Weightless Entities: 2022 Annual Curated Members' Exhibition
Aug 4 – Aug 30, 2022
Opening Reception: Aug 12, 2022 | 7 – 10 PM
Emma Enright, Natalie Hunter, Katherine A. Laird, Breanna Shanahan,
Stephanie Sikma, Ryan Waldron, Lana Yuan
Weightless Entities features work by Emma Enright, Natalie Hunter, Katherine Laird, Breanna Shanahan, Stephanie Sikma, Ryan Waldron, and Lana Yuan. As independent and interdependent entities, artists often express ideas framing their existence. These intuitions can be felt like a weightless presence in which the artists in this exhibition manifest through unique assemblages of material, texture, and form. Like floating daydreams, forming and reforming across different hands, they guide us to deeper reflections.
We see soft surfaces, patterns, shapes, and figures assembling and reconfiguring, coming in and out of perception. Clouds that start to smoke the sky, dreamscapes, levitated suspensions, and crafted airplanes – all seem to coexist with unique collaged elements in weightless environments. The works weave together overlapping narratives and deft material play. Their intuitions gesture towards something that feels intangibly surreal and personal.
Each artist brings their own inquiries, touching on materialism, consumption, space and consciousness, anxieties around ecological degradation, and speculative fictional worlds. As the first Annual Members’ Exhibition since Covid-19, these imaginings give us new air for introspection. The show invites us to re-envision our own realities and re-ground their interconnectivity with the world.
Artists Bios
Emma Enright is a textile artist and designer from Dundas, Ontario. Her current work investigates the materiality of textiles with a specific emphasis on weaving. Emma received her Bachelor of Design at Ontario College of Art and Design University with a major in Textiles. She continues to exhibit her work.
Natalie Hunter is the recipient of many Canada Council for the Arts Research and Creation Grants, and Ontario Arts Council Visual Artists Creation Project Grants. She has shown her work in numerous exhibitions, including Rodman Hall Arts Centre, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Smokestack Gallery, Hamilton Supercrawl, University of Waterloo Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Windsor, Centre 3 for artistic + social practice, Factory Media Centre, Latcham Art Centre, and Museum London, among others. She holds an MFA from the University of Waterloo where she is a sessional instructor and received an Excellence in Online Teaching Award (2017). She lives and works in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Katherine A. Laird is an inter- media artist combining a fusion of photo-lithography, etching and re-imagined print processes. While considering the relationship of nature and invasive human existence in a near-future following ecological ruin, she explores surreal and speculative fictions in the impending Anthropocene. Laird confronts this theme by exploring surreal landscapes and fantastical narratives that are grounded in mythologies, histories, and biologies that engage in the greatest challenge of our time, climate change.
Breanna Shanahan (she/her/they) is a recent resident of the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Mississaugas (Hamilton) Shanahan received her MFA at Concordia University in june 2019. Her work has been exhibited in Italy, China, Austria, the United States and in Canada.
Stephanie Sikma is a print-maker at heart. Her lino-cut relief prints are inspired by the city of Hamilton and the natural world. Working as an art educator allows Stephanie to continually hone her knowledge and skill in drawing and painting.
Ryan Waldron lives in Hamilton and works as a librarian. He completed an undergraduate degree in visual art and media studies at Western University. Drawing has been a life-long hobby that has led to more recent work with woodcut and cyanotype prints.
Lana Yuan is an emerging artist currently based in Toronto. She graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor of Studio Art (with Distinction) from the University of Toronto. In 2019, the first solo show, “System” in Gallery 1265, happened on the UTSC campus. And her work “Futuristic Toy” was selected to be part of the Shelley Peterson Student Art Exhibition (SPSAE) in the Art Museum at the University of Toronto and nominated to be one of the winning projects of the 2019 Juror Prize. From October 2020 to January 2021, Yuan participated in the Artist Residency supported by SKETCH Working Arts (“SKETCH”) and DesignTO: The Commons: Urban Space, Public Art call, and had an exhibition at the Stackt Market.
Support
This exhibition is generously supported by:
