The Henry Lehmann Gallery’s First Exhibition of The Semester
Almost a decade ago, the Henry Lehmann Gallery was conceptualized and soon after came to fruition as Vanier’s very own art gallery, that prominently displays student works of all mediums.
The first exhibition of this semester showcases the winners of the Peter Gonda Memorial scholarship for photography and the Vanier Art Acquisition scholarship.
The Peter Gonda Memorial scholarship was created in memory of Peter Gonda who was a Montreal-based artist, novelist and screenwriter, who’s main passion was photography. He was notably interested in street photography and portraiture. He passed away on August 20th 2016 at the age of 47. The goal of the scholarship is to award students who demonstrate creativity and originality in their photographic works. The winners of this scholarship were: Gerald Daniel Nino (First Place), Charlotte Rainville (Second Place), and Bashir Al Mahayni (Third Place).
The Vanier Art Acquisition scholarship is a brand new scholarship started at the college, that seeks to buy student works to amass an archive of art and display the works throughout the school, as well as financially support student artists in the beginnings of their careers. The winners of this scholarship were Hrad Jean Kedjakoushian (First Place), Wessel Brussen (Second Place) and Kayla O’Reilly (Third Place).
On September 19th, 2018, the gallery hosted a vernissage event. The award ceremony of the scholarships happened next door to the gallery in the painting studio, where the college catered the event. Speeches were given by the Director General of Vanier College John McMahon, studio arts teacher Henri Venne as well as the Curator of the gallery Cristina Athina Mignacca alongside the Assistant Director of the gallery India-Lynn Upshaw-Ruffner.
Some highlights of the speeches were comments by the Director General stating that he was very impressed with the quality of the works displayed in the gallery, and the professional look of the gallery. Also, Henri Venne commented on the familial atmosphere fostered by teachers and students in the Communications department, and urged that it is students who truly foster this atmosphere and keep the gallery running through submitting works and running the gallery as curators.
Among those present for the event were the aforementioned Director General, the Academic Dean Annie-Claude Banville, as well as a large number of students and staff, making this past gallery vernissage a very impressive start to the semester in the gallery.
If you missed the vernissage event or have not yet had a chance to check out the show, you ought to go see the fantastic student works on display! The gallery show will be up until Thursday evening, so you have until then to see the winning artworks before they come down. The Henry Lehmann Gallery is located in B-305, so be sure to take a look this week, you may be pleasantly surprised.
Written by: India-Lynn Upshaw-Ruffner
Photo: VTV
