PEOPLE FIGURE AGAIN AND AGAIN AGAIN, JUNE 22 & AUGUST 09, 2024: INDEPENDENT ARTIST LINE-UP
PEOPLE!
PEOPLE DO.
THEY DO.
THEY FIGURE!
PEOPLE FIGURE!
PEOPLE FIGURED IN THE PAST —
AGAIN AND AGAIN —
AND NOW,
AGAIN,
PEOPLE FIGURE,
AGAIN AND AGAIN
(AGAIN).
… in partnership again with aceartinc. (thank you!).
… independent people, dancers and artists, gather again to practice FIGURING PEOPLE.
2024 sees returning and new artists to this generative PRACTICE HAPPENING of figures dancing and drop-in drawing.
Here they are!
DEREK BRUECKNER
Derek is a Winnipeg-born visual artist and art educator. His recent work encompasses video harvested from socially collaborative and unscripted performances. Using a multidisciplinary practice of drawing, painting, live feed projections, performance, and video, he re-inscribes and re-imagines the human figure through his collaborators’ processes of improvisation and facilitated play. Since 1998, his work has intermittently involved live drawing of art models/performers in gallery spaces as a collaborative and performative act.
Artist residencies have included spaces in Italy, Vermont, Brooklyn, New Orleans, Toronto and Spain. Solo exhibitions and participatory projects in the US have been presented at arts spaces in Brooklyn, Queens, and New Orleans. Derek also co-hosts an arts talk radio show on CKUW 95.9 FM (University of Winnipeg) Media coverage of his work includes Globe & Mail, Border Crossings, Queens Courier Magazine, NOLA Defender, and OffBeat Magazine. Awarded grants from Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Arts Council and Vermont Studio Center. Education includes MFA from Hunter College, City University of New York.
Often Derek’s performance projects operate as live public laboratory spaces. Some performers will utilize his performance installations as a platform for their own work. Simultaneously collaborators allow themselves to be adapted into a context with ideas and metaphors separate from their own. Each project allows for multiple platforms to co-exist inside a larger work, with the hope of unifying various contributions of thinking, sharing and expressing.
His work continues to combine various aspects of the process, resulting in edited videos (and sometimes paintings or drawings) that collectively reference the labour of making, experimentation, and social improvisation while simultaneously trying to acknowledge each performer’s inventive mind, voice, and body.
KAREN ARMSTRONG
Karen Armstrong searches for the right line or shadow to describe the mass, movement or intention of the live model. She is a Graphic Designer and illustrator and enjoys life drawing with the Winnipeg Sketch Club.
COLE CANCILLA
Cole Cancilla was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He graduated with his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Manitoba this year.
He is an accomplished muralist having completed multiple mural commissions at the University of Manitoba for varying communities. In particular, he designed for the Women’s community centre as well as the Black students community council on campus.
Cancilla runs an independent practice that is driven by the ideals of bringing theatre into our everyday life and has extensive expererince in multiple mediums including painting, embroidery and performance art.
Cancilla strives to express his experiences, emotions and personal pathos through his media presentations. He constructs fantastical landscapes and figures that examine the extremes of human behaviour and political ideas.
Last year, he was featured in the Winnipeg free press for his solo show “Portals” examining the idea of multiple worlds, experiences and places on circular canvases at the xcues cafe & lounge.
He has also been featured on multiple album covers and has experience designing for musicians.
SOPHIE MILORD
Sophie Milord received most of her dance training in Vancouver, BC at the Avant Dance Company before moving to Winnipeg in 2017. Since graduating the School of Contemporary Dancers Professional Program and earning her BA (Hons) in dance, she has been pursuing a professional dance career in the prairies; performing in shows such as “Looking Glass”, “Flight Paths”, “Up Close and disDancing” and “RECONNECT”, with Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers. Sophie has also performed with New Dance Horizons, for “Rouge-gorge” on tour in Regina and Moose Jaw under the direction of Robin Poitras.
Sophie currently holds the title of Artistic Director of the “Botany in Motion Performing Arts Festival”; while she enjoys organizing her own festival she has also performed at various ones herself such as “Hatch” in Brandon and “Skylines Dance & Film” in Winnipeg. She has also gone on to teach at schools such as the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, while continuing to be the director of the Lord Roberts Community Centre Dance Program.
