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Exhibition Info

Apr 15 - Apr 29, 2023
10572 115 st, Edmonton, AB T5H 3K6

Wed-Fri | 12pm – 6pm
Sat | 12pm – 5pm

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SNAP is pleased to present After Thought featuring new works by students in the 2023 University of Alberta Senior Level Printmaking class. The exhibition will be in the gallery April 15 – 29, 2023.

Opening reception
April 15, at 7-9pm. Free and by drop-in.

Please note the gallery will be closed during the day on April 15 to prepare for the opening.

Artists:
Addison Primeau
Alyssa Lao-An
Bail
Cynthia Schroter
Eli Young
Evan Robinson
Grace McLean
Jess Bishop
Renee Hart
Ronnie Seo
Nicole Wrishko

Read on below to learn more about the artists!

 

Addison Primeau

Addison Primeau is a fourth year BFA student interested in printmaking and media arts. Their work is informed by disillusionment with capitalism, pop culture and technology.

Artist Statement
This work looks into the psychological connections between domestic, natural, and digital spaces. The created spaces are comprised of low-polygon 3D models arranged into digital ‘dioramas’ and rendered to create 2D images. The use of inconsistent scale, contrasting tones and disporate imagery allude to feelings that can arise while attempting to navigate our increasingly computerized world. As psychological, physical, and digital realms are becoming increasingly intertwined, often in ways that fail to offer a tangible benefit to users beyond ‘convinience’, it can leave individuals with feelings of unease. Will we come to terms with this tension, or will it die out alongside those with memories of life before voice recognition, tiny cameras and wireless connectivity began working their way into even our most private spaces?

Alyssa Lao-An

Alyssa Lao-An is an artist based in Edmonton, Alberta. Alyssa is interested in the exploration of self and the internal relationships that shape our sense of identity and perception of the world. Her work examines ideas that are relevant and meaningful to her as a way to investigate and celebrate the human experience.

Artist Statement

This series of prints are an exploration of the connection between music and the human psyche. While certain songs can be comforting and bring back familiar emotions and memories, music also has the ability to evoke complex thoughts and feelings. Through her work, Lao-An aims to depict the essence of music and the emotional state that music can induce through visual language.

Lao-An’s process begins by listening to music that elicits a particular feeling or memory and allowing her intuition to guide my hand as I draw on the wood block. By immersing herself in the meditative practice of automatic drawing, carving the wood, and hand-printing, she develops images that reflect her innermost self.

Each print is a combination of intentionality and spontaneity. While the process creates unexpected outcomes for each print, the marks are purposeful, as they show their connection to the music and documents the act of trusting one’s intuition. The final images reveal the vast and overwhelming aspects of the human psyche that emerge from the experience of listening to music and allowing one’s subconscious to take charge.

Bailey Lamarche

Bailey Lamarche is a Woodland Cree artist from Sucker Creek First Nation in Treaty 8 territory, currently practicing in Amiskwaciwâskahikan on Treaty 6 territory. Bail works primarily with printmaking, photography, and the traditional print medium of fish scales as a form of personal archiving, creating a visual dialogue, and connecting back with the land.

Artist Statement

Bail utilizes printmaking and fish scales to create artwork relating to themes of culture and land. Evoking suggestive lines to create a narrative through memories, her work speaks to ecological issues and social issues, and cultural identity. Using the vibrant colours of fish scales and any living expression to relate to land — animals, plants, fish, and insects populate her work as a form of personal archiving, creating a visual dialogue, and connecting back with the land. The inspiration behind this body of artwork is the discussion of the interruption of transferring traditional knowledge that affects Indigenous people’s cultural identity and practices. Bail considers art as a form to reconnect with culture and traditional methods by reconnecting with the land.

Cynthia Schroter

Cynthia Schroter is a 21-year-old artist focusing on printmaking, painting, and graphic design. Born and located in Treaty Six territory, Amiskwaciy Waskahikan, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Cynthia is an undergrad student in her fourth year of a bachelor’s in Fine Arts and Design (BFA).

Artist Statement

Schroter’s creative research focuses on depicting shifting environments and architectural spaces that often appear labyrinth-like, and contain both unsettling and comforting qualities. The fractured environments she depicts in her work often contain unusual explorations into atmosphere, lighting and composition which create a sense of disorientation. Through her work, glimpses of the ever-expanding labyrinth in her mind are available for viewers to witness. The exploration of these spaces extends to the materials they are presented on. Cynthia takes time to explore many avenues of possibilities, even if the processes are long and strenuous. She utilizes the layering of prints to create depth through visual fields and mark-making. Her prints span from a single layer to multiple image layers collated together. Schroter’s compelling exploration of the labyrinth as subject matter acts as a metaphor for mental states, and speaks to parts of mental health not often discussed. Her creations are linked directly to her own struggles with a disability, and because of that, she intends to create a safe space and open environment for discussion.

