Alumni Success Stories

Gabrielle Strong ('15) is the 2015 CERAM-AiR Artist-in-Residence at the Ceatani Centre in Vernon, BC. The Caetani Centre and the Arts Council of North Okanagan partner to present this residency. The residency invites ceramic and interdisciplinary artists to explore, develop and express thier creative voices by providing time and space for artists to pursue their work. Artists are encouraged to expand their understanding of ceramics and other mediums throughout the residency.

Created in 2002 by the Sobey Art Foundation, the Sobey Art Award is Canada’s preeminent award for contemporary Canadian art. The annual $50,000 prize is given to an artist under 40 who has exhibited in a public or commercial art gallery within 18 months of being nominated.

The 2015 Shortlist, announced June 3, 2015, includes alumnus Raymond Boisjoly ('06), representing the West Coast and the Yukon. Raymond is an Indigenous artist of Haida and Quebecois descent from Chilliwack, BC. He has previously taught at Emily Carr as sessional faculty and we're pleased to announce he will join us August 1 as Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Visual Art and Material Practice, Audain School of Visual Arts.

Gabriella Solti’s (’11) artist’s book, The Book of Hours, was awarded the MCBA Prize 2015 Juror's Special Recognition of Merit Award. The book will be exhibited at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts from July 17 to August 3, 2015 alongside with the other honoured works.  

The Book of Hours is a unique, 120 page codex that expresses the artist’s personal values relating to labour. The pages of the books are hand sanded chromium oxide and silicon carbide microfinishing films - surfaces that are extremely hard to erase -, interwoven with hand coloured frosted mylar and meticulously bound into a codex.  

Working in both collage and sculpture, Elizabeth Zvonar’s ('01) work utilizes strategies of aesthetic seduction and sex often found in advertising as a means of teasing out a possible metaphysical or supernatural undercurrent. THE CHALLENGE OF ABSTRACTION draws on advertising imagery found in luxury good magazines from an earlier era and fuses it with that found in contemporary fashion magazines. Zvonar’s positioning and iconization of the subject highlights their ability to act as the sacred.

Burrard Arts Foundation is pleased to present recent works by artist-in-residence Sean Mills ('10). Vancouver based artist Sean Mills’ recent practice has seen him meticulously exploring the materiality of paint to test the boundaries of its objectmaking potential. Having graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art & Design in 2010, Mills has been methodically experimenting with the laborious accumulation and layering of material to create sculptures, three-dimensional paintings and works on unconventional surfaces that examine light, space, and time. Occasionally paralleling the concerns of institutional critique, his laborious work addresses ideas of transparency in both a literal and figurative sense.

Alumna Janice Kerbel ('94) has been nominated for the 2015 Turner Prize for her nine part operatic performance work, DOUG, originally commissioned by the Common Guild.

The Turner Prize is awarded to a British artist under 50 for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the preceding year. The 2015 Turner Prize exhibition preview will take place September 30, 2015 at Tramway, Glasgow with a final Award Ceremony held on December 7, 2015.

Created in 2002 by the Sobey Art Foundation, the Sobey Art Award is Canada’s preeminent award for contemporary Canadian art. The annual $50,000 prize is given to an artist under 40 who has exhibited in a public or commercial art gallery within 18 months of being nominated.

The 2015 Longlist includes the following Emily Carr alumni:

West Coast
Fiona Ackerman ('02)
Sonny Assu ('02)
Raymond Boisjoly ('06)
Tiziana La Melia ('08)
Jeremy Shaw ('99)

Prairies and the North
Cedric Bomford ('03)
Kara Uzelman ('04)

Heather Caldwell ('12) will be exhibiting her paintings at Duthie Gallery on Salt Spring Island. These works are inspired by her five years of living in France, where she painted and exhibited as well as taught. Her paintings of Provence perfectly capture her deep appreciation of the abiding beauty of the French countryside.

The exhibit runs from May 2 to June 4, 2015, with an opening reception taking place with the artist on Saturday, May 2, 2015, from 5 to 7pm.

The Howe Sound region of British Columbia is experiencing a remarkable ecological rebirth.  Marine life is returning after decades of low numbers. This recovery is an incredible and all too rare good news story – not just for the residents of the Sound or the urban and tourist centres around it, but also for marine scientists worldwide who want to know more about the dynamics of marine recovery.

Vancouver Art Gallery Presents BC's Most Prestigious Visual Arts Prizes on April 16, 2015

Audain Prize: Michael Morris ('65)
VIVA Award: Elizabeth Zvonar ('01)