Mentees:

NAT chantel

NAT chantel is an African Nova Scotian emerging artist in multimedia, textiles and sculpture. Collections of written language influence and direct her to recount historical experiences of oppression, silence, and marginalization, that draw into question the narratives of racial and feminist ideologies.

Her work speaks to imposed societal structures that inform identity, and the erasure of body and self through communication, and conditions within the environment. The concept of belonging is investigated using cultural, spiritual and psychology-based research to outline organic, abstract and pre-existing forms. The artist examines patterns of human existence, and references the after effects of contact with others, by providing a space for nature and naturally occurring responses to emerge. Lineal disruption, and displacement from land and home claim permanence in her art practice.

NAT was a contributing artist and instructor for the Peace Warriors Art and Wellness Festival (2015,) and participated in the group installation The Unkindness at IgNight the Night Art Festival (2015.) She is a recipient of the Nova Scotia Talent Trust scholarship (2017) to study privately with interdisciplinary artist Kate Ward, and has been selected into the Visual Arts Nova Scotia Mentorship Program (2017). NAT is having her first solo exhibit MUD at Afterglow Bridgewater Festival, September 30, 2017.

Lux Gow-Habrich

Originally from Montréal, QC, Lux Gow-Habrich finds frequent inspiration in her urban upbringing, mixed race identity and immigrant legacy. Having moved to Atlantic Canada in 2012 to complete an Interdisciplinary BFA at NSCAD University, Lux discovered the immense narrative potential in craftwork, with its highly political nature as a domestic, feminine and often undervalued form of production. By merging soft and delicate visual motifs with imposing characters and otherworldly, mystical themes – she hopes to display the likeness of seemingly opposing traits that compose femme identity: celebrating vulnerability and tenderness as instances of resilience and strength.

Lux employs the immensely meditative qualities in tactile processes and the performative aspects of experimental mark making to record a personal history of inherited trauma. Her work involves investigations of temporality, subversive gender, concepts of family and the home, disability and cultural hybridization – to introduce an identity in all the complexities and contradictions that together formulate the self. Committed to expressing social justice issues and participating in support work, Lux externalizes intense internal grievances, to open up collective issues and qualities of larger community struggle to receive moments of healing and empowerment.

Bree Hyland

Bree Hyland makes figurative paintings and drawings in Halifax Nova Scotia. After graduating with a BFA from NSCAD University in 2014, Bree has exhibited at the Grace Jollymore Joyce Arts Center in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia and most recently at Hermes in Halifax. The content for Bree’s work emerges from peripheral observations. The figures in her paintings exist in a dream-like domain, invoking fragmented narratives with no obvious closure. Exploring seemingly anonymous scenarios, Bree is simultaneously questioning the vitality of painting. For additional information or inquires visit http://www.breehyland.com/

Karen Langlois

Karen Langlois was born in a small farming community in Ontario. She studied early childhood education and play therapy and spent 20 years working with children and families. At the age of 48 she began studies at the Toronto School of Art. Her practice encompasses collage, drawing, printmaking, constructions, installation and participatory art. A particular focus is using reclaimed books and textiles as a vehicle for exploring identity. Since moving to Port Medway, Nova Scotia 10 years ago, Langlois has devoted much of her time to creating inclusive and participatory community art spaces. She has exhibited her work in Port Medway, Lunenburg, Annapolis Royal and Toronto. Currently she has work in Bodies in Translation: Age and Creativity at Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery.

Mentors:

anna sprague

anna sprague is a performance artist, creative facilitator, and faculty member at NSCAD University. In tandem with a provocative use of sculptural materials, bizarre props, and outlandish costumes, her art practice explores collaborative performance, public intervention, and site-specific installation as a means of critically engaging with site and history. sprague holds degrees in English Literature (Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB) and Fine Arts (Concordia University, Montreal QC) and has a love for lowercase letters and underwhelming coincidences.

Kim Morgan

Kim Morgan is a visual artist working in installation and multi-media. Her work explores the impact of technology on people’s perceptions of time, space, and the body, and the shifting boundaries between the private and the public. Her work has been exhibited in galleries such as Mass MoCA, Artpace San Antonio, John Michael Kohler Arts Centre, Cynthia Broan Gallery, NYC, St. Paul’s Gallery, New Zealand, Dalhousie Art Gallery, Mount St. Vincent Art Gallery, and in public spaces – the Regina Transit System, the Vancouver Olympics 2010, and recently at the National Arts Centre, Ottawa. Awards include; the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award 2012, Arts Nova Scotia Creation Grants, and a co-recipient SSHRC (Social Science Humanities and Research Council) Research and Creation Grant. Recent residencies are Artpace San Antonio Texas, The Dalhousie Medical School, The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency, and The Banff Centre for the Arts. Morgan has a B.A. in Literature from McGill University, a BFA in Sculpture/Extended Media from the School of Visual Arts in NYC, and an MFA in Sculpture/Installation, from the University of Regina. She is an Associate Professor at the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design University in Halifax, where she teaches Sculpture, Installation and Public Art.

Emily Falencki

New York-born Nova Scotia-based painter Emily Falencki mines the ground between traditional portraiture and anonymous representation. Falencki’s memorial portraits of missing persons give voice to grief and question society’s all-too-hard shell. She finds her source material in newspapers, on the internet or on posters around her neighborhood. The images are so often repeated they can become invisible to those who would see them. Using traditional (read “time-consuming”) painting techniques including layers of rabbit skin glue and hand sanding, Falencki commits to giving meaning to those faces, painting their likeness, and demanding attention for those lost close and far from home. Recently, Emily Falencki has been working with text, vestiges of family correspondence and images that plumb the depth of personal and anonymous relationships. For more info on Emily Falencki please visit her website: http://www.emilyfalencki.com/.

Terri Whetstone

Terri Whetstone is originally from Edmonton and has made her home in Blandford NS for the past twenty-five years. Primarily a painter, Terri also works with collage and digital photography. After a thirteen year break that coincided with her move to rural Nova Scotia and a switch in focus to family and activist work with women’s centres, Terri returned to her studio in 2006. Her exhibition history in Nova Scotia since then includes many solo and group exhibitions.

Terri graduated with a BFA from the University of Alberta, where she studied with noted Canadian abstract painters. This education informs the formalist backbone of her art practise, while her creative process is rooted in the conceptual approaches of erasure and of re-presenting altered imagery in carefully constructed layered compositions. Terri’s artworks express a hybridity of ideas by juxtaposing forms and images (of personal significance to the artist) from historical textile design, botany, and popular culture.

Terri is the founder of the beloved community arts program the Art Bikers (with Jesse Harrod) and of the Phoenix Open Studio program at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (with Dale Sheppard). She has been the Executive Director of the 4Cs Foundation since 2006.

Support for this year’s program is provided by Joan Craig and the Craig Foundation, the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage and the Halifax Regional Municipality.