The Comox Valley Art Gallery invites you to see the work of this year's Emily Carr University at North Island College's Bachelor of Fine Arts Graduates in their graduation art exhibit: 6°.
In the Community Gallery is a colourful exhibition of paintings titled Imaginary Timespace Traveler by ECU alumna Jennifer Chernecki (Vancouver). In the George Sawchuk Gallery, the Grade 2 and 3 classes from Royston Elementary exhibit Patchwork and Plumage.
All three exhibits run from April 27 to June 1.
In the main exhibition hall, 6° represents the culmination of visual and fine art projects by six students in the Emily Carr University program: Jenna Chalmer, Anna Heywood-Jones, Amy Louise, Jennifer Margetish, Shannon McKirgan, and Jane Venter.
• Chalmer is an interdisciplinary artist raised in the Comox Valley. In her work she explores themes of memory, identity and the resilience of the human spirit.
• Heywood-Jones was raised in rural Ontario where she was homeschooled by 'back to the land' parents who encouraged her to learn the traditional fibre arts of spinning and weaving.
• Louise is an Island-grown multi-media artist whose intention is to create visual springboards for thought and self-reflection. In her sculptural and two-dimensional work, there exists a heavy influence and reference to nature inspired by the lush B.C. coasts.
• Margetish states that her messages are subtle, and are conveyed through abstraction and metaphor, rather than literal interpretation.
• McKirgan was raised on Quadra Island and resides in Campbell River. Shannon is a graduate of Emily Carr University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Art, with a concentration in painting.
• Venter was born in Calgary and moved to the Comox Valley as a teenager. She received her Diploma of Fine Arts from North Island College in 2009 and is graduating from Emily Carr's external degree program this spring.
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In the Community Gallery, Vancouver based Jennifer Chernecki presents a selection of works in an exhibit titled Imaginary Timespace Traveler in which she paints scenes from beyond the rabbit hole, placing characters in overlapping settings of natural and fictional realities that become the slippery cinematic of dreams.
Chernecki is a visual artist and curator educated at Emily Carr University. Her practice culminates mostly in oil painting and drawings, although she has been known to dabble in sculpture, textiles and garden-based agricultural works.
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Inspired by their study of trumpeter swans, students from the Grade 2/3 class at Royston Elementary School will present artworks of swans in an exhibit called Patchwork and Plumage in the George Sawchuk Gallery.
The artists range in age from seven to nine who have been studying endangered animals as well as animals at risk in Canada.
Following a presentation by Sandy Fairfield from Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society in November 2012, the class created pine cone owls and raised money for rescued wildlife at MARS by auctioning off their owls in December.
This January, they learned more about the effects of habitat destruction on wildlife, which included research on the Vancouver Island Marmot and raising money for the Vancouver Island Marmot Foundation.
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For more information, phone 250-338-6211 or visit the website. The gallery is located at 580 Duncan Ave. in downtown Courtenay.
— Comox Valley Art Gallery