MEET GRAD EX 2013 MEDAL WINNER, ALEX THOMPSON (PRINTMAKING)

Alex Thompson at Grad Ex 2013. Photo by Christina Gapic.
Part of Alex Thompson's project, Self-Portrait. Image by Alex Thompson.

Alex Thompson’s medal award-winning project, Self-Portrait, took architectural renderings and made them personal. Here’s how he describes it:

My body of thesis work was entitled Self-Portrait, and consisted of architectural renderings of institutions that I felt had a significant impact on my personal development. These were laser engraved onto layers of transparent acrylic, which were suspended from cable to create floating structures. The works drew heavily on my personal memory of the sites, critiquing the generic nature of Modernist structures while drawing upon their aesthetic to communicate the idea of the institution.

What inspired you and motivated you to do this project?

My work has, over the last few years, been moving into a very industrial, architectural territory, and going into my thesis year it really struck home that for the entirety of my life I had existed within educational institutions. The realization was paired with an awareness of the continuous relationship that we as a culture share with some form of institutional environment, and that really got my brain going and motivated me to pursue the idea for my thesis.

What part of the process of creating this project did you learn the most from?

The entire process was a learning curve for me. This was the first time I had focused so much time and energy into a single project for such an extended period, and it was incredibly rewarding. The technical requirements of the project required a lot of trial and error, and I had an excellent support network in the form of the printmaking technicians and my thesis advisors who were on deck to answer questions and lend opinions.

What part of the process of creating this project are you the most proud of?

Working in three dimensions with plastic and cable was new for me, and I am very proud of the final aesthetic the project took on. I had a good idea of what I wanted the piece to look like, and had done many, many tests, but wasn’t exactly sure how the final product would actually look. I got the final components back from rapid prototyping the day before installation at the gallery.

How did you react to the news that you won a medal for your work? 

I had dropped in to the Faculty of Art Office to drop off a form, and Winston Tulloch informed me I had won. I was pretty shocked because I didn’t think I was going to win. It took awhile for it to sink in.

What’s your fondest memory from your studies at OCAD U, and what will you miss the most?

It’s hard to pinpoint a single memory. The studio environment is a great atmosphere, and has a really collective, collaborative feel. There are tons of great, creative, helpful people in the printmaking studios at OCAD U, and they helped make the studio a home as well as a workplace. I’m definitely going to miss that element of OCAD U.

What are you planning to do next? 

I’m currently working as a drama instructor at Theatre Ancaster, and have a number of ideas for upcoming projects simmering on the backburners. I want to try to get into an assistant position at a gallery in Toronto, and maintain my personal artistic practice. Further schooling may happen, but I need to get out into the “real world” first and get an idea what I want to do with my life.

Find out more about Alex Thompson:

Portfolio

Alumnus Terry Ryan honoured with the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts

Photo: Martin Lipman, Canada Council for the Arts.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - 5:00am

(Toronto — March 10, 2010) The Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) is proud to announce that alumnus and Honorary Fellow Terry Ryan has been awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts for Outstanding Contribution. Canada’s foremost distinction recognizing career achievement in the arts, the award honours Ryan for his role in the development of Kinngait Studios, the renowned printmaking centre in Cape Dorset, Nunavut. Kinngait Studios celebrated its 50th anniversary this past October.

“For 45 years, Terry Ryan worked to provide Cape Dorset artists with the tools — and the inspiration —to help define the North and its people. As manager of West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative (now Kinngait Studios), he was a jack of all trades: arts advisor, justice of the peace, coroner and occasional powder monkey, blasting overburden to expose stone for sculpture. He initially distributed pencils and paper, engaged master printmakers, initiated visiting artists programs and fine craft projects, and developed a domestic and international marketing network.

Ryan brought to his work his own sensibility as an artist, his practical know-how, an innovative spirit and a great love and respect for the North and its people.” — Canada Council for the Arts

The other winners of the Governor General’s Awards for Visual & Media Arts are: Haida sculptor Robert Davidson, filmmaker André Forcier, painter Rita Letendre, video artist Tom Sherman, photographer Gabor Szilasi and painter Claude Tousignant. Glass sculptor Ione Thorkelsson won the Saidye Bronfman Award for excellence in fine crafts. For their biographies, images and video interviews, visit the Canada Council website.

“I salute these artists who, through their unique vision and immense talent, open our eyes wide to all those things, in us and around us, that we look at without really seeing,” said her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada.

The Governor General of Canada will present the 2010 Awards at a ceremony at Rideau Hall on Wednesday, March 31 at 6 p.m. In addition to a $25,000 prize, the winners will each receive a work created by Tony Urquhart, winner of a 2009 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.

The Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media arts has also been awarded to OCAD alumni Michael Snow (2000), David Rokeby (2002) and Garry Neill Kennedy (2004), professors John Scott (2000) and Ian Carr-Harris (2007), and retired faculty member Nobuo Kubota (2009). Alumnus Kevin Lockau was awarded the Saidye Bronfman Award in 2009.

An article profiling Terry Ryan’s contributions appears in the Winter 2010 edition of Sketch magazine, the biannual magazine of the Ontario College of Art & Design.

About the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD)
The Ontario College of Art & Design (www.ocad.ca) is Canada’s “university of the imagination.” OCAD is dedicated to art and design education, practice and research and to knowledge and invention across a wide range of disciplines. The university is building on its traditional, studio-based strengths, adding new approaches to learning that champion cross-disciplinarity, collaboration and the integration of emerging technologies. In the Age of Imagination, OCAD community members will be uniquely qualified to act as catalysts for the next advances in culture, technology and quality of life for all Canadians.
 

