Graduate students in the visual arts program are organizing the year’s first exhibit, parley, held for a week at The Gales Gallery, with free admission for all. The exhibit will showcase the work of 22 returning and incoming MFA and PhD students in the fine arts, including drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, and print. The works presented were created in the span of the last two years, many of which created in the last six months.
The exhibit is entitled parley, meaning a discussion, originating from the French verb parler, translating into “to talk”. The exhibition is meant to start a conversation between students, faculty, and the rest of the art community.
“There is a tradition of an early September exhibition at York that brings together the work of incoming and returning students, making some of the students’ first interactions with each other grounded in their practices,” says Barbara Balfour, graduate program director of visual arts at York.
The arts, particularly visual art, tend to be arbitrary and ambiguous. Andrew Testa, one of the MFA students in charge of organizing parley, says that as fine arts students, they often have to negotiate with their methods and theories when producing engaging artwork.
[su_quote]“There are no right answers in much that we do, hence the focus on ‘parley’ and its role as a discussion and negotiation,”[/su_quote]says Testa.
Many of the students have not had a chance to meet each other or see their work. Installation of the exhibition began this past Friday, where students had a chance to interact and see the completed pieces for the first time. Derek Coulombe, another MFA students in charge of organizing parley, says that not only are they meeting for the first time, but they are also acknowledging that they are embarking on a journey together. The exhibition was curated by fellow graduate students who had to collaborate and discuss the coherent viewing experience, which would ideally elicit a discussion or debate between the viewers.
parley is not the only exhibition that the graduate students will take part in. In the winter semester, the fine arts department is planning a Spring Open Studio event. Each graduate student also works on their practice-based research, culminating with a final thesis exhibition.
parley runs from September 10 to 18, at The Gales Gallery in Accolade West.
Victoria Goldberg, Arts Editor
Featured illustration by Christopher Lai
