We're thrilled to announce that Alexander Farah's ('14) short film, Sahar, has been officially selected to have its World Premiere at the 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival this September! The film will be featured in the Short Cuts Canada Programme 4.

Alexander graduated from the Film, Video and Integrated Media Program this past May, and received the Sophie Burnett Memorial Award for Highest Academic Standing (Undergraduate Level) in his program. Sahar is his directorial debut.

TIFF synopsizes Alexander's film here: "Having witnessed his sister Sahar’s rebellious attitude towards their conservative parents, obedient young Nadim ignores her pleas to let her into the house when she returns late in the night — which triggers a chain of events leading to a police interrogation days later. This is a riveting and revealing domestic drama that foregoes moralizing as it examines a pressing contemporary issue."

Check out the Sahar Facebook page.

Congratulations, Alex!

Snug Vest Founder/Designer Lisa Fraser ('10), and co-presenter Pamela Rollins, U of Texas-Dallas, have applied to present a panel -- The Importance of Design in Special Needs Tools at the upcoming South by Southwest Festival, within the theme of Cognitive Process & Design Thinking.

Therapeutic products are built to be technical, mass produced, and solve physical problems. The result is often rigid products that overlook the importance of ergonomics, user feedback and how design influences the students emotions. The presenters will share their views on co-creation as a designer & Speech Pathologist, and discuss the importance of well-designed products for special needs students, using the design processes for Snug Vest& RoboKind as examples to illustrate the process.

The PanelPicker is a two-step online process that allows the SXSW community to have a significant voice in programming (presentations, panels, discussions, demonstrations, etc.). 

Sign up and vote for Lisa's panel here!

Recently featured on Fast Company, alumnus Andrew Zo's ('11) Clifton, a unique pop-up engagement ring box, is taking off!

Clifton can be easily slipped into a pocket or wallet. The discreet design allows the case to be easily hidden without giving anything away. At approximately 1cm thick, Clifton presents the ring with a delightful flower blooming effect when opened.

Find more of Andrew's work here.

Wil Aballe Art Projects is proud to present Electric Mud, Sean Weisgerber's ('09) second solo exhibition at WAAP.

His first exhibition, After I Shed My Skin, unveiled a direction that explored the possibilities of paint as material. This previous series of monochromatic grey dipped works were installed in tense relation to the architecture while considering the domestic aspect of the gallery as apartment. In Electric Mud, six new works showcase Weisgerber's continued engagement in this process-driven direction while introducing new elements, such as colour, that bring these works into a broader discussion of contemporary abstract painting.

His work continues to explore materiality as subject, driven from an interest in dissecting things to review their structure and skin, and how they intersect. Situated at the axis of painting, sculpture, and installation, Weisgerber's work seamlessly crosses disciplines. It culls through histories and collects fragments along the way. These specters flutter in and out, and collide to create works that are imprinted with the past and the personal. Weisgerber's specific choice of materials and processes are filtered through his own sensibilities while at the same time taking into consideration the history of abstraction. Minimalist and Process Art carry the most weight in these new works.

Weisgerber is interested in artists such as Eva Hesse, Richard Serra, Roxy Paine, and Neil Campbell, among others. Recently, many contemporary artists within Canada are engaged in labour intensive processes and materiality, which links Weisgerber's practice to several artists in Toronto and Vancouver.

Currently based in Saskatoon, Weisgerber has recently shown at 330-G (Saskatoon), Cooper Cole Gallery (Toronto), Wil Aballe Art Projects (Vancouver), the Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon) and the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa). He was a finalist in the 2013 RBC Painting Competition.

Sean Weisgerber | Electric Mud
Wil Aballe Art Projects (Unit 528 - 2050 Scotia Street, buzzer 189)
September 4 - October 11, 2014 (Tu 6-9pm, Sa 1-5pm)
Opening Reception | Thursday, September 4, 7-9pm

Award-winning filmmaker Kevan Funk ('11) debuts his next short, Bison, at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). 

