Category: Oxygen Art Centre

  • Oxygen Art Centre

    Share the Gift of Creativity this Season! Oxygen Adult Education 2021 Semester Lineup Launched, Gift Cards and Bring a Friend!

    Give the gift of creativity this year! An Oxygen GiftCertificate is the perfect gift for the creative in your life and it is so much more than an educational experience! Taking a creative class can help build social connections, reduce anxiety and stress, create meaningful memories and exercise an enquiring mind! With ten new courses scheduled for 2021 there is a great variety to choose from with poetry, painting, collage, colour theory, wearable art and sound-based inquiry.
    Online courses are a great addition to Oxygen’s education programming” says Education Coordinator Natasha Smith. “Our instructors have created classes to be specifically taught online, utilizing the many tools that we now have available to make this learning experience rewarding, interactive and convenient for our studentsWe now have students joining us from across the country and courses are filling fast” says Smith.
     
    Bring a Friend is another new Oxygen initiative. During these difficult COVID times we are all missing spending time with our friends and family, so Oxygen is encouraging you to take a course together by offering a 10% bring-a-friend discount!
     
    For more information on courses, Oxygen Gift Certificates, Bring a Friend and to register: www.oxygenartcentre.org,  education@oxygenartcentre.org.
     
     
     
    Image credit: Courtesy Instructor Rayya Liebich, 2020
     
    Press Contact: Natasha Smith, education@oxygenartcentre.org

  • Oxygen Art Centre

    OXYGEN WELCOMES ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE BRIAN LYE

     

    Residency: 1 – 30 December 2020

    Exhibition: 6 – 30 January 2021

    Oxygen Art Centre is pleased to announce Brian Lye as Artist-in-Residence throughout the month of December. Lye is an internationally renowned filmmaker, artist, and educator who lives and works in Nelson, BC. His practice is focused in analogue film production, merging the everyday with formal experimentations in play, special effects, and psychogeography.

    Lye’s current body of work begins with crystals. Having conducted research for an experimental documentary on crystalline minerals across scientific, mining, and healing fields, Lye investigates the human and natural relation to crystals through discussion-based research. Interviewing experts on crystals from the region forms the foundational material for Lye’s experiments in 16mm analogue film throughout the residency.

    Fascinated by the semiprecious stones and their capacity for transmission, amplification, and new age applications, Lye draws upon his background in filmmaking and installation to create an immersive body of work. During his residency Lye will experiment with traditional 16mm film titling techniques, growing crystals, developing film, and creating a series of projection installations for exhibition.

    The residency has been slightly augmented due to the pandemic to ensure the safety of the artists and community. Therefore, all events and updates related to the residency will take place online for the time being.

    Lye’s residency runs from 1 – 30 December 2020. Stay tuned for more information and updates about the residency, artist talk, and forthcoming exhibition by visiting Oxygen Art Centre’s social media channels and website.

    Brian Lye will also present an exhibition at Oxygen Art Centre following his residency. The exhibition will be on view from 6 – 30 January 2021 during hours of operation, Wednesdays to Saturdays from 1:00pm to 5:00pm. Information about Oxygen’s pandemic related protocols will be available to visitors on site, as well as on our website and social media channels.

    Artist Bio:

     

    Brian Lye

    https://www.brianlye.com/

     

    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.

     

    Image Credit: Image courtesy Brian Lye, Remote filming on 16mm, 2020

  • Oxygen Art Centre

    OXYGEN HOSTS VIRTUAL AUTHOR READING SERIES ON NOV. 18TH 


     
     

    Author Reading Series

    Wednesday, November 18, 2020
    7:00 PM
    Zoom
    Free/ by donation
    R.S.V.P. required

                Famed Vancouver fiction and nonfiction writer Timothy Taylor, and Slocan Valley author Fletcher FitzGibbon will read from and talk about their writing online on Wed., Nov. 18 as the Zoom continuation of the “Home and Away” author reading series co-presented by Nelson, B.C.’s Oxygen Art Centre and Elephant Mountain Literary Festival.

