Current and Upcoming Shows

• FAB Gallery Main Floor exhibition
• FAB Gallery Second Floor exhibition
• Upcoming Shows
• Visiting FAB Gallery

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Main Floor

We Made This Mostly at Home with Stuff We Already Had in Our Apartment: Prop Performance and Camp in Contemporary Canadian Video Art
| Curated by Chloë Lum & Yannick Desranleau

October 8 - November 2, 2024

FAB Gallery Main Floor

Reception

Thursday, Oct. 10 2024 | 7-9 p.m. | FAB Gallery
(view the PDF e-vite)

Before the reception, be sure to join us for an Artist Talk with Beth Frey on Oct. 10 at 5:15 p.m. in FAB 2-20 (part of the Fall 2024 VADF Speaker Series)

We Made This Mostly at Home with Stuff We Already Had in Our Apartment: Prop Performance and Camp in Contemporary Canadian Video Art

Curated by Chloë Lum & Yannick Desranleau

Featuring works by:

Maya Ben David; Mike Bourschied; Edith Brunette François Lemieux; Océane Buxton & Salesforce Child; Marissa Sean Cruz; Rah Eleh; Erica Eyres; Beth Frey; Séamus Gallagher; Geneviève Matthieu; Lenore Claire Herrem; Marisa Hoicka; Mathieu Lacroix; Amy Lockhart; Elizabeth Milton; Bridget Moser; Sin Wai Kin

About the exhibition:

We live our lives and experience the world through materials, objects, things—in return, these things are how we construct and affirm ourselves; we choose them because their properties help us interface with and navigate the world. From the associations we make with these objects and what we read as their anthropomorphic “behaviors”, meanings erupt, turning our relationship with the thing as one that is simultaneously extremely personal and highly political.

The works chosen for this exhibition show how, through their manipulation and display, objects are by default imbued with an innate theatricality. In the performances enacted onscreen, they take the role of “props”—a simple tool or vehicle enhancing a given gesture—or they populate the environment in which the performance happens, enhancing the dramaturgy to the point of exuberance—qualified as “camp”. This selection of video works surveys a spectrum of approaches, sketching a gamut of expressions possible through the material: from the poetic, through the personal, the zany, and to the political. These artists demonstrate “stuff” as a vehicle to reach a depth in nuance not possible with gestures or text alone.

 

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Second Floor

Knotts and Mending | Madeline Sturm, MFA in Printmaking

October 8 - November 2, 2024

FAB Gallery Second Floor

Reception

Thursday, Oct. 10 2024 | 7-9 p.m. | FAB Gallery
(view the PDF e-vite)

Knotts and Mending

Madeline Sturm, MFA in Printmaking

About the exhibition:

My current intent as an artist is to explore questions of interconnectivity, in hopes that the viewers of my work will feel a sense of connection to greater ecosystems in which we are all intertwined, on a macro and micro scale. These creative explorations have led me to question how the idea of both the human and non-human are framed in a contemporary context, and if this framing results in a simulated separation that limits our sense of ourselves and the world around us.

In exploring these themes, I am reminded of the intricate interconnectedness of all lifeforms and our shared responsibility to safeguard the fragile ecosystems that sustain us. This unique partnership, integrates an ecological approach, which is grounded in moral considerations for both non-human and human dynamics; aiming for balance and equality between these groups. Humans are the arbiters of ethics, having initiated this relationship. We acknowledge non-human nature as autonomous and unpredictable, beyond our control. Yet, our actions heavily influence non-human life, potentially endangering it through activities like pollution, pesticide use, mass development of land. Often, human needs take precedence over the well-being of other life forms. When considering ethical partnerships in environmental contexts, efforts should prioritize meeting essential needs and improving the quality of life for both humans and non-human environments. This requires fostering coexistence rather than domination by either group.

In order to explore these questions I layer imagery from quilts, representing an aerial view of land, both in Alberta and Colorado. Folds in the fabric can be interpreted as valleys and mountains, and the quilts squares are plots of land that have been converted from vast-diverse environments. The family quilt, still tangible like the space it represents, has followed me from both of these locations. These drawings and prints, representations of both the macro and micro aspects of these vast landscapes, when in conjunction, they reveal intricate relationships between non-human and human elements.

About the artist:

Madeline Sturm, born in Durango, Colorado in 1999, earned her BFA from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2022. She is currently pursuing her MFA at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, where she resides. Madeline's work has been exhibited both in the US and internationally, including shows at the Zuckerman Museum of Art in Kennesaw, Georgia; the Wichita Falls Art Museum in Wichita Falls, Texas; the Sacramento Fine Arts Center in Carmichael, California; the Dart Gallery in Denver, Colorado; and BOX 13 Gallery in Houston, Texas.

In addition to her exhibitions, Madeline has participated in over 30 portfolio exchanges across Canada, the United States, Australia, and Mexico. Her work is included in permanent collections such as the Artist Printmaker Research Collection (AP/RC) at the Museum of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, and the University of Colorado Special Collections in Boulder, Colorado. In 2023, Madeline was awarded the Elizabeth Greenshields Grant, which significantly supported her MFA work and research.

Fall 2024 Exhibitions Listings

September 3-21, 2024

October 8 - November 2, 2024

• Reception: Thursday Oct. 10, 7 p.m.
• Main Floor: We Made This Mostly at Home with Stuff We Already Had in Our Apartment: Prop Performance and Camp in Contemporary Canadian Video Art. Curated by Chloë Lum & Yannick Desranleau
• Second Floor: Madeline Sturm, MFA Thesis: Printmaking

November 19 - December 14, 2024

• Reception: Thursday Nov. 21, 7 p.m.
• Both Floors: Darcy Macdonald, MFA Thesis: Intermedia; Tanya Klimp, MFA Thesis: Painting