STUDENTS
Second Year Students
Kimberly Armstrong
Kimberly grew up in the nuclear suburbia of Pickering, Ontario. She spent her childhood days getting into trouble for drawing in class while she was supposed to be reading, but soon found she loved academic pursuits as well. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Art Honours Degree at Queen’s University in 2010 where she specialized in printmaking and took numerous history, art history and philosophy courses. During her undergrad she was involved with many activities including: editor-in-chief of Lighthouse Wire Magazine, editor-in-chief of Queen’s BFA 4th Year Catalogue, gallery docent, theatre costume assistant, curatorial researcher in contemporary art, event coordinator, photographer, and various other positions. Her art has been displayed at the CNE, John B. Aird Gallery, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Union Gallery, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, and has a collaborative commissioned work on permanent display at Dunbarton High School.
Adrianna DiLonardo
Adrianna was born on August 9,1986, in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. She was interested in art and sports from an early age. Originally, she wanted to pursue a career in filmmaking at the University of Hartford in Hartford Connecticut. After only being there a year, she transferred to Youngstown State University in Ohio, where she earned a B.F.A in photography. She is now at the OCAD University where she is pursuing her Masters degree in Contemporary Art History. Her research interests are focused on alternative forms of art that stem away from traditional forms of art, and institutions such as museums and galleries.
Laura DiMarco
Laura graduated from McMaster University with an honours B.A. in Art History upon the completion of her honours thesis. She approached her thesis research with a feminist perspective to investigate issues of appropriation, modelling, female spectatorship and subjectivity in 19th-century France. Laura’s undergraduate research and teaching experience have resulted in the support of a SSHRC CGS Master’s scholarship to begin her studies at OCADU. An intern at Wynick/Tuck Gallery since 2009, she has also completed internships at the McMaster Museum of Art and Art Gallery of Hamilton where she curated an exhibition on the 20th-century Canadian artist Leonard Hutchinson. Laura's professional career lies in the contemporary art market and art criticism, with her current research converging at the intersection(s) of body politics, surrealist art practices, female collaboration and contemporary female collectors.
Javier Espino Ruiz
Born in Mexico City (1984), Graduated from The University of Toronto with a BA in Fine Arts (Art History Specialist). After which he participated in the Guggenheim´s internship in Venice, Italy. In 2008 he worked in the Museum Of Modern Art Mexico City under the direction of Osvaldo Sanchez, where he curated more than three art exhibitions with national and international contemporary artists. He was later invited to the 53rd Venice Biennale, working as the staff coordinator and an assistant for curator Carlos Basualdo (American Pavilion) who presented the Bruce Nauman´s Topological Gardens exhibit. He has also done over 6 exhibitions as a freelance curator for Mexico´s most known upcoming contemporary artists. He currently works as the assistant director at FIZZ Gallery Mexico City, and will be the director of FIZZ North America while finishing his Master Studies at OCAD U.
Meyung Joh-Carnella
After graduating from Cornell University with a double major in History of Art and English, I worked for Serge Sabarsky (co-founder of Neue Galerie, New York) organizing travelling museum exhibitions of German and Austrian Expressionist art. I then was the US Representative of an auction house, Kunsthaus Lempertz, based in Cologne, Germany. After Lempertz I worked at Galerie St. Etienne, a gallery in New York specializing in German and Austrian Expressionism as well as outsider art, most notably Grandma Moses. My family moved from New York to Washington, DC where I spent time raising my three children. We moved to Toronto five years ago which is when I became involved with Partners in Art, a contemporary art group. I currently chair the Project Development committee in PIA.
Beverley Kelly
Upon graduating from the University of Guelph with majors in fine art and history, Bev moved to Toronto and immersed herself in a series of independent art projects including UnChained Records, and Opaline Fine Art. She exhibited her paintings in several solo exhibitions and various galleries, festivals and projects around the city. She worked as a graphic designer and later as a Marketing Analyst, which culminated in a Project Management position in which she launched a massive corporate website redesign project and a content management system. Bev's career took a dramatic shift when she left the corporate world to launch the art department at City Academy, where she spent the next five years teaching and developing an array of Arts and Social Sciences Curriculum courses. Currently she lives and paints in Stouffville and is the Chair of the Varley Art Gallery's Social Club and Fundraiser Founding Committee.
