Ten-Four

The Art Gallery of Grande Prairie in partnership with Grande Prairie Regional College are pleased to
present Ten-Four, a group exhibition highlighting work created by students in the College’s Special
Projects in Art program. These students work under mentorship in a studio environment to build and
expand their self-directed art practice. The work on display reflects the diverse perspectives and
approaches of the students, in both medium and subject.

As we take a collective breath in this sudden strangeness, the artists in this show have responded in
their own way, finding unique solutions for the presentation of their work, and exploring alternative
modes of display. In some ways art, whose currency is that of strangeness and the unknown, can
whisper truths and create space for connection in this moment of precarity. We hope that it inspires
you, the viewer, to take this moment to create your own questions, contemplate your place in your
communities and the world at large, that we may heighten our empathy and compassion in these trying
times.

Schuyler Dawson

Fine Arts Instructor

Grande Prairie Regional College

For once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

From Keeping Quiet by Pablo Neruda

GPRC Independent Studies : TEN-FOUR

Ali Boychuk –  Displacement  Oil on canvas  16″ X 20″  2020

Ali Boychuk –  Prim and Proper  Oil on canvas  24″ X 36″  2020

Ali Boychuk –  Stay with me  Acrylic on canvas  24″ X 36″  2020

Ali Boychuk –  Within Reach  Oil on canvas  24″ X 48″  2020

ALI BOYCHUK

Ali Boychuk is a local artist that mainly works with oil and acrylic paint. Her work can be described as narrative impressionistic realism. Boychuk adds an emphasis on the everyday in the subjects she paints, pushing the boundaries of her portrait figures to confront underlined issues with identity loss.

Akarkz –  Built to Fail  Scrap electronic parts  16 5/8″ x 9 1/2″ x 24 3/8″  2020

AKARKZ

As human beings, we create novelty and distraction purely for Joy. It is a uniquely human endeavor that, in turn, informs and nourishes the innate utilitarian need to be resourceful; to make something new out of what is old. To create through destruction. It is the ultimate material expression of Descartes indisputable dictum ‘Cogito Ergo sum’ (‘I think therefore I am’.)

As an artist, I have always been deeply inspired by human novelty and the unique and ever-evolving relationships between people, the technologies that shape our world and how they reflect one another. I’ve wanted to work with electronic and reclaimed parts for quite some time with the desire to create a piece of art that is a meditation on this complex and pervasive relationship.

I call the piece Built to fail because it is constructed of discarded parts from equipment that was from their very conception, built to fail. I call it Built to fail because it was constructed by a biological machine who finds kinship in the fact that he, too, was built to fail. I call it Built to fail because it was constructed from detritus created by other biological machines, taken from the landfills and junk sites that are slowly setting our planet hurtling towards failure.

It is in the form of a humanoid foot to guide the viewer toward the realization that as human beings we like to look around at all this waste we’ve created and point the finger. We blame society, blame economics, blame corporations, blame government- anything to avoid looking inward at the existential choices we make that contribute to the problem of waste, and seeing that change starts from within. In short, we like to blame our boots for the faults of our feet.

Alysoun Wells –  Hope: Moving On  Plaster, metal, cloth, foam  72″ x 77″ x 26”  2020

ALYSOUN WELLS

As we travel through our own journeys of life, we all encounter periods of questioning, despair or doubt. Moments in which we pause or stumble, wondering where we are headed, what is next or what lies beyond. The force that keeps us moving on, that helps us put one foot in front of the other is Hope ……. Hope that things will get better, will turn around, that what we seek is just ahead. With this piece, I am attempting to portray that as despondent as this figure is, there is Hope in what it brings forward into the future. That light of Hope may not be visible to the figure itself, but we as the on-looker know that it is always there.

Blake Morabito – Steal My Heart  Digital Comic Book  2019

BLAKE MORABITO

As a cartoonist I create stories and I love even more to refine the aesthetics of those stories. When a story feels a certain way every element is used to build that emotion. The music plays in the mind and the characters gain voice in the imagination. Steal My Heart is a tribute to the brass cacophony of 70s cinema but with a modern twist. My work is a lighthearted reaction to the grim and gritty movement of comics, pushing for a classic style and timeless new characters.

Carol Bromley Meeres –  Department of Lost Information  Encaustic, beeswax, acrylic, wood, paper, art supplies, found objects  2020

CAROL BROMLEY MEERES

What do we stand to lose in 20 or 50 years if we do not slow climate change, protect habitat and biodiversity, and use resources wisely? What happens if we lose the bees and other pollinators? Or if we we lose so much arable land that only the most critically important food crops can be grown? If safe water becomes less available? If it becomes more difficult to survive breathing the air? If disadvantaged communities and less developed nations cannot cope? And the issues spread?

Erika Stamp –  Retro(spection)  Acrylic, Wood & Metal  32.5″ x 21.8″ x 18″  2020

ERIKA STAMP

I paint to create a relationship between objects in everyday life which leads me to my exploration of colour and abstraction. My choice of imagery and colour pallete intends to influence the viewer’s experience.

