COLLABORATIVE CONTEMPORARY ART EXHIBITION ON GEOLOGY TO OPEN THIS SUMMER

 
Oxygen Art Centre in Nelson BC and Kootenay Gallery of Art in Castlegar BC announce a unique collaborative group exhibition. Overburden: Geology, Excavation and Metamorphosis in a Chaotic Age will take place in two art centres in two rural communities. It features an online exhibition with virtual tours, information about the artists and their work, links to exhibition programming, and more. 
Organized by artist and curator Genevieve Robertson on behalf of Oxygen Art Centre and Kootenay Gallery of Art curator Maggie Shirley, the exhibition features eleven artists, including 2020 Sobey Art award winners Tsēmā Igharas and Asinnijaq. Other participating artists include Gabriela Escobar Ari, Patti Bailey, Randy Lee Cutler, Darren Fleet, Jim Holyoak, Keith Langergraber, Sarah Nance, Tara Nicholson and Carol Wallace. The included artists are located in the Kootenays, across Canada, and the US.
The title of the exhibition, Overburden, references topsoil and vegetation that are removed before mining takes place. It also references our planet’s current condition and the psychological burden that many experience in the face of climate and other ecological changes. 
 
Overburden brings together a group of artists whose shared concerns address geology and its relationship to shifting climate patterns and resource extraction, in both regional and global contexts. Artists respond to mining histories in the Kootenay area, arctic ice melt that is uncovering paleontological data, mining reclamation practices, and glacial seismic events. While some artists bear witness to harmful extraction practices and an ever more unstable world, others seek to find caring, embodied, and imaginative ways to develop relationships with geologic materials. 
 
The respective exhibitions take place on different dates but overlap between June 18 and July 10 for those who wish to experience the complete physical exhibition at both sites. Local residents will be able to visit the Oxygen exhibition from June 1 to July 10, 2021. The Kootenay Gallery of Art exhibition will open June 18 and run until August 21, 2021. Please consult each gallery to learn about hours of operation and COVID-19 protocols. 
The exhibition will also be accessible online through the domain, www.overburden.ca. The site offers the exhibition experience virtually, launching May 15, 2021. In addition to the online exhibition, a series of online events take place throughout the weekend of Saturday June 19, 2021 and Sunday June 20, 2021. The online events feature panel talks, workshops, and performances. Please consult the website for the full schedule and registration. Recordings will be made available following the live events on the website. 
An exhibition catalogue featuring the artists and their artworks, curatorial statement, and exhibition essay will be published in August 2021. It will also be available digitally at overburden.ca.
For further information contact Oxygen Art Centre at info@oxygenartcentre.org or the Kootenay Gallery at kootenaygallery@telus.net. 
Overburden: Geology, Excavation and Metamorphosis in a Chaotic Age will be on view at Oxygen Art Centre from June 1 to July 10, 2021 and Kootenay Gallery of Art from June 18 to August 21, 2021. Educational and artistic events take place via Zoom from June 19 – 20, 2021. The online exhibition will be on view beginning May 15, 2021.
Oxygen Art Centre and the Kootenay Gallery of Art would like to thank the primary funders, Canada Council for the Arts, Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance, British Columbia Arts Council and the Government of British Columbia, as well as corporate sponsors Teck and Columbia Power. 
 

Image: Overburden exhibition poster, 2021
For more information contact:
Maggie Shirley
Curator, Kootenay Gallery of Art
250-365-3337
kootenaygalery@telus.net

OXYGEN ART CENTRE ANNOUNCES SUMMER EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY: GALLERY ASSISTANT (CSJ)

 
Oxygen Art Centre is currently looking for a Gallery Assistant to add to our dynamic team this Summer 2021.
Deadline to apply: Friday, May 21, 2021, 5:00 PM 
Application requirements: Cover Letter + Resume, stating Canada Summer Jobs eligibility via e-mail

Gallery Assistant Job Description:

Reporting to the Executive Director, the Gallery Assistant engages in all aspects of Oxygen Art Centre’s programs. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Gallery Assistant will conduct the following tasks and responsibilities at a distance, utilizing online platforms such as Gmail, Google Drive, Zoom, and Hootsuite, as well as digital platforms such as Word, Excel, and Adobe Creative Suite.
This position is funded by Canada Summer Jobs. Additional administration through the CSJ Federal Government portal will be required at the beginning and end of employment contract.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

Oxygen’s Gallery Assistant will assist in everyday arts administrative tasks, as well as assisting with Virtual Exhibition and Education Programs.
Exhibition Program
The Gallery Assistant will assist the Executive Director to promote and document exhibition programming taking place during their contract, as well as assist in the creation of a publication for an exhibition and an artist monograph. They will also assist the Executive Director in facilitating adjunct programming, research, and publication preparation for forthcoming exhibitions.
Education Program
The Gallery Assistant will assist the Executive Director and Education Coordinator in facilitating online arts education programming via social media and Zoom platforms, as well as assist in preparing education programs for Fall 2021.
Operations
The Gallery Assistant will also be responsible for assisting with day-to-day operations of the Centre and its programs, including membership updates and outreach. The Gallery Assistant will be responsible for assisting in residency preparation, exhibition publication, and virtual artist talks and/or events taking place during their contract. Gallery Assistant will also engage with Oxygen’s Education program by assisting in the registration and outreach of online arts education programs, as well as assisting instructors in delivering programming. They will also be invited to attend monthly Board of Directors meetings via Zoom.
Communication
The Gallery Assistant will be responsible for maintaining Oxygen’s online presence via HootSuite including Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Communications will involve developing the membership drive, notifying the public about programs and events, and creating and posting content related to contemporary art and education programming. They will also be responsible for maintaining the CRM (Little Green Light) and Mailchimp databases.
Research
Individual research project to take place over the duration of contracted employment. The Gallery Assistant will develop a research project related to one facet of Oxygen Art Centre’s structure (e.g. Exhibitions and Residency, Education, Communication, Volunteers, Membership, Archives, Publications, etc.). The topic can relate to the employee’s interests, academic pursuits, and/or future aspirations in the arts, and will be developed in conversation with Executive Director at the beginning of employment. They will create a final report summarizing their research findings.
This position will be multi-faceted and offer experience throughout all aspects of Oxygen Art Centre under the supervision of the Executive Director and assistance of the Education Coordinator.
Due to the pandemic some aspects of the position have been altered to ensure a safe working environment for the employee. It is possible that on site programs have been cancelled or postponed during employment. The Gallery Assistant will be responsible for working from home, tracking hours and work plans, maintaining Google Doc files and documentation, online and phone meetings with supervisors, and facilitating digital administration from a far. Necessary alterations will be made to the employee’s work plan should pandemic restrictions alter during the employee’s contract.

Nature and Scope of Position:

Reporting to the Executive Director, the Gallery Assistant engages the public in discussions about Oxygen Art Centre’s exhibitions and programs, assists in exhibition and residency coordination, and assists in administration of the education program.

Qualifications:

The ideal candidate:

• – Is enrolled in a post-secondary program in Art History, Art Education, Visual and/or Media Arts, Museum Studies or a related discipline;
• – Demonstrates a keen interest in contemporary art and/or museum practices;
• – Is comfortable interacting with members of the public;
• – Is responsible, hard-working, enthusiastic, and dynamic;
• – Has a proven ability to communicate effectively.

The Summer Gallery Assistant position is dependent on funding from Canada Summer Jobs program. Candidates for the position must:

• – Be legally entitled to work in Canada;
• – Be a Canadian citizen nor a permanent resident, or have refugee status in Canada (unfortunately, non-Canadian students holding temporary work visas or awaiting permanent status are not eligible);
• – Be between 16 and 30 years of age at the start of employment;
• – Intend to return to full-time studies in the fall of 2021.