 

Eli Young

Raised in the rural hamlet of Mirror, Alberta, Eli Young is a Canadian visual artist and multimedia creator working across several mediums. While his creative flow is ever-evolving, his most recent works explore topics of identity, humanity, gender relations and processing major life events. Drawing from his personal history and experiences as a queer, trans creative living in an increasingly digital world, Young utilises technology as a catalyst to re-explore traditional methods of art-making and develop imagery that is bold, transformative and often deeply symbolic. His work has been shown throughout Edmonton and across Alberta, He is currently working towards completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Artist Statement

HEARTWORM follows the narrative of a repressed, gay man living in a fast-paced technological revolution, struggling to maintain his curated sense of identity (and his sanity) as he faces birth, death, addiction, grief and desire in his journey through ‘The City.’ While the work is very personal, it draws from feelings and experiences that are at their core – deeply human. The story is a growing-up story about anxiety, fear, desire, pain, love, loss, death and grief.

The image-creation process for this series involved explorations of Young’s personal photography alongside AI image generation facilitated by text and image-based prompts using the OpenAI program Dall.E. True to Young’s art practice, these images underwent several transformations from digital editing to being laser-engraved into wood blocks before reaching their final format as relief prints. Young’s exploratory use of and collaboration with artificial intelligence reflects a conceptual questioning of reality and authenticity, as well as a reverence to the fast-paced changes of a new digital age. The imagery that has developed is highly symbolic, with recurring “characters” that have emerged to represent significant parts of the protagonist’s (and his) physical and emotional journey.
While the work offers a small glimpse into Young’s own experiences, it reflects something much bigger than us all. Developing the imagery and narrative of this series has not only allowed him the space to process some of his most difficult emotions, but reaches a hand out for others to take, to relate to and share in the unique humanity of our tragic, romantic and terrifying lives.

Evan Robinson

Evan Robinson (b.1999) is a member of the Nisga’a First Nation of the Pacific Northwest Coast. He was born in Edmonton, Alberta and is currently working to complete his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Alberta. His most recent exhibition was at the Artists in the Fallow – Part II group show in Edmonton. His work can be found around the inner-city painted and pasted on public walls, and in his bi-monthly publication Resistant Monolith. Robinson instructs weekly art classes at the Art Gallery of Alberta’s Adult Open Studio sessions.

Artist Statement

The hardest part is starting.

The inadequate voices of reason stir starch in water. Conjuring a mixture of thick, swelling glue. Plaster on plaster, paste on paste, we admire our silent discrepancies. Full of mourning-afters, and nights-of. These gestures break and fracture away with time, swelling once more and growing in rain.
This happens with the very thought of you. Minds distend and

eyes linger, tired as the faithful orbits of yutes become ingrown. A sip of the stuff alone would be enough. Enough. Enough for the faceless crowds of time bygone. Together they call for unity and walk city streets in graceful togetherness. High above, fire escapes are ascended and useless monikers are painted across the open rooftops.

Printed, cut and pasted upon the sanitary white walls of the gallery, Comes Action speaks to Robinson’s inner-city upbringing and relationship with cartoon imagery, advertisement and graffiti. Pairing this use of immediate and graphic imagery with traditional printing techniques, Robinson seeks to question the relationship between the art sprayed across city walls and the work which is hung in highly esteemed institutions. These two modes of art making coexist within the concrete confines of city life and directly feed off of one another. As a viewer, we are actively involved in this relationship of power and control, we have the ability to resist these systems or be complicit role-players in the institution.

Grace McLean

Born and raised in Calgary, Grace McLean was fortunate to grow up in a creative family. She is currently completing a BFA in Visual Arts and Design at the University of Alberta. She uses her studies to explore new media and new paths, and to learn how to fully embrace her artistic side.

Artist Statement

McLean’s work explores the anxiety inducing mess of clutter she constantly finds herself surrounded by. At times it can feel like every nook and cranny of one’s life is overwhelmed by a mess, which in turn can reflect the stress and fears that can emerge from a busy life. McLean explores these themes by creating densely packed and intense compositions full of small everyday objects and garbage. The work also explores the anxiety felt in response to climate and environmental change, as many of the objects in the images are single use plastic or non-recyclable items that will remain on earth for years to come, or consumer-culture in nature as objects and things seem to consistently fall into Mclean’s possession. The series explores different environments of McLean’s life where clutter or stress can be found with an explosion of objects filling the space with loud and bright imagery that pulls viewers into the crowded spaces and encloses you into the mess.

