Exhibition Runs: April 5 - 26, 2013
On the UAS Barewalls (screening room)

“Nature is a dictionary; one draws words from it.”
-Eugene Delacroix

What I am exploring as an artist is our relationship to the natural world. My work is an exploration of the lines and colours, the cadence of western Canadian landscape. Nature depicts a condensed life cycle. By observing the elements of the natural world we can observe all phases of life: birth, growth, demise, and regeneration. I am fascinated by the way natural world illustrates the interconnection of all things.

Building on these themes Frozen Bow includes a series of paintings on created on top of photographic image. The mixed media pieces created with oil and charcoal, although firmly rooted in nature lean towards the abstract. The pieces presented speak to a personal philosophy of natural world and peace. 

Thank you to Calgary 2012 for their support of this project.

Artist Bio:
Peace. Creativity. Real Beauty.

Lisa Tornack has been working professionally as a painter since 2002. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts, with distinction from ACAD, in Calgary, AB, Canada. Since then, the artist has taught a variety of community art classes and has been privileged to coordinate numerous art exhibitions, fundraisers, and festivals. In 2008, Lisa was accepted to an artist residency at the Centre D’Art I Natura located in Farerra, Spain.

The completion of this intensive residency allowed for experimentation with a variety of mediums, resulting in tremendous professional strides for the artist. Currently, Lisa continues her studio practice, exhibits, and works facilitating art classes for adults with developmental disabilities, in Calgary, Alberta. Lisa hopes to further elevate the value of peace, creativity, and beauty through both her life and art.

Exhibition Runs: March 22nd to 26th, 2013
Reception: March 23, 8PM to 11PM

On The Barewalls
The basis of my work involves evoking the hybrid nature of my cultural experiences.  Being immersed in two distinct cultures – broadly speaking South-Asian and Western – there is a splitting of perception.  The result is not a binary view, but of a composite form with an emphasis on ambivalence.  A dialogue bounces back and forth in a resultant third space, wary of becoming confined and harnessed to one idea or the other; instead conventions break down, and a mash of images emerge.

Falling in line with contemporary theory in hybridity, contents of the third space float in a non-hierarchical system where instead of one culture taking precedence over another, I imagine them to break up, re-aggregate and re-synthesize.

There is a story that runs through each painting yet the narrative is conveyed all at once in a non-linearity. Within this third space, the story does not necessarily have a conclusion, moral, or political position; but its significance is only in relating multiple viewpoints in the same space.

A personal archive of symbolism has developed over the years solidifying my style.  I am influenced by a number of artistic periods including Persian miniature painting, surrealism, and magic realism.  The imagery of the Eastern past and contemporary West, as well as the fantastic magical, and rational real, fuse and interact within each painting.  The vibrant colours offer an exotic dream-like opulence while the flat brushstroke style elicits a sense of controlled introversion and solemnity, thus keeping in theme with the work being ambivalent in nature.

Artist Bio:
Sadia Fakih is a painter living in Calgary, and currently studying at the Alberta College of Art & Design.

Contemporary dancer Audrey Horne and contemporary artist Farlee Mowat offer for one evening only, a night of artwork and dance performance. For the first time ever, Farlee will perform a live dance and Audrey will be presenting artwork in an exhibition space.

We All Cling To Dead Things is a show that explores the ritualistic and sacrificial elements of art making and the fragile balance of it all. It is a show that celebrates the ethereal nature of truth and beauty and love, which is only accessible to us when we decide to listen to ourselves and welcome vulnerability. 

These works are not an academic exploration of the word obsession, but a physical manifestation of the process of preoccupation-- Of making objects and making art through a consuming act. This consumptive act is a way to communicate a mental state of preoccupation that perhaps is otherwise unable to be communicated. Perhaps one that we all share. Showcased in this exhibition are paintings, sculptures and drawings based on obsession, focusing on process based work. (IE: Objects where process is evident or requires time-consuming tasks). All works are completed by artists with developmental disabilities and communicate each individual’s state of preoccupation with the same repetitive task. 

