NUIT BLANCHE EVE

“Cyber-Arcadia ”

Two simultaneous 3D video projections. One focuses on the intersection of art and technology, while the other is a lucid futuristic visual.

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Interdisciplinary artist born in Toronto and raised in Saskatchewan, my work focuses on themes of technology, its unity with nature as well as dissociation and displacement. As a computer science student, I have been able to use my technical skills to merge art and technology, creating an innovative approach to portraying traditional messages. My initial mediums were paint and textiles, but in recent years my work has moved to digital and 3d software programs such as Blender, Adobe Illustrations and Procreate.

Location: Thorvaldson Building, Room 271 (Airplane Room)

Chimerical (“exiting only in the imagination”)

An immersive thematic spectacle, incorporating large-scale illuminated animals and sculptures that form a kind of visual procession into the Murray Building and spilling out into unexpected sites on campus.

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Alison Norlen is an artist whose practice is focused in drawing and sculpture. She has built large scale installations for exhibitions nationally and internationally and participated in the Nuit Blanche in Toronto, Luna Fete in New Orleans, New Orleans Sound Collage, the Powerplant Gallery Gala, Roadside Attraction project in Estevan. Alison and the Advanced Drawing class Fall 2023 will be constructing a large scale three-dimensional spectacle for Nuit Blanche this September.

Location: Murray Building (Drawing Studio)

“Through the Eyes of Emotion“

A series of landscape pieces meant to demonstrate how varying emotions can skew your perception. This project will showcase my interest in understanding emotions and how they influence the way we traverse life.

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Ally Seifert is an undergraduate student at the University of Saskatchewan, majoring in Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences. Ally’s interests have always been multi-faceted, which explains her connection to the art community on campus. Ally works in various mediums, including watercolour, acrylic and oil paint. For more information, feel free to follow me on social media.

Location: Murray Building, Room 291 (Painting Studio)

“The Projection Project”

We learn in school that the angles in a triangle add up to 180 degrees. But this is only true in flat space. It is possible to imagine curved surfaces and spaces where the sum of the angles exceeds 180 degrees or is less than 180 degrees. When the sum is less, we call the space negatively-curved or hyperbolic.

The Projection Project is an animated installation piece that explores how we can visually represent higher-dimensional geometries in hyperbolic space. This piece was made in association with quanTA: the Centre for Quantum Topology and Its Applications at the University of Saskatchewan.

The primary goal of the Projection Project is to showcase to the public the tangibility of quantum science and research, and to increase interest in how these seemingly distant ideas may soon be a relevant part of our everyday technology.

Location: Convocation Hall

“Mining Remediation”

A series of acrylic paintings created around the topic of remediation (clean-up) of abandoned uranium mines in northern Saskatchewan. In this project, I explore the impacts of the past mining practices and the efforts put into mending them today.

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David Sanscartier holds a Ph.D. in environmental engineering. While working as an engineer full-time, he is a part-time Bachelor of Fine Arts student at the University of Saskatchewan. Informed by his engineering background, he examines topics such as sustainability and the environment in his art practice, which spans drawing, sculpture, and painting.

Location: Agriculture Building Atrium

“by the water”

by the water celebrates the remarkable and enduring career of artist Dorothy Knowles. Achieved during a period of artistic production spanning 70 years, Knowles’ prolific oeuvre marks a significant contribution to the history of painting in this province and beyond. The exhibition foregrounds her stylistic range through a comprehensive selection of paintings depicting Saskatchewan landscapes near various bodies of water: lakes, rivers, streams, and ponds.

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Dorothy Knowles (1927-2023) was born in Unity, Saskatchewan and earned a Bachelor of Art from the University of Saskatchewan in 1948 before furthering her studies of art at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 1951.

Location: Kenderdine Art Gallery

“Diatoms”

These single-celled organisms live anywhere on our planet with water or moisture, and they produce a lot of our oxygen through photosynthesis. The biggest diatoms being only about the width of a human hair. Graeme Hopkins has made it easier to imagine them by creating ceramic models magnified by 100,000.

Location: Museum of Natural Sciences

A series of three works done by Community Arts summer camp students aged 5-6 under the direction of Helena Larsen McKay and based on the book “The Imaginary Garden”. Students learnt about colour theory, collaboration, and the joy of artmaking.

Location: Location of Natural Sciences

“Get Off My Beach!”

Like many large herbivores today, it’s not hard to imagine that Triceratops could have had a bit of a temper. Two smaller dinosaurs found out the hard way.

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KT Lindblad is working on an MSc in vertebrate paleontology and is a part-time digital paleoartist.

Location: Location of Natural Sciences

“Distortion”

Projection mapping videos onto a stack of discarded televisions. This projection installation is a thought-provoking reminder of our connection to technology and how we remember the past.

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MEERAH is a graphic designer and artist who explores digital and traditional mediums. Common themes in her art include mental health and integration. She is also a fourth-year student at the University of Saskatchewan pursuing a B.F.A. Honours in Studio Art.

Location: Outside Gordon Snelgrove Gallery

“Fact or Fiction”

Festival goers will get to test their knowledge on museum artifacts and have the chance to win a museum coaster. For the figure drawing session their will be supplied paper, pencils, and clipboards for those who wish to draw sketch’s of the museum’s artifacts.

Location: Museum of Antiquities, Peter MacKinnon Building

“Take a Little Trip”

Take a Little Trip is a series of photo-based gel transfers of iconic people who have passed on and who have inspired Sandra and many with their commitment to expressing themselves as who they are – complex human beings – through their talent, activism and study. Each piece consists of an image developed from multiple frames of a video of the subject in conversation about their practice and life.

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Based in Toronto, Sandra Brewster works in drawing, video, photo-based works, and installation. Her themes focus on identity and representation, and movement in the depiction of gesture resulting in a re-presentation of the portrait.

Location: College Art Galleries, Peter MacKinnon Building

“Transcending the Surface”

Transcending the Surface is comprised of a series of recent paintings by Shelby Lund.

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Shelby Lund, an emerging visual artist based in Saskatoon, Canada. With her artistic process mirroring the fluidity of her paint, Lund’s work is a visual record of her own physicality in relationship to the planetary system we live within.

Location: Gordon Snelgrove Gallery

“VernierVision”

Artificial intelligence (AI) often conjures fear of the replacement of human ingenuity and creativity. The VernierVision exhibit aims to humanize AI and demonstrate the merging of historic artifacts and modern technology. A high resolution camera and an AI model automatically reads the original Vernier Scales on the telescope’s setting circles that have been used by astronomers for decades. Participants will be experience AI in a tangible way within the hallowed surroundings of the historic University of Saskatchewan Observatory.

Thanks to a generous donation to the Harry Tarasoff Memorial Fund, the USask Campus Observatory is undergoing a renovation to automate its operation and add a robotic solar telescope. Once automated, the campus observatory will be added to a global network of observatories called Photon Ranch that will allow young students access to robotic telescopes and self-paced academic resources.

Location: Observatory

“Shapes and Sizes”

A short multi-media film consisting of screen-printed animation stills photographed as stop-motion animation and then digitally composited into 3D models.

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Vince Aranda is a Canadian illustrator and animator working with digital mediums while also working with traditional mediums such as screen printing. He would take the most interest in screen printing as it helped transform his digital works into a physical medium. His works would consist of character creation and design. Throughout his childhood, he would be surrounded by animated films and video games, which would influence his passion for animation and illustration as a tool for short storytelling and world-building.

Location: Murray Building, Room 299