2015 Artists
LAUREN FOURNIER is a media artist and writer who gravitates toward hysteria, bodies, erotica, 'theoretical fiction', and the tension between exposure and concealment. She lived and worked in Saskatchewan and Vancouver before moving to Toronto, where she is currently completing her PhD in contemporary feminist art and writing practice at York. Lauren holds a BA in Fine Arts (Regina) and an MA in English literature (SFU). She is on the Board of Directors for Trinity Square Video and the Feminist Art Conference. You can find her work at: www.laurenfournier.net
BRITTANY BROOKS is a multidisciplinary artist from St. Catharines, ON. Her practice includes illustration, music and performance art. Through a combination of song, handmade layered projections and shadow puppetry, she creates intimate performances with playful storytelling. Nested in nostalgia, Brooks' work looks back to traditional folk hymns and rituals which she is influenced by visually and musically. She is the singer/guitarist and banjoist in folk group Creature Speak and is currently working with Suitcase in Point Theatre Company (2015). http://brittanybrooksart.weebly.com/
NANCY COLE's practice has evolved from traditional quilting into contemporary portraiture and concept-based art installations. Nancy says, "I am deeply influenced by every day, fleeting moments. How and what we communicate through eye contact, a lively conversation with a stranger or friend. Presenting the seemingly invisible for another closer look. Perhaps mundane and plentiful within the schema of life but compelling to me as an artist. It happens without notice, without planning and my challenge is to grab it. I am often challenged by social concepts that come by way of a handwritten letter, note, diary entry, literary passage or poem. The core of my practice revolves around seeking to deconstruct the layers surrounding us, to try capture a glimpse of the core essence of a being. To let the story of “who is this” unfold within the imagination of each viewer. Nancy has exhibited locally and internationally, and in addition to having just completed the Canadian Forces Artists Program residency (BC), will be exhibiting with Art In the Open (PEI) this summer.
ANDREW GODSALVE is an artist working with digital photography and media in relation to landscape and perception. Godsalve was born in Hinton, Alberta, the son of a wildlife biologist mother and GIS specialist father. From an early age, Godsalve became accustomed to environments in which human activities and natural processes come into contact, with the results of this contact often surprising. It is this dynamic which continues to inform and stimulate his work. Andrew Godsalve obtained his BFA from the University of Victoria in 2012, and has since been pursuing artistic projects at home and abroad. His work is continually progressing into new territories of imagined space, blurring the boundaries between nature and architecture, industry and geology through the medium of digital-photo collage. http://andrew-godsalve.com
COURTNEY HARRIS is a shadow puppeteer, stage manager, singer and collaborator. Originally from the Annapolis Valley, NS, she has been based in Halifax since graduating from Acadia University’s Theatre program (performance stream) in 2012. Courtney is a co-founder of Second Sight Collective, who just presented their premiere piece, "Shadows of Bluenose Ghosts," an exploration of Nova Scotian folklore through traditional music, shadow puppetry/analog projection and movement. Courtney is a core collaborator with the Circus of the Normal. She is a passionate creator with widespread artistic exploration, with special interest in mask-making, props building, baking, herbalism and traditional folk music. http://secondsightcollective.wordpress.com
ROSA IULIUCCI, BFA, Osteopathy (Thesis Candidate), GYROTONIC (R), Movement Educator. Rosa is a creative-explorer. Her work emphasizes living architecture; what we contain and what contains us...creative luminosity, energetic resonance...and the boundaries in between. Much of her time is spent observing and mimicking the expressions of shape, sound and movement in and of the wild. Her work takes many forms of expression and has both been shown/performed in secret by the sea and widely to the international community. This year at White Rabbit she will collect resonance from the natural habitat and facilitate beat-box ceremonies; BioRhythms A beatbox tour of a natural state of being.
MICHAEL BARRACO is a Brooklyn based artist interested in exploring the blunt physical reality of existence through the use of organic materials. Spiderwebs, insects, found roadkill, and vernacular photography all have a place in the construction of the work. By combining these elements and changing their context he creates objects that elicit an immediate, visceral confrontation with the material, while at the same time creating a clinical distance from the subject matter. The effect is one of anesthetized physicality, and it allows the work to materialize the intangible while also making very clear distinctions between reality and illusion. Barraco was born and raised in the working class suburbs of Long Island, moving to New York City to become fully immersed in the Brooklyn Art scene. He earned his BFA at Hunter College, and is currently completing his MFA at Purchase where he earned the Presidents Award for Public Art. www.michaelbarraco.com
ANDREW PATTERSON is a writer/reader/listener living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Concepts currently flooding his work include: space and silence, the immanence of the act, the location of play, and deep listening. A small conviction brings the rhythm and tone spreads into. Dissolution of the author and salt.
Halifax artist SUSAN TOOKE works in painting, media arts and book illustration. She received her formal artistic training from Virginia Commonwealth University and the Master’s of Media Studies program at the New School in New York City. Chosen for a media arts scholarship by the Centre for Art Tapes (2014-15), she is currently working with sound, video and sensors to create virtual environments based on threatened wilderness spaces. She also is a member of the multimedia collaborative team Motion Activated. Ms. Tooke considers painting her primary art form; explorations in other media further influence her artistic expression. Influences include painters Anne Meredith Barry, Emily Carr and David Milne. Susan is a four-time winner of the Lillian Shepherd Award for Excellence in Illustration for her contributions to children’s literature. Her work can be found in the collections of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the National Library, the Nova Scotia Art Bank and Parks Canada. Her volunteer work includes Past President of CARFAC Maritimes, President of CARFAC and board member of the Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council, an advisory board on arts policy to the Nova Scotia government.