Opening reception: Thursday May 16, 5:00–8:00 pm
The Department of Fine Arts and UWAG present the second thesis exhibitions by Master of Fine Arts (MFA) candidates from the graduate program in Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo. MFA Thesis gives the campus and community-at-large an opportunity to see the end result of two years of intensive research and studio production by emerging visual artists. The exhibition runs form May16 to June 1.
Ashley Beerdat
Becoming the Poem
Becoming the Poem is an installation of landscape paintings that consider my relationship to nature and how to foster hope living in an ecological crisis. As a first-generation diasporic artist of Guyanese descent, I engage with speculative imagination, by exploring the flora and fauna of the region that my parents are from in West Coast Demerara near the Amazon rainforest, along with my present geographic location. Through material driven processes, I embed myself in highly intuitive, sensory-based working methodologies that mimic the evolutionary path of nature. The outcome, an accumulation of deep time materialized through my body and the paint, collapses past and future representations of natural formations, presenting nature’s resilience and how it can rise above ecological disaster.
Ashley Beerdat is a painter, muralist and arts educator based in the GTA. She has a BA in Studio Art and Art History from Western University and is currently completing her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo. Her work is held in the City of Mississauga’s permanent corporate art collection and has been exhibited at the Small Arms Inspection Building, Latitude 53, the Artist Project, and Withrow Common Gallery. Artist’s Instagram
Ashley Beerdat, "The Moon Was Her Sun and The Sun Was Her Moon" (detail), 2024, acrylic paint, chalk and oil pastel on canvas. Photo: courtesy of the artist.
Charlie Star
In The Mix
In The Mix is an interdisciplinary exhibition that explores music of the Black diaspora. Through a site-specific, interactive installation that combines sound, music, collage, personal family photographs and archives, disc-jockeying, and experimental turntablism, representations of Black identity are explored and reimagined. Participating in remix culture, the use of both audio and visual samples from existing works are appropriated to create new works. In reimagining existing materials and incorporating personal experiences, the exhibition seeks to promote a more nuanced and varied understanding of the complexities of Black identity and diaspora. Astrology is further incorporated as a framework to analyze unseen elements behind musical releases, as well as to create sonic compositions that evoke ideas of time and space. The exhibition is brought together in a lounge-like environment that merges two series: the Afrosonic Listening Lounge and Astral Records.
There will be a live remix sound set in the gallery on opening night at 6:30 pm, and another on June 1 at 2 pm.
Charlie Star is a multidisciplinary artist who draws inspiration from her unique experiences and perspectives as a biracial French-Canadian-Afro-Caribbean woman. Recently, she has exhibited with the Student Art Innovation Lab at the 2023 Lumen Festival and led collage workshops at the Art Gallery of Burlington. Both her academic and studio practice have been recognized by the Social Sciences and Research Council (SSHRC) and with the Sylvia Knight award. Artist’s Website
Charlie Star, "Afrosonic Listening Lounge" (detail), 2024, mixed media wall installation. Photo: courtesy of the artist.