kelsey stephenson flux
Vernon Public Art Gallery July 23 - September 30, 2020
Vernon Public Art Gallery 3228 - 31st Avenue, Vernon BC, V1T 2H3 www.vernonpublicartgallery.com 250.545.3173
Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Vernon Public Art Gallery 3228 - 31st Avenue, Vernon, British Columbia, V1T 2H3, Canada July 23 - September 30, 2020 Production: Vernon Public Art Gallery Editor: Lubos Culen Layout and graphic design: Vernon Public Art Gallery Copy editing: Kelsie Balehowsky Cover image: flux, 2020, 27 pongee silk panels, silkscreen, drawing, monotype elements, dowels, each 45 x 108 inches Photo credit: Yuri Akuney - Digital Perfections Printing: Get Colour Copies, Vernon, British Columbia, Canada ISBN 978-1-927407-56-1 Copyright Š 2020 Vernon Public Art Gallery All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the Vernon Public Art Gallery. Requests for permission to use these images should be addressed in writing to the Vernon Public Art Gallery, 3228 31st Avenue, Vernon BC, V1T 2H3, Canada. Telephone: 250.545.3173 Facsimile: 250.545.9096 Website: www.vernonpublicartgallery.com The Vernon Public Art Gallery is a registered not-for-profit society. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee/RDNO, the Province of BC’s Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch, British Columbia Arts Council, the Government of Canada, corporate donors, sponsors, general donations and memberships. Charitable Organization # 108113358RR.
This exhibition is sponsored in part by:
table of CONTENTS
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Executive Director’s Foreword · Dauna Kennedy
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Introduction · Lubos Culen
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Beyond the Blue Marble: The Ecstatic Landscapes of Kelsey Stephenson’s flux ·
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Exhibition Statement · Kelsey Stephenson
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flux · Images of the Installation at the Vernon Public Art Gallery
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Selected Biography · Kelsey Stephenson
Stephanie Bailey and Dan Harvey
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Executive Director’s Foreword
A print-based artist and educator based in Edmonton, Alberta, Kelsey Stephenson’s recent work which is now being presented at the Vernon Public Art Gallery as a site-specific installation enables viewers to engage through its immersive layout. Using site, sound and movement, Stephenson attempts to present an environmental theme showcasing the effects of global warming and human activity upon our landscape. Beyond the important message this work is simply lovely to navigate. The materials and installation lend themselves to a pleasurable opportunity to simply enjoy the beauty they provide. I’d like to thank guest writers Stephanie Bailey and Daniel Harvey for their contributions to this publication along with VPAG’s Curator Lubos Culen for his work on this project. I would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia, the Regional District of the North Okanagan, and the BC Arts Council, whose funding enables us to produce exhibitions such as this for the North Okanagan region and interested parties across Canada. This project was also partially sponsored by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. We hope you enjoy this publication and exhibition. Regards, Dauna Kennedy Executive Director Vernon Public Art Gallery
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Kelsey Stephenson: flux - INTRODUCTION
Kelsey Stephenson is an Edmonton-based artist and educator who is focused on multi-disciplinary printmaking. For a number of years, Stephenson has been installing artwork off the wall, usually as multiple modular elements which together cover the walls of a gallery from floor to ceiling. Stephenson creates an environment for a viewer to navigate through instead of looking at individual smaller scale pieces. Stephenson’s latest project created for the Vernon Public Art Gallery pushes the format of presentation even further. She claims the space of the gallery by hanging 27 large-scale silk veils suspended from the ceiling throughout the gallery that creates an environment for the viewer to explore. The viewers can meander throughout the gallery space and observe the images of the individual silk veils from both sides. Despite the fact that Stephenson’s exhibition titled flux is presented as one continuous landscape image, it was digitally composed into a photomontage from many different photographs that she collected from several different locations. She photographed landscape forms along Alberta’s river system which include the Bow River in Calgary, the headwaters at the Bow Glacier, the Columbia Icefields, the Saskatchewan Glacier, and various other locations and waterways in northern Alberta. While the composed image references landscape forms and rivers, the main focus of Stephenson’s narrative is to bring to our attention the changing nature of the natural world and its elements. In this sense, Stephenson focuses on the history and identity of specific places. The photomontage of the various places is in itself a memento mori for all the glaciers and ice fields in the light of global warming. The glaciers in Alberta are receding at an alarming rate and faster than at any other time in history.1 Some of the visual elements superimposed over the photographic image resemble the aerial views of river systems created by age’s long erosion and reshaping of the physical net of the waterways. As Stephenson points out in her artist statement accompanying her original exhibition proposal, “Tracing the marks made by water in the process of creating the work becomes an important component, examining erosion as a source of inspiration. There is a duality to waters presence, as well as constant motion. Northern ice, soil washing away, or storms may be unsettling, even dangerous, but one cannot live without water. There is a duality to waters presence, as well as constant motion.”2 The silk panels in the installation move slightly as the viewers pass by them which acts like the metaphor that everything material in the world is in ‘flux’. The additional soundtrack of recorded sounds at various locations contribute to the notion of constant movement and change.
