View Gallery presents Cindy Stelmackowich – Trenched

The exhibit runs from September 15 to November 11.

Vancouver Island University’s (VIU’s) View Gallery is excited to welcome Ottawa-based sculptor Cindy Stelmackowich to present new works in her exhibition Trenched. The projects explore notions of care and violence as each relates to the history of medical advancement and war.

Trenched runs from September 15 to November 11, with an opening reception on September 15 at 7 pm at View Gallery on the Nanaimo campus (Building 330). An artist talk takes place on September 16 from noon to 1 pm in Building 355, Room 203.

Stelmackowich’s creative practice includes the sourcing and collection of vintage medical equipment, medical texts and other related historical artifacts from the last century. She weaves these objects into installations that aid in a reframing of narratives we have long since taken at face value. Recently, her research has explored the relationship that medicine has had with war and how war’s carnage has created a kind of laboratory, out of necessity, to advance the realm of care.

In her artist statement, Stelmackowich said that her practice seeks to “create new conversations in the boundaries between art and science that asks new questions about the body and its materiality, including its cultural histories and aesthetic presentations.”

Stelmackowich is an Ottawa-based artist, curator and academic. Interested in their interconnections, she studied both art and science before completing her PhD in the history and theory of art. Stelmackowich has exhibited her artwork across Canada, the United States, and Europe. Her artworks are held by the Canada Council Art Bank, City of Ottawa, Ottawa Art Gallery, and York University, as well as corporate and private collections. She has developed innovative and creative curatorial projects across disciplines as a museum professional, curator and artist.

For more information, please contact Chai Duncan, VIU Visual Art Instructor and View Gallery Curator, at Chai.Duncan@viu.ca. 

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Rachel Stern, Communications Officer, Vancouver Island University

C: 250.618.0373 l E: Rachel.Stern@viu.ca | T: @VIUNews

About View Gallery

View Gallery is VIU’s contemporary art gallery. The VIU community acknowledges and thanks the Snuneymuxw, Quw’utsun, Tla’amin, Snaw-naw-as and Qualicum First Nation on whose unceded traditional lands we teach, learn, research, live and share knowledge. Huy ch q’u.

The gallery presents all types of visual art and design, made by students, community members and professional artists. A non-commercial site, the gallery presents a mixture of programming and art events that range from curated solo and group exhibitions, touring exhibitions and annual showcases of student art. The View Gallery is run and staffed by faculty members and students in the Department of Art and Design, within the Faculty of Art and Humanities.

Directions: Building 330, 900 Fifth Street, Entrance 5D. See Nanaimo campus map.