*Funding currently pending. The listing and candidates will be updated regarding our funding status.

Employment Details:

$16.00/hour
9 week contract
30 hours/week
Position duration: TBD (Summer 2021)
*Employment details subject to change in relation to funding

Application deadline: 21 May 2021, by 5:00 PM

Please submit cover letter and resume to info@oxygenartcentre.org with the subject line: “ATTN: Summer Gallery Assistant Application”
Oxygen Art Centre is an equal opportunity employer. We thank all applicants for their interest, however only those selected for an interview will be contacted.
 
CUTLINE: Employment Opportunity Promotional Image, 2021; Text overlaid image of an Oxygen Art Centre drawing class
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OXYGEN OFFERS FREE ONLINE COMMUNITY DRAWING PROGRAM, THE BIG DRAW

The Big Draw

May 2021

Oxygen Art Centre presents an online community drawing program, The Big Draw throughout May 2021. The Big Draw Festival is a worldwide celebration of drawing where the language of drawing is used as a tool for learning, expression, and invention.

The 2021 theme for The Big Draw is “Make the Change.” The festival states, “In 2021, we want to take action, to explore and discover ways to live in balance with the world around us, to reconnect with each other and demand a better world for future generations.”

Participants are invited to pick-up a free art supply kit at Oxygen Art Centre on Saturday, May 1, 2021 from 12:00pm – 3:00pm until supplies last. Kits include the sketchbook crawl calendar and drawing materials. Oxygen is located at #3-320 Vernon Street, Nelson, BC, alleyway entrance.

Weekly exercises will be released throughout the month of May 2021 through Oxygen’s social media channels and website, as well as a live online event held via Zoom on Saturday, May 29, 2021 from 1:00pm – 2:00pm. Everyone welcome to attend. R.S.V.P. to the event by emailing info@oxygenartcentre.org

Oxygen’s The Big Draw Facilitator, Anita Levesque, developed a series of all-ages community drawing exercises inspired by the theme, “Make the Change.” Exercises will be available online for community members, families, and drawing enthusiasts to learn new skills, share documentation of their work online, and explore the connections between activism and creativity through the act of drawing.

The Big Draw is a free community drawing celebration taking place throughout May 2021 via Oxygen’s online channels. Weekly exercises will include a mixture of drawing exercises to explore in both your homes and outside in nature. A final Zoom event will celebrate the month-long drawing festival on Saturday, May 29th from 1:00 – 2:00pm. Drop in anytime or join us for the entire hour of drawing. R.S.V.P. to attend by emailing info@oxygenartcentre.org.

The Big Draw is generously supported by Osprey Community Foundation, Nelson and District Credit Union, and Nelson Lions Club.

Facilitator Bio:

Anita Levessque

Anita Levesque, a long-time Oxygen Art Centre member and current board member is excited to facilitate, yet again, The Big Draw at Oxygen Art Centre. Levesque has exhibited her work at various art galleries across Canada, predominantly drawing and installation art. She is the co-founder of Oxygen Art Centre’s successful children’s art camps and co-founder of SelfDesign Learning Community’s annual Art Intensives for high school youth. Levesque has spent the past nine years focused on family life, while also working as an educator and program coordinator with the SelfDesign Learning Community. She has also offered a host of Artist Trading Card events throughout the community and online. Of arts programming for children, Levesque says: “Art is essential. It connects us and brings great joy to our lives. By making and creating, we become problem solvers, exercising both sides of our brains.  It is a celebration of beauty, a mode to express what is deep within, and a tool to better understand our place in the world.”

Image Credit: Oxygen Art Centre, The Big Draw, Calendar of events, 2021

OXYGEN ANNOUNCES SUMMER EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY: RESEARCH ASSISTANT (YCW)

ZOOM READING AND MUSICAL PERFORMANCE MARCH 31 KICKS OFF NATIONAL POETRY MONTH AT NELSON, B.C.’s OXYGEN ART CENTRE

Dark Times Come Again No More

Tom Wayman + John Lent

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

7:00 PM (PST)

Zoom

            Poetry and music take on the dark times Canadians are living through when Winlaw, B.C. author Tom Wayman and Vernon, B.C. author and musician John Lent present “Dark Times Come Again No More” on Zoom to kick off National Poetry Month at Nelson, B.C.’s Oxygen Art Centre on Wed., March 31.