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Stephenson adopted the pattern of meandering waterways for the format of presentation for her exhibition. Instead of presenting the landscape photomontage on the walls in a linear pattern, she suspended the silk veils from the ceiling throughout the gallery space and thus creats an environment for the viewer to navigate as they move through the space. The created photomontage includes identifiable locations which document environmental changes, specifically the receding glaciers and ice fields and consequent accelerated erosion which changes the makeup of the landscape along the way. Stephenson invites the viewers to contemplate the ephemeral quality of the landscape as presented in her installation; the frozen moment of ever-changing causality of the cause and effect of global warming upon the environment. Lubos Culen Curator Vernon Public Art Gallery Endnotes 1 Wikipedia: CBC report - posted December 27, 2018 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/western-glaciers-disappear-50-years-1.4959663; accessed July 30, 2020 2. Artist statement in the original exhibition proposal, September 10, 2018
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Beyond the Blue Marble: The Ecstatic Landscapes of Kelsey Stephenson’s flux by Stephanie Bailey and Dan Harvey
“You can see from pole to pole and across oceans and continents and you can watch it turn and there’s no strings holding it up, and it’s moving in a blackness that is almost beyond conception.” -- Eugene Cernan, Apollo 17 astronaut You’ve probably seen the photo a thousand times, on Earth Day flags or T-Shirts, on mouse pads or billboards. It’s the first photograph taken of the whole Earth, and the only one captured by a human being. And now it’s one of the most reproduced images in history. Famously known as the “Blue Marble” photo, it was taken by the Apollo 17 crew on their way to the Moon. After its 1972 release it quickly became the icon of our shared destiny and the emerging public consciousness about the state of the planet. As the last 50 years have shown, however, the photo failed to humble us as activists from the time had hoped. The image proved to be too distant, remote and alienating to trigger effective engagement in the environmental movement. It offers a god’s eye perspective, serving Earth up like a plaything to behold, proof that humans had finally gained mastery over nature once and for all. Like contemporary images that attempt to capture the effects of humans on Earth – from National Geographic’s emaciated polar bears to Edward Burtynsky’s visions of manufactured landscapes – the Blue Marble uses sublime spectacle in an attempt to elicit an affective response. It positions the viewer outside of the image, looking upon the earth from an imagined safe space, and so it falls short in capturing both humanity’s deep complicity in the forces that define the Anthropocene and the risks we face from the effects of our planet-shaping actions. Comprehending, and then acting to limit, the exigencies of climate change require that we move beyond facile images like this one. To expand the issue of climate change beyond the concern of scientists and environmentalists, we need to question and transform our perceptual frameworks. Kelsey Stephenson’s exhibition flux – a print installation depicting a dream-like rendering of Alberta’s waterways – takes seriously this call to action. Through photomontage and installation, she creates an immersive experience that troubles the subject position of the viewer as somehow self-contained and separate from the landscape. For her the question is not “how can we represent the Earth differently?” but rather “how can we experience it differently?” Entering the exhibition space of flux, you step foot into a landscape. On either side of you hang fine silk panels that form irregular corridors, inviting you to carve your