Student Seebia Bharadwaj takes a selfie by the art in Extended Education.
Art is photo backdrop
Take a #KeepLearning selfie
Next time you stop by Extended Education at the U of M’s Student Services, take a moment to appreciate the art, and stand before it to snap a photo for your social media.
Share your moment, with the hashtag #KeepLearning. And please tag us @UMExtended on Instagram & Twitter, or @UMExtendedEd on Facebook.
Blue canvas
When you visit 185 Extended Education Complex, you can now take your photo before the perfect blue backdrop. This painting is one of a series called On Posing. It’s art designed as a photo backdrop, an acrylic on canvas by artist and former U of M art sessional Fine Arts instructor, Erica Mendritzki. The painting is 67 inches high and 51 inches wide.
Mendritzki says, “On Posing consists of a series of similar paintings that take as their model the image of a blue photographic backdrop, the kind once commonly used by studio photographers for family portraits or yearbook photos. Each painting poses the question of the validity of its ontological category, by posing a number of questions about itself.”
Painting, backdrop, photo
“Is it an abstract painting, posing as a picture of a photographer’s backdrop? Is it a picture of a backdrop, posing as the real thing? Or is it an actual backdrop, posing as an abstract painting? The physical properties of the object remain the same; it is only in our perception that the pose shifts its shape.”
Bruce Head art to come
Also, watch for the future addition of works by the late Western Canadian contemporary artist, Bruce Head, RCA (member of the Royal Canadian Academy). He was a graduate of the U of M’s School of Art, a graphic designer for CBC, and he painted and sculpted full-time in his St. Vital studio for many years. His work is represented in many personal, private, and public collections including the National Gallery of Canada. Soon it will also appear in Extended Education.