Category: 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
 
 
 

Z’otz* Collective’s “Paradoxes of a Soft Spoken Tree” exhibition opens at Oxygen Art Centre

Artists: Z’otz* Collective
 
Exhibition Title: Paradoxes of a Soft Spoken Tree
 
Exhibition Dates: 29 August – 26 September 2020
 
Location: Oxygen Art Centre
 
 
Oxygen Art Centre presents the exhibition, Paradoxes of a Soft Spoken Tree by Toronto-based artist collective, Z’otz* Collective. The exhibition opens to the public on Saturday, August 29, 2020 from 1:00pm – 5:00pm.
 
Z’otz* Collective is composed of Nahúm Flores (Honduras), Erik Jerezano (Mexico), and Ilyana Martínez (Mexico|Canada). The artists re-join after months working remotely during the pandemic for their remote residency from August 22 – 28, 2020, where they will transmit updates through Oxygen’s online channels.
 
The exhibition, Paradoxes of a Soft Spoken Tree is a culmination of their remote residency, featuring a collection of drawings on paper and a vinyl mural installation. To create their works, the artists use a system of rotation: they work on different pieces at the same time and then exchange them. Intuition and chance drive the process, as they respond to each other’s forms and marks.
 
The direct approach of drawing, their primary means of expression, enables them to create quirky subjects and hybrid creatures. They use humour and play to examine the immigrant experiences of displacement, transition and transformation.
 
Paradoxes of a Soft Spoken Tree opens on Saturday, August 29, 2020 and runs until Saturday, September 26, 2020. Oxygen Art Centre will be open to the public Wednesdays to Saturdays from 1:00pm – 5:00pm.
 
For the next while, the in-gallery experience will be a bit different when you come to visit. To plan your trip please find our COVID-19 prevention protocols below and on our website:
 
☞ Hand Sanitizer will be available to all visitors at the front door. We encourage all visitors to use the provided hand sanitizer prior to entering the centre.
☞ Health Declaration: Visitors will be asked to sign-in at the front door.
☞ Practice Social Distancing: Ensure 2 metres (at least 6’6”) away from any other individual.
☞ Face mask or face covering are required when inside Oxygen Art Centre.
☞ Maximum occupancy: 6 people indoors. Please be mindful of other visitors before entering the gallery. Gallery hosts will be on hand to help manage visitor numbers.
☞ Front door will remain open during hours of operation (weather permitting).
☞ Please stay home if feeling ill or you share a residence with someone who is ill or experiencing COVID-19 related symptoms
 
We are committed to reducing the spread of COVID-19 in our community and thank you in advance for your continued support. If you would like to plan ahead for your visit, make an appointment to view the exhibition, or learn more about our cleaning and prevention protocols, please click here and/or contact us.
 
Artist Bios:
 
Z’otz* Collective / Statement
Nahúm Flores, Erik Jerezano, Ilyana Martínez
 
Z’otz* Collective is a group of three artists with Latin American roots: Nahúm Flores (Honduras), Erik Jerezano (Mexico), and Ilyana Martínez (Mexico/Canada). Formed in Toronto in 2004, Z’otz* members meet weekly to collaborate on works that incorporate drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, and site–specific installations. The direct approach of drawing, their primary means of expression, allows them to create quirky, humourous images that touch on the themes of migration, displacement, transition and transformation. The work connects to the storytelling traditions of their background, with mythological beings and symbols that transition between the individual and collective dynamic. Z’otz is the Mayan word for “bat”.
* Z’otz is the Mayan word for “bat”.
 
Erik Jerezano was born in Mexico City in 1973. He is a self-taught artist who has exhibited in galleries and artist-run centres across Canada and Mexico. He has been awarded grants from the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and his work was purchased for the Art Bank of the Canada Council for the Arts. He was involved in community arts projects in Mexico City, where he collaborated on outdoor murals. The indescribable softness of the (often) ironic reflexivity of Jerezano’s work binds together the two places where he has been shaped the most culturally: Mexico City and Toronto.
 
Nahúm Flores was born in Danlí, Honduras and immigrated to Canada at age 17, after living in Mexico and the US. He holds a BFA in Drawing and Painting from OCAD University. He has been awarded grants from the Pollock–Krasner Foundation, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council. His paintings and drawing installations have been widely exhibited in Canada and Central America. He was one of six artists to win the Biennale of Visual Art of Honduras in 2006. This year his work was shown in a solo exhibition entitled “The Inheritors”, at the Museum of National Identity in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Growing up in Honduras, Flores was exposed to a mixture of Catholic and Indigenous beliefs reflected in daily life. His mixed media work is a fusion of drawing and matter that is intuitively processed. This mode of working gives voice to his subconscious, resulting in expressive figures and amorphous forms. Although scenes depicted are often bleak, they also reflect his sense of humour.
 
Ilyana Martínez was born in Toronto and grew up in Pennsylvania, Wyoming and Mexico. She holds a Bachelor of Design from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and majored in Drawing and Painting at the Ontario College of Art & Design. She has been involved in design endeavours with prominent museums such the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology (Drumheller), and the National Museum of Art (Mexico City). Ilyana is a recipient of numerous awards for her drawings and paintings, among these, from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in New York, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour. Her work conjures up places of line, gesture and colour, where contrasting worlds of the urban and the natural coexist and sustain one another to create alternate possibilities. The drawings are layered environmental maps: of the built, of the uncovered, and of the imagined.
 
 
–       30    –
 
 
Image Credit: Z’otz* Collective, Paradoxes of a Soft Spoken Tree, vinyl mural mock-up (detail), 2020
 
 
 

Oxygen Art Centre transmits a remote residency featuring Z’otz* Collective
 
 

Residency: 22 – 28 August 2020

Exhibition: 29 August – 26 September 2020

Z’otz* Collective, Nahúm Flores (Honduras), Erik Jerezano (Mexico), and Ilyana Martínez (Mexico|Canada), take up a remote residency in their Toronto studio while transmitting updates and studio visits through our online platforms. The remote residency takes place from August 22 to 28, 2020.
The residency has been augmented due to the pandemic to ensure the safety of the artists and community, while also offering an intimate glimpse into the collective’s studio.

Z’otz* Collective was formed in Toronto in 2004 by three artists of Latin American heritage; Nahúm Flores, Erik Jerezano, and Ilyana Martínez. In a shared studio, they meet weekly to collaborate on works that incorporate drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, and site-specific installation. Their work connects to the storytelling traditions of their Latin American culture. Through the wording of their titles, the Collective gives hints to the narratives contained within their works, while leaving space for viewers to create their own conclusions.

Z’otz* Collective has shown work at multiple galleries and museums across Canada including Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Dunlop Art Gallery, Union Gallery, YYZ Artists’ Outlet, Cambridge Galleries, and the MacLaren Art Centre. All three members have been awarded grants from the Pollock–Krasner Foundation for their individual practices and have received support from the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Z’otz is the Mayan word for “bat”. The direct approach of drawing, their primary means of expression, enables them to create quirky subjects and hybrid creatures. They use humour and play to examine the immigrant experiences of displacement, transition and transformation.

To create their works, the artists use a system of rotation: they work on different pieces at the same time and then exchange them. Intuition and chance drive the process, as they respond to each other’s forms and marks. They converse with one another in a language they invent through the act of creating in community.

The residency will take place from 22 – 28 August 2020 and will be available to the public through Oxygen Art Centre’s social media channels and website.

Z’otz* Collective will also present an exhibition at Oxygen Art Centre following their residency. The exhibition will be on view from August 29 to September 26, 2020 during hours of operation, Wednesdays to Saturdays from 1:00pm to 5:00pm. More information about pandemic related protocols will be available to visitors on site and on our website and social media channels.

Artist Bios:

Erik Jerezano was born in Mexico City in 1973. He is a self-taught artist who has exhibited in galleries and artist-run centres across Canada and Mexico. He has been awarded grants from the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and his work was purchased for the Art Bank of the Canada Council for the Arts. He was involved in community arts projects in Mexico City, where he collaborated on outdoor murals. The indescribable softness of the (often) ironic reflexivity of Jerezano’s work binds together the two places where he has been shaped the most culturally: Mexico City and Toronto.

Nahúm Flores was born in Danlí, Honduras and immigrated to Canada at age 17, after living in Mexico and the US. He holds a BFA in Drawing and Painting from OCAD University. He has been awarded grants from the Pollock–Krasner Foundation, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council. His paintings and drawing installations have been widely exhibited in Canada and Central America. He was one of six artists to win the Biennale of Visual Art of Honduras in 2006. This year his work was shown in a solo exhibition entitled “The Inheritors”, at the Museum of National Identity in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Growing up in Honduras, Flores was exposed to a mixture of Catholic and Indigenous beliefs reflected in daily life. His mixed media work is a fusion of drawing and matter that is intuitively processed. This mode of working gives voice to his subconscious, resulting in expressive figures and amorphous forms. Although scenes depicted are often bleak, they also reflect his sense of humour.

