Martha Street Studio

Author: Martha Street Studio

  • Bedfellows // Noelle Wharton-Ayer

    Opening Reception: January 17, 2025 at 5-8PM

    Artist Talk and Demo: Saturday January 18, 2025 at 1PM

    Exhibition Dates: January 17 – February 22, 2025

    Free and open to the public

    Exhibition response by Diana Sawatzky

    Martha Street Studio is pleased to present Bedfellows, a solo exhibition by Noelle Wharton-Ayer (QC)

    //

    Bedfellows proposes an exploration of the speculative qualities of collage through a combination of drawing and analog and digital photography, creating tensions between images that act as document and those that are imaginary or symbolic. This body of work explores the presence of the botanical in the everyday, and is inspired by spaces of rest, dreaming and inactivity: most notably, the ephemeral but essential leaf litter of terrestrial ecosystems.

    The exhibition’s foundation is a suite of silver gelatin photograms created during the winter of 2024, created from collected photographs, observational grease drawings and collaged motifs. These photograms provided the visual material for a series of large-format digital collages, silhouetted soft screens and aluminum cut-outs, creating liminal spaces within the exhibition that toggle between veracity and conjecture. Inspired by the dream-like qualities of the photogram’s surface, the artist envisions this repurposing of photographed materials as an exercise in utopian botanical reimagining.

    The artist would like to thank CALQ (Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec) and VU Photo for their generous support of the creation of this project.

    //

    Artist Statement:

    My practice considers the ways in which landscape and the botanical can call us to self-reflection and be used as a point of entry in the construction of personal and familial narratives. My work explores the ways our relationships with natural environments are mediated through distance and the passage of time, creating conversation between exterior botanical spaces and interior emotional states. The image of the botanical is used as a symbolic mechanism for cultivating care and communicating ways of being-in-landscape non-linearly, through feeling and impression.

    My work often approaches image-making through collage, sampling images sourced online and from personal archives (family photos, drawings, etc.) and combining and rearranging visual elements in ways that play with scale and repetition. The decorative is also employed as an organizational framework for the enumeration of collected images or information. Combining screen printing, drawing and photography, I am interested in the process of collage as a methodology that engages both real and imaginary spaces, simultaneously activating the mundane and the spectacular. Finally, my work explores the potential of the two-dimensional surface to create space for alternative modes of visual perception, using repetition, distortion, layering, and transparency as visual mechanisms that allude to movement and transformation, soliciting a heightened state of visual attention.

    //

    Bio:

    Born in Toronto in 1987, Noelle Wharton-Ayer is a multidisciplinary artist currently living and working in Quebec City. Her practice considers relationships between exterior botanical spaces and interior emotional states, utilizing the collage process as a methodology engaging both real and imaginary spaces. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in visual arts from York University and a Master’s degree in visual arts from Université Laval. Noelle’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in Ontario, Quebec, and Europe, including the 7th edition of the Foire en Art Actuel de Québec in 2020 and the 12th edition of the Biennale Internationale d’Estampe Contemporaine de Trois-Rivières in 2021. She has worked as a community arts practitioner in Quebec City since 2019. Her project Bedfellows (supported generously by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec) was created and exhibited at the artist-run centre VU Photo in the spring of 2024.

  • 2024 INKubator Showcase

    Join us as we showcase new print works made by graduates of the Fall 2024 INKubator program! INKubator is a 14 week long follow up to our Youth Outreach Program, which is free and open to youth ages 16-25. For more information, contact education@printmakers.mb.ca

    Opening reception: Friday, December 13, 2024 from 5PM – 8PM

    Exhibition run: December 13-21, 2024

    Free Youth Programs

  • Within the Wider Landscape // Cassandre Boucher

    Within the Wider Landscape // Cassandre Boucher

    Exhibition Dates: September 6 – October 18

    Opening Reception: Friday September 13 @ 5 – 8pm
    Artist Demo Workshop: Saturday September 14 @ 1pm at Martha Street Studio

    This workshop is free to attend and open to the public.

    Exhibition Text by Bronwyn Watson

    //

    Martha Street Studio is pleased to present Within the Wider Landscape, a solo exhibition by Cassandre Boucher (FRA).

    Having grown up in the forests of the St. Lawrence Lowlands, and now living in the heart of urban density in Paris, Cassandre Boucher reflects on the connections that unite human and nature. For the exhibition Within the Wider Landscape, she blends printed works and woven textiles to evoke contact with nature as a source of sensory and emotional experiences.

