Departing from The Grove, the title of the 2022 exhibition of Visual Arts graduates from Dawson College, a meadow holds many life-forms presents a selection of strong and innovative work by nine upcoming artists from that cohort: Alicia Ferguson, Jade, Victoria Petrecca-Berthelet, Sabrina Schmidt, Boning Tao, Phan Chau Anh Thai, Kathy Mai Truong, and Kessem Vaknin.

Like any ecosystem, a healthy meadow displays diversity and sustains that divergence and difference over time.

Exhibit website: resistanceresilience.dawsoncollege.qc.ca

Twelve artists from first or second generation migrant/immigrant racialized communities of colour present work exploring  the  racism and systemic oppression they have experienced.   At times poetic, at times harrowing, their work in video, sculpture, installation and textiles seeks to open up dialogue and complexify discussions surrounding migration and narratives of nationalism, benevolence, and fear.

Initially proposed by Diana Rice of the Dawson College Centre for Peace, the exhibition was also conceived to include student, or emerging artists, who were selected by a jury following an open call for submissions.   

Dawson College and the Warren G. Flowers Art Gallery are pleased to present an in-person exhibition of the Visual Arts program graduates entitled, The Grove. These students have spent two years rising to the challenges of both online and in person activities to develop their skills and create the work presented in the gallery and surrounding hallways.

Graduating artists include: Alicia Ferguson, Boning Tao, Finn Ouellet, Janelle Molina-Hernandez, Joanna Triantafillou, Kathy Mai Truong, Kessem Vaknin, Sabrina Schmidt, Samantha Williamson, Tzu-Hsin Yang, Victoria Bonici, Xinyi Song, Zhicheng Xu, Gemma Serreqi, Jade Lafontant, Jazmine Floyd, Katerina Douzepis, Kelsey Yoo Kyung Park, Lennart Rui Yi-Dalman, Phan Chau Anh Thai, Sophie Diaferia, Suan Oh, Victoria Petrecca-Berthelet, Winnie Thermogène, Yingqi Zhang.

In partnership with Dawson’s Department of Fine Arts, the Warren G. Flowers Art Gallery is offering an innovative pedagogical experience for students enrolled in Art Now, the third and final art history course offered in the Visual Art program, currently taught by Gwen Baddeley. Students will be guided and supported in the work of curating an exhibition to be installed by them, and opened to the public from May 2, to May 11, 2022.

The in-class component will consist of research on the work of artists Emily Comeau and Louise Campion, conceptualizing a curatorial vision and writing an exhibition proposal, as well as interpretive labels for the artworks.

Sharp Tools for Unripe Fruit underscores the awkwardness of monumentality and its precarious taste for nostalgia. The unfinished business of commemoration takes the form of hand-embroidered text, choosing the anti-spectacular visual elements of watermarks and default fonts.

Inspired by traditional printmaking processes, the PROOF series attempts to hold the desire for archival presence with the problems of its structure. In these interrupted photographs, the various subjects are unable (or unwilling) to be claimed.

After almost two years, Dawson's Fine Arts Department's 2020 Visual Arts Graduates are pleased to present how their practices have flourished and prospered, while staying true to their understanding of Eudaimonia.*

* Originating in Aristotelian ethics, eudaimonia is the condition of human flourishing or of living well. Aristotle used eudaimonia as the term for the highest human good, an objective standard of 'happiness,' based on what it means to live a human life well.

UNMASKED reveals the creative results of a two year formative process in the face of pandemic. It is marked by resilience and captivating visuals.

The students write, “we started off this program as enthusiastic photographers, eager to learn and step into the real world. However, the global pandemic soon made us unsure about our future. It was the immense help and support of our program coordinators, teachers and technicians that made this program a success.

Out of the Blue is the first of two exhibitions of third-year students’ work in the Dawson Professional Photography Program. This collection of works represents a variety of photography genres, as each student explores their area of interest for their 5th-semester portfolio. After a year and a half of limited access to the college, this group of emerging professionals are finally back full-time to master their craft. Their return to the studio has left them feeling that they have finally moved Out of the Blue.

Other Landscapes presents several multimedia works from Montreal-based Iranian artist Anahita Norouzi. It stems from her long-term research interest in the cross sections of botany and colonial politics, experiences of immigration and displacement, as well as issues of identity and memory.

Taking the form of a multimedia installation, the project results from a collaboration between the artist and eight refugees from the Middle East and Africa. Norouzi writes: ‘As a way to get closer to their stories, I focused on the objects that they brought with them on their journey.

Counterpart stems from an assignment Photography faculty members Peter Berra and David Hopkins introduced in their 2019 Photo Studio 2 class: photograph another student who is a stranger. Afterwards, Berra compiled these images into a portrait of both individual and collective identity, in all its beauty, poignancy, and complexity.