The Learning Zone

This month starts with a new exhibition at the Learning Zone Gallery called Notes From the Wind.

Drawing and Painting: Digital Painting and Expanded Animation student, Kenny Tran and Drawing & Painting student, Emily Zou curated this exhibition, highlighting artworks of 19 OCAD U students from the Drawing & Painting, Graphic Design, Illustration, Digital Futures, and Environmental Design programs.

A collection of artworks using mixed media and techniques, ranging from digital photography, sculptural installations to illustrations rendered in graphite pencil or ink are on display.

A unifying theme of this exhibition is nature in greyscale or minimal colour. Using a palette of black and white or greyscale excluding aspects of colour offers collectively an exploration of nature in terms of visual form and tone.

This exhibition aims to provide students with an opportunity to explore the interpretation and portrayal of ‘nature’ in a new lens—through black and white/greyscale artworks (including artworks with minimal colour). The de-emphasis of colour as the primary artistic medium promotes an examination of the subject matter based on the emphasis of form, design, and values seen in nature, while interpreting the perpetuity of black and white imagery in relation to current developments of the world within a collective context …Kenny Tran & Emily Zou

Participants: Samaa Ahmed, Alyssa Mae Bernardo, Shelby Doerfler, Sara Dubé, Melissa Eaton, Dave Foster, Sohae Jeong, Reyhane Khonsari, Shannon Leigh, Karen Joyce Li, Vincy Lim, Donny Nie, Cleopatria Peterson, Michelle Rosen, Mikhail Shchupak-Katsman, Ron Siu, Prateek Verma, Xulin Wang and Yina Wang.

This month and until the end of June, the Learning Zone presents Figure 1. It’s a new exhibition which “engages with the tradition of figurative representation”.

Figure 1 showcases artwork from twelve OCAD University students working in various media and artistic styles to depict the human form.

Approaches range from realistic life painting to the exploration of abstract forms.  Some artists chose to focus on expression, gesture, or emotion, while others tackled our relationships to objects, each other and the spaces we occupy.

Francis Tomkins curated Figure 1 and includes works by Misbah Ahmed, Alexandria Boyce, Wil Brask, Will Carpenter, Jisu Lee, Wenting Li, Clara Lynas, Natalie Mark, James Okore, Rem Ross, Brianna Tosswill, and Dalbert Vilarino.

On until June 29

Leading up to the OCADU Zine Fair on March 22 and 23, the OCAD Zine Library is celebrating the origins of zines through Fanzines.

Fanzines originated in the 1930s as tributes to science fiction writing, often including letters from multiple sci-fi fans commenting on the work they were reading in more established science fiction magazines. Throughout the history of zine making we’ve seen fanzines in tribute to different celebrities, lesser-known artists, fictional characters and anything in culture that zine creators have felt compelled to make a zine about.

Next Monday (March 20), student and zine maker Francis Tomkins will be running a zine making workshop focussed on fandom, in which they will provide prompts to help attendees approach the subject. The OCADU Zine Collective is accepting submissions for their fandom-themed collaborative zine until the end of March, so this workshop is not only an opportunity to explore fandom through art, but also to create a submission for a zine that will be published on the Risograph later this semester.

Finally, the OCAD Zine Library is currently displaying fanzines from the zine collection as inspiration. Stop by and check out zines on an array of subjects from Kanye West to Idris Elba to Queer Sailor Moon fan-fiction.

Figure and anatomy studies from Professor Stephen Tulk’s 2nd year Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences course, Human Form and Function: Introduction to Anatomy are on exhibition at the Learning Zone until January 31.

Featuring drawings by: Sarah Nadler, Kaiatanoron Bush, Zhejia Xu, Meredith Smallwood, Ting Ting Ding, Rita Lo, Xulin Wang and Salwa Majoka.

Cross-Displinary Art & Publications student Tetyana Herych presents Introducing Luke Hastings exhibition at the Learning Zone.

Herych thought of Luke Hastings paintings immediately when asked to curate an exhibition at the Learning Zone space for this summer. Hastings, a 4^th year Drawing & Painting student at OCAD University likes to work large with bright and saturated hues.

Hastings inserts himself in his paintings, and draws in the dynamics of his family relationships.

Luke Hastings’ self-awareness is portrayed within the framework of his family, through honest motifs of substance abuse, and the responsibilities that accompany it. He does not exist without them.

Unable to stick to one medium, Hastings conveys the unsettling realities throughout his life with overwhelmingly large pieces and bold colours, with various mediums patched together. Acrylic paint on canvas and paper, colour pencil on paper collaged on canvas, infused with cut up drawings from Hasting’s and his twin sister’s childhood.   Tetyana Herych

This exhibition runs through the summer.