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

    Oxygen, at 320 Vernon St. (alley entrance), is the city’s only artist-run centre. The Nov. 18 event was originally scheduled last March as an in-person event, part of a series pairing a Kootenay author with one from elsewhere. This virtual event reinstates the series online. A Q & A session at the November event will offer the chance for reading attendees to interact with the featured writers.

                A short story by Taylor, who currently teaches writing at UBC, won the 2000 Journey Prize. His first novel, Stanley Park (2001), was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and was chosen as the 2004 title for One Book, One Vancouver. The novel was a contender in CBC’s 2007 Canada Reads competition.

                His most recent titles include the novel The Rule of Stephens (2018) and a food memoir, Foodville: Biting Dispatches from a Food-Obsessed City (2014). The Toronto Star said of The Rule of Stephens that “Taylor has composed a tightly-crafted, suspenseful story, and one that smartly plays off the disjunction between the rational world of Stephen Hawking and the ‘lower and darker land’ of Stephen King.”

                The National Post called Foodville “a fun take-down of our obsession with food and the next new thing. He takes to task those who describe dishes with ridiculous superlatives by simply asking ‘Really?’ Is that restaurant really ‘a national treasure’? Was it really ‘a transcendent food experience?’”

                FitzGibbon is perhaps Canada’s only author who is also a practicing Chartered Professional Accountant. He was a prize-winner in Kootenay Mountain Culture magazine’s 2016 fiction contest, co-founded the Nelson Writers’ Salon, and has acted in community theatre and performed as a storyteller to a range of audiences. He recently published a chapbook, A Field Guide to Dream Data—a combination poetry collection and how-to guide for collecting information on your dreams.

    He describes his writing as aiming “to reconcile his experiences in the fast-paced realm of business and his appreciation and admiration of the natural world.”

                The Nov. 18 author reading series is supported in part by the B.C. Arts Council and the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance, and co-sponsored by Nelson’s Elephant Mountain Literary Festival.

    CUTLINES: Author Reading Series poster (above); Timothy Taylor, Fletcher FitzGibbon (below)


  • Oxygen Art Centre

    BC AUTHORS TIMOTHY TAYLOR AND FLETCHER FITZGIBBON READ VIRTUALLY NOV. 18 FOR NELSON, B.C.’s OXYGEN ART CENTRE
     

    Author Reading Series

    Wednesday, November 18, 2020
    7:00 PM
    Zoom
    Free/ by donation
    R.S.V.P. required

                Famed Vancouver fiction and nonfiction writer Timothy Taylor, and Slocan Valley author Fletcher FitzGibbon will read from and talk about their writing online on Wed., Nov. 18 as the Zoom continuation of the “Home and Away” author reading series co-presented by Nelson, B.C.’s Oxygen Art Centre and Elephant Mountain Literary Festival.

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

    Oxygen, at 320 Vernon St. (alley entrance), is the city’s only artist-run centre. The Nov. 18 event was originally scheduled last March as an in-person event, part of a series pairing a Kootenay author with one from elsewhere. This virtual event reinstates the series online. A Q & A session at the November event will offer the chance for reading attendees to interact with the featured writers.

                A short story by Taylor, who currently teaches writing at UBC, won the 2000 Journey Prize. His first novel, Stanley Park (2001), was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and was chosen as the 2004 title for One Book, One Vancouver. The novel was a contender in CBC’s 2007 Canada Reads competition.

                His most recent titles include the novel The Rule of Stephens (2018) and a food memoir, Foodville: Biting Dispatches from a Food-Obsessed City (2014). The Toronto Star said of The Rule of Stephens that “Taylor has composed a tightly-crafted, suspenseful story, and one that smartly plays off the disjunction between the rational world of Stephen Hawking and the ‘lower and darker land’ of Stephen King.”

                The National Post called Foodville “a fun take-down of our obsession with food and the next new thing. He takes to task those who describe dishes with ridiculous superlatives by simply asking ‘Really?’ Is that restaurant really ‘a national treasure’? Was it really ‘a transcendent food experience?’”

