Shenkman Lecture Series
University of Guelph and the School of Fine Art and Music
present the 6th annual
Shenkman Lecture in Contemporary Art
Wednesday March 21, 2012, 6:00pm
War Memorial Hall, University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario
Admission Free
Featuring: Mike Nelson
Mike Nelson - Photo by Thierry BalIn his installations, British artist Mike Nelson functions like a novelist, but not a traditional one. The materials of his storytelling are not characters and plot but objects and space. His desire in fabricating these rooms, through a combination of persuasion and seduction, is to involve the viewer in the 'atmosphere' in which they find themselves. He regarded an early piece from 1996, called Trading Station Alpha, as a storeroom of ideas from which he could make subsequent works and following from that idea Nelson's installations have always been fascinatingly self-reflexive. His way of putting it is that he is being pursued by his own history, what he calls "a kind of retrospective, introspective backward glance." The legend of the Ouroboros - the snake that eats its own tail - is an apt image for an art that continually curls back upon itself, using its creative past to frame and construct an aesthetic present. He makes and then un-makes with equivalent intelligence. So "I, Imposter", his piece for the British pavilion at the Venice Biennale this year, he substituted images of Istanbul from a work he made for the 2003 biennial there, and superimposed them in Venice in 2011. The resulting installation of a photographer's darkroom was a compelling accommodation between displacement and re-creation, the making of a migratory, changeable narrative of two cities, Istanbul and Venice, and two frames of mind, the east and the west. The way viewer's react to this work is consistent with other of this installations; mystery mixed with uncertainty, even a tinge of fearfulness. The atmosphere of this piece has about it an unmistakeable disquieting beauty.
See images from the British pavilion at the 2011 Venice Bienniale - britishcouncil-venice.org/images.php
Mike Nelson was born in Loughborough, UK in 1967. He lives and works in London and in the last decade has been included in major group and solo exhibitions around the world, including the ICA in London; the 13th Sydney Biennale; the 8th International Istanbul Biennial; the 3rd Singapore Biennial; PS1, New York; the Moderna Musset, Stockholm; Modern Art, Oxford; the Tate Triennial, and the Hayward Gallery, London. In 2001 he was a recipient of a Paul Hamlyn Award and he has twice been short-listed for the Turner Prize.
The annual Shenkman Lecture was established in 2007 through an endowment by Dasha Shenkman, a Canadian art collector who lives in the United Kingdom.
For more information contact:
Sandra Sabatini Ph.D.
Dean's Office, College of Arts
University of Guelph
519.824.4120. x53869
sabatini@uoguelph.ca
MFA Open Studio 2012 - www.uoguelph.ca/sofam/studio-art/openstudios
The MFA students in the School of Fine Art and Music at the University of Guelph are pleased to welcome the public to their annual Open Studios.
Open Studios offers visitors a rare inside look at the development of new work within the hothouse environment of an art program. The public is invited to preview work in progress and chat with the artists in the informal environment of the studios.
On Wednesday, March 21 from 1:00 - 5:00 pm and again from 7:00 - 9:00 pm, visitors are invited to drop by the studios of graduate students. This event is scheduled in conjunction with the Shenkman Lecture in Contemporary Art, presented at 6:00pm in War Memorial Hall by British Installation Artist, Mike Nelson.
Open Studios 2012 features work by graduate candidates:
Laura Anderson
Jennifer Carvalho
Aryen Hoekstra
Benjamin Klein
Amy Lockhart
Jenine Marsh
Ella McGeough
Dustin Wilson
Nadia Belerique
Marco D'Andrea
Julia Hall
Melissa Hamonic
David Hucal
Erica Mendritzki
And introduces work by Specialized Studio undergraduates in the Alexander Hall:
Victoria Dziuma, D'Arcy Flynn, Joshua Guthrie, Amy Hallman, Ye Han Christina Hotz, Tess Martens, Graham Ragan, Nicole Runham, Nicholas Silvani, Elizabeth Sullivan, Katherine Szabo, Vanessa Tignanelli, Jessie Toonen, Vicktoria Vaitekunas,and Leah Williams
The University of Guelph offers a two year Master of Fine Arts Degree that combines intensive studio concentration with seminars in theory and pedagogy. Exceptionally committed graduate faculty and limited student enrolment result in a community that is intensely involved in contemporary art and its discourse. A consistently excellent program of visiting artists, critics and curators extends this community.
Alumni from Guelph's MFA program include Derek Sullivan, Kristan Horton, Katie Bethune-Leaman, Martin Golland, Melanie Authier, Zin Taylor and David Urban.
University of Guelph
50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario, NIG 2W1
Press contact:
Monica Tap, MFA Coordinator, mtap@uoguelph.ca
519-824-4120 x56275
Erika Mendritzki, Open Studio Coordinator, mendritzki@googlemail.com
Open Studio Locations
Located at BLACKWOOD HALL, FIREHALL, AND ALEXANDER HALL.