Ilyana Martínez was born in Toronto and grew up in Pennsylvania, Wyoming and Mexico. She holds a Bachelor of Design from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and majored in Drawing and Painting at the Ontario College of Art & Design. She has been involved in design endeavours with prominent museums such the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology (Drumheller), and the National Museum of Art (Mexico City). Ilyana is a recipient of numerous awards for her drawings and paintings, among these, from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in New York, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour. Her work conjures up places of line, gesture and colour, where contrasting worlds of the urban and the natural coexist and sustain one another to create alternate possibilities. The drawings are layered environmental maps: of the built, of the uncovered, and of the imagined.

FOR   IMMEDIATE   RELEASE: OXYGEN LAUNCHES VIRTUAL EXHIBITION FEATURING EMERGING ARTISTS AND WRITERS

If I Can’t Dance To It, It’s Not My Revolution
Virtual* Group Exhibition
27 June – 15 August 2020
https://virtualexhibition.oxygenartcentre.org/  
Oxygen Art Centre is excited to present the virtual* juried youth exhibition, If I Can’t Dance To It, It’s Not My Revolution featuring artwork, artist talks, and more by Josh Franklin, Meadow Kroeger, Spencer Legebokoff, Katherine Victoria MacKay, and Bethany Pardoe.
Selected by jurors Marilyn Lee and Ian Johnston, the group exhibition brings together talented young artists working in a variety of mediums–from virtual reality to painting to ceramics to mixed media. The virtual exhibition format has been developed as a response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, while also creating space to celebrate young artists and highlighting the need for cultural engagement during social distancing.
If I Can’t Dance To It, It’s Not My Revolution also includes new, commissioned literary works by emerging poets and authors, Nelson Aiken, Spencer Legebokoff, Suki Simington, and Hailey Viers.
Website made by Cristian Hernandez, co-founder (with Juli Majer) of DDOOGG, an alt-comics press whose publications emphasize experimentation and abstraction. Cristian will begin his MA in Science and Technology Studies at UBC this Fall.
The group exhibition’s title is in part derived from a similar phrase by feminist anarchist and writer, Emma Goldman (1869-1940), and further appropriated by Toronto-based band, DOOMSQUAD on their album, “Let Yourself Be Seen” (2019). If I Can’t Dance To It, It’s Not My Revolution invokes the hope and horror of the contemporary moment. For significant social change to be effective it needs to engage the creative cortex, one that includes both the mind and the heart.
The exhibition also features Reading List + Resources in support of the anti-racist movements taking place across North America.

If I Can’t Dance To It, It’s Not My Revolution launches 27 June 2020.
VISIT HERE
https://virtualexhibition.oxygenartcentre.org/ 

Image: Composite Image of Group Exhibition, featuring work by Josh Franklin, Meadow Kroeger, Spencer Legebokoff, Katherine MacKay, Bethany Pardoe, May 2020

AUTHORS TIMOTHY TAYLOR AND FLETCHER FITZGIBBON READ AT NELSON, B.C.’s OXYGEN ART CENTRE MARCH 18

 
Reading: Wednesday, March 18, 2020 at 7:30 PM
 
 
Reading: Wednesday, March 18, 2020 at 7:30 PM
Admission by donation
 
Workshop: Thursday, March 19, 2020 at 7:30 PM
$10 at the door
 
Famed Vancouver fiction and nonfiction writer Timothy Taylor, and Slocan Valley author Fletcher FitzGibbon will read from and talk about their writing on Wed., March 18 as the third offering of the 2019-2020 “Home and Away” author reading series at Nelson, B.C.’s Oxygen Art Centre.
The event begins at 7:30 p.m. Oxygen, at 320 Vernon St. (alley entrance), is the city’s only artist-run centre. Admission is free ($5 donation appreciated) and the reading is open to the public.
Taylor will also offer a workshop on life as a writer of fiction and nonfiction on Thursday, March 19 at 7:30 p.m. at Oxygen. Admission to the workshop is $10 at the door.
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 are 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 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.”
Taylor’s workshop on March 19 is entitled “Life Lessons of a Writer: Techniques, Approaches and Stories from the Road.” “The idea,” he said, “is to combine talking about techniques and approaches (like I would in a ‘class’) as well as sharing stories from the road, so to speak (like I would do in a ‘talk’). Instruction combined with entertainment value (hopefully).”
The next event in Oxygen’s series will take place April 8 and feature Vernon fiction writer, poet and Okanagan College educator Hannah Calder, along with the end-of-term reading by Selkirk College creative writing students.
The 2019-2020 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.
 
Contact: Julia Prudhomme, Executive Director, Oxygen Art Centre: info@oxygenartcentre.org, 250-352-6322
CUTLINES: Timothy Taylor, Fletcher FitzGibbon
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