Art students show their stuff at final exhibition

By Robert Winters

An oil painting by graduating Fine Arts student Marie-Christine Lachance was a highlight of the third annual Graduating Students Exhibition at the VAV Gallery in June, which presented work by 30 artists.

Marie-Christine’s piece was selected for the annual purchase by the Concordia University Alumni Association, which picks one piece to buy from this show each spring.

John Aylen, president of the CUAA, said the purchase program is a way of highlighting the Faculty of Fine Arts, “which is one of Concordia’s acknowledged strengths.”

Building collection

With the purchase program, Aylen said, “we are doing more than supporting student work — we are profiting from our connection to the university and building a collection that over the years is sure to include the early works of celebrated artists.”

As for Marie-Christine, who graduated in Studio Arts, she said she uses painting “as a way to portray feelings that can’t be described otherwise.”

The work presented at the VAV show, whose working title is Child Players in an Adult Game, “represents different expressions that are the purest, because they are coming from children.”

As for Marie-Christine’s artistic background, she said she has been painting and drawing “as much as possible my whole life.”

After studying at Dawson College in Illustration and Design, Marie-Christine had what she describes as “a short five-year career in graphic design and illustration.”

In this period, she designed CD covers, children’s books, toys and various types of packaging. Then she decided “to escape the world of computers,” leading to her decision to return to school and do a Studio Arts degree.

One of the organizers of the show, Tricia Middleton, the Faculty of Fine Arts’ new Student Life Coordinator, said the VAV show “was incredibly broad in concern and execution.”

Middleton, who completed a Master’s in Fine Arts at Concordia, said exhibition curators Carla Benzan and Michelle Lacombe of the VAV Gallery “did an excellent job of curating a very textured exhibition from an excitingly diverse cross-selection of works, which was really great and fun to see.”

Honor Robertson, a member of the CUAA board and a member of the Fine Arts Chapter committee, helped select Marie-Christine’s piece for the association’s purchase, along with association president Aylen.

Robertson said she found the subject matter of the work intriguing.

“It pulls us in; we wonder if the artist is making a statement or telling us something about ourselves,” Robertson said.