Sculpture and Expanded Media

Figurative sculpture by Erin Brooke (300 level); Macramé sculpture by Kaitlyn Konkin

The Sculpture and Expanded Media program offers a range of opportunities for study of this three-dimensional art form. Students explore and create art works in different media, from clay to plaster, metal, wood, fabric, and mixed media, using traditional and experimental methods and techniques.

Careers

• Practicing Artist
• Museum/Gallery Exhibition Preparator
• Model Maker
• Set Designer/Prop Sculptor
• Prosthetic Artist
• Landscape Architect
• Educator
• Visual Art Professor/Instructor in a Post-Secondary Institution

Undergraduate Studies

Studying sculpture and expanded media as an undergraduate degree enables students to concentrate on figurative, abstract and conceptual sculpture. 

Mikylie Shapka (500 level)

In the introductory courses students learn the fundamentals of form and structure, working with wood, clay, and steel. Models are available for figural study.

After taking two introductory courses in sculpture giving them a solid technical knowledge for working in wood, steel, clay, plaster and 3D digital modelling, students go on to take more advanced courses where they will develop their skills further and pursue more self-directed and conceptual sculpture projects. 

Jenna Hoffart; Krissya Iraheta; Nicolas Hertz

The size of the well-equipped sculpture studios, expertise of the instructors and technicians allows students to realise ambitious and highly varied sculptural work at every level. Over recent years our students created large scale wooden figurative sculptures, detailed ceramics, abstract steel forms, digital sculptures and wearable sculpture, installation and public art as a way to engaging with a broad range of the themes.

Carson Tarnasky

The program as a whole emphasizes formal and technical competence with the importance of knowing and understanding developments in sculpture both a historical and contemporary perspective.

Kasie Campbell; Roseanna Nay

Graduate Studies

TJ Mclachlan, A Central Perspective, 2016, Dimensions variable, Plywood, Steel, Laminate, Urethane, Silicone, Paper

The primary aim of the graduate program is to enable students to bring undergraduate work to a professional level within a studio environment and to place students in a position of informed criticism and judgment in relation to personal development. Sculpture graduate students are mentored in creative research methodologies that enable them to more effectively support their studio practice with academic research and/or theoretical discourse related to their thesis topic. Students also gain insights into how their own studio practice relates and intersects with questions within the broader field of contemporary sculpture/art. Although the program is focused on sculpture studio practices, students can engage in cross-media creative work that could include drawing, new media and performance.

Reception for Andrew Hellmund's Master of Fine Arts exhibition, featuring Voluminous, 2014-2016, recycled steel, 9.5 x 6.2 x 5.25 feet

There are numerous funding opportunities for students throughout the program including scholarships, research assistantships and teaching assistantships. Teaching experience is stressed in the program and there are also opportunities for students to teach as primary instructor in sculpture, foundation and drawing courses.

Facilities

The sculpture studio is situated on the ground floor of the Fine Arts Building. It has good access via a large overhead door at street level. The total area of the sculpture space is just under 11,000 square feet, which is divided up roughly as follows: a central area of just under 5000 square feet devoted mainly to a woodworking shop, of which 3,500 square feet is used for abstract elementary sculpture classes; the remainder consisting of cubicles for intermediate and advanced level students where they can pursue individual studies. 3000 square feet is devoted to figurative studies in the form of a large kiln room, a plaster casting room, and two modeling studios. The studio is equipped with two forklifts, a large array of MIG and electrode welders, oxy-acetylene and plasma cutting equipment. There is a large Wadkin band saw, rotating disc sander a panel saw and numerous hand tools as well as clay preparation equipment and a large gas kiln.

Instructors work with the Digital Scholarship Centre on 3D modelling and printing projects. Sculpture at the University of Alberta has a strong partnership with the Digital Stone Project in Italy founded by Jon Isherwood and in 2017. Within the Weight of Action “, featured large scale digital marble sculptures made by students and instructors with the Digital Stone Project.

