Two prominent artists, Irena “IRiKO” Kolodziej and Adam Kolodziej, are launching Stong College’s 40th anniversary celebration with their art exhibition Space of Light tonight at the Samuel J. Zacks Gallery, running until Oct. 14.
Tonight’s exhibit is part of Stong College’s Universal Imagination series, six major art exhibitions by 12 distinguished Canadian artists, which will run throughout the year. The opening reception for Space of Light starts at 7pm with a live drawing demonstration by Adam Kolodziej at 8:30pm in the Samuel J. Zacks Gallery, 109 Stong College, Keele campus.
“Naming the series Universal Imagination is appropriate for the inauguration of our year-long celebration of the 40th anniversary of the college and the 50th of York University,” says Modupe Olaogun, Stong College master. “It indicates our historic connection between education and culture, offering to students, the York community and Toronto a unique opportunity to experience the variety of forms, mediums and subjects in the work of world-renowned artists.”
Space of Light the first exhibition in the series, features oil paintings of ethereal images by Irena “IRiKO” Kolodziej and expressive charcoal drawings by Adam Kolodziej.
Tad Jaworski, curator of Universal Imagination, said in his experience he cannot recall any other exhibitions of such scope and variety. Universal Imagination will represent the work of 12 award-winning artists exhibiting their work as part of a common theme, but using different mediums to express their vision of a universal imagination. Those mediums include painting, drawing, sculptures in raw wood, metal and iron, Chinese brush painting, photography and fibre art (tapestry/goblin).
The remaining five exhibitions in the Universal Imagination series are as follows:
- Ernestine Tahedl and Gordon Becker, paintings & sculpture, Friday, Oct. 17 to Tues, Nov. 4, 2008
- Maya Foltyn and Fly Freeman, paintings & sculpture, Friday Nov. 7 to Tuesday Nov. 25, 2008
- Peng Ma and Ryszard Litwiniuk, painting & sculpture Fri. Jan. 23 to Tues., Feb. 10, 2009
- Christopher Chapman and Edward Falkenberg, photography & sculpture, Feb. 13 to March 3, 2009
- Tamara Jaworski and Wojtek Biczysko, tapestry goblin & sculpture, Fri. March 6 to Tues., March 24, 2009.
The exhibition is open to the public and admission is free. The Samuel J. Zacks Gallery is open Monday & Wednesday to Friday from 11:30am to 4:30pm and Tuesdays from 10:00am to 2:30pm.
For more information, please contact Tad Jaworski, curator, chair of Visual Arts, Stong College, at tamtad@rogers.com or 416-222-8491.