Celebrate 5 grads with our Grad Showcase 2023

Join us for Show + Sale's second annual Grad Showcase from June 6, 2023 - July 4, 2023 here at www.showandsale.ca and in person at cSpace Marda Loop! This summer you will have one last chance to purchase artwork from 5 AUArts graduates before they head into the art world beyond school. Come see their art in person at the cSpace Creative Hub (4th floor) and then purchase online to support their careers. Admission to the show is FREE. Read on to learn more!

See the Grad Showcase in person

CSPACE Marda Loop - get directions

1721 29 Ave SW Suite #125, Calgary, AB T2T 6T7 

You can find the Grad Showcase at the 4th floor Creative Hub at cSpace Marda Loop. Admission is FREE and the exhibition will be open Monday through Saturday from 8am-8pm.

How to purchase artwork at the show

Want to purchase the artwork at the show? Scan the QR codes attached to the artwork to purchase them online at www.showandsale.ca. We also have a limited selection of artwork from our graduating students available online.

All purchases made during the Grad Showcase will be available for pick up from the AUArts Bookstore after July 4, 2023Special thanks to cSpace Marda Loop for generously donating exhibition space for our students and RBC Future Launch for funding this event.

Design Graduate: Sam Saloff

Sam Saloff is a 4th-year Illustration and Character Design major with a love for comics and animation. Having grown up in Alberta with a background in traditional painting, they enjoy creating worlds and environments inspired by places close to home. Monsters, magic, and odd little creatures make frequent appearances in their work, including their 2022 short film Progenitor that recently featured in the GIRAF Festival of Animation. They hope that their stickers and prints will help bring joy for the whimsical parts of life! 

Instagram Account: @samsaloff

Website/Portfolio: samsaloff.myportfolio.com

 

Fine Art Graduate: Vivian Smith

I am a multi-disciplinary artist completing my final year at Alberta University of the Arts. Through the ceramic portion of my practice, I slow down and connect with the world around me. Clay is unpredictable and a great teacher of patience and acceptance. It can take many weeks to transform a humble mound of clay into a beautiful object for the home. No two pieces are the same. Each bowl, cup, or plate reflects my artistic vision and also elements that I cannot control such as subtle shape and colour variations. This makes each piece unique and personal. 

Instagram Account: @viviansmith.art

 

Craft Graduate: Portia Scabar - Soul Bloom Arts

Portia is an emerging artist, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Glass at the Alberta University of the Arts. She is an interdisciplinary artist who works with many mediums and material processes, including blown and fused glass, flameworking, cyanotype, linoleum and block printing, freeform embroidery, sewing, ceramics, and mixed media. 

The connection between people, relationships, and memories expands across our lives, an intertwined system of roots reaching out and embracing. Portia creates abstract representations of these connections through her work by collaborating with materials rather than forcing them into certain shapes. The way that she approaches materials and artwork stems from neurodivergence, from softness and care for others; which in turn leads to a mix of soft sensory-friendly work and glass work that pushes the bounds of what glass is comfortable doing. Many of her works you will see use roots as a motif for connection, at times these will be direct visual representations and others will be more indirect speaking to the wall these connections are often hidden behind. Her functional work is created with the utmost care and of the highest standard. This production line features swirling colours dancing on glass bowls and vases and tote bags made from recycled fabrics, whether for home décor, eating, or everyday use, each piece is unlike the next in its own unique ways. Many of Portia’s works are made from recycled materials, keep an eye out for green imagery on tags to know if the item you are looking at is ecofriendly.  

Instagram Account: @soulbloomarts

 

Fine Arts Graduate: Erin Mavis Murphy

My work is in relation to 1960’s optical art and geometric abstraction; perception, stimulation, and illusion are created through pattern, shapes and colour theory. These works are used as a way produce psychological experiences and responses and communicate visual phenomena. These experiences may include hallucinations, vibrations, dizziness, disorientation, headache and vertigo. Thus, creating an interaction between the viewer and the piece itself. In my work specifically, I enjoy creating haziness, “flickers” and vibrations by using colours that have a high contrast with one another, whether that being in brightness of the colour, or by using complimentary colours. 

Instagram Account: @erinmavisart

 

Fine Arts Graduate: Elise Lavallee Findlay

My work is primarily focused on landscape, the large views and the small details that evoke connection to place. I rely on memory, emotion, and knowledge to depict places that are both specific in their representation of an actual location, and general, in that, the landscapes are built from imagined and remembered routes of travel. My inspiration as an artist and as a person comes always from place, from the people, the flora, and fauna, who call it home and from a deep love of the land. I am happiest in more natural environments in the mountains and on the lakes and rivers and aim in my work to inspire connection to, and accountability for, the ecosystems we are a part of. I employ different mediums and different scales ranging from smaller watercolour and ink drawings to large acrylic pieces on cradled birch panels. Layering linework, shading, and colour, my work projects an internal understanding of an external location. I try always in my practice to depict a connection and a shared attachment to place rather than an idealized version of a space. This idea of making a place real through experience is essential to my work. I find in place, community, connection, and belonging that is both fixed in its solidity and flexible in its cycles of change. 

Instagram Account: @BanffStudios

Website/Portfolio: elisefindlay

 

Congratulations again to all of our AUArts graduates of 2023 and we hope to see you at cSpace Marda Loop to celebrate our 5 featured grads this summer.

 


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