The School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (SPAO) will open four concurrent exhibitions this afternoon, celebrating the culmination of the eighth year the school has been open.
Exhibition No. 8, the annual portfolio survey, showcases the work of twelve senior students who have recently completed their second year of study: Sarah Anderson, Dante Penman, Matthew Bula, Reena Kokotailo, Angela Walker, Treawna Harvey, Jessie Park-Wheeler, Stephanie Masters, Valérie Mercier, Zachary Pantalone, Blair Smith and Jenifer Szadkowski.
Ranging both in process (from traditional silver prints, alternative printing techniques and for the first time digital SLR video work) and in subject matter (self-expression and identity, formalism and fantasy, nature morte and quotidian life in a small southern town), Exhibition No. 8 is a project curated almost entirely by the students, allowing them the opportunity to fully conceptualize their work within a gallery setting. A series of artist talks will occur over the weekend, allowing the public to engage directly with each photographer and their respective process.
Two smaller exhibitions by first and third year students further highlight the breadth of work that was produced at SPAO over the past year – from haunting studies in portraiture to explorations of the under-appreciated architectural spaces in which public events unfold.
The rigor of craft and content that we have come to associate with SPAO is ever-present in this trio of exhibitions. The “SPAO Look”, a label that may have, at one time, been shied away from for its homogenizing connotations, has here been fully embraced as a mark of distinction for the staff and students.
Interestingly, Framed: In and Around the Photograph (in the Red Wall Gallery), presents a striking contrast to the classically conceptualized portfolio shows. Here, students in their second year have been challenged to explode all framing devices – whether it is the lens through which they look, the method they use for display, or the subject they focus on – in an attempt to broaden their, as well as our, experience of what photography can be.
In its nascent stages of installation when I visited Wednesday, photo-collaged silhouettes, images mounted on vinyl records, hand-held mirrors and vintage hard-cover books, as well as still-life studies that take museum conventions as their subject matter, were laid out along the gallery wall, awaiting what Assistant Director Randy Innes described as his take on a salon-style installation. While this theme is not something overly novel in the world of contemporary art, the photographers have embraced it whole-heartedly, presenting us with diverse approaches to the experiment, the results of which are sure to engage visitors over the coming week.
All four exhibitions open at 3pm this afternoon and will be on view until April 26 at the School of Photographic Arts: Ottawa (168 Dalhousie Street).
Senior Portfolio students will be giving artist talks at SPAO on Saturday April 20, Sunday April 21 and Tuesday April 23, all beginning at 1pm.
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