The Learning Zone

FOOD = NEED OCADU, a multi-displinary art event exploring issues of food, poverty and insecurity, celebrated its closing date with a screening of a short documentary film about the Food = Need performance art event, which was  curated by WIA Projects in the Fall of 2013 by Naked Eye Toronto filmmakers Diane Piruzevska and Anlina Rana.

The screening was followed by a panel discussion facilitated by WIA Project’s feminist artist-researchers Pam Patterson and Leena Raudvee. OCAD U students Che-Chi Liu, Shirley Cervalo and Greenest City Artist Cath Campbell lead a discussion on the politics of food insecurity and the value of creating sustainable food-linked projects.

The evening ended with a reception and screen printing workshop hosted in the Learning Zone, leaving participants with printed tote bags to help spread awareness of this issue. The workshop was lead by Mary “Mack” Tremonte an OCADU IAMD graduate student.

Thanks to everyone for their generous support to help create a successful and awesome night. The Learning Zone would also like to extend our thanks to Eireann Oughton’s and Leena Raudvee’s photographic contributions.

Seeking works for an upcoming exhibit that display far out subject matter: Unconventional, alternate realities. Quirky or peculiar representations of people, memories or places. Images or objects that may cause disbelief.

Open to all media, including drawing, painting, prints, collage, textiles, photography, video, performance, sculpture and installation. This can be an existing work or a work you plan to create (but it must be completed and ready for installation by April).

The exhibit will take place in the Dorothy H. Hoover Library for the summer (April-August)

Deadline for submission: March 29, 2014

Send an image, brief description and dimensions of the work (or work in progress) to:

Emily Harrison, Student Liaison, OCADU Library

Subject line: Library Exhibit

*Painting by Tara Dorey. “All Cats go to Heaven.”

Recently installed into the Learning Zone is grOCAD’s Aquaponic Windowfarm. A self-sustaining eco-system composed of plants and fish using aquaponic technology that recycles fish water and provides nutrients to the plants.

GrOCAD designed and built the Aquaponic Windowfarm, unveiled at Onsite [at] OCAD U Gallery space April 2013. It is part of grOCAD’s commitment to promote awareness and conversation towards the lack of green space in urban environments by transforming OCAD U campus through diverse and innovative methods.

Attached is more information about the Aquaponic Windowfarm and grOCAD.

The Study, a group exhibition was recently hosted in the Learning Zone February 5th through to 16th, comprised of small works or studies by nine OCAD U students from the disciplines of Drawing & Painting and Integrated Media, organized by Emily Waknine.

The collection was comprised of a range of media — paintings, collage, mixed-media and photography. Featuring the works of Tom Colleran, Emma Edghill, Stephanie Hier, Paul Moleiro, Wendy Nichol, Hazel Ottley, Sam Pedicelli, Sarah Turner and Emily Waknine.

What inspired your idea of organizing an exhibition based on small art?

Marta Chudolinska, the Learning Zone Librarian, approached me to see if I would be interested in organizing a two-week exhibition in the Learning Zone. I was immediately inspired to create an exhibition based on small works and studies. Small studies are integral to the final production of a larger body of work and they are also very beautiful works in themselves, that do not get much recognition.

I contacted my peers, whose work I was drawn to and shared common similarities in terms of colour.  All of these works were made outside of the classroom, as material and technical explorations.

It appears that the artwork was created independently, but installed with a deliberate interweaving with respect to the positioning of the pieces. You’ve brought together artwork from people with different purposes, and created a new narrative that is overlaid. Can you speak about this layer?

All of the projects installed are of small scale and self-directed explorations that seem to have an interesting conversation in the LZ space.

When I collected each of the artists’ work, I discovered interesting similarities amongst them — colour choices, patterns and materials. So, I decided that instead of grouping the works by each artist, I would install similar works together grouped either by colour or technical exploration, creating a new narrative of the original work. The exception were the digital paintings by Tom Colleran and Paul Moleiro’s darkroom prints, I decided to keep all of their works grouped individually but overall the exhibit looked very cohesive — as if it was collaboratively created.

Hazel Ottley’s plaster heads had a very soft quality to them, similar to my soft watercolour landscape paintings and Wendy Nichol’s highly detailed repetitive patterns used in her acrylic panel paintings, which I paired well with Sam Pedicelli’s explorations in embroidery and textiles.

There is a conversation between Paul’s darkroom prints and Tom digital paintings — Tom’s work is digital printing which grew from traditional film practices. Tom’s works are digital paintings representing photographs, whereas Paul works in the darkroom. I thought that these were captivating ways of inverting what we would normally see out of traditional or digital print.

SemiCycle, new work by Toronto artist Juliane Foronda is currently on view at the Learning Zone until April 2nd.

Foronda’s animated video, SemiCycle, features a familiar place at OCAD U, the Learning Zone, in which Foronda creates a temporal sculptural piece from a collection of found objects that she had carefully constructed, dismantled and documented to produce a video animation.

On until April 2nd at xpace: External Space located in the Learning Zone and Xpace Cultural Centre online.