Known To Us: Oil paintings by Artists for Kids Participants

Griffin Art Projects, in collaboration with Artists for Kids, is proud to host KNOWN TO US, a two-day exhibition featuring the oil painting portraits by 25 North Vancouver high school students made under the mentorship and guidance of contemporary painter Lacey Jane Wilburn. Lacey Jane was this year’s recipient of Griffin’s Emily Carr University Education & Outreach Fellowship-–an award reserved for ECUAD’s MFA recent graduates. Most notable for her cinematic renderings of domestic space that undulate between gesture and realism on canvas, Lacey Jane worked with students from Artists for Kids’ Studio Art Academy over the course of three sessions, facilitating artmaking workshops and a studio visit. While the students’ first instinct exploring portraiture during the workshop was to portray public figures, they were given the prompt to instead “paint a person in your life”. Reframing the gaze to see through a familial lens, students furthered their painting skills while deepening the spatial understanding of the relationships they hold with the subjects in their work. The portraits in the exhibition are of siblings, parents, dear friends, or self-portraits. This intimacy creates an increased necessity in crafting a representation of these individuals to convey the emotions and memories that accompany the image. Griffin is thrilled to continue our partnership with Artists for Kids, whose program offers students the opportunity to develop a personal portfolio each year, increasing confidence in their abilities as artists. Exploration of drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture provide students with a variety of artistic processes, culminating in yearly exhibitions of their work. Intensive studio/classroom work, visits to artists’ studios and post-secondary institutions equip students with an understanding of the skills and commitment required to pursue the visual arts in a post-secondary setting. Exposure to a variety of artists during each school term adds to the richness of students’ experiences in the AFK Studio Art Academy. Students gain an understanding of trends in contemporary Canadian art and career elements required of successful studio artists.