    Delicate, colored papers with diaphanous transparency sit alongside wide-meshed textiles that allow light to pass through. Folded and crumpled, sometimes torn, intertwined, and hand-woven in other places, they reveal fragments of photographic images. A wayward tree has fallen across the road; hands begin their weaving; the field of flowers has become a drape. Within the Wider Landscape calls for slow contemplation and introspection. It is an invitation to dive into our memories and consider the natural spaces that surround us in their entirety as places of interaction and interdependence, rather than simply as a resource to be controlled and exploited.

    //

    I am interested in the temporal and emotional relationships that link human beings to their environments. I pursue a protean approach to textile arts where weaving, etching, and the pictorial possibilities of screen printing are combined and utilized within both two-dimensional and installation-based works. Driven by an interest in nature as well as traditional methodologies of craft and labour, I draw inspiration from recent social histories and the rural Quebec surroundings in which I grew up, in order to imagine alternative relationships between manual labour and our natural world. Through an eco-feminist approach, I consider the notions and implications of time and repetition inherent to the production of textile arts as tools to examine and address the conventional relationships of exploitation and domination by Western societies.

    //

    Cassandre Boucher (she, her, hers) is a Canadian visual artist living and working in Paris (France). She holds a Bachelor of Visual & Media Arts, and a Master’s Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education, both from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM, Canada). She also holds a Master’s of Fine Arts in Printed Image from the École des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD, Paris). Her work has been exhibited across Canada, as well as in France, Portugal and Switzerland. She has held residencies at the Fabric Workshop and Museum (Philadelphia, USA), The Icelandic Textile Center (Blönduós, Iceland), and Villa Belleville (Paris, France). Her work has received support from both the Quebec Council for the Arts, and the Canadian Council for the Arts. In 2023, she received the Grand Jury Prize of the Trois-Rivières’ Printmaking Biennale (Canada), and in 2024, received the Lieux-Communs Prize, awarded by the art centre Lieux-Communs in Namur (Belgium).

    Instagram @cassandre.boucher_

    Exhibition documentation by Sarah Fuller @sefullerphoto




















































































































































































  • to be held in two hands // Sonali Menezes & Snack Witch Joni Cheung

    to be held in two hands // Sonali Menezes & Snack Witch Joni Cheung

    Exhibition Dates: July 12 – August 24, 2024

    Closing Reception: Friday August 23, 2024 @ 5 – 8 pm

    Artist Demo Workshop: Saturday August 24, 2024 @ 1pm at Martha Street Studio.
    This demo workshop is free to attend and open to the public.

    Exhibition Text by Alana MacDougall

    Martha Street Studio is pleased to present to be held in two hands, a duo exhibition by Sonali Menezes (ON) and Joni Cheung (QC).

    //

    It takes two,

    hands to

    clear off a table

    wash a tower of dishes

    cut a mango

    serve a meal

    feed others

    nourish ourselves

    We are reaching,

    for a plate of food

    for connections to the lands and waters we currently call home

    to the places our ancestors cared for and flourished with

    We call back

    through food

    patiently waiting for our voices to intertwine

    over long distances

    Staring at bright marigold stains

    that are probably older than we are

    our minds wander to meals shared with family members

    While eating alone

    Something we have had to learn

    growing up in so-called Canada

    Getting lost in the messiness

    in the markings and spaces between

    are our (hi)stories and relations

    //

    Snack Witch Joni Cheung and Sonali Menezes grew up eating food. Often with two hands: to pull apart a steamed bun, to rip off a piece of bhatura to dip into channa; to offer a serving, to cut a mango. Sometimes the messiness was cleaned up with a good morning towel, marks revealing the history of what food was shared. Other times, haldi stains remain on skin, wooden spoons, and under nails. Both artists are part of Asian diasporas born here in so-called Canada, originating in Hong Kong, and Goa, India respectively. As they navigate the in-betweenness of being settlers and second-generation immigrants, they reach back to their homelands through food. They connect to the land through taste, by eating, in gratitude, by sharing around a table.

    //

    ARTIST STATEMENTS

    Through an interdisciplinary artistic practice, Snack Witch Joni Cheung investigates the interdependent relationship between objects, place, and identity. As a Canadian-born Hong Kong-Chinese queer, anglophone woman, Cheung uses this lens to navigate discourses of transnationalism, migration, displacement, and diasporas.

