Meet Scott Watson: Curating the Morris & Helen Belkin Art Gallery
By Erin Catherall Have you ever wanted to learn the role of a university art gallery and how it displays contemporary artworks? Scott Watson, Curator of the Morris & Helen Belkin Art Gallery at UBC, investigates these questions in a recent Arts Wednesdays Lecture at Robson Square. What is contemporary art? For some, contemporary art […]
Meet Brian Cochrane: Directing Anton Chekhov’s ‘Wild Honey’
The mere mention of Russian playwright/author Anton Chekhov brings to mind titles such as The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, and The Seagull. However, UBC Theatre director Brian Cochrane instead chose to stage Wild Honey, an obscure posthumously discovered Chekhov play.
Meet Dr. Gage Averill: Part detective, part ethnomusicologist
Haitian scholar and UBC Dean of Arts Gage Averill didn’t receive his recent Grammy nomination from singing Bad Romance alongside Lady Gaga. He’s being recognized for a mammoth project unearthing the extensive recordings of Alan Lomax, a famed folklorist and ethnomusicologist.
Meet Grace Park: Armed with talent
By Katie Fedosenko She’s a pro surfer with a concealed weapon. Grace Park, UBC Psychology alum and one of the 12 Kick-ass Ladies of Fall TV, is making headlines as Kona Kalakaua in the new hit-series Hawaii Five-0. Formerly known as Lieutenant Sharon Valerii from Battlestar Galactica and voted one of Maxim’s Hot 100 Girls, Grace […]
Meet BA ’05 grad Nadine Power: A career in painting conservation
After graduating from the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Nadine Power (BA ’05) has embarked on a career in art conservation. Currently a post-graduate student in the Conservation of Easel Paintings program at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, art historical research is a crucial aspect of her work.
Meet MFA ’07 grad Liz Park: Highlighting local art
An accomplished curator, Liz Park (MFA ’07) wants to highlight art made in Vancouver. Liz entered UBC’s BFA Visual Art program with the intention of becoming a practicing artist. When she finished the program in 2005, she decided to pursue a master’s degree in curatorial studies.
Meet BA ’05 grad Michelle Kuen: Pursuing a career in visual arts
Michelle graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2005 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Art and English Literature. Now devoted to her artistic practice full-time, she divides her time between her personal artistic pursuit and the commercial sector.
Meet MFA ’08 grad Jesse Gray: Transforming science to art
She makes the everyday world into a work of art. Jesse Gray uses collecting and archiving to investigate the invisible histories of discarded consumer objects and of systems in the natural world. She engages in labour-intensive processes of rebuilding, reconstructing, and reworking objects that have been abandoned to the peripheries of urban consciousness, re-presenting aspects […]
Meet Sophia Bengall: Getting the inside scoop on theatre
Name: Sophia Bengall Major and year at the time of internship: 1st year, undecided major Internship position title and organization: Wed marketing and advertising for the Vancouver Asian Canadian Theater (VACT). Why did you apply for an Arts Internship? I applied for this art internship because I’ve always been interested in theater. Growing up I always […]
Meet Colin Miner: Captured in the moment
Absence and presence, from the cast to the negative, Colin Miner finds himself in stillness.
Vancouver looked like a promising city to develop a photographic-artistic practice with a strong visual arts and art history faculty working at UBC. Colin will continue to pursue and develop his artistic practice and theoretical research within the MFA program under the guidance of Ken Lum and John O’Brian.
Colin returned to Canada having worked for three years in Beijing China, an experience that allowed him to learn more about Chinese culture and art. “I was very fortunate to have spent that time overseas,” he says, “to see a country literally changing before my eyes, to experience parts of its immense potential for growth and cultural influence.”
The first year at UBC in the MFA program was quite challenging in a variety of ways. “My knowledge and practice, both artistic and academic, have developed in unanticipated directions. Notably, my research on the iconic figure of Dracula as represented within Bram Stoker’s novel.”
The theme of absence and presence was his next inquiry, in which he examined the different works of Rachel Whiteread, Thomas Demand, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Jeff Wall. Colin’s own work has focused and developed on the themes of stillness, an entrapment of time, the cast and the negative, and falseness.
From AHVA website.