OCAD University

OCAD University's Florence Program is hosting a Visiting Artist + Speaker Series which brings six international artists, critics and gallerists to our international campus to engage in artist talks, critiques and individual studio visits. This unique opportunity offers students insight into how a successful international practice is developed as well receiving critical feedback on their independent studio work.

FEBRUARY 25 + 26  EMMY SKENSVED

Emmy Skensved is a multidisciplinary artist. She received her MFA from the University of Waterloo in 2007. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally including shows at the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), Greener Pastures Contemporary Art (Toronto), September Gallery (Berlin) and the Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin). Her work is included in the collections of the Canada Council Art Bank and the Canadiana Foundation. She has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards including research and production grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Toronto Arts Council. She currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. www.emmyskensved.com 

Organized by Linda Martinello, Assistant Professor / CLTA, Faculty of Art, OCAD University

OCAD University's Florence Program is hosting a Visiting Artist + Speaker Series which brings six international artists, critics and gallerists to our international campus to engage in artist talks, critiques and individual studio visits. This unique opportunity offers students insight into how a successful international practice is developed as well receiving critical feedback on their independent studio work. 

JANUARY 27  JESSICA GROOME

Jessica Groome received her BFA in Visual Arts from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 2007, and her MFA from the University of Guelph in 2011. Her art examines the systems of belief that motivate contemporary and 20th century abstraction. Invested in the authentic, metaphysical potential of abstract work, she researches optical painting, minimalism, and the transcendent school of thought; her practice employs faith while maintaining skepticis and uncertainty. She was a semi-finalist in the 13th Annual RBC Painting Competition and the recipient of the 8th Joseph Plaskett Award. Currently, she is based in Berlin, Germany and Vancouver BC. Her work has been exhibited across Canada. www.jessicagroome.com

Organized by Linda Martinello, Assistant Professor / CLTA, Faculty of Art, OCAD University

OCAD University’s Florence Off-Campus Program interweaves
cultural experience and creative invention. The program features an
eclectic group of twenty-four emerging artists integrated as part of a
network within a communal studio. Art history of the Italian
Renaissance synthesizes with contemporary encounters to
materialize inspiration.
Contained in the framework of the studio, the artworks are in a
constant state of process that simultaneously reveals the identity of
the artist and an endless measure of possibility. The nature of the
studio functions as a living space where the emergence of creation is
unwavering. The artworks in this phase are personal extensions of
the individual and yet not divisible from their cultivation and
evolution.

Join Maggie Broda, President, OCAD U Alumni Association, for an inspiring art-filled trip to Florence, Italy.

If you have a desire to do more than visit a city steeped in art, and to enjoy open-studio opportunities for self-directed drawing, painting and more, we think you will really enjoy this inspiring week. We’ll be spending seven nights in Florence in classic little hotel, painting and creating in the morning and touring with an art historian in the afternoon. We’ll enjoy delicious meals, evening talks while sipping Chianti or expresso on the Arno River, and enjoy the stunning scenery of the Tuscany region. We’ll discover all of the great works within the city that is a masterpiece itself!

About your tour leader
Maggie is a member of the Ontario College of Art and Design University’s Board of Governors, currently serving as President of its Alumni Association. A contemporary artist and instructor, Maggie is represented in Toronto by the Elaine Fleck Gallery.

Please join us to raise a glass and celebrate “Maestro” Peter Porcal, resident art historian and administrator for OCAD University’s Florence Off-Campus Studies program.

Porcal lived and worked in Florence and was an instrumental contributor to the OCAD U Florence Campus experience for hundreds of students, alumni and faculty members over the past twenty years. A passionate art historian and professor of Renaissance art, he also coordinated field trips, managed the studio and even assisted students and faculty with their relocation to the city.

Date: Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Time: 5:30-7:30 p.m., remarks at 5:45 p.m.
Location: 100 McCaul St., Room 187 (Lambert Lounge)

Please also join us in The Great Hall on the same evening for the opening of Lo Studio Divino: 40 Year's of OCAD University's Florence Program, featuring the work of the class of 2013/14.

Celebrating 40 years of OCAD University's Florence Program, showcasing the work of the class of 2013/2014
Opening Reception: Tuesday January 6, 2015 at 6:00 p.m. in The Great Hall

Lo Studio Divino unveils the work produced by the 2013/14 graduates from OCAD University's Florence Program.

While approaches to art making drastically differ, they are joined by their beginnings- in a studio in the heart of a sacred and crumbling city. This shared experience follows a forty year trajectory of OCAD University's presence in Florence, Italy, which Lo Studio Divino aims to celebrate.

Since 1974, an annual group of OCAD U art students travel to Florence to study Italian art history and work in a communal studio set amidst a landscape of Renaissance architecture and Tuscan hillside.

It cannot be helped, Florence's impact is persistent.

Traces of her influence may be found here in the works of 2013/14 Florence Program class. Lo Studio Divino is a showcase of creative achievement; it is also a celebration of a cherished city and a special link across borders. If one looks carefully enough, the Ochre hues of Florence or the opaque Venice waters appear; and if lucky, one may hear the lasting tune of cathedral bells and street sounds.

Curated by Sara England, Keight Maclean and Sophie Paas-Lang

Featuring work by: Meaghan Barry, Jessica-Anna Crupi, Sara England, Gabby Frank, Abbey Gagnon, Amy He, Tuesday Heenan, Maxwell Hyett, Nadia Kuzmicz, Keight Maclean, Liam M. Marshall, Erin Milks, Allison Morris, Sophie Paas-Lang, Samantha Robbie-Higgins, Erin Shadoff, Liana Tarantini, Leila Tisdall, Scott Thatcher, Nick Vo, Alexandra Votsis

Exhibition Reception & Sculpture Unveiling: Thursday, September 25th at 7:00 pm

Artists Talk: Tuesday, October 7th at 12:00 pm

Featuring new and recent work by Toronto sculptor Gord Peteran

This exhibition includes objects made from brass, wood, and found objects as well as graphite drawings on paper. Through his art, Peteran strives to reveal furniture’s role as a multi-faceted body prosthetic, both physically and conceptually. Peteran’s latest works are driven by the notion that “objects of the home reveal our deepest struggles.”

Peteran’s largest and most recent sculpture in brass, Artifact of Invention, is the 38th outdoor installation in the sculpture park, commissioned by MSAC with support from the Florence Partridge Fund and from the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program.