own path. Measuring 9 ft. by 3.75 ft., each panel is screen printed in muted tones of browns and light blues, depicting rocky and forested landscapes cut through with waterways. From everywhere, yet nowhere, you can faintly make out the sound of water rushing or a random bird call. As you venture deeper, you see that the 27 panels of sheer fabric form a continuous landscape – both familiar and otherworldly – that responds to your presence and body movement, fluttering as you walk by. And, as soon as you think you may have yourself oriented in time and space, you realize you’ve somehow ended up looping back to where you started. 8
While flux gives the impression of a continuous system, it in fact comprises a series of disparate sections seamlessly stitched together. These snapshots were taken by Stephenson at different times in different places along Alberta’s water and river system, which stretches from the Saskatchewan glacier, up to Bow Falls and Athabasca Falls, before meandering down to the North Saskatchewan River and heading to Athabasca glacier. We can see through her work how these places are connected in a way that usually escapes our limited perceptions of scale, both temporal and spatial. By compressing time and space through photomontage, she allows us to experience something that would otherwise remain invisible: the totality of a hydrologic system. It is also important to emphasize the fact that these panels are a far cry from the imagined veracity of photographs. Instead, each panel has been screen printed, a process by which important information and detail goes missing. The end product presents a dreamscape that invites us to reflect on the constructed concept of nature and how deeply implicated we are in the shape of these landscapes. More than just an immersive landscape, flux offers a space for viewers to reflect on the connections that exist in nature. Building off of her previous work, Divining from 2016, Stephenson creates a contemplative place reminiscent of the non-denominational Rothko Chapel. Like a meditative labyrinth, the panels create looping paths and invite you to traverse the landscape again and again, as a kind of ritualistic practice. flux may thus function as a kind of ecstatic space, one with the potential to entice viewers outside themselves, displacing you from the everyday experience of space and time into a kind of flow-state. Ecstasy entails being “transported beyond oneself by a passion,” or being “beside oneself.” And in this way it is a letting go of ego – or the illusion of separateness. As opposed to experiences of the sublime, where we encounter the power of nature from the safety of our own subject position, ecstatic states undercut the unity of the sovereign subject (as in the Blue Marble image), setting us beside ourselves and potentially offering us new ways to experience and understand our relationships with the world. One of the greatest tragedies of climate change has always been the tragedy of the horizon – that we can’t see the scale of the problem either geographically or temporally. Our experience of the world is limited by our sensoria and lifespans. We are stuck inside of our bodies, after all. Stephenson’s flux addresses this tragedy by inviting us to think differently about the subject itself. Rather than using photography to attempt to offer a totalizing view – as with the Blue Marble or even Burtynsky’s large-format photography – Stephenson’s work attempts to draw us out of ourselves through a contemplative and immersive experience. And perhaps from this vantage point of “beside ourselves” we can begin to think how to experience the world anew. Stephanie Bailey is a writer and editor based in Edmonton, Alberta. She holds a master’s degree in English literature, and her recent art writing has appeared in Momus and The Site Magazine. Dan Harvey is an instructor and researcher at the University of Alberta.