Open Studios Map
Open Studios 2012 Map
School of Fine Art and Music
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College of Arts
Macdonald Stewart Art Centre
University of Guelph
Sponsored by: BMO Financial Group
Previous Shenkman Lectures in Contemporary Art
Hou Hanru Exhibitions: making places
Wednesday March 2, 2011 at 5:30 pm
War Memorial Hall, University of Guelph
For the past several decades, exhibition curating has become a central component in the system of art production and distribution. With the growth of biennials, contemporary art museums, and public interventions, and their proliferation across the globe, curatorial practices are going through intense processes of experimentation and innovation. Exhibitions are not only expanding to accommodate creative activity from all around the world, they are also turning into sites of production new artistic visions, concept forms and social relationships. Ultimately, they are a driving force in the making of new cultural localities in the age of globalisation.
Hou HanruHou Hanru is currently the Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs and Chair of Exhibition and Museum Studies, San Francisco Art Institute.
Born in 1963, Guangzhou, China, Hou Hanru graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing in 1985 (BA) and 1988 (MA). He lived and worked in Paris, France as an art critic and curator from 1990 - 2005. Since then, Hou Hanru has been based out of San Francisco.
Besides the regular exhibitions and public programs at the San Francisco Art Institute, he has independently curated or co-curated numerous exhibitions including: “By Day, By Night, or some (special) things a museum can do,” Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, 2010, “The Spectacle of the Everyday," the 10th Biennale de Lyon, 2009, “Too Early for Vacation,” EV + A 2008, Limerick, Ireland, March – May 2008, “Not Only Possible, But Also Necessary – Optimism in The Age of Global Wars," the 10th Istanbul Biennial”, Istanbul, 2007, “Everyday Miracle, four woman artists in the Chinese Pavilion (Shen Yuan, Yin Xiuzhen, Kan Xuan, Cao Fei),” the 52nd Venice Biennale, 2007, “Transient City,” Urban Interventions, Luxembourg 2007, “Laboratoire pour un Avenir Incertain (Laboratory for an Uncertain Future),” Grand Palais, Paris, France, 2006, “Beyond, the 2nd Guangzhou Triennale,” Guangzhou, China, 2004-2006, “Go Inside,” the 3rd Tirana Biennale, Tirana, Albania, 2005, “Nuit Blanche 2004,” Paris, 2 Oct. 2004, “The Fifth System – Public Art in the Age of Post-Planning,” the fifth Shenzhen international public art exhibition, 2003, “Z.O.U. – Zone Of Urgency,” the 50th Venice Biennale, 2003, “Gwangju Biennale 2002,” Gwangju, Korea, “Shanghai Spirit -- Shanghai Biennale 2000,” Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2000, "The French Pavilion (with Huang Yong Ping)," Venice Biennale, “Cities on the Move," 1997 - 2000, Wiener Secession, (Vienna, Austria, CAPC, Bordeaux, France, PS1, New York, Louisiana Museum, Denmark, The Hayward Gallery, London, UK, various venues, Bangkok, Thailand, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland), "Hong Kong, etc.," the Johannesburg Biennale, Johannesburg, South Africa 1997, "Parisien(ne)s," 1997, Camden Arts Centre, London, “China/Avant-Garde,” China National Art Gallery, Beijing, 1989, etc.
As an art and culture critic and curator, Hou Hanru has focused on the dynamic relationship between art, architecture, urbanism and social change in the age of globalisation. Collaborating closely with professionals and the public from various domains, his curatorial and writing projects are highly experimental and propose new understandings of the tension and interactions between global and local, between past, present and future, in order to envision new conditions for cultural production.
Hou Hanru has lectured in numerous international institutions and served on international juries of art and architecture awards. His international credits are extensive and varied. He has served as Advisor (professor) at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, Netherlands, as a visiting Professor, HISK, Antwerp/Ghent, Belgium, a member of the Asian Art Council, Solomon Guggenheim Museum, New York, a member of International committees for Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul Culture Foundation, Turkey, the Deutsche Bank Collection, and the Yokohama Triennial, Japan Foundation, among others. He has also served as a contributer and guest editor for several magazines, such as Flash Art International, Urban China, Yishu, and Art Asia Pacific. He is a frequent contributor to exhibition catalogues, art and architecture magazines and books. Hou Hanru's book, On The Mid-Ground, was published by Timezone 8, Beijing-Hong Kong, in 2002.
Hou Hanru received the honours of Chévalier des ordres des arts et des lettres of the French Cultural Ministry, 2008.
Alastair Summerlee, Dasha Shenkman, John Kissick, and Hou Hanru at the 2011 Shenkman Lecture, University of Guelph
MFA Open Studio 2011
Open Studios 2011 features work by graduate candidates:
Ashleigh Bartlett
Nadia Belerique
Marco D'Andrea
Martie Giefert
Jessica Groome
Julia Hall
Melissa Hamonic
David Hucal
Dawn Johnston
Laura Marotta
Tiziana La Melia
Maryse Lariviere
Amanda McMorran
Erica Mendritzki
Jennifer Murphy
And introduces work by Specialized Studio undergraduates in the Zavitz Gallery:
Samantha Ackerley, Monte Burman, Stephanie Deumer, Omar Elkharadly, Danica Evering, Dan Frawley, Midori Fullerton, Bailey Govier, David Graham, Charlotte Hodgson, Dara Mussar, Ashley Schirripa, Haley Uyeda, Rachel Vanderzwet, Sarah Walterhouse, Jen Weber, Maliha Qureshi
Open Studios 2011
Open Studios 2011
Open Studios 2011
Open Studios 2011
