NIC and Emily Carr University are pleased to bring internationally known artists Jeroen Witvliet and Neil McClelland to North Island College’s Comox Valley campus Tuesday, February 28, starting at 12 pm. The talk was originally scheduled for Feb. 7 but was moved due to the weather.
The artists kick off NIC’s Winter 2017 Artist Talk Series, presented by North Island College’s School of Art and Design and Emily Carr University of Art and Design.
“This is an opportunity for the public to hear directly from artists about their creative process and their work,” said Sara Vipond, an instructor and artist at NIC. “Since both of them are part of an exhibit at the Comox Valley Art Gallery, it’s also a great way to hear directly from artists active in our community.”
Jeroen Witvliet is a Netherlands-born artist who has had numerous solo and group exhibitions at artist-run, commercial and public galleries in Europe and North America. He received his BFA from the Willem de Kooning Academie, Rotterdam, studied at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and received his MFA from UVic.
Neil McClelland’s work has appeared in artist-run, public and commercial galleries across Canada. He received the prestigious Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant in 2016.
Originally from Quebec, McClelland was the 2010 artist-in-residence at Harcourt House and an active member of the Edmonton art community for many years. He teaches at Vancouver Island School of Art and at UVic, in Victoria, where he lives today.
“I take imagery and inspiration from literature and film, along with art historical, historical, contemporary and personal sources,” said McClelland. “Drawing on an array of source material, I create combinations and layers of digitally edited compositions that form the basis for beginning a painting in oil. Using the qualities and possibilities of paint, I seek to convey a visceral sense of place and time to suggest what is simultaneously familiar but strange. I see my painting process as a form of inquiry in which I am attempting to grasp and create a sense of the utopic and dystopic contradictions that pervade our lives.”
Witvliet and McClelland’s large-scale paintings and work makes up the Comox Valley Art Gallery’s Extracting Narratives exhibit, which runs until February 25. The exhibit also includes Source Material, a collection of images and objects by NIC / Emily Carr University of Art and Design students and alumni.
The Winter 2017 Artist Talk Series takes place in the Stan Hagen Theatre at NIC’s Comox Valley campus. Admission is free and everyone is welcome. Upcoming artists in the series include Sonny Assu (March 7), Vida Simon and Jack Stanley (March 14) and Rita Mckeough (March 21).
For more information, visit www.nic.bc.ca.
Photo caption:
Neil McClelland, In Marvelous Captivity Hear internationally known artists Neil McClelland and Jeroen Witvliet on Tuesday Feb. 28, starting at 12 noon as part of NIC’s Winter 2017 Artist Talk Lecture Series.
Media Contact
Christiana Wiens
Media Liaison, North Island College
O. 250-334-5280 | M. 250-218-4097
christiana.wiens@nic.bc.ca
