Euphrates Storyteller - Aboud Salman

May 27 - July 30, 2023
McMullen Gallery
112 St Entrance, UofA Hospital, 8440-112 St.

Euphrates Storyteller explores the life and experiences of Aboud Salman as a refugee artist. It tells the artist’s tale of displacement, from his struggles and experiences amidst political turmoil and war in his home city of Al Mayadin, Syria, to his quest for peace miles away in Canada. Through a series of drawings, paintings, videos, and fabrics, the exhibition showcases a body of work that is both a personal portrayal of the artist’s life, and simultaneously a visual exploration of traditional Syrian folk art and it’s cultural and historical symbols.

“My paintings are a reflection and commentary of my experiences and the life and environments that surround me. I express in them my Syrian Bedouin cultural roots, the people I have encountered, events I have witnessed and lived through, and my thoughts and impressions of other cultural influences and art as I travel my life’s journey through time and space. My paintings are a window for everything that I think and live.

A core focus in my paintings is the customs and traditions of people in their human heritage, especially the specificity of the beauty of life and love within these. Syrian folk art and the symbols and colours from my original home by the Euphrates River provide the roots and deep nourishment of my artistic expression. The use of my colours and drawing often incorporates the symbol of life, fertility, giving, and creativity. Sadly, they also derive from experiences of pain, suffering, and loss when I express the daily realities of people living with war, oppression, struggles as refugees, and establishing a new life in new cultural surroundings.

I aim to express the truth of humanity, place, and history in my artworks.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Aboud Salman’s career as a painter, plastic artist, educator, and writer has spanned more than three decades. Aboud has exhibited his art in 15 countries across Europe and the Middle East. He had a successful studio in his hometown Al Mayadin, Syria, where he lived with his wife Soaad and four sons and taught art to high school students. Soon after the Syria war started ISIS took control of his town. Aboud’s studio was bombed and much of his art destroyed. He also received death threats and in 2012 was forced to leave his family, town, country, and art behind.

On November 23, 2017 Aboud and his family arrived as refugees in Edmonton. Since his arrival in Edmonton, Aboud has been working to re-establish himself as a professional artist.

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Documentary Film - Journey from Syria to Canada (28 mins)

Lost World - Gloria Mok

 “Over the years, I have collected beautifully illustrated books of natural history that have sat neglected on my shelves. During the process of moving, I took a fresh look at these minutely observed illustrations of birds, insects and plants, the work of different artists, many of them unknown, from Europe and Asia. While downsizing, I also came across objects I collected in the past, such as pieces of coral, shells, leaves damaged by insects, and other natural curiosities. However modest the origin of these objects - a beach, a garden, a park - each one is unique and original. I felt that these diverse elements would create an art project that celebrates the beauty in nature. As I was admiring these illustrations and objects, I felt an acute sense of the loss of our relationship with the natural world in contemporary society. The physical act of cutting out each flower and bird somehow re-connected me to nature. The idea of using cigar boxes reminds me of a treasure box... a world within a box, a lost world. I hope this work will inspire viewers to appreciate the wonder of our natural world, whether it is in our backyard or in the wilderness.”

 -Gloria Mok

Gloria Mok’s interest in scientific subject matter and her focus on experimentation have led to a fascinating body of work. Her art education included part time studies in painting at the University of Alberta, and art residencies at Emma Lake, Prairie North, and the Banff Centre. Mok has exhibited at the Art Gallery of Alberta (2018, 2002), Scott Gallery (2019,2017), Nickel Gallery (2014), and Esplanade Gallery (2012). Mok’s works are in the collection of Alberta Foundation for The Arts, University of Alberta Hospital, City of St. Albert, and Art Gallery of Alberta.

