Modus Operandi: The role of process in the work of Nate McLeod, Tia Halliday and Fiona Ackerman

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Modus Operandi: The role of process in the work of Nate McLeod, Tia Halliday and Fiona Ackerman

Opening Reception, Thursday, March 9th from 5 to 8 pm, Artists in Attendance.

The studio is the artist’s laboratory where ideas spawned late at night when one can’t sleep, while stuck in traffic or out for a walk, become kindling for a new direction. Research, experiment, sketching, computer mock ups; going down the rabbit hole, is the process of the artist. This is the aspect of the work that takes most of the artist’s time and energy but is rarely seen by outsiders. In this exhibit, we will look into the process by three artists to whom process is as important, a most vital component, to the end result.

Born in 1978, Fiona Ackerman grew up in Montreal. She studied art at Concordia University and graduated from The Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design with a BFA in 2002. She received an honorable mention for the Kingston Prize for Canadian Portraiture in 2009, and was included in Carte Blanche 2: Painting, a survey and showcase of the current state of painting in Canada (published by The Magenta Foundation, fall 2008. Fiona lives in Vancouver, BC and shows extensively across Canada and in Germany. Fiona was longlisted for the 2015 Sobey Art Award.

Tia Halliday was born in Calgary Alberta. She received a BFA in Painting with distinction from the Alberta College of Art and Design. Halliday also attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Ontario College of Art and Design. Halliday went on to obtain a Masters of Drawing and Painting from Concordia University.  Halliday has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions and engaged in various projects across Canada and Europe. Her work has been noted in such publications as the Washington Post and Canadian Art Online. Tia Halliday was recently selected as an Artist in Residence at Contemporary Calgary as part of their NEXT2015 Program and she performed her subsequent “living sculpture” performances during the LOOK2015 fundraiser for Contemporary Calgary.  Tia is the daughter of the late Canadian abstract painter Richard Halliday, RCA and has recently become a tenure-track instructor of visual art and theory within the Department of Art at the University of Calgary. Tia Halliday’s recent news includes being awarded with the ACAD Alumni Honour Award and the Enbridge Professional Development Award as well as being awarded with a Project Grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and selected to represent Alberta in the 2017 Alberta Biennial at the Art Gallery of Alberta.

Nate McLeod is an artist, curator, and arts administrator who received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Alberta College of Art + Design in 2010. McLeod has been involved in the founding of numerous projects including The Bakery (a studio collective offering affordable studio space to emerging artists), Fresh Bread (a print and web-based publication focused on the practices of Calgary based artists), and AVALANCHE! Institute of Contemporary Art (a gallery, shop, and studio space dedicated to emerging, experimental practices). In addition, McLeod has curated several independent exhibitions and is the Assistant Curator of Contemporary Calgary. Recent studio projects have focused on ideas of ownership, authenticity, immediacy, value, remediation, and the role of the Internet and other digital technologies in contemporary painting.