The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Thesis exhibitions give 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. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting cancellation of the physical thesis exhibitions of the MFA candidates, the Department of Fine Arts and University of Waterloo Art Gallery (UWAG) invite you to explore their exhibitions online.
The second virtual exhibition features the work of Brubey Hu and Kayla Witt and can be experienced online or with the downloadable catalogue (PDF).
Brubey
Hu
I
Have
No
Home
But
Me
I Have No Home But Me explores themes of home and duality through personal narratives embedded in my paintings and artists’ books. A duality that exists within a body, does not necessarily exist as a pair of oppositions. The pair can also be complementary to each other, or live at the same time as coexistence. Employing geometric shapes painted over two panels using masking tape, this visual duality is constructed within diptychs that juxtapose opacity and reflection. The paintings are my attempt to discuss the notions of consensus and reconciliation. The used tapes are collected to serve as the memory of how the paintings are made. In addition, a book of poetry collects my writings expanding the themes of memory, identity, and translation. The combination of paintings and books investigates the evaporation of information and emotion, through the process of translation that I frequently experience as a bilingual woman living in-between places.
Brubey (Wanzhi) Hu is an MFA candidate at the University of Waterloo, and received a Bachelor of Fine Art from Maryland Institute College of Art. She has exhibited at Art Mûr in Montreal, Canada; Hui Yuan in Hefei, China; and Florida International University in Miami, US. In 2018, Brubey participated in BAiR Emerging Visual and Digital Arts Residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. She was awarded a Shantz International Research Scholarship through the University of Waterloo, and worked with Agnes Barley in New York City in the summer of 2019.
Kayla
Witt
Condemned
to
a
Perpetual
Jacuzzi…
With
Millions
of
Your
Best
Friends
Condemned to a Perpetual Jacuzzi… With Millions of Your Best Friends is a multi-media body of work that investigates the personal, the socio-political, and the cultural notions of home. The mind’s vision of home is most often held as an idealized place—the location where meanings and attachments are personal and symbolically intense. Forms of utopian thinking are embedded as the very cornerstone of what the home represents, especially in contemporary media iterations. My work grapples with the lived experience and materiality of the home by redrafting the imagery presented in Interior Design and Architectural magazines. Through collage, painting, performance and video, I subvert the structured and predictable media’s language of desire. At first glance, my work appears “homey”, as the magazine source material is evident, but as details register and accumulate, it becomes apparent that there is a tension between comfort and discomfort in the images. There is disruption and unpredictability in these inaccessible, aspirational spaces. You wouldn’t actually want to live there even though it feels like you might.
Kayla Witt is a MFA candidate at the University of Waterloo, and received a Bachelor of Fine Art from OCAD University. She has exhibited at The Gladstone Hotel, Struts Gallery and Faucet New Media Centre, Critical Distance Centre for Curators, The White House Studio Project, YYZ Artist’s Outlet, Bunker 2, among others. She was awarded the Shantz International Research Scholarship through the University of Waterloo, and worked with Tony Berlant in Los Angeles in summer of 2019. She is also the recipient of the 2020 Sylvia Knight Award in Fine Arts.
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EVERYONE
University
of
Waterloo
Art
Gallery
uwag.uwaterloo.ca
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CONTACT
Ivan
Jurakic,
Director
/
Curator
ijurakic@uwaterloo.ca
HOURS
Gallery
remains
closed
until
further
notice
MAILING
University
of
Waterloo
Art
Gallery
200
University
Avenue
West
Waterloo,
ON,
Canada
N2L
3G1