Kevin Kelly's "Colonizing Oort"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Gallery 1C03 at the University of Winnipeg proudly presents
Kevin Kelly’s Colonizing Oort

WINNIPEG MB, January 5, 2009 - Gallery 1C03 hosts new work by Winnipeg/Montréal-based artist, Kevin Kelly.

Colonizing Oort - a project involving new painting, textile work, animation, digital prints, and an artist’s book - is the outcome of five years of research and four months of travel, including a one-month artist residency at 1 Shanti Road Studio in Bangalore, India. Tantalizing Kelly’s thoughts for this period were space exploration, the growing presence of communications towers, and the sounds of a city buzzing with new forms of exchange stimulated by Western telecom culture. This exhibition is a reflection on those fascinations, as well as a desire to rethink perceptions concerning space, social interaction, and the impact of telecommunication as a new wave of colonization defined in terms that are simultaneously geographic, technologic, economic, ecologic, and cultural.

Trained as a painter, Kelly is interested in new technologies of seeing, as well as the way images change as they move from one medium to another and back again. Relating digital images of asteroids taken by NASA to his original interest in landscape painting gave him the opportunity to destabilize his sense of place and context. At the same time, his fascination with an extraterrestrial phenomena known as Oort - a spherical cloud comprising of comets and asteroids believed to exist beyond Pluto at a distance approximately one light year away from the Sun - gave rise to thinking about the nature of space exploration as a form of imperial dominance. This series, in effect, offers a humorous look at the idea of land ownership and colonization, as well as the resources used to justify such practices.

In conjunction with Colonizing Oort, As We Try & Sleep Press has collaborated with Kelly to produce a limited edition artist book featuring an experimental travelogue by Kelly and an interpretive response by J.J. Kegan McFadden, among other objects and images related to the project. Copies will be available for purchase at Gallery 1C03 . Established in 2002, As We Try & Sleep Press explores the overlapping points between the literary and visual arts on a project-basis. Previous publications range from poetry chapbooks to comic books, flipbooks, broadsheets, photo albums, and children’s tales.

This exhibition will take place in Gallery 1C03 with additional components installed in Centennial Hall’s Buffeteria, which is located on the fourth floor.

Biography: In addition to holding a BFA from the University of Victoria and an MFA from Rutgers University (New Jersey), Kelly has pursued post-graduate studies at the Jan Van Eyck Akademie in the Netherlands. His work has been recognized through support from the Canada Council for the Arts, among other granting agencies, and it has exhibited as part of solo and group exhibitions across Canada, the United States, and in Europe. Kelly is an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba School of Art where he has taught painting and drawing for the past five years.

Members of the media are invited to arrange interviews with the artist at any time.

Colonizing Oort will be available for viewing from January 22 - February 21, 2009
Exhibition launch: Thursday, January 22 from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. (1st Floor, Centennial Hall)
Artist talk: Friday, January 23 beginning at 12:30 p.m. in Room 2C15 (2nd Floor, Centennial Hall)
Admission is always free and all are welcome!

Gallery hours: Monday - Friday: 12:00 - 4:00 p.m.; Saturday: 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. Closed Louis Riel Day.
Please note that the Centennial Hall Buffeteria is open during the University of Winnipeg’s regular operating hours.

Gallery 1C03 and the artist wish to acknowledge the generous financial support of the Manitoba Arts Council.

Image: Kevin Kelly, Ida (detail), 2007. Oil on aluminum, 3' x 5.5'. Photo by Sheila Spence.


Milena Placentile, Art Curator, Gallery 1C03, University of Winnipeg
515 Portage Ave, Winnipeg MB R3B 2E9
204.786.9253 | m [dot] placentile [at] uwinnipeg [dot] ca
uwinnipeg.ca/index/artgallery-index | gallery1C03.blogspot.com

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More coverage!

Check it out! More coverage of Rodney LaTourelle's Interval, this time on an Italian design site called Abitare:

http://abitare.it/events/colori-spaziali/langswitch_lang/en/

Enjoy!

G1C03 wants to hire a student on Mondays from 1 - 4 p.m.

Gallery 1C03 is looking for a responsible, motivated, articulate, and enthusiastic University of Winnipeg student to fill a temporary position as a gallery attendant.

Yes, we *did* undertake a detailed hiring process back in September, but it appears that we have a gap in our schedule.

Are you available on Mondays from 1:00 - 4:00? Or, maybe you know someone qualified who is free during this time?

Please continue reading below...

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Classification: Student Assistant (Gallery Attendant)
Department: Art Curator
Hours of Work: (0 - 3 hrs per week)
(Contract dates are: 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. on Monday Jan 26, Feb 2, Feb 9, Mar 9, Mar 16, Mar 23 and Mar 30)
Range of Pay: $9.24 - $10.32 per hour + 6% vacation pay
Application Deadline: January 12, 2008 at 4:30 p.m. to Art Curator -- hardcopy to 4M58 or via email m.placentile@uwinnipeg.ca)

Late applications will not be considered.