- 30 -

For more information and images please contact:

Sarah Mulholland, Media & Communications Officer, OCAD
416.977.6000 Ext. 327 (mobile Ext. 1327)

MADE HERE: Graven Feathers Residency Exhibition

Saturday, June 29, 2013 - 4:00am to Saturday, July 27, 2013 - 4:00am

Exhibition including work by IAMD Graduate Student Rawaa Bakhsh

Graven Feather is delighted to present an exhibition of new work developed and produced on site during it's recently established Artist Residency program. Emerging artist's Madelaine Lyons Cooper, Sarah Sands Phillips, Rawaa Bakhsh and Julie Pasila each visited and worked independently at Graven Feather over a period of 4 weeks during the winter and spring of 2013, using equipment in studio and frequently incorporating the use or integration of printmaking techniques and ideas into existing and familiar media.

While each of the artists arrived at Graven Feather separate from each other, certain commonalities can be identified and together create a sense of interwoven elements and relatedness within material and conceptual themes. Layering and Installation of form are strongly present, as is a sense of play, modular shift, and fluidity of texture.

Residencies are all about creating opportunities and making room. They incorporate learning, new environments, and create open time and space to encounter unfamiliar modes and methods. In studio with other artists and context, a nebulous combination of stimuli will inevitably generate associations, reconsiderations, and an evolution and integration of new ideas into practice. The addition of Artist Residencies is part of Graven Feather's initiative to widen its community and share artistic experiences.

Featuring:
Sarah Sands Philips
Madelaine Lyons Cooper
Rawaa Bakhsh
& Julie Pasila

Rawaa Bakhsh is currently a masters candidate at OCAD University in Interdisciplinary Art. She graduated from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia with a bachelors in Graphic Design. She recently finished a residency where she studied two forms of Arabic Caligraphy in Turkey.

 

www.gravenfeather.ca

 

 

Free

Venue & Address: 
Graven Feather 906 Queen St West Toronto, Ontario

Common Pulse: Symposium

Common Pulse: Symposium
Friday, September 27, 2013 - 5:30pm

Creation and Research

Emily Cook
Grahame Lynch
Nancy D-Halifax
Kim Jackson
Discussionn

Artists and Researchers Discuss Art and Disability

The coupling of disability art with emerging research practices allows for a comparison of the values of embodied experience in academic and studio-based activities and a new formulation of their intersection.
The hybrid work being done by practitioners, both artists and researchers, describes a further shift away from the centre towards inclusive and experiential processes and results. Methodologies are likewise being expanded that transform the functions of research in ways that makes it more responsive to the complexities of the subject. This fusion of research and creation is evident in the work being done in the fields of art production, Disability Studies and Disability Art and Culture by all of the participants invited to the symposium. Their contributions to the dialogue will address the applicability of a research/creation model in the ongoing effort to bring more light and understanding to our evolving conception of disability and the contributions that disability culture brings to society generally.

Emily Cook, OCAD University
Emily Cook holds a MFA in Printmaking from

Louisiana State University (2008) which she undertook after completing her BFA at OCADU in 2005. Over the past ten years, her work has been included in over 30 group exhibitions in the United States and Canada. Her most recent solo exhibition, Dextrocardia, was presented at Lennox Contemporary in Toronto (2012). Since 2008, Cook has held the position of Sessional Instructor in papermaking and printmaking at OCADU. Her accomplishments have been recognized by nine different awards and scholarships, and her work can be found in both private and public collections, including the Toronto Reference Library Rare Books Collection.

Grahame Lynch, Ryerson University

Experiencing Art: Enhancing Experience for Extended Audiences with Transmedia Communication

For those members of the public whose capacity for direct experience of artwork is limited for reasons of ability or location, the means of exposure to cultural productions is often based in descriptive practice. This research project proposes a communication strategy aimed at enhancing public engagement and connecting audiences through nuanced multi-modal experiences. This transmedia model does not attempt to recreate the direct experience of an artwork; rather it encourages the development and sharing of new and highly individualized experiences that are accessible to members of the public with a diverse range of abilities.

Nancy Davis Halifax, Graduate Program in Critical Disability Studies, York University

Disability as Difficult Knowledge: A
Phenomenology of Undecidability

"Disability as undecidability is deeply unsettling to the cultural imaginary, particularly one that incorporates an image of the embodied self as whole, separate and invulnerable." - Shildrick, 763
The artist's embodiment of disability as "undecidability" unsettles and leaks through a cultural imaginary that requests a whole, separate and invulnerable embodiment. How does uncertain or undecidable embodiment effect artistic production? The proposed presentation addresses ordinary experiences of disability embodiment and their effects on the practices of art within community when they are made explicit.

 

647-330-2989

 

www.commonpulse.ca/symposium.php

geoffrey@commonpulse.ca

Venue & Address: 
Durham Town Hall 185 George Street West Durham, Ontario

Amos Kennedy - Printmaking Artist in Residence Program at OCAD University

Amos Kennedy - Printmaking Artist in Residence Program at OCAD University
Thursday, November 28, 2013 - 6:00pm

Printmaking at OCAD University invites everyone to this letterpress demonstration by Amos Kennedy

Amos Kennedy is a letterpress printer using a distinctive voice to create posters, artists' books and publications. Through his strong graphics and bold typography, Kennedy pushes issues of race, freedom, and equality, often incorporating proverbs and tales of the Kuba and Yoruba people of Africa, as well as the work of African-American poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar. Amos quit his corporate job at the age of forty to become, as he calls himself, "a humble negro printer". He received his MFA from the University of Wisconsin, has taught workshops in over seven countries and is currently spearheading the Detroit Printing Plant.
-Darmouth College Library and Friends of the Library

 

Free

 

Venue & Address: 
Room 284 100 McCaul St. Toronto, Ontario

Pages