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Artist Statement
flux implies both flow, and change. This installation work on silk uses images from along the North Saskatchewan and Bow rivers, taken by the artist over the last two years. Photographs from along this journey are combined with traces of the lines left in the earth from water’s passage. Together these create an imagined landscape of collaged places within the gallery, some familiar some less so. Views range across multiple silk panels, hanging in place to allow participants to walk through and around. One view may encompass everything from the Saskatchewan Glacier, to the river bank in Edmonton, showing these multiple places simultaneously. Imagery is tiled, and clearly composed of fragments, individual moments, taken from disparate times and places which have been brought together, a whole made from many parts. Our own experience of the river is but one small part of the entire watershed, and we are all part of it. Accompanying these softly swaying panels is sound, a sonic flux to go with the visual. These are composed of field recordings taken near, or at, the same time as many of the images. Throughout, one speaker remains on a very long, slow cycle of composition, while the other speakers play a randomized selection of shorter sounds and silences. This mix of set audio and changing sound echoes the river itself; the rivers overall course is more settled, but the encounters along the way remain changeable. The sound is meant to create contrast and similarity against the background white noise in the gallery, sometimes playing too softly to notice and at other times drawing attention, bringing the river flowing into the gallery. Taken as a whole, the fragility of the river system brought within the gallery becomes readily apparent. The silk panels waver and change as you walk by; the translation from real landscape, to photograph, to negatives, and ultimately screen-printed imagery loses information at each step. The images remind viewers that our glaciers are not infinite. We live and use the water and resources in Alberta now, as well as within other parts of Canada, but must think ahead to the day when that use and relationship to land will have to radically change, and why. Kelsey Stephenson
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flux images of the installation at the Vernon Public Art gallery July 23 - September 30, 2020
flux, 2020, 27 pongee silk panels, silkscreen, drawing, monotype elements, dowels, each 45 x 108 inches Photo credit: Yuri Akuney - Digital Perfections
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Kelsey Stephenson
curriculum vitae
Education 2016
Master of Fine Arts, Printmaking, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, United States
2011
Bachelor of Design (with distinction), University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Select Recent Solo and Small Group Exhibitions 2020
flux, Vernon Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC, Canada. (Essay and catalogue)
Trace Elements, Martha Street Studio, Main Gallery, Winnipeg, MB, Canada. (Essay)
2019
Erosion, part of The Works Art + Design Festival, World Trade Centre, Edmonton, AB, Canada
2018
Downstream, Enbridge Centre, Edmonton, AB, Canada Memory Landscape, The Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, Grande Prairie, AB, Canada. (4-person exhibition; work shown with Bettina Matzkuhn in Galleries 1 and 2, concurrent with Monique Martin and Jeroen Witvliet showing in Galleries 3 and 4 repsectivly)
The farthest shore, Robert F. Agrella Art Gallery, Santa Rosa, CA, United States. (featured artist in
this 6-person show, curated by Hannah Skoonberg. Visiting artist on campus the week of the reception in February 2018)
2017
divining, The Gallery at CASA, Lethbridge, AB, Canada embodied, McMullen Gallery, University of Alberta Hospitals, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada. (Artist talk)
2016
divining, Rowe Gallery, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, NC, United States divining, Ewing Gallery, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, United States. (Essay and catalogue)
2015
Navigating Boundaries, (collaborative project with Jes McCoy), Harcourt House, Main Gallery, Edmonton, AB, Canada. (Catalogue, artist lecture)
2014
Wanderlust, Gallery 1010, Knoxville, TN, United States. (3-person exhibition) Passages, Steppes East Gallery, Edmonton, AB, Canada
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Select Recent Group Exhibitions