From the TIFF site: Set on a rural Saskatchewan ranch during the annual branding season, Bison follows a young man who heads to the country for a guys’ weekend, but is profoundly unsettled after he makes a disturbing discovery. Kevan Funk’s follow-up to Yellowhead is a disquieting study of the continued colonization of the West.

Bison is co-produced and shot by fellow alum Benjamin Loeb ('11). It screens at TIFF as part of the Short Cuts Canada Programme 2.

Catriona Jeffries Gallery presents a solo exhibition of work by alumnusRon Terada ('91).

Ron Terada | Jack
Catriona Jeffries Gallery
September 19 - October 25, 2014
Opening Reception | September 18, 5-7pm

We're delighted to announce that Luke Parnell (MAA '12) has been selected to exhibit in the National Gallery of Canada's Shine a Light: Canadian Biennale 2014. 

Shine a Light highlights a selection of recent acquisitions to the National Gallery of Canada’s Canadian Contemporary, Indigenous and Photography holdings. It showcases some of the best most innovative works being made today in a variety – and often combination of- media, from video and film to drawing and painting, photography to sculpture and installation. It reveals the unique ways contemporary Canadian artists are responding to the larger social and political state of the world through their art and how they are choosing interdisciplinary modes of self-expression that transcend traditional categories, materials and genres. The exhibition takes the pulse of contemporary art production in Canada as it becomes part of our national art history.

The exhibition runs October 14 - March 8, 2015. Along with exhibiting his work, Luke will present an artist talk, October 18.

A Pop-Up Affair is a collective of a designers and makers, whose 9 founding members are all recent Emily Carr graduates. Seeing an opportunity in the design community to create engaging spaces that promote the work of young designers in Vancouver.  Together they build spaces that promote and expose new design and creative conversations.

After a very successful Kickstarter campaign, they're launching their inaugural exhibition/sale, Peep Show, during Vancouver Design Week.

Peep Show is an experience-based pop-up that brings education, design rationale and the creative process to the surface as a way to question contemporary modes of production and consumption. You'll find products and 2D art and design works from creative makers, (and yes, you'll be able to purchase same-day!). Each item has been made locally in small runs, showing the possibility of local production, while maintaining affordable and transparent prices for a more accessible demographic.

Peep Show
MakerLabs
September 19 - 28, 2014
Opening Reception | Friday, September 19, 7pm
(Cash or credit only)

Featuring:

• Jean Chisholm
• Steven Enns
• Scott E. Forsythe
• Char Kennedy
• Janine Merkl
• Jason Miller
• Seth Parker
• Jacquie Shaw
• Romney Shipway

The Museum of Vancouver invites Vancouverites to explore and celebrate innovation in action. 30+ designers, live, in concert and stationed throughout the museum’s galleries, discuss their work during Why I Design, a Vancouver Design Week feature event and party Friday, September 19.

Why I Design aims the spotlight on the process of invention. Participating designers will engage you with stories behind the development of everyday technologies and cool things you’ve never seen before—from play spaces to packaging, furniture to footwear, scuba fins to cemeteries. You can ask the designers—ranging from those launching their careers to innovative leaders in international corporations—what motivates them, how they do what they do, and why Vancouver inspires them to keep doing it.

The participating designers represent enormously diverse creativity. See the latest adventure road bike and a kayak that folds. Touch shapes designed to ground people with autism. Experience the first heads-up display that can be worn while playing any sport. Admire apparel that can weather the worst that Vancouver can throw at you. Test a vest that helps kids feel less anxiety. Learn what makes a play space fun. Find flip-flops that are actually good for your feet. Discover who puts the flash into rock concerts. There’s a lot to explore as you navigate a party that’s dense with designers. This isn’t an art display or trade show. Why I Design provides an alternative to standard presentations by breaking down walls between disciplines and between designers and the public. It’s an opportunity to interact with the designers of the products and environments that shape your life.