Christine Kim
Christine lives in the Greater Toronto Area and holds a BA from Brock University in Studies in Arts and Culture. While studying at Brock, she took a diverse range of courses relating to the vast landscape that is contemporary culture, including: media art history, art criticism, popular culture, film and video game theory. Before completing her degree, she was blogging, watching reality television, and playing video games. She still partakes in those activities, however, it is now in the name of research. She hopes to deconstruct current discourses pertaining to arts and culture in order to find new methods for understanding our world in a rapidly expanding digital universe.
Caoimhe Morgan-Feir
After a childhood scattered across continents, I was drawn to art because it seemed like something universal and transcendent. Despite numerous detours along the way and countless changes of opinion, it continues to intrigue me. Over the past while I have had the opportunity to learn from some of the most brilliant people I have ever had the privilege of meeting, an opportunity that is largely responsible for my further studies. I recently graduated from Queen’s University, a time that was briefly punctuated by a stint at Central Saint Martins College studying something entirely unrelated. My interests include historiography, art institutions, vintage typography, making the perfect cup of tea, and The Real Housewives of Orange County. Regrettably, writing in the third person does not make the list.
Yoanna Terziyska
Attained a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Toronto in the fields of Visual Studies and Art History. With a primary focus on modern art and its history, Yoanna has held various group exhibits in both Bulgaria and Canada. As a contemporary artist, she is capable of grasping the historical and cultural connotations of the particular field. She has curated and installed various group shows at the University of Toronto. She continues exploring the world of contemporary art both locally and globally in an attempt to further her own artistic skill and knowledge.
First Year Students
Vanessa Bateman
Vanessa completed her BA Honours at the University of Guelph in 2009 with a double major in Studio Art and Art History. Upon graduating she was offered an internship at White Flag Projects, a non-profit contemporary art gallery located in St. Louis, Missouri. This internship allowed considerable insight into the operations and challenges for a contemporary gallery that focuses on artists that are on the ‘fringe’. Vanessa has written articles for a new Ontario based online art magazine, FOAM (Fine Ontario Art Magazine) allowing a point of accessibility into the visual practice of notable Ontario contemporary artists. Independently she continues to pursue her studio practice in painting, as well as her research interests in contemporary culture.
Jessica Cappuccitti
Jessica holds an Honours BA from the University of Western Ontario in Art History and Criticism. Upon graduation she moved to Toronto and began working in the fashion industry for a Toronto-based design house called Preloved. Although fashion was exciting and fast-paced, she missed being a part of the art world. Volunteer positions and regular gallery outings helped her get back to her passion. Last spring, she was involved in exhibiting the work of Svetlana Boym at the 21st Annual Graduate Student Colloquium at the Centre for Comparative Literature, at the University of Toronto. She was responsible for curating a collection of photographs as well as directing and helping a group of Graduate students with installation. She currently works as the Volunteer Coordinator at the Museum of Inuit Art. She loves the idea of curating but also realizes that there are many different, creative and rewarding jobs within a gallery/museum setting.
Cheryl Dipede
Cheryl is a graphic designer working in the publishing industry with an active interest in book design and design history. She received her BDes (Graphic Design) from OCAD U in 2010 with a thesis dedicated to the history of graphic design in Canada. Her Master’s level research will further explore themes of visual and cultural identity in Canadian design, with the support of a SSHRC CGS Master’s Scholarship.
She has also participated in several group design and typographic exhibitions in Canada, and her recent essay “Spectacular Vernacular: The Small, Medium, and Large Grammar of Identity in Honest Ed’s Exterior Signs” is forthcoming in Shift: Conventions in 2011.
Bill Fraser
My art practice began as a professional in 1987 with the award of my first Ontario Arts Council Grant. I make sculpture and related works on the theme of melting ice. Having completed an Honours Degree at Trent University (Educational, Artistic and Indigenous Narratives in Imagination), which included a month long stay on Baffin Island through the University of Manitoba. I am now looking forward to pursuing research at OCADU in the CADN department. The history of Minimalist(s), open form, constructed sculpture created in the late sixties and seventies in Southern Ontario has led to the question of a ‘centre of gravity’ and the essence of a phenomenological relationship between the experience of a ‘pictorial frame’ and the land- synthesized through Indigenous poetics. My life includes a wonderful partner and four beautiful children, two chickens, one rabbit, and our dog, tuqsalik, from Pangnirtung.