2020 The 2nd TKO International Miniprint, (Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka), Tokyo Metropolitan Theater, Tokyo, Art Zone Kaguraoka, Kyoto, and Gallery Irohani, Osaka. (Jurors: Kenji Ishikawa, Michael W.Schneider Yuko Sasai, Reiichi Noguchi) 2019 4th International Miniature Print Exhibition, Manhattan Graphics Center, 250 West 40 St, New York, NY, United States. (Juror: Sarah Kirk Hanley) Awagami International Miniature Print Exhibition 2019, The Hall Awa Japanese Handmade Paper, Yamakawa-cho, Yoshinogawa City, Tokushima, Japan. (Juried exhibition) The 5th Bangkok Triennial International Print and Drawing Competition, Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Thailand. (Juried exhibition, catalogue) Intersecting Boundaries—Przenikajace Granice, presented by Museum in Jawor, Gallery in Piastowski Castle, Jawor, Poland. (Curated by Agnieszka Koziarz) 37th Bradley International, Hartmann Center Gallery, Bradley University, Peoria, IL, USA. (Juror: Janet Ballweg) 2018 20th Mini Print International, The Ink Shop, Ithaca, NY, United States. (Juror: Kumi Korf, Mary Ellen Long) Intersecting Boundaries, Festival dell’ Arte in 2018 , Parku Bukowiec, Mysłakowice, Poland. (Curated by Agnieszka Koziarz) 2018 MAPC (Mid-America Print Council), Members exhibition, Visual Arts Gallery, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, United States. (Juror: Marwin Begaye) BIMPE X, Federation Gallery, Vancouver; Dundarave Print Workshop Gallery, Vancouver, BC; FINA Art Gallery, UBC Okanagan Campus, Kelowna, BC, and SNAP Gallery, Edmonton, AB, Canada. (Jurors: Annalise Gratovich, Briar Craig, and Michael Barnes; catalogue) 9th International Printmaking Biennial of Douro, Douro Museum, Alijó, Portugal. (Invitational exhibition, by Nuno Canelas, catalogue) Air, Water, and Earth, The Muckenthaler Cultural Center, Fullerton, CA, United States. (Juror: Kim Abeles) 2018 Okanagan Print Triennial, Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna, BC, Canada (Juried exhibition) #YEGCanvas, Edmonton Arts Council Project, Edmonton, AB, Canada. (Juried) 2nd International Print Biennial Łódz 2018, Sułkowskiego, Łódz, Poland. (Juried exhibition, catalogue)
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2017
FCP North American Juried Print Exhibition, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Gallery, Corpus Christi, TX, United States. (Jurors: Margaret Simpson and Tom Druecker) 2017 Louisiana International Printmaking Exhibition, F. J. Taylor Visual Arts Center, Louisiana Tech University School of Design, Ruston, LA, United States. (Juror: Ben Hickey) 25th Parkside National Small Print Exhibition, University of Wisconsin-Parkside Art Galleries, Kenosha, WI, United States. (Juror: David Jones) 3rd Awagami International Miniature Print Exhibition 2017, The Hall Awa Japanese Handmade Paper, Yamakawa-cho, Yoshinogawa City, Tokushima, Japan. (Juried exhibition) Tokyo International Mini Print Triennale in Sapporo (Triennale 2015 Touring Exhibition), Planis Hall, JR Sapporo Tower, Sapporo, Japan 2017 Delta National Small Prints Exhibition, Bradbury Art Museum, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR, United States. (Juror: Ann Prentice Wagner) The Contemporary Print, PrintAustin, O2 Flatbed Press, Austin, TX, United States. (Juror: Susan Tallman)
2016
International Print Triennial Krakow–Falun 2016, Dalarnas Museum, Falun, Sweden. (Juried, through SMTG in Krakow) Floods, Blood, and Bitumen, University of Alberta Museums Galleries at Enterprise Square, Edmonton, AB, Canada. (Part of the Heritage Art Series Project, organized by Todd Kristensen) 10th Masterpieces, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH, United States. (Juried exhibition, catalogue) 8th International Printmaking Biennial of Douro, Douro Museum, Alijó, Portugal. (Invitational exhibition Nuno Canelas, catalogue) 1st TKO International Miniprint Exhibition 2016 (Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka), B-Gallery, Tokyo, July 26 - August 14; Art Zone Kaguraoka, Kyoto, August 26 - September 4; and Gallery Irohani, Osaka, September 9 - 21, 2016, Japan. (Jurors: Kenji Ishikawa, Michiko Sagawa, Seiichiro Miida, Toshiya Takahama) BIMPE IX, Federation Gallery, Vancouver; Dundarave Print Workshop Gallery, Vancouver, BC; University of British Columbia Gallery, Kelowna, BC, and SNAP Gallery, Edmonton, AB, Canada. (Jurors: Ryan O’Malley, David Thauberger, and Thomas Wood; catalogue) 1st International Print Biennial Łódz 2016, Sułkowskiego, Łódz, Poland. (Juried exhibition, catalogue) Seacourt International Mini Print Biennial 2016, Seacourt Centre for Contemporary Printmaking, Bangor (Down), Northern Ireland. (Juried exhibition) 2016 Delta National Small Prints Exhibition, Bradbury Art Museum, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR, United States. (Juror: Dennis Michael Jon) 34
