A live discussion between artists Rebecca Bair, Martin Golland, Cara Tierney, Sarah Tompkins and Jinny Yu, and art historian Anna Paluch, moderated by Art School Confidential curator Penny Cousineau-Levine. 

Join us for a live panel discussion linked to the OAG’s current exhibitions Art School Confidential: Celebrating 50 Years of the Department of Visual Arts, University of Ottawa (Level 3) and Spanning the Divide: Art from the University of Ottawa Department of Visual Arts 2023 (Level 4). 

Art School Confidential celebrates 50 years of the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Ottawa and includes work in a variety of media by 50 outstanding artists who have taught and studied in the Department over the past five decades. Spanning the Divide features art by recent graduates of the Department’s Master of Fine Arts program. 

During the panel, artists whose work appears in the Art School Confidential and Spanning the Divide exhibitions, and an art historian teaching in the Department of Visual Arts, will discuss questions central to the education of studio artists: What is this education preparing students for? What expectations do students have when entering a Visual Arts program? Are these expectations being met? Do all art schools have a “house aesthetic”?  

The panel will be moderated by the curator of  Art School Confidential. 

Please note this event will be in English. 

Schedule of Events: 

12:45 PM – Doors to Alma Duncan Salon (Level 3) open 

1:00 PM – Introductory Remarks 

1:05 PM – Panel Discussion begins 

2:30 PM – Program concludes 

REGISTER HERE

SPEAKERS

REBECCA BAIR is an interdisciplinary artist based in Vancouver – the traditional and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish peoples. Her research aims to explore the possibilities of specific representation and of identity through abstraction and non-figuration. Her artistic, professional and educational goals revolve around common themes of celebrating Black plurality, as well as enabling interpersonal and intercultural care, and her work acts as a vehicle through which the complexities of history and identity can be uncovered, redefined and expressed.  

MARTIN GOLLAND’s works offer a meeting point between a built environment and the natural world. His intent is to open up a space between living forms and their contexts, where painting begins to acquire a life of its own, at a distance from logic, reason, and coherence. Material unruliness overtakes the image and its efficacy, embodying forces at the edge of the visible. His work has been written about in numerous reviews, articles and publications, including Border Crossings, Canadian Art Magazine and ArtForum.  His work has been collected into public and private collections across Canada, the US, Europe and China. 

ANNA (ANIA) PALUCH is a part-time professor in Art History at the University of Ottawa, focusing on Futurism and Folk Art. Her recently defended doctoral thesis examined the connections between Indigenous Futurism and Slavic Futurism and the role of science fiction and popular culture in reclaiming traditional imagery and preserving oral stories. Outside of academic pursuits, Ania works in street outreach at Minwaashin Lodge and as an independent lecturer teaching Polish folk art traditions. 

SARAH TOMPKINS’ paintings emerge from the tensions of uncertainty and ambivalence which are made manifest in the abstracted image. Her works prioritize process over outcome as they submit to creative and destructive forces. She is a recent graduate from the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Ottawa, where she was awarded the Michel Goulet Prize for Outstanding Thesis Exhibition (2023) and the Stonecroft Scholarship (2022). Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Rotting Fig, Empty Stomach at Lalani-Jennings Contemporary Art in 2023, and Sarah Tompkins & Katie McDonald at Galerie Z Art Space in 2022. She is represented by Olga Korper Gallery, Tian Contemporary and Studio Sixty Six. 

Raised in Tiotenactokte|Skanawetsy|Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue QC, CARA TIERNEY (they/them) is Scottish/Irish/Italian/white/settler, trans*, creative and community builder whose work sits at the intersection of art, education, and collective liberation.  Currently a prof at the University of Ottawa, over the last 20 years they have delivered and designed both arts, and arts-based conscientization, workshops on unceded Algonquin land, in and around so-called Ottawa. Tierney approaches their work as an endless series of opportunities to learn, bridge creativity and communities, and share knowledge in the service of social transformation. 

JINNY YU’s work grows out of an inquiry into the medium of painting, as a means of trying to understand the world around us. She lives and works on the traditional unceded territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation. She is Full Professor of Painting at the University of Ottawa. 

PENNY COUSINEAU-LEVINE is the curator of the Art School Confidential exhibition. She taught for many years in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Ottawa, where she served as Director of the Department and created the Department’s MFA program. 

Images: Rebecca Bair, Martin Golland, Anna Paluch, Cara Tierney, Sarah Tompkins, photos courtesy of the speakers. Jinny Yu, photo: Richard-Max Tremblay. Penny Cousineau-Levine, photo: Zoë Cousineau.