Cale Shannon, one of the BFA students who will be in the exhibition.
What: UBC Okanagan Visual Arts Exhibition Showcase
Who: Visual Arts students in UBC’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies; curated by Byron Johnston and Katie Brennan
Where: #135 – 1295 Cannery Lane (across the street from the Laurel Packing House, adjacent to Prospera Place)
When: Nov. 15-30, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (every day); opening night is Friday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m.
Admission: Free and open to the public
This November in downtown Kelowna, the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (FCCS) at UBC’s Okanagan campus presents an exhibition of work by its visual arts students.
Curated by local artists—FCCS teaching alumnus Byron Johnston and curator Katie Brennan—the UBC Okanagan Visual Arts Exhibition Showcase includes the year’s best student work in mediums such as painting, photography, sculpture, printmaking and more.
Byron Johnston
The exhibition is the brain child of Johnston, who has mounted several community exhibitions and installations over the last 10 years, including the inaugural Mad Hatter event on Harvey Avenue (2011). Mad Hatter is now an annual exhibition event hosted by the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan.
“I’ve always believed it’s really important for students to take their work off campus and to bring it into the public realm,” says Johnston. “It’s a much different experience from presenting work in school.”
In preparation for the Visual Arts Exhibition, it was natural for Johnston to reach out to Brennan to help curate the show. Brennan, curator of the Lake Country Art Gallery, recently launched a new pop-up gallery/curatorial project, the
Katie Brennan
“Good Times Gallery,” which presented two short exhibitions since this September.
“It has been such a pleasure to work with the students,” says Brennan of the Visual Arts Exhibition. “It’s so fun to introduce them to the ins and outs of exhibiting their work: working with curators, doing studio visits, readying images and statements and installing the work in the final configuration, etc.”
It’s a new role for Brennan, who’s taught at UBC Okanagan on and off for the last three years, but one that fits easily.
“With Good Times Gallery, I’ve already been working with a number of current and recent graduates from the BFA program, including Jeda Connor, Tony Wang, Cale Shannon, Jena Stillwell and Malcolm McCormick. They make such great work and people need to see it.”
The UBC Okanagan Visual Arts Exhibition Showcase runs Nov. 15-30 at #135 -1295 Cannery Lane, across the street from the Laurel Packing House, adjacent to Prospera Place.
The opening reception is Friday, Nov. 15 starting at 7 p.m. The exhibition is open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. UBC student artists are hosting the show; guests are encouraged to meet the young artists in person. Entry is free and open to the public.
The exhibition is sponsored by FCCS and the Visual Arts Course Union.
Good Times Gallery collaborative project: facebook.com/goodtimesgallery
FCCS: ubc.ca/okanagan/fccs