Creativity

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WAR-TOYS by Brian McCarty

July 6, 2011 in Artists, Creativity, Exhibition by carole | No comments

Photographer Brian McCarty will show his work at the gallery during the fall 2012 semester. In the recent past, McCarty’s photography has focused on urban toys in surprising and realistic situations (which we love!) — see http://www.mccartyphotoworks.com/portfolio.html. But he has been working the past few months on a documentary project that combines photography with principles of play and art therapy. With the assistance of the Spafford Children’s Center in East Jerusalem as well as the Idbaa Cultural Center inside the Deheisheh Refugee Camp, he has been examining firsthand accounts of war from the perspective of children living in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank.

He describes the project here, at http://vimeo.com/25908478.

Echoes of the Past

May 11, 2011 in Artists, Creativity, Exhibition, Students by carole | No comments

Senior Tandazani Dhlakama has been working on a very impressive body of work this year as part of an honors project, and the resulting exhibition, Echoes of the Past, is on display in the gallery until June 6. Among other topics, the exhibition addresses family, history, identity, and politics. Last Friday, she successfully defended her work, fielding some pretty tough questions from faculty members.

Great job, Tanda!

Inuit Modern Symposium

April 6, 2011 in Artists, Creativity by carole | No comments

As Cathy noted earlier, we spent Saturday in Toronto to attend a symposium which marked the opening of the Inuit Modern exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The symposium was informative and powerful, focusing on the contemporary nature of Inuit life and art. It was gratifying to see how the AGO and the symposium organizers forefronted Inuit concerns and made a point of letting Inuit artists speak for themselves.

Elisapee Ishulutaq and Jimmy Manning

: Kenojuak Ashevak with her daughter

: Elisapee Ishulutaq with Jimmy Manning

: Sculptors Mathew Nuqingaq and Michael Massie with Heather Igloiorte

: Artists Tim Pitsiulak and Mattiusi Iyaituk with Ingo Hessel

: David Ruben Piqtoukun and Idriss Moss-Davies with Heather lgloliorte

: Mathew Nuqingaq prepares for a drum dance to close the symposium

: Toronto's CN Tower

The symposium was all day, but we managed to take a peek at the beautifully presented exhibition just before the museum closed for the day, and I sadly didn’t get any photographs, not that it would have been allowed anyway.

Inuit Art Symposium

March 31, 2011 in Artists, Creativity, Exhibition by Cathy | No comments

Carole and I (and printmaking prof Melissa Schulenburg) are heading to Toronto tomorrow to attend the Inuit Modern Symposium at the Art Gallery of Ontario on Saturday. One of the most important artists from Cape Dorset, Kenojuak Ashevak, will be there, as will David Ruben Piqtouken and Jimmy Manning. David and Jimmy both came to SLU some years ago, as did Kavavaow Mannomee. David’s beautiful Inuksuit sits at the entrance to the Canadian Embassy gallery in Washington, DC, where the gallery presented our 50-year anniversary Cape Dorset exhibition last year in 2010. Carole and I passed the sculpture every day as we installed the show.

Our pals David Rees, Julian Assange, and Spencer Homick

March 22, 2011 in Artists, Creativity, Educational Programs, Exhibition, Uncategorized, Visiting Artist by Cathy | No comments

Our globe-trotting sticker ninja, Spencer Homick ’06, sent a link to a hilarious video skit about Julian Assange played by David Rees called Terrible Houseguest. We’ve had David come to SLU on two occasions, and both were some of the best presentations we’ve seen. David’s work is difficult to classify, evidenced by two project titles, “My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable” and “Get Your War On.” The GYWO series is/was a brilliant response to the events taking place after 9/11. I say is/was b/c David has been doing some new cartoons in the GYWO series, from what I’ve heard.

The gallery got in a little trouble after producing an exhibition card for a GYWO mini-exhibition (presented alongside work by NY Times photographer Tyler Hicks, who was recently held captive on assignment in Libya but today released). Trouble on one level (with donors), but the SLU president at the time was very supportive of free speech in academia.

If you haven’t seen the GYWO books, pick them up. (Sorry for the crazy thumbnail….)

New Nipirasait banner in Griffiths

February 16, 2011 in Creativity, Exhibition, Permanent Collection, Renovations by carole | No comments

The Griffiths lobby has been looking sort of bland for an arts building, and then Cathy had the great idea of hanging one of the banners from the Nipirasait exhibition’s Washington venue. Fac. ops. just installed it this morning, and it looks really great!

There’s one more banner, with three images, but it’s a long horizontal piece, so it will be challenging to find a place to display it.

Outdoor Studies Class in the Gallery

February 2, 2011 in Creativity, Educational Programs, Students, Workshop by carole | No comments

Cathy Shrady’s Outdoor Studies class came to the gallery last week to bind journals. They’ll use the journals to record their responses to readings for the class as well as observations in the field — weather and the like, from what I remember.

The group was fun to work with, and I think everyone had a good time — and made really lovely journals! The Inuit print exhibition provided an appropriately nature-inspired atmosphere for the workshop.

Visitors to the Gallery

December 14, 2010 in Creativity, Educational Programs, Exhibition, Students, Uncategorized by carole | No comments

Last week, students from Clifton-Fine Central School visited the Gallery with their teacher Rebecca Milone. Using toys from the Picto This! exhibition as their models, the students made quick sketches in the Gallery.

And there was even a rainbow of sorts!

Kananginak Pootoogook

November 28, 2010 in Artists, Creativity, Permanent Collection, Uncategorized by Cathy | No comments

One of the most respected elders in the Cape Dorset community, Kananginak Pootoogook, passed away last week at age 75. His work is in our current Nipirasait exhibition at the Canadian Embassy in DC. I was very lucky to have met Kananginak on two occasions at his home in Cape Dorset, Nunavut. It was a little intimidating since I obviously don’t speak Inuktitut. But Jimmy Manning was there, the metaphorical shaman that passes between the Inuit and the southern “qaalunaat” like me. Kananginak was known as the “Audubon of the north” with his carefully rendered and thoughtful depictions of nature and the environment. I have some pictures at school that I’ll post tomorrow.

St. Lawrence owns several of Kananginak’s prints, including one of my favorites, “Amiraijaktuk, Shedding the Velvet.”

His print “Intrepid Caribou” was also represented on the card for an exhibition at the gallery in 2005 entitled “Far North.”

Kananginak had a major retrospective exhibition of fifty years of work last February-March 2010 at the Museum of Inuit Art in Toronto.

Motomichi Nakamura at SLU

November 15, 2010 in Artists, Creativity, Educational Programs, Exhibition, Visiting Artist, Workshop by carole | No comments

In conjunction with the Picto This! exhibition, artist Motomichi Nakamura came to campus last week for two days, during which he made a bunch of monoprints in the print studio with the help of Melissa Schulenberg, gave a lecture describing his artwork and creative processes, and conducted a workshop about character design.