Library Art Committee

Artist: Marika Bise

Marika Bise graduated with a BFA from Kwantlen Polytechnic University in 2023. In the past she had dealt with topics of personal nostalgia and internal struggle expressed through imaginative figures and spaces, along with floral symbolism to enhance certain meanings. It has also become very important to incorporate cultural and religious aspects into her works as a way to express and constantly investigate her third-culture identity as a Japanese-Canadian. She prefers to use acrylic paint as the main medium, with touches of other materials like oils and inks.

Marika's Statement:
"My latest work Coexistence: Embrace and Coexistence: Reject (2023) is a diptych painting with two contrasting images. One work shows the figures together at peace, while the other shows the figures in a violent conflict. Each flower in this work represents an important meaning behind them: orange Lilies representing malevolence, blue Nemophilas as forgiveness, white Peace Lilies as peace, and yellow Carnations as rejection. This work focuses on the idea of the vice and virtue of mortality, the emotions relating to the love and hate that is often associated with death, and my attempt to balance the two sides. I want to capture the intense relation between the opposing forces that contrast against each other. However, when seen from a different perspective, those forces can also complement the importance of one another. In addition, the incorporation of Japanese and Okinawa culture is an attempt to reconnect to my cultural identity through my artistic practice. This idea of the positive and negative impressions around death has always lingered within me since childhood. It has both fascinated and frightened me, but after pondering on it for quite some time, I have come to see both sides equally. My intentions are to not romanticize nor demonize mortality, but rather acknowledge the different reactions one may hold towards the idea. One side cannot be appreciated without the existence of the opposite, and hence the title “Coexistence.” I believe this theory can be applied to several other aspects in life. As an artist, I will continue to challenge myself to express such values visually with respect."

For more of Marika's work please visit https://www.instagram.com/aoifude/

Artist Carson Selman

"I am a Bachelor of Fine Arts student at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and this spring I participated in the 2023 BFA grad show. My preferred artistic medium is acrylic painting. I see my work as an exploration of queer anxieties, sexuality, and masculinity in the modern world. I consider how one envisions gay or queer life, such as commercialized depictions of drag shows and raves. In contrast, I reflect on my own life and find myself drawn to the moments in-between. I ask questions like: without connections to the greater community, what do gay men do away from ‘the scene’? How do we meet one another?  I intend for my work to reflect the idea of not just meeting in person, but meeting online or in fantasy. I also imagine how queerness appears as it manifests into everyday life - a banal visibility that challenges expectations of celebration and liberation."

For more of Carson's work please visit https://www.carsonselmanart.com

Artist Mark Robinson

Mark Robinson is an artist emerging out of the Kwantlen Polytechnic University Bachelors of Fine Arts Program. Mark’s practice and art-making stems from a curiosity of how people express emotions. Primarily looking at the connections and the juxtapositions of how a person feels in relation to how they visually communicate or withhold their emotions. The artist’s current work is developed as an investigation of the emotional journey a person takes as they process and come to terms with tragedy. Mark depicts the complex layering of emotional psychology through surreal spaces and forms as a means of investigation and understanding through imagination, instead of being limited by the rules of reality and realism. 

Mark’s recent works area a consolidation of emotional experiences focused in grief and the compartmentalisation developed through interaction with the surrounding society. Six-foot Homestay and Swallowing Marbles (2023) are works which lie heavier in grief accompanied by detachment and frustration. The works are visual embodiments of the dichotomy of comfort and agony. Churning in Abandonment, Razor Tinged Eyes, Frost Burn Embrace and Digest Domicile (2023) are an investigations of grief and its effects on the aspect of comfort and loss of, on a persons perspective. These works feature and emphasis of aggression in grief, where as Six-foot Homestay and Swallowing Marbles (2023) feature detachment  

Mark begins the projects within their practice with an investigation of subject matter and the organization of keywords and phrases, which then acts as the beginning framework for visual experimentation and representation. Producing in surrealism allows the artist to work within a realm without the physical and social constraints of how human beings encounter, display, and react to psychologically taxing experiences. The medium of paint allows the artist to explore imagined spaces, objects, and figures with the intent of creating the imagined as visually consumable windows in which the audience can engage with.

For more of Mark's work please visit https://www.instagram.com/sharkstachio/

Artist Eugene Kang

“Hi, my name is Eugene Kang. I am an aspiring artist with a lust for life and a sweet yet bold sense of optimism peppering or flavouring the artworks I create. My series of acrylic paintings, “Nuisance vs Nuance”, explore rain in a colourful and abstractive sense. In how raindrops, the ones landing on glass windows, can sharpen focus, distract, or distort one’s perceptions of the rain as well as their surroundings, including urban environments. I also capture their abilities to trigger and influence emotions, instincts, and connections within visuals, space, and ambience, since raindrops act as lenses, refract light, and break up the light visible in them. Besides, rainy weather often reflects a somber mood, but my paintings are anything but somber!”