PORTAL/PORTAGE a collaboration I am curating between four artists who are known to one another, and who are each currently exploring in our work, humans as part of nature. PORTAL/PORTAGE combines my own work in photo based video installations; Claudia Medina-Culos video installations and sound-scapes; Liliana Kleiner video work drawing on her photography, painting, and mixed media work; and Diane Tanchak abstract-realist style paintings. Each artist explores the nuance of location and the universality of story, while negotiating our bi-national, or tri-national cultural identities and/or art practices, in places we each understand as home. These are the stories we collect, create, and carry from LAN (Local Area Network – an internet term) to LAND, to LANGUAGE; or images as a language bypassing spoken language all together.
I are currently submitting the work to places we call home West Coast – Canada, New York - USA, Jerusalem -Israel/Palestine, Mexico, Aotearoa/New Zealand. This will also mean some or all of the artists will be available in each location for installation and to be present for the exhibition. This provides the option of adding components in each location, to make it a unique local experience, for example inviting local artists we know to exhibit also. In the essence of creating an eco-friendly exhibition, a primarily digital based work makes for ease of shipping and installation around the globe.
UPDATE: Our first confirmed show is for August 3 - 28, 2011, with the Sunshine Coast Arts Council, Doris Crowston Gallery, 5714 Medusa St, Sechelt, BC, Canada. Reception August 3 2011, 7pm to 9pm. Wheelchair accessible.
ART WORKS
Claudia Medina-Culos
A multimedia exploration of how humans connect or disconnect with the natural world through the imagery we see and create. With the participation of the local community of Powell River, BC, Canada this installation aims to create a focused space for reflection on how our senses interact with the natural world.
Liliana Kleiner
LUMINOZA INANNA is the first in a series of 8 videos, a collaboration of IMAGE and MUSIC, based on the ancient Sumerian myth of the Goddess Inanna. Luminosa Inanna is the first in the series: "The 8 Doors of Inanna" an ongoing public art piece collaboration between Liliana and Gabriela, at La Duna Ecology Center, Southern Baja California peninsula, La Paz, Mexico
Diane Tanchak
A Dream of Trees is a series of paintings in a hybrid abstract-realist style. Contrasting the darkness – night and winter in urban New York, and the light of Pacific West coast – arbutus, cedar trees, - cycle of life and rebirth each promise.
Meg Torwl Matching ambient music - featuring the sounds of water, chimes; with mind relaxing visuals – colors, water, fish, flowers; Meg Torwl's computer installations traverse the south pacific and Pacific North west shorelines and waterways.
ARTISTS
CLAUDIA MEDINA-CULOS
Claudia Medina-Culos, of Mexican, and Italian ancestry, grew up in the small mill town of Powell River BC, Canada. Eleven years ago Claudia Medina began her career as a filmmaker working with acclaimed Canadian director Nettie Wild on her feature documentary "A Place Called Chiapas" Since then she has worked alongside a number of respected Canadian filmmakers as an editor, production coordinator, field producer and shooter. Most recently she worked alongside director Velcrow Ripper as he was shooting his latest award winning feature documentary, "Fierce Light", filmed in several countries, including Aotearoa/New Zealand. Claudia has been the recipient of numerous awards from the Canada Council of the Arts for her short dramatic films she has written, produ
ced and directed – such as, Entre el Medio, Si Muero Lejos de Ti, and Finding Lloronna. For the past two years she has also been collaborating with artists of different disciplines to create visual projections for performances, and live vj-ing for electronic musicians throughout Canada and in Barcelona. She also develops and implements curriculum for workshops that combine community development and conflict resolution through filmmaking to diverse groups nationally and internationally. Claudia is currently living in Barcelona, where she is completing a masters in Visual Culture as well as developing a feature documentary project about alternative economics called Growing Growing Gone. She has completed the production of her latest fiction film, "Animal Blessings" in the Friuli region of Italy and a video installation series On the Trail: Nature Inside and Out.
LILIANA KLEINER
Liliana Kleiner, of Jewish ancestry, was born and raised in Buenos Aires Argentina, completed her schooling in Israel - a B.A in Fine Art and PhD in psychology, specializing in Dream Analysis. She has been based in Canada - Montreal and the Pacific coast, for the past 30 years, on Galiano Island for the past 10 years. In Argentina she learnt the art of painting in oils in the tradition of the old European masters. She works with painting, drawing, printmaking, hand made paper from organic materials, collage, artist's books, public art, film, performance art, and dance. Works include independent short art films - "Lilith and the Tree " 1993, (16mm, - shown in festivals around the world) and "Las 8 puertas de Inanna " ( "the 8 Doors of Inanna") or Luminosa Inanna, a collaboration with musicians in La Paz, mexico. Based on the Sumerian myth of Inanna. Recent works and exhibitions include The song of Lilith, and Song of Songs. Her work seamlessly combines, photography, painting, mixed media, and video. Since 1995 she has channeled all her creativity into visual arts coming back full circle to her first love - the art of oil painting, with a focus on west coast nature – arbutus trees, rocks, seals, birds, and traditional Mexican mythology. Liliana's paintings have been shown in numerous exhibitions throughout Canada and are in private collections in Canada, Israel, Argentina and the United States.
DIANE TANCHAK
Diane Tanchak of Ukranian ancestry, grew up in Buffalo, NY. Her interest in drawing and painting began in early childhood. She moved to New York City to study with artist Nell Blaine, receiving a scholarship to Southern Illinois University where she completed an MFA in drawing. She has worked as a muralist, graphic artist, illustrator, and pursued her own vision in drawing and painting urban and rural landscapes in a hybrid abstract-realist style. She has had many exhibitions in New York in group and solos shows. She is currently drawn in her work to the darkness – night and winter in urban New York, and the light of Pacific West coast – arbutus, cedar trees, - cycle of life and rebirth each promise.
MEG TORWL
Meg Torwl, of Celtic ancestry, grew up rurally in Aoteroa/New Zealand, surrounded by the sights and sounds of the south pacific and has been residing in the Pacific Northwest for the past decade - creating work in and from both locales. Meg Torwl is an interdisciplinary artist, working in New Media, Video, Radio,Writing/Performance, and Arts Administration. Her work has been screened, broadcast, exhibited,published, and performed in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Canada, USA, UK. She has produced 4 new media projects; and 4 documentaries, which are distributed by Video Out. She has worked in radio, producing and presenting 50 half hour programs for Radio New Zealand National, including 16 with an arts focus. She was commissioned by Balancing Acts 09 to create and perform a solo interdisciplinary show with spoken word, poetry, new media, video, slides, and audio soundscape. Her writing and performance examine identity across communities; her documentaries consider intersecting political issues; her new media installations offer an opportunity to empty the mind. She received her training in media through VIVO media arts centre in 2000, and a BC Film associate producers internship 2002. She has also worked for the NFB and CBC. She has been a curator of visual and video art, in all her work she specializes in bringing diverse communities together.