Most recently Sophie has danced for “Table for 1200” in conjunction with Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers and “Winnipeg Comedy Festival”. She is also currently working closely with Laura Vriend on a new creation process that is hoped to be debut in summer 2024. Sophie is incredibly honored to be performing again with Ian Mozdzen. She has now danced in 7 performances under the guidance of Mozdzen, most recently, this past April for “NEW DANCE MONTHLY” in conjunction with “Culture Days” (pictured below with MOZDZEN, PEOPLE FIGURE 2023).
LAILA FAZAL
Laila Fazal, a Bangladeshi artist pursuing her MFA at the School of Art, University of Manitoba, is known for her captivating explorations into the intersection of tradition and contemporary expression. With a rich academic background that includes both a BFA and an MFA from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Laila’'s journey as an artist has been marked by a profound dedication to the cultural heritage of her homeland.
Drawing inspiration from the vibrant tapestry of Bangladeshi folk paintings and Indian miniature art, Laila's work breathes new life into age-old traditions, infusing them with a modern sensibility that transcends borders. Through her mastery of watercolor, she creates evocative compositions primarily centered around the human figure, weaving narratives that resonate with universal themes of identity, belonging, and the human experience.
Lail's artistic journey has been enriched by residencies in both India and Bangladesh, where she immersed herself in diverse cultural landscapes, further expanding her artistic vision and technique. Her talent has been showcased in numerous national and international exhibitions, where her work has garnered acclaim for its emotive depth and technical brilliance.
As she continues to evolve as an artist, Laila Fazal remains dedicated to pushing the boundaries of her craft, inviting viewers into a world where tradition and innovation converge, and where the beauty of the past meets the promise of the future.
JEFFREY PEELING
Although Jeffrey Peeling is an artist from Winnipeg, Manitoba, he was raised in London, Ontario and has previously lived in Toronto, Montreal, and Tokyo, Japan. As an artist he admires children’s art and street art and is interested in the beauty of naive expression. Recollections of his fascinations as a child inform his current practice such as the joy of pop-up and flip books inform his current practice. He uses paint dripping and collage on canvas as his primary mode of expression, but has also explored cardboard dioramas and doll-making. Drips and splatters of acrylic paint and child-like scrawl are typical modes of expression.
So far, Jeffrey has exhibited at Zed Books in October of 2019, the Crescent Fort Rouge United Church Art Fest in May of 2022 and May of 2023, the Cre8ery in February of 2023, the RAW artists showcase in September of 2023 and March or 2024, “The Botany In Motion” arts festival at the St. Norbert Arts Festival in September of 2023. His artwork also featured in Ian Mozdzen’s modern dance performance “New Crooner” in April of 2023 as well as his “New Music Monthly” series in February of 2024.
FRANKIE MAY
Frankie May is an active Chinese contemporary artist currently residing in Canada. His work spans body performance, experimental photography, and video installations, known for its provocative, confrontational nature, and strong sense of absurdity and humor. He is also an initiator and independent investigator of several social protest movements in China.
Influenced by Joseph Beuys, Marcel Duchamp, Marina Abramović, and Tehching Hsieh, Frankie draws inspiration from Dadaism and the Fluxus movement. His art explores repressed human emotions and sensory experiences, often using humor and absurdity to challenge societal norms.
He studied for his bachelor's and master's degrees at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, a center for experimental art in China. In addition to visual art, he is well-versed in the history of philosophy, cultural studies, and political economy theory. He has received years of education in contemporary art and curatorial studies and was a longtime seminar student of the philosopher Bernard Stiegler. This background gives his work a profound theoretical foundation and critical thinking.
Frankie May’s work has been exhibited in numerous art spaces in China and internationally. He has also been an active curator and art critic, organizing significant social and community art projects. Frankie believes in the power of art to expand conceptual boundaries and provoke critical thought, creating mental spaces that can transcend the current state of authoritarian politics and resist unconscious control. He is also convinced that critical art education should be an essential part of social education. These practices make him a dynamic and influential figure in the contemporary art world.)
Artist and sculptor, born, and currently living and working in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Educated at the University of Manitoba, Faculty of Arts and the School of Art.
* Robert will be participating in August. Robert is the artist who produced the iconic PEOPLE FIGURE poster sketch (2022)