Why I Design @ MOV
Friday, September 19, 2014 | 8-11:30pm
Admission: $16 advance / $18 at the door / $13 MOV members
Get tickets here.

Featuring - William Alexander, Nicole Barrett, Associate Professor Christian Blyt, Lisa Fraser, Heather Mitchell, Daniel Nikitiuk, and Andrew Zo.

For more information, visit Museum of Vancouver. 

A limited-edition illy cup collection will go on sale this week in the US and its purpose goes beyond sipping beautiful espressos and cappuccinos to relaying a message about coffee-growing communities and sustainable coffee production around the world, while also supporting creative artists in coffee producing countries with an opportunity to have their work seen by millions of people.

Naufus Ramirez-Figueruro ('06) is one of 10 artists whose work has been selected.

The cup collection is tied to the upcoming EXPO Milano in 2015 and will include a total of ten cups representing the works of creative artists from emerging regions including coffee-producing countries ranging from Ethiopia and Honduras to Costa Rica, Guatemala and others. Officially named the sustainArt collection for EXPO, it is one of the most prolific endeavors for an illy cup collection that will serve as "World's Fair" collector memorabilia while also creating a legacy for the biggest event in the world dedicated to a crucial topic facing the human race, which is feeding the planet for future generations. 

"The cup is a kind of allegory of the rich lands in Guatemala, the ash and stone that pour out of the countries many volcanoes," says Ramirez-Figueroa. "These volcanoes fertilise and enrich the soil where the coffee plants grow, giving the coffee its distinctive flavor."

Naufus Ramirez-Figueroa was born in Guatemala City in 1978, and now divides his time between Vancouver and Guatemala City. He has exhibited and performed in numerous art galleries and for public organisations. He has a degree in photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Emily Carr University .

Read the full story here.

Janice Wu ('13) was one of eight Canadian artists selected to illustrate the new Chinatown Gate Stamp Series for Canada Post. These stamps feature eight different gates of Chinatown, located in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Mississauga, Ottawa and Montréal.

The stamp series was launched in Canada Post locations on May 1, 2013.

Congratulations to alumnus Stan Douglas ('82), who was named the recipient of the Scotiabank Photography Award, which is given annually to Canadian contemporary photographer. In addition to a cash prize of $50,000, Douglas will have a solo exhibition at the CONTACT Photography Festival in Toronto next year, and a collection of Douglas’ work will be published internationally.

Read more at CBC.ca.

Douglas Coupland: everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything is the first major museum exhibition of the artist’s work and will be presented at the Vancouver Art Gallery from May 31 – September 1, 2014. Deftly capturing the spirit of the age—or, as the artist refers to it, “the 21^st century condition”—Douglas Coupland’s ideas are often encountered on the written page. But the themes he explores in his writing have appeared in his artwork as early as the 1980s when he was a student at the Emily Carr College of Art & Design, (Class of '84). In this survey of Coupland’s work, we encounter his incisive social analysis in a variety of forms including installation, painting, photography, prints, sculpture, quilts and wallpaper. His synthesis of contemporary events, popular culture, new technologies and art historical references―that range from the paintings of Emily Carr and the Group of Seven to the Pop sensibility of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein―resists an identifiable style. By incorporating everyday materials and objects and referencing images that have become culturally iconic, he probes the way that things, images and processes of contemporary life affect our understanding of the world around us.

Alumnus Tim Barber's ('03) photography has been selected as the cover for Elton John's upcoming album, The Diving Board, by none other than the man himself.

Barber's work was introduced by a mutual photographer friend; John is an avid art collector, and is believed to have one of the largest private photography collections in the world.

Says Barber, "Elton John phoned me himself, which was really a surreal moment. He introduced himself and asked me about the image and talked about the idea of using it for the cover."

The shot was taken at a favourite undisclosed location along the Sea to Sky Highway, nearly a decade ago.The diving board, erected by kids, has long since been removed.