Valerie Krizan
Valerie was born in Toronto and moved to Europe where she studied art and exhibited her own work, abstract expressionist paintings. She received her Graduate degree in Art History from
Christie’s Education, London and has currently been volunteering at the Ottawa School of Art galleries and Gallery 101, where she assists in the installation and curation of exhibitions. Her interests lie in body art, feminism and performance art.
Jessica Li
Julie Matheson
Julie recently graduated from Dalhousie University/King's College with a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Theatre (Technical Scenography). Julie's experience in technical theatre has consisted of extensive involvement with the King's Theatrical Society in addition to DalTheatre; very selective credits are as Lighting Designer for DalTheatre's The Madwoman of Chaillot, Co-Director/Scenographer for the KTS's production of Sartre's No Exit, Stage Manager of DalTheatre’s TheComedy of Errors and The Country Wife, and Assistant Stage Manager of LunaSea Theatre’s Top Girls. Julie is excited to be pursuing an MA, and to begin redirecting her focus to the artistic tradition that influences theatrical design, as well as conducting research into the rise of the director/designer in the contemporary theatre.
Erik Munoz
Erik Tonatiuh Munoz was born in Mexico City and has been living in Toronto for the last past seven years. Tonatiuh studied visual arts at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and has completed his BFA at OCAD Univerity. His studio practice includes painting, sculpture, installation and performance art. Many of Tonatiuh's early paintings reveal a tentative exploration of the iconic imagery contained within Mexico's deeply rooted Catholic culture. His move to Toronto provided an opportunity to 'step out of' Catholicism's societal influence, which resulted in a more critical evaluation of the church. The Christian imagery that is prevalent in Tonatiuh's current sculptural pieces come from this new insight as 'one looking from the outside in' and as a reminiscence of his early life and family in Mexico.
Yvonne Nowicka-Wright
From a rewarding career as a fine art painter (that includes many international and domestic shows and awards) to the corporate world of retail advertising in the role of creative manager and art director, Yvonne’s passion for creative and intellectual inquiry has been channeled on many levels.
As a painter, she specializes in miniature or small size works, exploring the feminine and the masculine within the gender. She aspires to convey the complexity of womanhood in the postmodern world, expressing contemporary issues with a blend of fantasy and pastiche. Being inspired by the Surrealists, Yvonne works in a representational style, favoring the narrative of the line.
Her marketing and corporate experience includes major Canadian retailers and advertising agencies. As a designer, creative manager and art director, Yvonne has overseen high level creatives for flyers and in-store signing, art directed photo shoots and led in-house creative teams. In 2011, Yvonne completed upgrading of her earlier OCA diploma and graduated with a BFA from OCAD University, focusing primarily on Liberal Studies.
Alison Snowball
Born and based in Toronto, Alison is an independent artist, curator and consultant. With a relentless curiosity about the workings of the art world and a background in finance, her research at OCAD U aims to explore the intersection of these two seemingly disparate, yet intricately intertwined parts of our economy.
At present, Alison is establishing a creative consultancy. As a project in 2010, Alison founded and directed Snowball Gallery & Workshop, where over the course of its finite life she facilitated more than a dozen contemporary exhibitions. In her own photography and painting, Alison relies on an intuitive visual aesthetic and presents what she sees as basic truths of colour, composition, pattern and juxtaposition.
As a B.Comm graduate of Dalhousie University and a former institutional equities trader with TD Newcrest, Alison is especially interested in strategy, macroeconomics and resource allocation.
Leanne Unruh
Leanne Unruh wants to do everything: to be the person making art, writing about it, displaying it and critiquing it. In the course of her undergraduate degree at Brock University, she was able to take both studio and art history courses. This led to the completion of a BA in Visual Arts with a Concentration in Curatorial Studies. Leanne is most interested in contemporary art, particularly art that goes above and beyond the visual. It is her belief that art which is interactive has the potential to transcend aesthetics and create change in how people live their everyday lives. Other than art, Leanne is interested in reading anything she can get her hands on, vegetarian/vegan cooking, history and local music. If this has peaked your interest, you can visit Leanne's website at www.leanneunruh.com.
Last Modified:1/24/2012 12:57:31 PM
GRADUATE PROGRAMS