Creative Research Highlights

Peter Hide

Professor of Abstract Sculpture

www.peterhide.ca

Peter Hide is Professor of Sculpture and has been at the University of Alberta since 1977. A specialist in welded metal sculpture and abstraction, he is currently exploring the relationship between sculpture and architecture. He has exhibited widely and in an international context, and his work is in public collections at the Tate Gallery, London, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Alberta Gallery of Art.

Peter Hide, Dropbox, 2013-2019, mild steel, welded, 10h x 12.5w x 9.5d inches

Peter Hide, Hieratic Figures, 1982 - 2019, diptych consisting of 2 sculptures on a base, mild steel, overall dimensions: 7'2"h x 6'10"w x 3'2"d

Royden Mills

Abstract and Figurative Sculpture instructor

www.roydenmills.com

Royden Mills teaches studio art in Art Fundamentals, Drawing and Sculpture. Mills has done many large-scale commissions, installations, and collaborative performances nationally and internationally. He has served on the board of directors at The Edmonton Art Gallery and is a past president of the Edmonton Contemporary Art Society. In 2014, he won the William Hardy Alexander teaching award and the Faculty of Arts teaching award at the University of Alberta. In 2017 he completed a major commission for the City of Edmonton using 60,00 pounds of stone, welded steel and analogue sound collection in Terwillegar Park. The Terwillegar Park installation won recognition from the group Americans for the Arts who, in June 2018 claimed the work to be one of the most exemplary, innovative public art works. Mills was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Art in 2017 and recently won an Alberta Art Foundation Project Grant to attend the Digital Stone Project in Italy where further work with stone carving and robotic seven axis marble carving was the focus. Mills recently became the director of Edmonton Sculpture Project in May 2021. Mills work can be found at Grounds for Sculpture, USA, Chomin Hall, Shikaoi Japan, Big Rock Sculpture Park in Little Rock USA, Robert Webb Sculpture Garden Dalton Georgia USA, Zielina Gora Poland, Odette Sculpture Park Windsor, and University of Lethbridge, Canmore Hospital and has large scale sculpture in the Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, The Art Gallery of Alberta both EPCOR Tower, Enbridge Tower in Edmonton.

Edmund Haakonson

Figurative Sculpture instructor

eahaakonson.com

Edmund Haakonson is a painter and sculptor who works with the human figure often modeled on examples of male nudes from classical Greece that were later reincarnated in the Renaissance. These include the work of the ancient Athenian artist Myron, and the Florentine, Michelangelo. The musculature of the male subject is a particular focus of Haarkonsons work and his style is thus highly realistic with an emphasis on modeling, and the effect of light and shadow. Two materials works with extensively are are terracotta clay and bronze. Haakonson graduated with a BFA in 1990 from University of Alberta. The artist was President of the Board of Directors of Harcourt House Artist Run Centre (Edmonton, AB) for fourteen years. Haakonson teaches figurative sculpture classes at the University of Alberta.

Selene Huff

Abstract instructor and technician

Selene Huff is a sculptor whose work focuses on how formal choices impact visual communication as mediated through human experience. Huffs work combines found, altered and hand-forged steel elements into formal, steel sculptures that transcend the collective memory of industrial objects into meditations on remembered experience. Huff holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the University of Alberta and a Journeyperson's ticket in welding. She is a sessional instructor and technician in the Sculpture Department at the University of Alberta.

Michael Cor

Michael Cor is a painter, tattoo artist, and sculptor as well as an instructor in Drawing and Sculpture at the University of Alberta. Cor received his Masters in Fine Arts from the Hoffberger School of Painting at the Maryland Institue College of Art (MICA) in 2012. Using painting as a conceptual framework for his found objects and assemblage pieces, Cor works with concepts involving romantic materialism and art as social practice. Micheal has collaborated with a number of community organizations to host outreach events throughout Edmonton. These events range from art hives at local warm up shelters to exhibitions and panel discussions in alternative spaces. Cor questions the artists current role, and potential, in our society while creating accessible venues for art and artists to engage with their broader community. Micheal works as the sculpture technician supporting classes and students across all areas of the sculpture studios.