Jess Bishop

Jess Bishop is a non-binary painter and printmaker. They grew up in the town of Stony Plain, and they are enjoying the slow transition to city life in Edmonton. They enjoy still-life and landscape subjects and finding where those topics can make their way into the contemporary art world.

Artist Statement

Many of the subjects featured in Bishop’s printmaking work tend to border the line between comfort and anxiety. Using dramatic shadows adds an air of mystery, secrecy, or of mourning. Scenes are completely transformed when something is concealed with shadow, and the viewer is left wondering what might be hiding there. What one might feel from a playground that is not bustling with activity, but is quiet, looming, and empty, the bars casting long shadows over the sand. Is the sun rising, or setting? Or in another image, what is that creature emerging from the darkness? No, not quite a creature… are those teeth? The dentures of a recently passed grandparent seem like they’d be a morbid irreverent subject, but they are portrayed with such sensitivity and softness that they might become sacred. Sacred, but still uncomfortable to sit with for too long.

Nicole Wrishko

Nicole Wrishko (any pronouns) is an emerging artist in their fourth year of the Fine Arts program at the University of Alberta. Their practice involves addressing the roles of observation in both internal and external contexts. Through printmaking, Wrishko utilizes a cartoon style to explore the weight of physical interactions in a socio-political world. With combined graphic and textured mark making, Wrishko juxtaposes serious and humorous tones through world building in order to enforce the impacts of public expression.

Artist Statement:

Wrishko’s work emphasizes the importance of acknowledging societal pressures through character creation and world building. With the use of linocut and collagraph printmaking techniques, Wrishko employs a graphic line to create strong forms while letting the mark-making bleed into textured, compact spaces. The angles used in the carvings make the viewer feel present in the busy atmosphere, holding emotional weight while observing the existence and interactions firsthand. Wrishko makes deliberate choices on what characters make eye contact with the viewer in order to create elements of fear and unease, which further allows for inner reflection. Wrishko takes real world socio-political topics as sources of inspiration and are employed in an indirect way to provide moments of play. A dark colour palette is used in their work to counterbalance such moments. The representation of both home life and outings is essential in Wrishko’s work as it forces viewers to gauge how honestly individuals act when faced with public attention. Overall, Wrishko’s work is significant as it aims for the observing viewer to feel engulfed and, thus, reflect on the intensity of their actions in social and private settings.

Renee Hart

Renee Hart is a 25-year-old artist from Halifax, Nova Scotia, currently living and studying in Edmonton, Alberta. As an undergraduate student in her fourth year of a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Design program, she specializes in printmaking, mixed media, and photography.

Artist Statement

Hart’s work is heavily influenced by nostalgia and ephemerality, capturing fleeting moments from her life and exploring ways to bring them to life through her art. She aims to create an emotional connection with viewers through carefully calculated compositions and relatable themes. In her printmaking practice, Renee is interested in the marks that can be achieved through carrying plates with her in her day-to-day life. This technique allows her to choose which marks to etch, push back, keep, or cover up, contributing to the themes and compositions of her work.

Ronnie Seo

Ronnie Seo is a BFA student at the University of Alberta. She was born in Incheon, Korea and moved to Surrey, B.C. when she was a teenager. Seo now lives in Edmonton. She is still surprised by the amount of snow every winter because Surrey rains in winter.

Artist Statement

Ronnie Seo’s work explores themes of ambiguous identity and ethnicity. Her creative work begins with a question about who she is. This a question that we all ask but is a question with no right or wrong answer. Seo was born in Korea and came to Canada 10 years ago with her family and lived in BC until she moved to Edmonton to study. Before Covid-19, Seo got a chance to visit Korea and discovered that the places, people, and the community she grew up in had changed, but also noticed a change in herself. Seo now feels she is not 100% Korean, unlike her parents or relatives who are living in Korea but also feels uncertain as a second-generation Korean Canadian. Using copper plate etching, she enjoys the idea of engraving her confusion onto the plates. Seo’s works take the form of documenting memories and sometimes play between reality and imaginary worlds. Nobody can see these imaginary worlds and beings, but it is there. Identity works similarly. This series of prints is a journey but also a letter to people who are still confused with things they can’t see but have with them, which includes the artist, herself.

 

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