THIS POSTING WILL BE USED TO FILL ONE POSITION


REPRESENTATIVE DUTIES

* Closes the Gallery at the end of the day by shutting off all Gallery lights; unplugging, turning off, shutting down equipment; closing doors; ensuring that Security Services lock doors and re-arm the Gallery’s alarm system
* Safety/security of Gallery 1C03 exhibits – ensures that artworks exhibited in Gallery 1C03 are not subject to theft or mishandling by the public during hours of operation
* Public relations – greets visitors to Gallery 1C03 and answers any questions that visitors have about the art exhibits to the best of their ability; refers visitors to University Art Curator in situations where they are unable to provide assistance
* Attendance record – maintains a count of the number of visitors to Gallery 1C03
* Alerts the University Art Curator of any problems within the Gallery environment; these can relate to temperature, humidity and lighting issues or concerns for the safety of the artwork or visitors
* When applicable, takes readings of environmental conditions in Gallery 1C03 using a hand-held environmental monitor or a hygrothermograph
* When applicable, handles sales of art exhibition catalogues; this includes maintaining a count of funds in cash box and a count of catalogues at the beginning and end of each shift and returns all cash to the Art Curator for processing
* Performs other related duties as required or assigned


QUALIFICATIONS

* Must be a full-time student at a high school or The University of Winnipeg, preferably an art history major or with an interest in the visual arts
* Some knowledge of contemporary visual art would be an asset
* On the job training provided
* Ability to follow oral and written instructions, procedures and regulations
* May require the ability to maintain records and handle cash on occasion
* Ability to communicate effectively with visitors who may be students, faculty, staff and the general public
* Ability to work day, evening and/or weekend shifts
* Capable of performing duties as assigned

The Collective Agreement between The University of Winnipeg and The Association of Employees Supporting Education Services (AESES), Clause 6.3, Selection for Vacancy, states: The Employer agrees that Employees with seniority shall have preference in connection with appointments so far as it is practicable to do so, provided that their qualifications are relatively equal.

Thanks for the nod!

In his latest Akimblog post, Cliff Eyland mentioned Rodney LaTourelle's installation, INTERVAL. Thanks for the nod!

Click the pic below to view an excerpted version, or click here for the full post.

"Rodney LaTourelle: Hallway Monitor"

Canadian Art has just posted coverage of Rodney LaTourelle's INTERVAL on its website. Click here to check out this article in context!

Or, continue reading below...

Rodney LaTourelle: Hallway Monitor
Gallery 1C03, Winnipeg Nov 6 to Dec 6 2008

Double vision and doppelgangers abound in a new installation by Winnipeg-trained, Berlin-based artist, architect and critic Rodney LaTourelle. Examining the effects of spatial transformation, colour association and the superimposition of architectural spaces on the human body, LaTourelle’s most recent project, titled Interval, is a set of twin constructed corridors installed at the University of Winnipeg’s Gallery 1C03 and Hamilton Galleria.

Referencing the “high-tech” style of the university’s Centennial Hall, where both exhibition spaces are located, and the rhythmic “supergraphics” designed by Ursula Ferguson that originally decorated its walls in the 1970s, Interval offers viewers an immersive environment of colour, light and customized seating areas that temporarily alters our orientation in otherwise familiar spaces. The undulating, chevron-shaped corridor LaTourelle has created in a spectrum of commercial paint colours exemplifies the artist’s aim to create “three-dimensional paintings” with his installation work, prompting questions about when painting becomes architecture and architecture becomes painting.

Rodney LaTourelle Interval (Part 2) 2008 Installation view at Hamilton Galleria, Winnipeg / photo Larry Glawson

Just as his 2003 interactive environment, Pharmakon, created in collaboration with artist Michael Stecky, aimed to create an affective and healing experience through gradual shifts in tone, colour and sound, Interval aims to create a sense of spatial displacement through mirroring. By prompting this paradoxical mix of recognition and dislocation in constructed spaces that are similar, but not quite identical, LaTourelle’s carefully constructed project provides wry commentary on a contemporary condition where cultural amnesia and false memories are increasingly common, making it all the more difficult to distinguish the original from its replicas. (515 Portage Ave, Winnipeg MB)

www.uwinnipeg.ca/index/artgallery-index

Rodney LaTourelle Interval (Part 1) 2008 Installation view at Gallery 1C03, Winnipeg / photo Larry Glawson

Evening Poetry and Fiction Reading

Gallery 1C03 is pleased to host an evening reading of poetry and fiction by students from the University of Winnipeg's class, Introduction to Creative Writing (ENGL. 2102-003) on Thursday, November, 27, 2008.

The reading begins at 7:30 and all are welcome to attend.

We hope you'll be able to join us!

Creative Cities from the Grassroots Up -- Thank you!

G1C03 wishes to extend a warm thank you to everyone who joined us on November 13 for our panel discussion, "Creative Cities from the Grassroots Up". The presentations by each of our three speakers and respondent were very well received and stimulated fantastic conversation. The critique of Richard Florida's "Creative City" (that is, one that supports culture as a commodity, but not as a critical practice, and certainly not as a practice invested with political meaning and the capacity for resistance) was heard loud and clear, and audiences agreed that there is more to a city than the economic activity it can generate.

In a few weeks, we anticipate that we’ll be able to post video documentation of our event, so if you weren’t able to join us, you’ll at least be able to see and hear what was presented. Maybe we can continue the conversation right here on our blog?

In the meantime, please find below a few images...













Thanks to Marlo Campbell from Uptown Magazine and Andrew McMonagle from The Uniter, we also received some great coverage and commentary!

Click here to read this great report.


Click here, too!