Now based in New York, Barber ─ photographer, curator and designer, runs the online gallery and image archive Tiny Vices, which he founded in 2005.

Read the full Vancouver Sun article here.

Suzy Taekyung Kim (’03) has been awarded a commission by Percent for Art (Percent), the New York City Permanent Public Art Installation program funded by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. Suzy’s work will grace an entrance wall in a building, with an expected installation date of 2016.

Suzy shares, “It is an honor for me to be a part of NYC public art collection among highly established NYC artists. It will hopefully to encourage painting graduates to appreciate our fine art program at Emily Carr.”

Percent is New York City’s permanent public art program that commissions and acquires artwork within City-funded capital construction projects. Since its inception in 1982, Percent has commissioned 374 artists for 291 projects at City-owned properties, with 82 commissions awarded during the Bloomberg Administration. These permanent works of art continue to enhance the City’s landscape with installations at municipal buildings and adjacent outdoor spaces, schools, transportation hubs, parks, plazas, and streets across the five boroughs.

Alumnus Kevin Eastwood (’99) is an award winning filmmaker who has worked on everything from dark comedies (Fido, the 2007 movie about a boy and his pet zombie), to TV biopics (2008’s Elijah), to documentaries dealing with serious global issues (Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson in 2011, and Oil Sands Karaoke in 2013). These projects, and the many others to his credit, have found critical, commercial and financial success and made Kevin a sought-after producer and director. Still, the unprecedented success of his latest project, Emergency Room: Life and Death at VGH, exceeded all his expectations.

Emergency Room premiered on January 21^st, 2014 on BC’s Knowledge Network, and brought in record-breaking audiences: nearly 200,000 people tuned in for the first episode, making it the most watched program in its timeslot and the biggest documentary series premiere in the history of the network. That same episode has been viewed more than 120,000 times online through the Knowledge Network’s website, knowledge.ca, and subsequent episodes have continued to bring in huge audiences across the province. In fact, the network had to increase its bandwidth to accommodate the surge of visitors to the Emergency Room webpage, where fans view episodes, engage in heathcare debates, and share their own ER stories with the world.

Kevin credits much of the popularity of the show to its true documentary style, which stands apart from many of the ‘reality’ shows currently dominating television programming. He points out that Emergency Room has no narration, which means “the audience is not being told what to focus on or feel. They are relating to the people and the situation from their own perspective.” This allows viewers to experience and interpret the unfolding story on their own, which makes every story that much more personal. It also helps that the show covers subjects which are very relatable for most Canadians: workplace concerns and relationships, the over-burdened health care system, and, ultimately, the more universal issues of life and death. Kevin also praises the Knowledge Network, for recognizing how to properly deliver a show like Emergency Room. Each episode is allowed to run exactly as long as it needs to tell the story – the production team never has to sacrifice story for commercials or preset timeslots. “If you are a writer, no one tells you how many pages you have for your novel,” he says. “We don’t have to stop for commercials, or end at a certain time, so the rhythm of the show is very natural, and the audience feels like they are really a part of the scene as it is happening.”

Due in part to the opportunities created by institutions like the Knowledge Network, Kevin considers British Columbia one of the best places in Canada for documentary filmmaking. He advises students and new filmmakers to learn as much as they can about the entire process, from location scouting to funding applications, because every new skill may lead to a new opportunity. These days, Kevin draws on his own experiences and varied background to create projects he knows will be both professionally and personally satisfying. And he believes new filmmakers should use the same criteria when considering their own opportunities. He encourages them to “be idealistic and aim high,” and select projects that contribute to the local and national landscape as much as possible. As Kevin’s own experience with Emergency Room: Life and Death at VGH has shown, sometimes an issue that seems local can have an impact that is global.

Glasgow-based Canadian artist and alumna Corin Sworn ('02) has been named the winner of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, (January 23, 2014).

The prize includes a six-month residency in Italy, followed by two major solo exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery in London and Collezione Maramotti near Milan.