Retro(spection) is intended to be accessible to all viewers in regards to interpretation. It has been left fairly open ended to generate individual, creative reflection. Overall the aim of this piece was to engage the viewer with their own conceptions of memory and nostalgia.

What does this piece evoke for you? What does it remind you of? What can you personally take away from viewing each component of Retro(spection)?

Katherine Moe –  Mama’s Curtains (Panel 1)  Mixed Media on Fabric  58″ x 48″  2020

Katherine Moe –  Mama’s Curtains (Panel 2)  Mixed Media on Fabric  58″ x 48″  2020

Katherine Moe –  Mama’s Curtains (Panel 3)  Mixed Media on Fabric  58″ x 48″  2020

Katherine Moe –  Mama’s Curtains   Video  2020

KATHERINE MOE

A specific odor, an old familiar song, or an object in an unusual place may evoke a sudden feeling of nostalgia.  It may be a warm rosy glow of familiarity of a wistful sense of melancholy.

These emotions may arouse the desire to pinpoint the memory or source of these feelings.

Memories form layers.  Some stand out.  Others fade away.  Memories twist and overlap into a distorted pattern of reality and unreality.  Memories of who we were, where we have been, and of family members before us all weave together to form the tapestry of our lives.

Kendra Miskolczi – Lemon Halves  Acrylic on paper  16″ x 16″  2019

Kendra Miskolczi –  Collection of Still Life  2020

Kendra Miskolczi –  Allsorts  Acrylic on paper  16″ x 16″ 2020

KENDRA MISKOLCZI

Still life in this collective of paintings has become a direction back into an art practice and steadily making work. Painting as a medium is used to look at the relationship of color and light, and visit how the artist perceives it. At first the objects included in the still life were not a large concern but became something that felt important and thus, necessary to experiment with. This has provoked creating still life composed of fruit to objects that the artist has a more personal connection too like a yellow hippo or Allsorts licorice.  It has been interesting to hear how others can relate to the same objects in the paintings from their own experiences.

Lonna Nohnychuk –  White Box  Mixed Media  18″ x 30″  2020

Lonna Nohnychuk –  Voice  Mixed Media  20″ x 30″  2020

Lonna Nohnychuk –  Sneer  Acrylic on canvas  18″ x 24″  2020

Lonna Nohnychuk –  Weighted  Mixed Media  24″ x 30″  2020

Lonna Nohnychuk –  Blind  Mixed Media  18″ x 24″  2020

LONNA NOHNYCHUK

My work focuses on mental illness: Anxiety, PTSD, depression, trauma, pain. These themes are personifications of my psychological health that I’ve been coping with, this is my way of releasing my trapped feelings and thoughts.

This theme of mental illness really interests me because many people along with myself struggle with it every day in often unseen ways. In my practice, I wanted to challenge myself as to how I can channel the feelings into something beautiful while being honest about their negative effects.

By giving elements of the figures a representational look while using a pallet knife to obscure the body, face or space surrounding it, I want to create a visual tension that reflects the internal tension felt by those facing mental illness.

The red thread is used to further heighten the physical manifestation of tension and uncertainty. For example in Voice the thread along her mouth creates a sense of being unable to speak in a particular situation. In Blind it give the effect of being blind to love, to addiction, to wrong doings.

My goal with my art work is for the viewer to connect with themselves and with whatever they are battling with to see the beauty in themselves and their growth or the many others that could be fighting with something completely different but as a result see themselves in my work.

Rosemary Kay –  Sea Creatures  Acrylic on canvas  8″ x 8″  2019

Rosemary Kay –  Reef Life Specimens I & II  Acrylic on canvas  12″ x 12″  2020

Rosemary Kay –  Unmoored  Acrylic and Mixed media on canvas  32″ x 40″  2020

ROSEMARY KAY

I am a painter. I am curious and I enjoy exploring natural environments by hiking, swimming, snorkeling, and kayaking. I love the thrill of quietly encountering creatures in their natural environments, and I like to investigate references about the flora and fauna that I observe.

For the AGGP Independent Studies exhibit, I explored ways of visually communicating my experience in marine environments. My feelings of uncertainty and vulnerability about the future of ocean life derive, in part, from a visit to Guadeloupe (Gwada) a few months after Hurricane Maria struck the Caribbean in September 2017. Although the destruction in Gwada was relatively minor, there were deserted, capsized boats that were partially submerged in the water and below the water the coral was bleached and broken.

As part of my process, I experimented with adding and subtracting acrylic paint onto wood panels and canvas. The painted small, square, wood panels are close-up views of particular Sea Creatures. The two, square, grid canvases present a contrast. The colours in Specimens I are the vibrant and tropical, whereas the more muted colours in Specimens II depict weathered and damaged specimens. I used a sgraffito process of scraping away paint to reveal ocean flora and fauna. The large canvas titled Unmoored is intended to be an unsettling experience for the viewer.