            The event begins at 7 p.m. Those interested in attending need to R.S.V.P. by emailing info@oxygenartcentre.org to receive the Zoom link and accompanying event information. The reading is free and everyone welcome to attend. Donations are encouraged: $2 – $5 via Oxygen’s CanadaHelps page.

Oxygen Art Centre, at 320 Vernon St. (alley entrance), is Nelson’s only artist-run centre. Oxygen programming in a variety of artistic disciplines supports local professional-level artists and engages the wider community.

            The March 31 event revives a launch planned for last April for Wayman’s then-new collection from B.C.’s Harbour Publishing, Watching a Man Break a Dog’s Back: Poems For a Dark Time.

            “The dark time the poems in that volume speak about wasn’t the pandemic, though the pandemic has exposed in more detail much of what the poems explore,” Wayman said. “We’re living through an era in which we’re experiencing a huge and ever-widening gap between rich and poor. Meanwhile, our area and the country as a whole are being steadily de-industrialized, and every large institution and enterprise acts more and more dysfunctional. Factor in personal debt, Canadian troops constantly at war overseas, and climate change, and you’ve got dark times indeed.

            “Music and poetry, though, are traditionally up to the challenge of dark times, and that’s what we aim to show on March 31.”

            Wayman’s recent books include a collection of his Slocan Valley short stories, The Shadows We Mistake For Love, which won the 2016 Diamond Foundation Prize for fiction. His previous books of poems include Dirty Snow, winner of the 2013 Acorn-Plantos Award. A poem of his in the new book won the 2017 Confederation Poets Prize from Arc magazine.

            Lent is a perennial Nelson favorite as musician and author, stretching back to 1973-74 when he and his brother Harry Lent performed together for a year at the Sub Pub belonging to the students’ association of Nelson’s Notre Dame University, where John formerly taught English.

            In the Okanagan Valley, he has performed for more than 20 years in the folk/jazz/blues ensemble, the Lent/Fraser/Wall Trio, among other musical groups. His latest CD, Strange Ground, was released in September 2019. Highlight of his long career as an educator was serving five years as dean of the Vernon campus of Okanagan College. Lent most recently read in Nelson from a new book of his poems from Thistledown Press, A Matins Flywheel, at the Nelson Public Library in October 2019.

            The March 31 event is partially supported by the National Poetry Month program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the League of Canadian Poets.

            Other National Poetry Month programming at Oxygen includes the online courses April Poetry Challenge: 30 Days, 30 Poems with Rayya Liebich, and Reading and Writing Rilke with Susan Andrews Grace. For more information and to register: www.oxygenartcentre.org under the “Classes” tab.

                                                                        -30-

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Julia Prudhomme, Executive Director, Oxygen Art Centre: info@oxygenartcentre.org, 250-352-6322

Tom Wayman: appledor@netidea.com; 250-226-7390

CUTLINES: Tom Wayman (credit: Rod Currie), John Lent [above]

CUTLINE: “Watching a Man Break a Dog’s Back,” Tom Wayman, book cover [below]

OXYGEN OFF-SITE ONLINE EXHIBITION FEATURES SEVEN REGIONAL ARTISTS AND COLLECTIVES

WEBSITE LINK: http://oxygenartcentre.org/offsite/index.html

1 – 30 April 2021
 

Artists: (ok vancouver ok), Alexa Black, Brian Kalbfleisch, Brian Lye, Lucas Myers, prOphecy sun, Adrian Wagner

Oxygen Off-Site is a digital project that brings together seven artists/artist collectives living and working in the Columbia Basin. Taking place throughout April 2021, Off-Site features artists, (ok vancouver ok), Alexa Black, Brian Kalbfleisch, Lucas Myers, Brian Lye, prOphecy sun, and Adrian Wagner, and web design by Deanna Peters (Mutable Subject).

