 to 2023. The exhibition will continue until February 17th. There will be 41 framed drawings from various periods over the decades that were made in tandem with his sculptures

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  • Prof. Mohammad Reza Moridi presents "Carpet as Cultural Text"

    February 6, 2024 at 9:30 AM

    Join the upcoming talk by Western Visiting Scholar, Prof. Mohammad Reza Moridi titled "Carpet as Cultural Text". This talk is presented by the Department of Languages and Cultures, the Department of Visual Arts and Western International.

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  • AJE 22 | Artlab Gallery

    February 1 to 15, 2024

    Celebrating twenty-two years the "Annual Juried Exhibition" continues to be one of the Department of Visual Arts most highly anticipated undergraduate exhibitions. This diverse show supports the production of new work made in a variety of mediums including painting, sculpture, print, video, and photography. Exhibited works were selected by a professional jury who consider creativity, concept, materiality and technique. This year’s show is indicative of the resilience and dedication our students continue to demonstrate. The AJE 22 is on view from February 1 to 15, 2024. Please join us for the opening reception, People's Choice voting and award announcements on February 1st from 6 - 8pm.

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  • DRAFTS 5: DIASPORIC BODIES | Artlab Gallery

    January 11 - 25, 2024

    Curated by Soheila Esfahani & Faseeh Saleem, this exhibition features work by: Anahí González, Anna Lidström, Erika Blomgren and Faseeh Saleem , Jessica Karuhanga, Karin Landahl & Stefanie, Malmgren de Oliveira, Leith Mahkewa, Racquel Rowe, Vidmina Stasiulyte. This exhibition brings together a group of artists from the Department of Visual Arts at Western University, London, Canada, and design researchers from the Body and Space Research Lab at the Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås, Sweden. Please join us for the closing reception of DRAFTS 5: DIASPORIC BODIES on Thursday, January 25 from 12-2PM in the Cohen Commons. Image: Jessica Karuhanga, Photo Credit: Toni Hafkenscheid, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery

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  • Paul Walde: Glacial Resonance | McIntosh Gallery

    January 19 - March 16, 2024

    Join Victoria-based artist and alum Paul Walde (BFA '94) for a guided tour of his solo exhibition Glacial Resonance at Western University's McIntosh Gallery. This event is free and open to the public, although space is limited. Registration is required to attend. Event registrants and members of the public are invited to attend the opening reception of Glacial Resonance shortly following the artist's guided tour on Friday, January 19 from 7 to 9 p.m. at McIntosh Gallery. Find out more:

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  • bread, butter, tea, soup | Artlab Gallery

    January 11 - 25, 2024

    Presented by The Creative Food Research Collaboratory, 'bread, butter, tea, soup' is a gathering place and a series of food-based artistic interventions presented by the Creative Food Research Collaboratory. In the darkness of winter, before the light begins to return incrementally, we invite all to share in the warmth, comfort and complexity of food; to eat, learn, digest and imagine together. Please join us for a series of artistic activations throughout January. More information about these live events can be found through the link below.

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  • Phillip Gurrey: Enclosures | Birch Contemporary

    January 18 – February 24, 2024

    Enclosures is an immersive installation of paintings and wall and floor-based sculpture by PhD candidate Phillip Gurrey. This exhibitions opens with a private viewing at Birch Contemporary on January 18 from 6pm - 8pm.

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  • Masha Kouznetsova: coordinates / sweeping | The End Project Space

    January 5 – February 25, 2024

    'coordinates / sweeping' showcases new work by Masha Kouznetsova, current candidate of Western University’s PhD program in the Visual Arts department. Masha Kouznetsova’s multidisciplinary work and writing foreground sonic, visual, and imperceptible signals as modes of searching for grounding and interconnectedness.

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  • External Now at Satellite Project Space

    January 10 - 20, 2023

    Congratulations to MFA candidates Hannah West and Jessica Joyce whose exhibition 'Eternal Now' opens at Satellite Project Space on January 10 and runs through January 20. Please join us at the closing reception on January 20 from 3-5pm. Closing Reception: January 20, 3-5pm

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  • Adi Berardini: Live Stream | Good Sport

    January 12 - 27, 2023

    'Live Stream' an exhibition by alum Adi Berardini (MA '20) looks at love, loss, and disenfranchised grief and how time and distance affect the grieving process through a series of paintings. The exhibition addresses the interconnectedness of emotions, everyday life and spirituality, and how technology can both connect us and isolate us. The opening reception at Good Sport is on January 12 from 7pm to 9pm.

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  • Practicum Bake Sale Fundraiser | JLVAC

    February 14, 2024 from 12pm - 4pm

    Save the date for another epic bake sale!! On Valentine’s Day! Get something for you and someone special and support the Practicum class and their upcoming exhibition. Cash and e-transfers accepted. Tables will be set up in the main hallway of the John Labatt Visual Arts Centre.

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