The 2023 Art Volt Collection launch exhibition at Le Livart | Photo by Ash KG subtletherapy.com
The 10 newest members of Concordia's Art Volt Collection (AVC) will show their work and be introduced at the AVC's upcoming 2024 launch exhibition. The exhibition will be held from June 19 until July 6 at Concordia's FOFA Gallery.
The vernissage will take place June 19, and attendees will get a chance to meet the artists.
Now in its third year, the AVC is a juried sales and rental marketplace for recent grads of Concordia's Faculty of Fine Arts. With its recent additions, the AVC will see its collection grow by approximately 70 pieces, bringing the total to more than 400 artworks.
Community and support for fine arts graduates
Fannie Gadouas, BFA 16, developed the Art Volt platform in 2020 and recently became manager of strategic initiatives and industry relations for the Faculty of Fine Arts. In her new role, she is supporting the incoming Art Volt team composed of Concordia fine arts alumni: Ally Rosilio, BFA 23, Camille Lalonde Lachapelle, BFA 16, MFA 22, and José Lara Menéndez, BFA 22.
The collection project is a "wonderful opportunity for recent alumni to gain visibility for their practices, while also learning about the commercial side of the art world," Gadouas says. "This year, the collection was at Plural, which I think really highlights these objectives." Plural was an exhibition held in Montreal in April.
Art Volt, including its collection, offers a sense of community and support after graduation, she adds. "We foster opportunities for folks to share resources, knowledge and build networks of peers that can support one another beyond the scope of our programs."
"Summoning Black Beach" by Kuh Del Rosario, 2023. | Photo by Paul Litherland
Joining forces with FOFA Gallery
This year's exhibition will be a collaboration between the AVC and the FOFA Gallery. As each has a mandate to support the Concordia fine arts community, "It was a natural fit and a great opportunity to host this annual exhibition on campus," Gadouas notes.
Nicole Burisch, MA 11, FOFA Gallery director, shares Gadouas's enthusiasm for the collaboration. "This show is the perfect opportunity to share the amazing work being produced by our recently graduated students," she says.
"The FOFA Gallery has shown work by Art Volt artists in the past, and our staff have participated in several of their initiatives, as both mentors and mentees. We've seen the positive impact that the program has on alumni as they begin their careers, so it makes sense for us to be a part of celebrating the artists in the collection."
Burisch adds that she's always enjoyed showing the work of graduating students.
"I get to learn firsthand about their practices and get a sneak peek at what the next generation of artists is doing," she says. "These are all artists whose careers I will continue to watch."
"Too Dry, " Rebecca Ramsey, 2023. "Briar Belly Augur," Laurel Rennie, 2023. | Photos: Brandon Brookbank
Meet the vitrine artists
Art Volt will only reveal the artworks for sale at the vernissage, but three artists graduating this spring, Rebecca Ramsey, Kuh Del Rosario and Laurel Rennie, will display works in the FOFA vitrine in advance of the event to celebrate convocation.
Ramsey, a recent graduate of the MFA in Studio Arts, is grateful for this support from the AVC. Working in sculpture with a focus on ceramics, her contribution is derived from her thesis show that was inspired by objects that are present in hygiene infrastructures.
"I'm interested in how the plumbing system of the building becomes a metaphor for the body," Ramsey says. "Intimately intertwined, they reveal things about each other and act as models for understanding larger cycles of transformation and circulation in the natural world."
Del Rosario, who recently earned an MFA in Studio Arts with a concentration in sculpture and ceramics, was the recipient of the 2023 Brucebo Fine Art Summer Residency Scholarship and was also awarded the 2024 Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art.
Using everyday items and salvaged materials, she draws from her personal history to tell stories through her artwork. "It is a method for grounding and remembering the future as it continually unfolds," Del Rosario explains.
"More recently, my work focuses on time as expressed on the skins of things, death as transformation and composting as a metaphor for living."
Rennie, a recent graduate of the MFA in Fibres and Material Practices, produces textural and multi-layered textile pieces that combine plant and chemical dyes, piecework, sewing, quilting, embroidery and wood-carving.
"As the world becomes increasingly inhospitable to many forms of life largely because of human impact I create work that gathers stories from plants, dreams, mystery, non-humans and the sensual world as a way of processing our knotted relationships and histories," she says.
The support offered by the AVC is important to Rennie, she shares, as is an ongoing connection to Concordia and fellow alumni.
"The Art Volt team has been extremely generous. As an emerging artist, it feels very necessary to build a web of community and support to keep going and be able to create," she says.
"For me, Art Volt is part of that web. I'm hoping my inclusion in the AVC leads to more connections, my work being shown more widely and exhibited in new spaces. I'm open to any and all possibilities."
10 artists will be added to the AVC roster this year:
- Alfred Muszynski
- Ann Karine Bourdeau Leduc
- José Lara Menéndez
- Kuh Del Rosario
- Laurel Rennie
- Rebecca Ramsey
- Shazia Ahmad
- Spencer Magnan
- Tristan Lajarrige
- Wendy-Alexina Vancol
Returning artists with new works being added to the AVC:
- Alejandra Zamudio Diaz, BFA 19
- Crystel Pereira, BFA 21
- Gabor Bata, BFA 19, MFA3
- Paulina Bereza, BFA 22
The 2024 Art Volt Collection vernissage will be held at the FOFA Gallery (1515 Ste. Catherine St. W.) on June 19, from 6 to 9 p.m.
Learn more about Concordia's Faculty of Fine Arts.