Off-Site looks outside, beyond the gallery walls. It seeks to create conceptual and procedural exchanges between artists working remotely during the pandemic. With a focus on process, this project is incited by the exchange of artistic “prompts” for another artist to interpret, creating a call and response between the artists and their works. By creating a circular exchange between the artists, this project endeavours to trace digital and creative connections during this time of physical isolation.

The website holds space to share and connect the artworks created over two-months across a variety of mediums, approaches, and practices. Off-Site is interested in moving beyond the institutional space of the art gallery and into site-specific or domestic spheres to explore the intersection of art and the everyday.

Off-Site is generously supported by Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance and Osprey Community Foundation. Learn more about the project by visiting Oxygen’s website and social media channels.

Artist Bios:

(ok vancouver ok)

(ok vancouver ok) is the natural extension and parallel artistic endeavour of the musical project Ok Vancouver Ok. Building on themes explored over their decade-long partnership, jeff johnson and laura house continue to find new ways to collaborate around class struggles, safer spaces, harm reduction, environmental justice, animal liberation, pink collar work, ableism, food sovereignty, anti-capitalism, parenting, decolonization, mutual aid, and intersectionality.

positioned somewhere between “art” and “craft” (ok vancouver ok) is interested in experimenting as self-taught musicians and artists. Working with textiles, film, found objects, performance, and writing, this project looks to explore the effect and extent technology has on work, art, and liberation. They pose the questions: do machines, tools, and technology help or hinder the creative process? When does labour and work become art and vice versa? How is traditionally feminized labour and art undervalued? How are hegemonic structures replicated in outsider spaces and the domestic sphere?

For more about Ok Vancouver Ok visit www.okvancouverok.ca

Alexa Black

Alexa Black is an artist of mixed Nahua, Pipil, Maya and settler heritage creating as a guest on traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Xwməθkwəyə̓ m (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Through self taught explorations in photography, drawing, painting and mixed media arts, Alexa found her passion deeply embedded in antiquated techniques of photography and classical illustration. Enamoured with tintype and wet plate collodion processes, she learned the foundations through a brief mentorship with Quinn Jacobsen.

Black seeks to reveal the magic of hidden realms that exist in parallel to our terrestrial and colonially defined reality. Her art is ignited by the energies of her indigenous ancestral territories, animism, and being an ally to marginalized populations. The work is built by reconnecting the seams of her fractured identities, by reclaiming and amplifying the voices of the silenced ancestors of her matrilineal blood lines. Black divines dreams and visions shrouded in haunting atmospheric aesthetics that are symbolic of life’s beauty and cosmic initiations. Her work is primarily dedicated to deconstructing the disconnected and damaged societal tissue imposed by colonial standards of living.

Alexa has been a featured artist in galleries across BC and internationally in Los Angeles. Her drawings, films, and paintings have been featured in published works such as Invisible City and Discorder Magazine. Recently she was awarded the Research and Creation Project Grant by the Canada Council of the Arts to produce her upcoming 78 piece innovative and intersectional tintype/mixed media collage oracle, based from a traditional tarot deck. This evolving body of work is to be featured in SEITIES analogue print publication this upcoming summer.

Website in progress

Instagram: @alexa.black.art

Brian Kalbfleisch

Brian Kalbfleisch is a visual artist and musician based in Nelson, BC.

Visually, Kalbfleisch’s primary medium is reclaimed lumber sourced from heritage buildings, old fences, decks, and sometimes random locations. He crafts Wood Tile Mosaics, usually abstract images reflecting aspects of the natural world like celestial constellations, cell membranes, motion, and flower gardens.

A piano player, ukulele-ist, and singer, he draws on influences such as Miles Davis, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Portishead, and Neil Young.

