Kelsey Schuett: my own square of innocent noughts – Don Phillips Scholarship

Open Studio presented the 2009 Scholarship Exhibitions from November 5 to 28, 2009 by artists Pamela Dodds (Nick Novak Scholarship), Hazel Eckert (Donald O’Born Family Scholarship), and Kelsey Schuett (Don Phillips Scholarship). Each year, Open Studio awards three scholarships, providing artists working in print media with both professional support and access to studio facilities to create new work during a one-year period. All three artists gave illustrated talks about their work and the progress of their projects over the year on Thursday, November 5, 2009 at Open Studio, followed by an opening reception.

Presented in the George Gilmour Members’ Gallery, Kelsey Schuett’s work incorporates drawing, lithography and intaglio and examines identity and how we communicate, particularly through body language. In our social environment, non-verbal communication is a silent mediator, conveying messages without the use of verbal language, through which we are able to infer emotions and influence people’s perception of our competence, power and vulnerability.

Kelsey Schuett is a visual artist currently living in Calgary. She graduated in 2008 from the Alberta College of Art & Design, majoring in Print Media. Schuett spends her free time volunteering and teaching at the Alberta Print Society, Calgary, in collaboration with Calgarian printmaking artist Gary Olsen. She has several upcoming group exhibitions.

An exhibition brochure with an essay by Toronto-based artist and writer Lauren Nurse accompanied these exhibitions. Lauren Nurse is a transplanted Québecer living and working in Toronto, Ontario. She is a graduate of Concordia University’s Print Media program, and recently completed York University’s MFA program. She has participated in exhibitions in Toronto, Montreal, New Mexico and Italy, and attended residency programs at Montréal’s Atelier de L’ile, Atelier Circulaire, the Vermont Studio Center, Newfoundland’s Pouch Cove Foundation and Muskoka’s Tree Museum Sculpture Garden. She teaches Design at Sheridan College, and Lithography at York University. Her current work explores intersections between real and fictive environments. Lauren’s diverse art practice includes print media, painting and drawing, video and performance.

Exhibition Brochure: Download Brochure Here