2015
1st International Miniature Print Exhibition, Manhattan Graphics Center, 250 West 40 St, New York, NY, United States. (Juror: Sarah Suzuki) Awagami International Miniature Print Exhibition 2015, The Hall Awa Japanese Handmade Paper, Yamakawa-cho, Yoshinogawa City, Tokushima, Japan. (Juried exhibition) Pacific Rim International Print Exhibition 2015, Chambers 241 Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand. (Juried exhibition) Tokyo International Mini-Print Triennial 2015, Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo, Japan. (Jurors: Yuji Kobayashi, Kuniko Satake, Hiroko Furuya, Kunio Motoe, and Tatsumasa Watanabe) Paperworks 2015, Upstream Gallery, New York, NY, United States. (Juried exhibition) The Future: LAPS International Exchange Membership Print Exhibition, Scuola Internazionale di Grafica Gallery, Venice, Italy. (Juror: Stas Orlovski) The fascination of art, color and meditation from around the world, Cultural Center, CologneMühlheim, Cologne, Germany. (Invitational) Global Print 2, Lamego Museum & Douro Museum, Alijó, Portugal. (Invitational exhibition, catalogue) 14th World Art Print Annual—Mini Print 2015, Lessedra Gallery & Contemporary Art Projects, Sofia, Bulgaria. (Jurors: Briar Craig, Karin Byrne, Jan Palethorpe, Karen Oremus) 5th Guanlan International Print Biennial, Guanlan Print Art Museum, Guanlan, China. (Jurors: Kang Jianfei, Liu Libin, catalogue) Loose Leaves, Casa Gallery, Lethbridge, AB, Canada. (Juror: Darcy Logan) 28th National McNeese Works on Paper Exhibition, McNeese Grand Gallery, Lake Charles, LA, United States. (Juror: William Pittman Andrews, catalogue) 24th Parkside National Small Print Exhibition, UW-Parkside Galleries, Kenosha, WI, United States. (Juror: Michael Barnes) Layers of Identity II, Jerusalem Print Workshop, Jerusalem, Israel. (Juried exhibition) Located Place, Lyon College, Batesville, AR, United States. (Juror: Dustyn Bork)
2014
2nd International Print Exhibition, New Grounds Print Workshop & Gallery, Albuquerque, NM , United States. (Juried exhibition) 18th International Mini Print, The Ink Shop, Ithaca, NY, United States. (Juried exhibition) BIMPE VIII, Federation Gallery, Vancouver; Dundarave Print Workshop Gallery, Vancouver, BC; University of British Columbia Gallery, Kelowna, BC, and SNAP Gallery, Edmonton, AB, Canada. (Jurors: K. Gwen Frank, Richard Tetrault, and Alexandra Haeseker; catalogue)
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2014
17th Annual National Small Works Exhibition 2014, Washington Printmakers Gallery, Washington, D.C, United States. (Juror: Jack Rasmussen) ROC 2014, International Biennial Print Exhibit, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung City, Taiwan. (Juried exhibition, catalogue) 7th International Printmaking Biennial of Douro 2014, Douro Museum, Alijó, Portugal. (Invitational exhibition, catalogue) Layers of Identity II, Arena One Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, United States. (Juried exhibition) New Prints 2014: A selection of contemporary prints from International Print Center New York, Christie’s, 20 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY, United States. (Jurors: Rosaire Appel, Miranda Leighfield, Susan Lorence, Fred Mershimer, Madeline Stratton, and Kit White) SHY RABBIT Print International 5, SHY RABBIT Contemporary Arts, Pagosa Springs, CO, United States. (Juror: Karen Kunc) 13th World Art Print Annual - Mini Print 2014, Lessedra Gallery & Contemporary Art Projects, Sofia, Bulgaria. (Juried exhibition) New Prints 2014 / Summer, International Print Center, New York, NY, United States. (Jurors: Rosaire Appel, Miranda Leighfield, Susan Lorence, Fred Mershimer, Madeline Stratton, and Kit White)
Selected Recent Grants, Awards and Scholarships 2019
10th Annual Manifest Prize, one of ten finalist awards given, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, for the work ‘flux’
Individual Artist Project Grant, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, in support of ‘Flux,’ for exhibition in 2020 at Vernon Public Art Gallery
