Andrew Wright

Artist
Archive for

September 2011

 

Art and Art History 40th Anniversary Series of Alumni Talks Andrew Wright, 1994 AAH Graduate


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Art and Art History 40th Anniversary Series of Alumni Talks

Andrew Wright, 1994 AAH Graduate

Thursday 29 September 2011

12:30 – 1:30 p.m.

Sheridan, Annie Smith Arts Centre Mezzanine

1430 Trafalgar Road, Oakville


Andrew Wright’s process-based photographic practice incorporates both traditional and digital techniques and plays with our notions of perception. He investigates the potential of camera-less photography in his large-scale series Coronae, in which the multi-stage process began by puncturing a hole through a 35mm film canister and exposing it to light. The final image contains both microscopic and macroscopic references, placing the viewer at the edge of a void that disrupts our ability to stabilize a figure/ground relationship. 

Wight has exhibited across Canada and in the US, Germany, Spain and the UK, with recent solo exhibitions at Prefix Contemporary Institute, Toronto; the Art Gallery of Calgary; and Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver. Recently, his Coronae exhibition at Peak Gallery won the inaugural BMW prize for most outstanding exhibition in the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival. Wright is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Ottawa.

Image: Andrew Wright, Coronae 5 (2011), Digital C-Print mounted on Dibond, 60 x 60 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Peak Gallery, Toronto

Art and Art History 40th Anniversary Events

The Blackwood Gallery exhibition Viva Voce (14 September to 23 October 2011), curated by AAH alumna Shannon Anderson, includes the work of eleven AAH alumni: Dorian Fitzgerald, Alison S.M. Kobayashi, Richie Mehta, Johnson Ngo, Denyse Thomasos, Carolyn Tripp, Jessica Vallentin, Rhonda Weppler/Trevor Mahovsky, Andrew Wright, and Robert Zingone.

AAH graduate Denyse Thomasos will create a painted installation Kingdom Come at Oakville Galleries’ Centennial Gallery (24 September to 13 November 2011) in an exhibition curated by Marnie Fleming.

Filed under  //   Andrew Wright   Public Lectures  
Posted September 28, 2011 by Andrew Wright 
 

Kate Hartman: The art of wearable communication

via youtube.com

Hey Risa: do you remember that video you helped me make at Banff in 2001: "Throwing Ice Cubes at Mountains"? Kate Hartman reminds me of that a little--an attempt to deal with the enormity of places that cannot be beheld. A small scale avalanche-like gesture in reverse. She was just hired at OCAD. And a TED talk at 28. Not bad.

Filed under  //   Banff   Kate Hartman   Risa Horowitz  
Posted September 25, 2011 by Andrew Wright 
 

CAFKA.11: SURVIVE. RESIST

http://www.cafka.org/

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CAFKA.11 (Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener + Area) Opened last night and it looks stunning. This international biennial celebrates its 10-year anniversary this year.  Check it out if you can.

Filed under  //   CAFKA   Exhibitions  
Posted September 18, 2011 by Andrew Wright 
 

The Pleasures of Indeterminacy: Andrew Wright in Border Crossings Magazine

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Ottawa-based photographer, Andrew Wright, has adopted an aesthetic strategy of putting things in play to see what happens. His latest engagement with this art of unpredictability is a series called “Coronae,” consisting of 60 x 60 inch C-Prints mounted on Dibond. Using a jeweller’s drill and boring a hole all the way through a colour film canister and into the successive layers of film, Wright initiates the process. Then he leaves the canister in the sun for an hour. When the film is developed, the holes have become the image. “With the ones nearest the surface you get an explosive pattern; the ones closer to the spool are more subtle.” The series aptly takes its name from astronomy because the look of the photographs is decidedly celestial. Corona 2 has what looks like a meteor trail stuttering across its surface; the radiant white centre in Corona 1 is nudged by an intense red satellite. There’s a pleasing optical confusion: in Corona 4 you can’t tell whether the image is evidence of an implosion or an explosion. Actually, you can’t say anything with certainty about the picture; there is no reference point, no measurable sense of scale, and no way of knowing where you are as a viewer in relation to what you’re looking at. It is an uncertainty that Wright welcomes. “I really like the push/pull between the microscopic and the macroscopic, that the image could be stellar or the forms could be cellular.” Wright’s palette comes from the kind of film he uses: Kodak gives him patterns that are almost exclusively yellow and red, while Fuji film, with its blues and greens, provides a broader colour spectrum. But very little of the final look of the final image can be orchestrated. “The colour is just about the way the light shifts and bends and reacts with the emulsion. I have no control,” Wright happily admits. “It is completely arbitrary.” What the artist can control is the scale. The relationship between coloured image and black ground is an important one where Wright again relies on a sense of perceptual drift. “I like the sense that you could be looking at either space or surface. The black photographic paper is an object that is seductive in its own way, but it allows you to fall into it and perceive what is an indeterminate space. You don’t know what you’re looking at.” Wright is essentially involved in a process of meta-photography, in which his subject is actually photography itself. His “hole art” collapses the two components of the medium. “I love the idea that this work is actually a flattening as well as a perceptual collapsing of photographic conventions.” He has coined a term for his play inside the frame of traditional and digital photography. He calls it “tradigital.” T-shirts are available.

