My First Professional Exhibition
My First Professional Exhibition
This annual award has been established by Drs. George and Susannah Kurian to enable a graduating BFA (VIST) student to produce a solo exhibition in a professional gallery or institution. The award allows students to gain knowledge of exhibiting their own work and can be used to cover expenses associated with producing work, gallery rental, catalog production, promotion, and other expenses appropriate for mounting their exhibition. The award recipient is selected in early Fall with an exhibition held usually between the following November to February.
Exhibition: Rituales de Resistencia
Artist: Valeria Alarcon
Gallery: The Bows
Dates: January 14th - January 31st
Rituales de Resistencia brings together a series of mixed-media works that examine the sociopolitical conditions shaping contemporary Mexican and Mexican-diasporic life. Drawing on cultural references and traditional practices, Mexican artist Valeria Alarcón explores how communities confront violence, displacement, cultural erasure, and systemic injustice. Collectively, the works trace overlapping experiences of struggle and
resilience, revealing how, across borders, Mexican communities continue to assert their
rights to safety, identity, and dignity.
Through this exhibition, Alarcón seeks to raise awareness of the urgent and ongoing crises affecting communities, cultures, and livelihoods. Rituales de Resistencia invites viewers to engage with the lived realities underlying these current issues, to consider the voices and histories that persist in seeking justice, and to foster dialogue, reflection, and empathy.
Exhibition: Stock Homo
Artist: Yaiza Lopez Garcia San Roman
Gallery: The Bows Studio Gallery
Stock Homo is a series of photographs by Spanish-Mexican artist Yaiza Lopez Garcia San Roman that illustrate her encounters with homophobia. Although the exhibit surrounds specific memories from growing up in a small town in Mexico— ranging from getting blackmailed into coming out to telling her mom she has a girlfriend years later— her pieces chronicle shared experiences for members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The photographs are shot in the style of the internet’s beloved stock photos, used for everything from memes to professional presentations. Yaiza’s series features classic stock photo elements like overly expressive models, props, flat lighting, and a white studio background; each image is dotted with watermark-style words, which, while normally protect the image’s copyright, tell the story behind the photo.
Exhibition: False Promises
Artist: Justine Bui
Gallery: Nickle Galleries
Justine Bui is a half-Chinese and half-Vietnamese female born in Calgary, Alberta, who focuses her art on colourism in Asian communities. Graduating with a BFA Honours in Visual Studies from the University of Calgary in April 2023, Justine is a multidisciplinary artist who uses mediums such as photography, sculpture, and installation to raise awareness about how colourism still exists within our present-day society. Evolving from the Program for Undergraduate Research Experience (PURE) Award received in 2022, False Promises explores the layers of impact that colourism imposes on one’s body.
Justine creates contemporary artworks which counteract the historical notions of skin lightening that link to colonization. She uses colourism research within the art itself to mobilize knowledge about the physical, mental, and social effects from the products and practices. By highlighting the ongoing issue which continues to impact each generation, Justine strives to promote change on the outlook of one’s skin colour in East and Southeast Asian communities.