CIP Travel Grant, Edmonton Arts Council (Support of travel to Martha Street Studio for opening of solo exhibition ‘New work,’ and artist talk in February 2020)
2018
Prix de Print no. 29, Art in Print, Chicago, United States
2017
Chancellor’s Purchase Award, 2017 Delta National Small Prints Exhibition, Bradbury Art Museum, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR, United States
2015
Thomas Fellowship Recipient (2015 – 2016), University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, United States Graduate Student Senate Travel Grant, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, United States Terry Burnette Memorial Residency Award, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, United States
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2014
Alberta Arts Graduate Scholarship, awarded through Alberta Scholarship Programs, Edmonton, AB, Canada Second Prize Winner, 2014 National Small Works Exhibition, Washington Printmakers, Washington DC, United States, for ‘Inscription’ Chancellor’s Fund Grant, School of Art, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, United States
Publications and Reviews
Essay accompanying trace elements exhibition at Martha Street Studio, February 2020, “Trace elements: The work of Kelsey Stephenson,” co-authored by Seema Goel and Stephanie C. Kane Essay on ‘divining’ in Art in Print, May–June 2018, Volume 8, Number 1, written by Dr Angela Griffith (https://artinprint.org/journal/volume-8-number-1/) Review in The Oak Leaf, for ‘The farthest shore,’ at Robert F. Agrella Art Gallery, Santa Rosa, CA, March 1, 2018, written by Jennifer Do. (https://www.theoakleafnews.com/arts-entertainment/2018/03/01/ seeking-farthest-shore/) Review in Lethbridge Herald, for ‘divining,’ at The Gallery at CASA, March 6, 2017, written by J.W. Schnarr. (http://lethbridgeherald.com/news/lethbridge-news/2017/03/04/casa-exhibit-evokes-tranquilitythoughtfulness/) Review in Galleries West Digital, for ‘embodied’ at McMullen Gallery, January 13, 2017, written by Agnieszka Matejko. (http://www.gallerieswest.ca/art-reviews/exhibitions/print-installation-evokesalberta-s-landscape/) Inclusion in ACADFA Fall 2016 Newsletter. Article on recent work exhibited at UNC North Carolina, and cover page image. (http://acadfa.wixsite.com/acadfa1/newsletters-ebulletin?lightbox=dataItem-iz7lo07l)
Collections
Alberta College of Art + Design, Calgary, AB, Canada. (2017, 2019) Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Edmonton, AB, Canada— Heritage Art Series, 2015, a collaboration between the University of Alberta, the Royal Alberta Museum, and Alberta Archaeological Survey, Edmonton, AB, Canada. (2015) Bradbury Art Museum, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR, United States. (2017) Douro Print Biennial Collection, Douro Museum, Alijó, Portugal. (2011, 2014, 2016, 2018) El Minia University Gallery Archives, El Minia, Cairo, Egypt. (2014)
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Collections continued
Ewing Gallery, Print Archive, “Random / on purpose portfolio,” Knoxville, TN, United States. (2015) International Print Society in Krakow, Krakow, Poland. (2017) Mid-America Print Council, Print Archive, “First year Framework Portfolio,” Detroit, MI, United States. (2014) National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan. (2014) Society of Northern Alberta Print Artists, Print Archive, Edmonton, AB, Canada. (2012, 2013, 2016, 2018) Southern Graphics Council International, Print Archive, Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA, United States. (2014, 2015, 2017, 2018) St. Michael’s Printshop, Print Archive, St John’s, NL, Canada. (2014) Tama Art University Museum, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan. (2015) U245 Gallery, College for Creative Studies, Print Archive, “First year Framework portfolio,” Detroit, MI, United States. (2014) University of Alberta Museums and Collections, Print Study Centre, Edmonton, AB, Canada. (2011, 2013) University of Alberta Printmaking Department Teaching Collection, Edmonton, AB, Canada. (2010) University of North Carolina Pembroke Special Collections Study Archive, Livermore Library, Chaple Hill, North Carolina, USA. “Dialogos E Interpretacions IV Portfolio“ (2019) University of Tennessee, Print Archive, “Random / on purpose portfolio 2015,” (2015) Works held in private collections in Canada, the United States, and Japa
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VERNON PUBLIC ART GALLERY VERNON, BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADA www.vernonpublicartgallery.com