Six Concordia master's students are in the running for a prestigious - and generous - award that will help the recipient transition from student to full-time artist.
The Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art, announced in 2009, supports the most promising new graduates as they develop their professional practice, broaden their teaching experience, and undertake and exhibit their research/creation. Awarded annually, one fellowship is conducted through the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University and another through the Faculté des arts at UQAM. Valued at approximately $55,000 each, the fellowships take effect from June 2014.
Concordia's 2012 laureate, Julie Favreau, will be culminating her fellowship with an exhibition at the FOFA Gallery from April 7 to May 16, 2014.
All of this year's shortlisted artists will graduate with an MFA in Studio Arts in the spring. They'll all have to hold their breath until May 8, when the recipients for both universities will be officially announced.
Introducing Concordia's six finalists (click each thumbnail to see full image):
Mathieu Cardin, Sculpture
In his work, Mathieu Cardin transforms space to stage a story where the "grey zone" between different levels of realities can take form. His work often takes on the form of installation, depicted with a fictional story. Part of his production consists on making those fictional stories appear real.
Image: La perpendiculaire de l'horizon, mixed media installation, 2013
Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Intermedia (Video, Performance and Electronic Art)
Chun Hua Catherine Dong's work mainly deals with cultural intersections brought on by globalization, asking what it means to be a citizen of the world today. It is relevant to open dialogues about "deterritorialization" and "disessentialization" in culture and how to transform socio-political landscapes through gestures. The gestures in her work are symbolic and metaphoric, striving to install a model for social transformation that could possibly create a new way to look at utopia.
Image: To Rebel is Justified, performance, 2013
Brendan Flanagan, Painting and Drawing
As machines become more user friendly and their formats are imperceptibly woven into our lives what do we lose and what do we gain? Working in painting and sculpture Brendan Flanagan recreates digital aesthetics with analog tools, looking to reveal the structures and spaces of technology. His work investigates new means of production while also undermining processes that "clean up" or standardize our world.
Image: Unmanned, Acrylic on canvas, 36"x24", 2013
Erin Gee, Intermedia (Video, Performance and Electronic Art)
At intersections of visual arts, music and sound art, the principal goal of Erin Gee's practice is to explore possibilities of artistic creation through recombinations of human bodies and electronic voices // electronic bodies and human voices. Her works incorporate aspects of performance and vocal acts of expression into their structures, exploring language in novel ways through interdisciplinary research in interactive sculpture, audio, performance and robotics.
Image: Swarming Emotional Pianos (2012-2014), wireless musical instruments controlled through physiological markers of emotion: aluminium, robotic bases, electronics
Jude Griebel, Sculpture
Jude Griebel's work examines how our imagination negotiates abstract notions such as growth, transition and mortality through metaphorical and experiential avenues. His painted sculptural bodies become sites of fusion, in which physical anatomy is merged with allegorical counterparts. The expression of his concepts through papier-mâché acknowledges the subversive and adaptable nature of the medium and its history of use in Halloween costumes, amateur theatre, ritual craft traditions and design.
Image: Wheat country, Papier-mâché, foam, epoxy, wood, human hair, oil paint, 58"x31"x 26.5", 2013
Jinyoung Kim, Photography
Jinyoung Kim renders personal narratives into poetic vision that forms symbolic and metaphoric visual condensations. Her images and video resonate with everyday experiences, imbuing them with meanings through appropriating it into different contexts and staging gestures in front of the camera. Her work examines condition of liminal self-identity and displacement, frequently using her-self as a performer in her work.
Image: Objects on the Rooftop, variation no. 3, chromogenic print, 48"x38", 2013
About the Bronfman Fellowship:
Previous Concordia recipients:
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