Above images: (Left) Andrew Wright, Corona 1 (detail), 2011, digital C-print mounted on Dibond, 60 x 60". All images courtesy Patrick Mikhail Gallery, Ottawa. (Centre) Coronae 4 (detail), 2011, digital C-print mounted on Dibond, 60 x 60". (Right) "Coronae" installation view, 2011, Patrick Mikhail Gallery, Ottawa.

"Coronae" was on exhibition at both Peak Gallery and the Patrick Mikhail Gallery earlier this year and also won the inaugural BMW Exhibition Prize at Contact 2011 in Toronto.

Filed under  //   Border Crossings   Criticism & Press   Robert Enright   Tradigital  
Posted September 17, 2011 by Andrew Wright 
 

Police: Camera lens fell from the sky, leaving hole in Petaluma home's roof

If you wait long enough, the world will start making your work all by itself...

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_18902726?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com

Police: Camera lens fell from the sky, leaving hole in Petaluma home's roof

Bay City News Service
Posted: 09/15/2011 12:11:44 PM PDT
Updated: 09/15/2011 01:48:20 PM PDT

Petaluma police are working to track down the owner of a camera lens that apparently fell from the sky earlier this month, damaging a local family's home.

Debbie Payne, 55, said she found the approximately two-pound, 9-inch Canon camera lens outside of her home on Friday, Sept. 2, after hearing a loud crash that shook the two-story house, left a hole in her roof and sliced through two window screens.

She said the noise was loud enough to startle her next-door neighbor, who quickly spotted a piece of the camera lens next to a truck parked in his driveway.

After reviewing Payne's mailed-in police report on Wednesday, officers are now tracking the lens' serial number and working with the Petaluma Airport and the Federal Aviation Administration to determine whether the part may have fallen from a plane.

Payne said she didn't see any aircraft near her home at the time of the incident.

The longtime Petaluma resident said she hopes to recoup the $1,000

insurance deductible she paid to fix the damage to her roof and screens, which contactors estimated would cost about $4,500 to repair.

But mostly, Payne said, she's grateful the lens didn't cause further harm -- especially since she lives about 200 feet from an elementary school.

"It would have killed someone, had there been someone underneath the lens," she said.

FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said that while he's never heard of a camera lens falling from an aircraft,

objects such as plane parts and ice chunks do sometimes fall during flights, though rarely."This is an unusual occurrence -- even proving this came from an aircraft could be difficult," he said.

Posted September 16, 2011 by Andrew Wright 
 

New condo in Mississauga

(download)

Posted September 14, 2011 by Andrew Wright 
 

Viva Voce: 40th Anniversary of the Art & Art History Program


Viva Voce:
40th Anniversary of the Art & Art History Program
A Joint Program between Sheridan and the University of Toronto Mississauga
September 14 - October 23, 2011


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Dorian FitzGerald, Alison S.M. Kobayashi, Richie Mehta & Stuart A. McIntyre, Johnson Ngo, Denyse Thomasos, Carolyn Tripp, Jessica Vallentin, Rhonda Weppler & Trevor Mahovsky, Andrew Wright and Robert Zingone
Graphic design by Matthew Hoffman.

