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TWU’s graduate art exhibition opens at Langley Centennial Museum

Local students Katelyn Anderson, Chantal New, Meredith Radwanski, and Marissa Wagner celebrate the culmination of their art education through the SAMC Art + Design program with this exhibition, which portrays a shift in the way they view the world.

Transpose opens later this month at the Langley Centennial Museum featuring the graduating Art + Design class of Trinity Western University’s School of the Arts, Media + Culture (SAMC). The opening reception on March 31 is free and open to the public.

This collection of drawings, paintings, objects, and photographs represents the intangible elements of human nature in a way that is both personal and universal. Transpose explores fears, history, emotions, and memories as the artists abandon underlying assumptions in favour of curiosity and imagination.

Chantal New uses drawing and collage to give added meaning to archival photos of swimming and the Fraser Valley flood of 1948. Her dark graphite "puddles" and other organic marks highlight the awkwardness and emotion inspired by the original photographs, which she discovered while volunteering at The Reach Gallery Museum Abbotsford.

The drawings now feel personal, New explained, even though the people and places are anonymous. “My drawings illustrate the tenuous link between memories and photographs,” she said, “exploring what it means to possess a moment from the past.”

Our relationships with natural beauty—specifically the peaceful forests of the Pacific Northwest—piqued Meredith Radwanski’s curiosity. Intrigued by the sometimes-ominous feeling of urban spaces contrasted with calming escapes into nature, Radwanski's abstracted photographs investigate the effects of these different spaces on stress and anxiety.

Marissa Wagner’s work looks at the emotional responses that result from living under strict rules and stressful events, and Katelyn Anderson’s sculptures and abstract paintings explore the intricacies of scarring and the healing process.

Presented as part of TWU’s Festival of the Arts, Media + Culture with support from Flying Horse Design Studio, Transpose runs until April 25 at the Langley Centennial Museum, 9135 King Street, Fort Langley. Opening Reception Tuesday, March 31 at 6:30 p.m. Free admission. For more details, visit www.twu.ca/samc or www.langleymuseum.org.