Lucien Durey and Katie Kozak: Snow Gallery
Commissioned by Dunlop Art Gallery, 2014
Presented in partnership with New Dance Horizons Ice & Fire Festival
February 14 to spring thaw, 2014
Curated by Blair Fornwald
In Situ - Victoria Park
Conceived of as an ephemeral third exhibition space for Dunlop Art Gallery, Snow Gallery will be constructed by artists Lucien Durey and Katie Kozak, alongside a team of volunteers, and will remain as long as winter.
Four packed snow walls form an impermanent structure that functions simultaneously as a gallery and public artwork. Inside the gallery walls are found objects encased in carefully-constructed ice vitrines, set atop snow plinths. These objects, sourced from local thrift shops and antique stores, carry with them unknown personal significance and histories. Together, they form a loose portrait of the city, while reflecting the artists' curatorial interests. As the exhibition melts, or is deconstructed by passersby, the objects have the potential to be claimed or to disappear, landing in unforeseeable places: thrift stores, houses, or garbage bins. The gallery too will melt, and will become part of the water system from which it was created, drawing parallels between the cycle of consumer goods and the cycles of nature.
Katie Kozak is a Creighton, Saskatchewan artist of Métis and Ukrainian descent, whose work is a thoughtful blend of visual art and science. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Victoria and attended Emily Carr University of Art and Design from 2009 through 2012. She has exhibited artworks in the Prairies and Western Canada. Her work, Ground Water Gallery, a precursor to Snow Gallery was installed on Birch Lake, Saskatchewan, near Creighton, in the winter of 2012.
Lucien Durey is a visual artist and singer working in Saskatchewan and Vancouver. Drawing from personal and popular experience, his practice explores themes of authenticity and compensation through performance, assemblage/installation, and digital processes. Durey holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design and is currently workings towards an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies at Vancouver's SFU School for the Contemporary Arts. He has exhibited in Saskatchewan, Vancouver, Portland and New York.