Born in Hong Kong, Mok was educated in science and medicine. Her interest in art began when she was a family physician and director of a six-physician clinic in west Edmonton. Mok was active in Edmonton West Primary Care Network committees of chronic disease and information technology management and was a leader in computerized medical records. She received an innovation grant from Alberta Health Services in 2013 for producing an educational video titled “How to prepare for your doctor visit”. Mok taught medical students and family practice residents in clinical practice for many years.

Refusal to Yield - Monique Martin and Clint Wilson

McMullen Gallery
January 7 - March 5, 2023

Artists Monique Martin and Clint Wilson share a veneration for the power and complexity of nature. Their work contemplates the beauty and sophistication of biological systems (adaptation, mutation, reproduction), which compel living organisms to thrive, however patiently. Amidst this sense of wonder, there are warning signs in their work. Refusal to Yield invites you to slow down and appreciate the delicate and awe-inspiring details of our natural world while considering the precarious balance faced by all living organisms on our planet.

Despite all that is going on in our communities and across the globe, and the challenges that are upon us, we must take time to celebrate and learn from that which continues to thrive.

Monique Martin

“The dandelion is a symbol of resilience and survival. It is disregarded, pulled up tossed away, poisoned; yet it refuses and continues to thrive. The dandelion can be a symbol for healing from emotional pain, physical injury and surviving through all life’s challenges and difficulties. Since the dandelion can thrive in difficult conditions, it is no wonder that people say the flower symbolizes the ability to rise above adversity. Most modern admirers consider it a symbol of fighting through the challenges of life and emerging victorious on the other side. Others use it as a visual reminder of the sun’s power, especially when depression or grief makes it hard to stay sunny. The dandelion flower’s message is to not give up, even if those around you keep trying to get rid of you; stick it out and remember the cheerfulness of a sunny summer’s day when things seem bleak or dark.”

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Clint Wilson

The work in this exhibition arose from Wilson’s immersion in the mixed growth forests of the Kunxalas Conservancy on Moresby Island, Haida Gwaii. “There I found new and old growth living side by side - large truncated and rotting feet of centuries old Red Cedar and Sitka Spruce lay crowned by young saplings - and a myriad of fungi decomposing and recomposing the floor beneath me. Intensely irreverent, these new sprouts displayed a remarkable disregard for entropic processes, and I marveled at their resilience. …As my thoughts wandered between clouds and chlorophyll, William Morris’s naïve botanical patterns emerged before me, reaching skyward from the forest floor. His Strawberry Thieves and Sunflowers intertwined upon the new growth as beautifully articulated graffiti, and I then saw too that the skies from this century were complex and vibrant in their hues as well.”

Nervous Systems - Marnie Blair

October 11 - December 4, 2022

Marnie Blair is an artist, patient, and educator. Blair’s work is informed by her experience of surviving cardiac arrest and having Long Q T Syndrome, a condition that affects the heart’s electrical system. She relies on an implanted cardioverter defibrillator to regulate heart rhythms and prevent SCA. 

Through her artwork, Blair explores the intersections between fragility and resilience; the biological and the artificial; private and public; decay and resuscitation; and the body and architecture.  She is particularly interested in how one’s sense of embodiment and identity become profoundly affected by illness, diagnosis, and recovery. By fusing traditional print media with new technologies, her work examines the human body as seen through the lens of medicine and science.

“My prints and painted woodcuts interrogate what it means to be dependent upon a mechanical device for survival, to inhabit a cyborg-like existence as part human/part machine. These questions are not only personally relevant but can also be applied to the current transformation of human existence due to our increasing reliance upon many different types of technologies.

My own experience represents the specific and direct physical relationship that exists between ICD and the electrical activity of the heart. I employ computer-operated carving machines to carve woodcuts, which are then hand printed or painted. This reliance on technology references our own increasing dependence on technology and its impact on our daily life. This way of working also addresses the ways that identity can be enhanced or infringed upon by technologies, architectural structures, and institutions.”

Gut Feeling: Mesentery Silver Linings, 2022, Acrylic on Woodcut