On the Barewalls

This is the artist’s first solo exhibition.  A group of paintings are based on color exploration and emotional expression.  The artist has developed her strength and passion through the years of practice and various experiments with oil paint.  Combining ancient Chinese calligraphy to abstract expressionism, she creates her own style and technique which translate on her paintings.

Artist Bio:
Sandy was born in Hong Kong.  She acquired the art of Chinese Calligraphy in her childhood, which continues to influence her paintings today.  Graduated from the University of Calgary with a BA and BFA in 2005, Sandy absorbed Western art practices which gave her the confidence to express freely on her canvas.  Her works have been collected privately and selected by organizations for exhibitions over the years.

Artists: Red Davis, Jeff Chan, Vanessa Toews, Stacy Brown, Davey Gravy, Steven Tov and Renee Wehring.

THE TITLE: I GUESS,  is a group exhibition which features seven artists with varying disciplines. The different perspectives within the work create an interesting dialogue between each piece.

Interested in the functions of industrials development, Before Urbanscapes takes the viewer on a walk to explore the underbelly of an urbanized landscape and is the initial body of work on Shanaz Pasha’s chosen subject matter.

 The artist is not so much interested in taking pictures of beautiful architectural facades, or pretty city lights in the evening or winding roads, but rather in the subtle evidence of human traffic, of how architecture is used, byproducts of urbanization, how the surface of the landscape is altered and used for the purpose of structuralizing civilized culture.

Before Urbanscapes is a photographic study that presents the viewer with a way to look at industrial development and its facets that is atypical of photographic presentations in the professional field. It is the artists aim to prove that creative presentation in the field of research is important, if not vital, to fulfill a comprehensive view of social and cultural studies.

This work is created and presented as fine art, functioning as research and documentation, using Ansel Adam’s outlined Zone System of exposure, development and printing.

Established two years ago at Pith Gallery and Studios, Perfect Uncle formed around a kinship which centers on the proximity, working techniques and approaches to the interdisciplinary art practices of three Calgary based artists: Ryan Scott, Shawn Mankowske and Palmer Olson. The group regularly meets to discuss and share ideas about artistic production and to collaborate on not only art pieces but on a not dissimilar musical body whose output fits squarely within such a collaborative and critical practice. Perfect Uncle utilizes a general problem solving approach to sculpture, painting and music where the effects of process dictate the most crucial aspects in the creation of artwork. 

Visual Lists invite you to come and take part in a series of collaborative drawings.  Starting with one word participants will create drawings on a scroll allowing for one drawing to lead into the next creating a scroll of images, a visual list.

Artist Bio:
Lydia Karpenko is an interdisciplinary artist and designer.  Her work includes interactive installation, textiles and drawings.  Kelsey Fraser is an artist.  Her work includes drawing awkward moments and humorous incidents.

You are invited to come by Untitled's Satellite Gallery anytime on Thursday April 12th from 5-10pm to take part in "Visual Lists"- a collaborative drawing experience.   

Artists: Lori Andrews, Jill Margaret Armstrong, Linka van As, Brian Batista, Richard Bell, Elizabeth Bowen, Ola Birch, Laurie Breitkreuz, Scott Carmichael, Vicki Chau, Mark Eadie, Damian Espinosa and Alaska Pi, Sarah Gasparetto, Kenzie Housego, Daniel Kirk, Chelsea Klukas, Wayne Leung, Andrea Mann, Michael Mateyko, Rob Milton, Heather Minty, Joel Monea, Alex Moon, Peter Curtis Morgan, Doug Nhung, Dan Petcu, Sally Raab, Teak Sato, Taylor Schaerer, Kyle Scott, Jasreet Singh, Jarett Sitter, Hans Thiessen, Marla White & Helen Young.

Curated By: Vicki Chau

Pin-ups are mass-produced images of idealized sex symbols, intended to be "pinned up" to a wall. They are cut out of magazines and newspapers, or postcards and calendars. From the classic charms of Betty Garble, to the fetish modelling of Bettie Page, our version of the "pin-up" has changed over the ages and has accumulated over a century worth of history. 35 artists have worked within the confines of a "poster" format, showing a diversity of artist's interpretations through the themes of feminism, sexuality and popular culture.