Curated by Shannon Anderson

Opening reception
Wednesday September 14, 5 - 9pm
A FREE shuttle bus departs from OCAD (100 McCaul St.) at 6:30pm, returns for 9pm.

For directions and campus maps, click here.

 

EXHIBITION STATEMENT 

This exhibition marks the 40th anniversary of the Art and Art History Program. Given the occasion, the curatorial method focused on the complex relationships between students and professors, as the participating alumni were selected solely through recommendations from past and present faculty members.

The Latin phrase "viva voce," meaning "with the living voice," is playfully adopted here to highlight the celebratory nature of an anniversary, while making reference to the outspoken professors who responded to an invitation to participate in the process. It connects to the notion of sharing information by word of mouth, or through reputation. By relying on the experiences of the program's professors (in keeping with the anniversary date, 40 were contacted to provide a recommendation), the selection process became a collective effort. Importantly, this exhibition brings the connection between student and teacher to the forefront, underscoring the ongoing support that occurs after graduation, in the transition from student to colleague.

Focusing on recent work by both new graduates and those from decades past, Viva Voce reflects the diverse mediums embraced by the Art and Art History Program, including photography, film/video, sculpture, design and painting. Given the hundreds of practitioners who have graduated from this program over the last 40 years, the task of gathering a small selection for an anniversary exhibition is compelling and, truth be told, somewhat daunting. While the artists in Viva Voce necessarily represent a small sampling of the stellar graduates from this program, this particular group can be distinguished by being among those handpicked by professors who have watched their careers flourish.

- Shannon Anderson, guest curator

 

SPECIAL EVENTS 

ARTBus
Sunday, September 25th
12 to 5:30pm
Tour starts at 12noon at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery (Hart House) and departs for the Blackwood Gallery and Oakville Galleries. Snacks and refreshments will be provided. Cost: $10. To reserve a seat, call Oakville Gallery at 905.844.4402, ext. 27 or email artbus@oakvillegalleries.com by Friday September 23rd.

Doors Open
Saturday, October 1st
10am to 4pm
Presented in partnership with the Culture Division, City of Mississauga.
Join us for a guided tour with curator Shannon Anderson at 11am & 1pm.
For more information on Doors Open Mississauga 2011, click here. 

FREE Contemporary Art Bus Tour
Sunday, October 16th
12 to 5pm
Tour starts at 12noon at the Koffler Gallery Off-Site exhibition located at 80 Spadina (Unit #501), the bus then departs for the Blackwood Gallery, the Art Gallery of York University and the Doris McCarthy Gallery (UTSC) and returns to Spadina by 5pm. To reserve a seat, call the Doris McCarthy Gallery at 416.287.7007 or email jthalmann@utsc.utoronto.ca by Friday October 14th.

Out of Joint: Voices on Mentoring
Friday, October 21st
10am to 2pm
Presentation Room, Student Centre, UTM
Join us for a mini-conference featuring faculty and students discussing the meanderings of mentorship as it navigates the fields of artistic and curatorial practice, the writing and research skills requirements of art history, and the transition to graduate school.

Sheridan: Artist Talks
09.06.2011: Robert Zingone
09.08.2011: Richie Mehta
09.15.2011: Rhonda Weppler
09.29.2011: Andrew Wright
10.04.2011: Carolyn Tripp
10.11.2011: Dorian FitzGerald

ALL artist talks are FREE and open to the public, and will take place from 12:30pm to 1:30pm in the mezzanine of Annie Smith Hall at Sheridan College (1430 Trafalgar Road, Oakville.)
For directions click here and go to the Contact Us link.


 

 

In partnership with the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning and the Department of Visual Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga and generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.


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Blackwood Gallery
University of Toronto Mississauga
3359 Mississauga Rd. N.
Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6
www.blackwoodgallery.ca
blackwood.gallery@utoronto.ca
905.828.3789

Gallery Hours
Monday to Friday 12 – 5 pm
Wednesday to 9 pm
Saturday & Sunday 12 – 3 pm
(closed on civic holidays)

via akimbo.ca

Filed under  //   Coronae   Exhibitions   Viva Voce  
Posted September 9, 2011 by Andrew Wright