The Blackwood Gallery is currently holding the first of two art and art history graduate exhibitions together called “Double Crossing”. The first exhibition held its opening reception on March 20 and will run until March 31. The second exhibition will open April 3 and run until April 14. The exhibitions are also on display in the e-gallery.
Visible from outside the Blackwood Gallery is Alison Siobhan’s multimedia piece “From the Past into the Future”. Made of chicken wire and braided fleece, it bears a slight resemblance to the head of an elephant. In her artist statement, Siobhan talks about how the symbol of the elephant fascinates her, specifically its association with family, memory, strength, and wisdom. She says she chose the medium of braided fleece because it connects her to her mother and grandmother. In contrasting manufactured metal wiring with braided fleece, the artist puts the focus on the handmade and the duality of experience and memory.
Another beautiful piece is Crystal Rosbrook’s acrylic on canvas titled “Windows to Look Through”. In her statement, she says her painting is part of a series in which she tries to blur the lines between religious and secular places of worship. She comments on how the dark spots contrast with the light, the black representing the parts of a person’s character that are not yet clear to them.
Tanya Petrina’s “Reflection”, made of wood, acrylic, watercolour, and pencil crayon, reflects her passion for the natural environment by composing a new landscape in different media. She says her inspiration came from looking at photos of a recent visit to Croatia, and from how the mismatched pieces of painted wood on the reflective surface recall the jagged reflection of land in water.
On display in the e-gallery is Anthony Bellavia’s “Frank”, a mixed-media piece showing a mummy made of foam sitting in an old armchair. Bellavia says he has always been captivated by monsters and horror movies and he uses his artwork to explore how experiences change based on how things and people are perceived, particularly in their physical appearance.
Also in the e-gallery is Katherine Salgo’s moleskin sketchbook, displayed on wooden platforms. The piece, entitled “Strangers in Transit”, is made up of quick sketches in graphite Salgo took of people sitting still on buses. In her comments on her process, she writes that she only sketched what she could see and stopped once the passengers got off the bus, giving her sketches their unfinished but whimsical look.
The other artists featured in the first exhibition are Anita Bir, Karly Boileau, Taylor Bosada, Siobhan Burbidge, Frances Cordero de Bolanos, Daniel Deus, Rebecca D’Onofrio, Hanna Grunow-Harsta, Dorothea Hines, Zack Honey, Li Fan Huang, Olga Klosowski, Adriana Lychacz, Melissa Moss, Stacy Ng, Kirsten Parry, and Elizaveta Semechko.
The artists in the second exhibition are Diana Angelescu, Lauren Baker, Samantha Banyard, Bethany Bosma, Sabrina Brown, Emily Cadger, Natalie Chung, Erin Doane, Kara Firth, Danya Gamelin, Liz Gibbs, Stephanie Hagendorn, Amand Inglis, Ebony Jansen, Alexandra Khosravi, Ming Lau, AnnaLiisa Ollila, Lesley Savoie, Melina Sevilla, Ashely St. Pierre, and Mackenzie Veldboom.