                FitzGibbon is perhaps Canada’s only author who is also a practicing Chartered Professional Accountant. He was a prize-winner in Kootenay Mountain Culture magazine’s 2016 fiction contest, co-founded the Nelson Writers’ Salon, and has acted in community theatre and performed as a storyteller to a range of audiences. He recently published a chapbook, A Field Guide to Dream Data—a combination poetry collection and how-to guide for collecting information on your dreams.

    He describes his writing as aiming “to reconcile his experiences in the fast-paced realm of business and his appreciation and admiration of the natural world.”

                The Nov. 18 author reading series is supported in part by the B.C. Arts Council and the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance, and co-sponsored by Nelson’s Elephant Mountain Literary Festival.


  • Oxygen Art Centre

    OCAL ARTIST LEADS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP ONLINE!
     

    How to Submit to Commercial Galleries with Kristy Gordon

    Saturday, December 5, 2020

    2:00 – 5:00 PM

    Online

    Total Fee: $60.00

    Oxygen Art Centre is excited to offer a short, online workshop titled, How to Submit to Commercial Galleries led by internationally renowned professional artist Kristy Gordon. On Saturday, December 5, 2020 from 2:00 -5:000 pm Gordon will unveil the practical steps you can take to develop a connection with a commercial gallery.

    This course is for artists that are interested in obtaining professional representation in order to help promote and sell their work, so they can focus on creating. In this course artists will learn how to make initial contact with a gallery; how to prepare a professional artist C.V., Biography, and Artist’s Statement; and how to select the images to submit. It will also cover current techniques for building connections with galleries using Instagram. Through lecture, discussions, and individual feedback, this workshop will demystify how to gain representation by a commercial gallery.

    “It really is wonderful to have an artist like Kristy Gordon living within our midst, and who is willing to share her experience and knowledge of the artworld and how it works,” says Oxygen’s Education Coordinator, Natasha Smith.

    Kristy received her MA from the New York Academy of Art and has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions throughout Canada, the United States, Europe and China. Kristy has taught drawing and painting classes internationally since 2008 at institutions and academies including the New York Academy of Art, The National Academy (New York City), and Art Escape Italy (Florence). Her paintings hang in more than 600 collections worldwide and is represented by two prominent commercial galleries: Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor, New York and Cube Gallery in Ottawa, Canada.

    For more information on this course and to register please visit www.oxygenartcentre.org and contact education@oxygenartcentre.org.

  • Oxygen Art Centre

    Oxygen Art Centre shares educational art videos for free online

    Oxygen Art Centre is excited to share four educational art demonstration videos now available for free through our online channels.
     
    The videos are created by artists Jaymie Johnson (Gallery Assistant, Canada Summer Jobs) and Natasha Smith (Education Coordinator).
     
    Natasha Smith shares a demonstration on Low-Tech Printmaking, offering a step-by-step instructional on the materials and techniques to create your own print at home. Using natural materials, Smith creates magical prints with ferns and leaves found in her backyard.
     
    Jaymie Johnson shares three video demonstrations. The first video guides viewers how to make your own ink using natural or botanical matter like red cabbage. The second video is all about accordion bookmaking, where Johnson shares two methods to making a sketchbook or notebook utilizing materials you might already have at home. The third video explains how to make your own zine. Johnson guides viewers through a stop motion animation drawing explaining how to fold, cut, and develop your own zine.
     
    Start creating at home today! Share your creations by tagging us on Instagram or by sending us an email.
     
    Audio and video image description transcriptions for all videos can be accessed on Oxygen’s website. All videos are free and can be accessed on Oxygen’s website and YouTube channel.
     
    Oxygen’s educational demos are generously supported by the Province of British Columbia, the Government of Canada, Vancouver Foundation, United Way, and Osprey Community Foundation.
    View videos here [https://oxygenartcentre.org/classes/demos/].
     
     
     
     
    Image Credit: How to Make an Accordion Book (Video Still)Oxygen Art Centre Educational Demo, Created by Jaymie Johnson, 2020