March 9 – May 12, 2020 Louisa Ferguson ‘This Scorched Earth’ Please note: due to the outbreak of COVID-19, with the health and safety of our community in mind, our gallery hours are Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm with building access via our north entrance, adjacent to the Place Riel parking lot. Thank you for your understanding.
As an artist, I create work as a “holder” for intention. My
work is narrative based, often centred on archetypal, mythological themes, and
how they manifest themselves in contemporary life. I believe my work is most
successful when it acts as a resonant gong for the observer.
In this work, I am exploring and expanding on the idea of
works of art being reliquaries that preserve connection between humans and the
environment, as well as the past and the present.
Over a year, I harvested the dead trees from local bluffs
and fields around my rural home and transformed them into shrines. The trees,
scorched, polished with bees’ wax, and embedded with objects, stand as symbols
of loss and devotion. The process of searing, sanding and burnishing the wood
harnessed my mourning and transformed the trees into mementos of what I see is
being lost in the environment surrounding me. The objects “preserved” in the
wood in various stages of death, decay and fading act as ceremonial reminders.
The glass work is also an act of preservation. Using a plaster/silica mixture, I made molds of the surface bark of each tree compartment. I then created the convex glass windows by slumping glass over the molds in a kiln, ensuring that each window is a direct impression of the wood that I bored away. The organic impressions of flora were created by delicately pressing flowers and leaves into wet clay, making a plaster/silica mold of the impression, and casting glass into the open-faced molds. For the glass vessels, I used the pate de verre (glass paste) technique, which is one of the oldest known forms of glass dating back to the early 2nd millennium in Ancient Mesopotamia. I mixed fine glass granules (frit) with water and Gum Arabic to create a paste, which I packed in subsequent layers into plaster/silica molds. I then fired the molds in a glass kiln.
These objects, exhibited together, create a journey of remembrance of a fading landscape. Louisa Ferguson, February 2020
For more information, please contact Linda Stark, Curator at 306.380.5310 or via lstark@stmcollege.ca
January 13 – February 29, 2020 Please join us for our opening reception on Sunday, January 19, 1-3pm as we celebrate the recent work of students from the University of Saskatchewan’s Community Arts and Artisanship Program. For more information on classes offered by Community Arts, please click on the following link: https://artsandscience.usask.ca/noncredit/communityart/adultclasses.php
Participating artists:
Regan Arendse Daniel Aussant Jill Biblow Karen Baxter Laurie Blondeau Tammy Lee Boychuk Lynne Bresselaar Paulette Caron Bill Compton Nicole Cote Faye Erickson Elsie Gronsdahl Karen Harbaruk Chris Hodge Irene Hughes Jalene Ippolito Blanche Johnston Shane Junop Shawn Kauenhofen Arbie Kepler Kim Laprairie Janis Leia Kim MacLeod Wendy McLeod Kelly Parker Sandra L. Polvi Christine Popoff Todd Suzanne Rooke Patricia Salat Sheryl Salen Carol Trumbley Nicole Walsh Ellen Wasan Marnie Weir Chris Wojnarowicz Cynthia Wright-Fulton Carole Zuk
For more information, please contact Linda Stark, Curator at 306.380.5310 or via lstark@stmcollege.ca Gallery hours: Monday to Friday 7:30am – 10:30pm, Saturday 9:00am – 6:00pm, Sunday 11:00am – 9:00pm.
October 28 – December 15 Wine and Cheese reception: Tuesday, 5 November, 7:00 pm Behind the Wire: Civilian Internment in the British Empire, 1914-1919 is a travelling display organized by Aston University (Birmingham, UK) and Edinburgh Napier University (Edinburgh, Scotland) in partnership with Archaeology Scotland and the Internment Research Centre, Hawick Museum (Hawick, Scotland). The exhibition is hosted by the Prairie Centre for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage (PCUH) in association with St. Thomas More Art Gallery.
The exhibit marks the centenary end of the Great War. It focuses on the global phenomenon of WWI civilian internment, but draws especially on the specific experience in the British empire from Britain to Australia, India to South Africa, and, of course, Canada. Using period photographs and referencing documents, differences and similarities are explained. Underlying the experience everywhere, however, was a policy that targeted immigrant minorities under the pretext of security, an issue that continues to have relevance today.
The guest speaker at our November 5th, 7:00 pm reception is Prof. Stefan Manz, Professor of German and Global History and Head of Languages and Translation Studies, Aston University. He is the author of Constructing a German Diaspora: The “Greater German Empire,” 1871-1914 (2014) and more recently co-editor of Internment during the First World War: A Mass Global Phenomenon (2019).
St. Thomas More Gallery wishes to thank Dr. Bohdan Kordan, Professor in the Department of Political Studies at STM and founding Director of the PCUH (1998-2004) for organizing this exhibition.
CARFAC 2017-2018 Mentorship Program participants September 3 – October 25 Reception: Friday, September 27, 7-9pm
STM Gallery is pleased to present recent work by the following participants of the 2017-2018 CARFAC Mentorship Program:
JORDAN BARANIECKI SHELBY LUND DANAHE PALACIOS MIKE PODILUK KAREN POLOWICK DEREK SANDBECK WENDY SHARPE
The CARFAC mentorship program provides support (eg. studio visits, workshops, collaborations) for artists in their professional development and opportunities for increased public exposure of their work through exhibitions and other means. The artists wish to thank their mentors for their encouragement and support: Jordan Baraniecki (mentor Alison Norlen), Shelby Lund (mentor Nancy Lowry), Danahe Palacios (mentor Monique Blom), Mike Podiluk (mentor Grant Irons), Karen Polowick (mentor Terry Billings), Derek Sandbeck (mentor Clint Neufeld), Wendy Sharpe (mentor Marie Lannoo).
In progress July 8 – August 23 Opening Reception: Thursday July 25th 4-7pm
Andrei Feheregyhazi currently lives in Saskatoon and received his MFA (2016) from the University of Saskatchewan. As a filmmaker, Feheregyhazi’s current focus is working with cardboard and paper textured animation and he continues to explore a wide range of media within his work. In Progress features a selection of his recent Augmented Reality (AR) work. A simple download of his Brellabot app will allow viewers to animate each of his paper textured works within the gallery space…
This Fall, Saskatoon will host the ‘Creative Cities Network Summit’ (October 1st – 3rd) with Feheregyhazi as their artist in residence. He will create work specifically for the summit and welcomes visitors to drop by during the event. Click on the following link to view his invite for the event: ‘Saskatoon:Where the Art Is’ :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1TjgscVLHI Feheregyhazi describes the piece as “It’s a journey through a cardboard world, a cardboard Saskatoon, a miniature Saskatoon with the iconic landmarks and public art featured within it,” he said. Feheregyhazi has also created AR pieces for Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan. So if you’re going to see a play this summer, be sure to bring your phone with the Brellabot AR app to experience his work.
