DEPARTMENT of STUDIO ARTS

Scholarly and Creative Activity

Our faculty members receive research, performance and project grants, work as professional artists and exhibit their work in galleries and festivals locally, nationally and internationally. They collaborate with students, whose artistic practice thrives under their guidance and mentorship.

Faculty work

Our faculty are passionate about their artistic, creative and research practices. As well as teaching the next generation of artists, they work as writers, curators and artists in residence, participate in exhibitions and screenings, and lead professional arts and academic boards.

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Elisabeth Belliveau, associate professor, looks at pandemic life in her first graphic novel, Condo Lady (2022).
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Blue Light Blue (2021), a film by Anna Hawkins, assistant professor, uses the blue light emitted from the backlit LED screens of cellphones, tablets and laptops as a formal element, an experimental narrative device and a primary material.
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Mt.V. (2021) oil on canvas by sessional instructor Collin Johanson.
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Beak Disorder, an installation at Museo de Caldes, Manizales, Colombia (2016) by Leslie Sharpe, associate professor, features 3D printed distorted beaks placed on locally found wood. The installation included three speakers with single channel sound and printed disks with QR codes to sounds.
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Cindy Baker, sessional instructor, was one of the featured artists and performers at the Mitchell Art Gallery exhibit, The Mall. Perch Menagerie (performance prop). Styrofoam, commercial sign. (2023)
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Kyle Beal, a sessional instructor, created the diptych Waiting to Break a Leg (2021) using pencil crayon on cotton rag paper. Centered around a green palette, his mixed-media practice explores ideas of individuality and the performance of the everyday.
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During her tenure as artist in residence at Harcourt House, Kerri-Lynn Reeves, assistant professor, encouraged exhibit attendees to interact with the soft pieces in Holding/Tenderness (2023).
Faculty research online
Many of our faculty’s recent publications and research projects can be accessed through MacEwan library’s online repository.
STUDIO ARTS DEPARTMENT RESEARCH

Student work

Our students produce an eclectic collection of art in a variety of mediums: installation, sculpture, digital and extended media, painting, book art and performance art. Their work is displayed at events throughout the year, culminating in an exhibition of graduating students’ work each spring.

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In the summer of 2023, ARTE 301 – 2D Concepts and Practices students worked with artist Emily Chu and Assistant Professor Kerri-Lynn Reeves on a Alberta Craft Council building mural.
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Phoebe Hijmans created Who is this? for her Bachelor of Fine Arts ARTE 429 course project. Much of Phoebe's work draws on the themes of time, loss and memory.
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This Journey is Ours by Maya Pereira was commissioned by the Alumni Association and given to MacEwan's Spring 2024 graduates to commemorate their big day. The artist says, “This piece represents my experiences of relationships, adventures and belonging as a student at MacEwan.”
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Ian Hanson’s not like the other [t]oys (felted wool, wire, plastic and vinyl) was created for ARTE 119: Introduction to Creative Research. The sculpture explores the otherness of youth through the reinterpretation of a childhood action figure.
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Intimate, Inspiring, Nurturing, Natural, Cool by Brooklynne Trieber explores the many layers of meaning and experience found in zoos. She says, “This work looks deeper into the confined freedom animals have within these spaces and the relationships animals choose to have with the public.”
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Golden Hour by Naomi Bly was commissioned by the Alumni Association and given to MacEwan's Fall 2023 graduates to commemorate their big day. “This piece communicates hope and joy by bringing the symbols carved into MacEwan's ceremonial mace to life,” says Naomi.

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To ash/ang pagkahusay nato sa abo is a performance piece created for ARTE 216: Intermedia. “It centres around a ritual of both destruction and rebirth, transforming anew what was once weighted down by guilt,” says the artist, Alethea Recla.
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Watching and Waiting by Kathleen MacKay
Webcam, projection and headphones, 2025

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Icelandic Femme Varafeldur by Lydia Buhay
Mixed-media yarn weaving and photo prints, 2025

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Floating Shuttle by Sutharot Plia
Video, sound and buckets; nylon rope, warp thread, macrame yarn, wood and metal hooks, 2025

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mother’s daughter by Isabella Camerino
Collection of cyanotype prints and video, 2025

My work-integrated learning project for ARTE 111 really made me think about how what I was doing in class was applicable to real life.
Shyla Pellandini, Studio Arts student

Graduates’ exhibition

To celebrate their hard work, Studio Arts graduates plan their own grand finale, a juried exhibit of their finest and most provocative pieces. From selecting the pieces to display, to creating descriptive content to accompany the art and strategizing their involvement—the graduates’ exhibition provides students with invaluable hands-on experience. At the exhibit, they meet faculty, staff, members of the general public and art patrons from across the province.

2024 Studio Arts Grad Show
Check out the multi-media exhibition of graduating students’ art and research. Drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, performance, digital arts—see how art practice has evolved for these student artists.
Studio Arts Grad Show Grad Show Highlights
An invitation to students
Explore your own ideas and share them at conferences through USRI and USRA grants. Present to your peers and the general public at Student Research Day. Discover numerous opportunities for student-engaged research at MacEwan University.
students talking about project Student research at macewan