For this project, Kalbfleisch will capture the creation of a series of mosaics in stop time video accompanied by original musical compositions.

Kalbfleisch is also active as an independent events coordinator and curator of both the visual art and music. Among other things, he established the art gallery at Kaslo Jazz Festival in 2017 and developed the Blue Night Arts and Culture Crawl in Nelson. In 2018 he was given the Sustainability Leadership Award by the City of Nelson for his contributions to the Arts sector.

I am grateful to live and prosper on unceded traditional territory of the Ktunaxa, the Syilx, and the Sinixt peoples.

Brian Lye

Brian Lye is a filmmaker and visual artist from Vancouver, Canada, now based in Nelson. His lens-based works are preoccupied with magic, humour, and the everyday. He holds a BA in Film Studies and Japanese Studies from the University of Victoria, a Diploma in Screen Production from Sydney Film School, was a guest student at The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and recently completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in visual art from The University of British Columbia.  His films and animations have won awards and screened internationally at venues such as Sundance Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, The Contemporary Culture Centre of Barcelona, and LIVE! Vancouver’s performance art biennale. He has been an artist in residence with the Klondike Institute for Art and Culture and the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation.

https://www.brianlye.com/

Lucas Myers

Since graduating from the National Theatre School in 1998 Lucas has performed in many of the major theatres across Canada as well as touring internationally to the US, England, France, Switzerland, Mexico, Singapore, New Zealand and Brunei.  He has created and performed in many new plays as a member of the Victoria-based independent theatre company TheatreSKAM and studied physical theatre and collaborative creation with The SITI Company in New York and Boca del Lupo Theatre in Vancouver. In 2007 he returned to Nelson, BC to raise a family and form PilotcoPilot Theatre with a mandate to create work which is accessible, thought provoking, and highly theatrical in an effort to attract a new generation of theatregoers.  He also performs as a post-modern Vaudeville duo, The Amazing and Impermeable Cromoli Brothers, which won the Best Comedy Award at the New Zealand International Theater Festival.  In 2013 he was appointed as Nelson’s Cultural Ambassador in recognition for his achievements in Theatre Arts.

prOphecy sun

Dr. prOphecy sun is an interdisciplinary performance artist; queer, movement, video, and sound maker; mother; and current Jack and Doris Shadbolt Fellow at Simon Fraser University. Her practice celebrates both conscious and unconscious moments and the vulnerable spaces of the in-between in which art, performance, and life overlap. Her recent research has focused on ecofeminist perspectives, co-composing with voice, objects, surveillance technologies, and site-specific engagements along the Columbia Basin region and beyond.

sun hosts Tapes and Beyond on Kootenay Co-op Radio and is the Arts Editor for Ecocene: Cappadocia Journal of Environmental Humanities. She performs and exhibits regularly in local, national, and international settings, music festivals, conferences, and galleries and has authored several peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and journal publications.

https://prophecysun.com

Adrian Wagner

Adrian Wagner began exploring composition and improvisation on the piano at the age of 5. He grew up surrounded by both classical choral music and southern gospel jazz. Living in one of the most ethnically diverse areas of the US, he simultaneously sang in a choir and as pianist for a dominantly black gospel choir and jazz orchestra

At the age of 17, he moved to New York City to study classical composition, jazz piano, and improvisation. He later furthered his studies of jazz and audio production at the Berklee College of Music, in Boston, MA. In 1999, he travelled to Zimbabwe, where he spent 6 months writing a thesis on improvisation in traditional Shona music

This project seeks to explore the influence of the environment on performance. What is the inner creative dialogue that forms between artists and the space they inhabit. How far can this relationship be taken, so that the work itself is prominently influenced and given life to by the environment.

The medium of music and improvisation using battery powered electronic audio production and looping allows for the entire work to be created in the moment, existing as a reflection of the time and more importantly the space in which it was created.

Image Credit: Oxygen Off-Site Poster, 2021