Her winning proposal is said to "reflect her continued interest in exploring storie around migration" through a focus on the rich history of costuming at the Commedia dell'Arte, and touring Italian acting troupes from the 16th centruy onwards.

Sworn was one of three artists chosen to represent Scotland at the 2013 Venice Biennale. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘The Rag Papers’, Chisenhale Gallery, London, and Neuer Aachener Kunstverein (2013), Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Timespan Museum and Arts Centre, Helmsdale, Scotland; Art Now at Tate Britain (all 2011); Tramway (2010) and Washington Garcia for Glasgow International (2010).

Recent group exhibitions include ‘Dialogue for Hands’, Three Blows in association with Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2012; ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ – Jerwood / Film and Video Umbrella Awards, Jerwood Space, London (both 2012); Hors Pistes, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2011); and ‘Morality’, Witte de With, Rotterdam (2010).

The biannual Max Mara Art Prize for Women promotes and nurtures female artists based in the UK, enabling each winning artist to develop their potential by producing new works of art during the six-month residency in Italy.

Read the Canadian Art article.

Sworn is represented by Kendall Koppe Gallery, Glasgow and Blanket Contemporary Inc., Vancouver.

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We're delighted to announce that the National Gallery of Canada has acquired two works by Luke Parnell (MAA '12) for their permanent collection. Phantom Limbs and A Brief History of Northwest Coast Design will be featured in Shine a Light: Canadian Biennale 2014. 

Shine a Light highlights a selection of recent acquisitions to the National Gallery of Canada’s Canadian Contemporary, Indigenous and Photography holdings. It showcases some of the best most innovative works being made today in a variety – and often combination of- media, from video and film to drawing and painting, photography to sculpture and installation. It reveals the unique ways contemporary Canadian artists are responding to the larger social and political state of the world through their art and how they are choosing interdisciplinary modes of self-expression that transcend traditional categories, materials and genres. The exhibition takes the pulse of contemporary art production in Canada as it becomes part of our national art history.

The exhibition runs October 14 - March 8, 2015. Luke will present an artist talk, October 18.

A Pop-Up Affair is a collective of a designers and makers, whose 9 founding members are all recent Emily Carr graduates. Seeing an opportunity in the design community to create engaging spaces that promote the work of young designers in Vancouver.  Together they build spaces that promote and expose new design and creative conversations.

After a very successful Kickstarter campaign, they're launching their inaugural exhibition/sale, Peep Show, during Vancouver Design Week.

Peep Show is an experience-based pop-up that brings education, design rationale and the creative process to the surface as a way to question contemporary modes of production and consumption. You'll find products and 2D art and design works from creative makers, (and yes, you'll be able to purchase same-day!). Each item has been made locally in small runs, showing the possibility of local production, while maintaining affordable and transparent prices for a more accessible demographic.

Peep Show
MakerLabs
September 19 - 28, 2014
Opening Reception | Friday, September 19, 7pm
(Cash or credit only)

Featuring:

• Jean Chisholm
• Steven Enns
• Scott E. Forsythe
• Char Kennedy
• Janine Merkl
• Jason Miller
• Seth Parker
• Jacquie Shaw
• Romney Shipway

Alumna Martha Sturdy returns to her roots with a newly-launched collection of wearable sculpture. 

After graduating from Emily Carr in 1978, Sturdy went on to gain international reputation as her bold, iconic wearable sculptures made their way onto the pages of ELLE, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and onto runways such as Donna Karan, Oscar de la Renta, and Marc Jacobs.

As her practice developed, Martha's collection eventually evolved into a series of sculptural home furnishings with a focus on resin, steel, brass and salvaged cedar. The STURDY studio has since expanded to provide sophisticated, enduring custom furniture and fixtures for upscale retail and hospitality clients including, Louis Vuitton, Saks, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Four Seasons, and Fairmont.

Her new line, comprised of a dozen brass and resin pieces, debuted at IDSwest this past weekend.

Congratulations Martha!