    Growing up tirelessly grasping at their language ∴ culture, Cheung soothed her hunger for connection via online communication/sharing platforms, and by eating. These ingredients helped a hopeful pessimist calm rolling waves of loneliness and learn about their heritage and ancestry. Sifting through family memories of displacement—usually in-between conversations held over food-covered tables—and prickly experiences of trying to blend in until smooth, nourish points of interest to reflect and respond to global contexts and (hi)stories.

    Conducting research is a ritual that molds the way Cheung works. Chewing on the spectrum of transparency ↔ opacity and translation of forms (physical ↔ digital) and stories, Cheung collects and layers still and moving images from archives and contemporary media, words, sound(scapes), objects, and places. This research simmers into installations conjured up with sculptures, performances, texts, audio explorations, photographs, and videos—marinating and transforming accumulated ephemera often overlooked by those outside of my communities. As of late, Cheung has been using food and humour to draw people in with the familiar, to confront the uncomfortable histories embedded in the everyday.

    🍵🌶️🥭🍲🥟🥘🍦🍰🍍

    //

    All hail mango, queen of the fruits and balm for seasonal depression! How to cut a mango is based on Sonali Menezes’ theory that if she ate a mango every day, she would no longer be seasonally depressed. She began in the depths of winter and asked close family members to demonstrate on camera how they cut a mango. Sonali continued with one of her favourite things: playing around in the print studio. She finished by assembling her final homage to the mango by exploring her favourite grocery stores in Scarborough, Ontario.

    //

    ARTIST BIOS

    🔮 Snack Witch Joni Cheung 🍡 (she/they) is a grateful, uninvited guest born—and knows she wants to die—on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Stó:lō, and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh peoples. They are a Certified Sculpture Witch with an MFA from Concordia University (2023). She holds a BFA with Distinction in Visual Art (2018) from the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University. As a wicked #magicalgirl ✨ who eats art and makes snacks, she has exhibited and curated shows, off- and online, across Turtle Island. Currently, they are based on the stolen lands of the Kanien’kehá:ka peoples.

    They are a recipient of numerous awards, including the Individual Arts Grants—Visual Artists: British Columbia Arts Council; Research and Creation Grant: Canada Council for the Arts; and the Dale and Nick Tedeschi Studio Arts Fellowship. Aside from art-making, Joni likes wandering down grocery store aisles and drinking bubble tea.

    Snack Witch Joni Cheung gratefully acknowledges the support of the BC Arts Council for the realization of this project.

    @snackwitch
    https://snackwitch.ca/

    //

    Sonali Menezes (she/her) is a Hamilton-based multidisciplinary artist and writer. She holds an Honours BA in Studio Art from the University of Guelph and is the youngest of triplets. While her work spans many mediums, she has been most recently focused in zines, video and printmaking. Her zines live in personal and public zine libraries worldwide. Sonali makes art as a way to find meaning under the weight of capitalism and the unending anxiety of the climate crisis. She makes art about food often and is currently writing her first book named after her popular 2022 zine, Depression Cooking.

    Sonali Menezes gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Government of Ontario.

    @sonaleeeeeee
    https://sonali-menezes.com/

    //

    Exhibition documentation by Sarah Fuller @sefullerphoto


































































































































































  • Assorted Editions: SoA Takeover

    Assorted Editions: SoA Takeover

    Exhibition Dates: April 19 – May 31, 2024

    Opening Reception: Friday, April 19, 2024 @ 5 – 8 pm

    Martha Street Studio is pleased to present Assorted Editions: SOA Takeover, a group exhibition by the University of Manitoba School of Art printmaking students.

    //

    Assorted Editions: SOA Takeover transforms Martha Street Studio into an exhilarating exploration of student artists and their creative visions in printmaking. Featuring new works from the School of Art’s printmaking students, Assorted Editions showcases the diverse practices of Winnipeg’s emerging printmakers, highlighting the skills and novel approaches developed under the guidance of accomplished educators and peers. Coming together at Martha Street Studio to amplify compelling new voices, these contemporary printmakers share exciting views of what it means to print.

    In Assorted Editions: SOA Takeover, Martha Street Studio is transformed into an overwhelming space filled with dynamic contemporary prints. Providing an intimate glimpse into the current landscape of the School of Art student printmakers, this exhibition bridges the gap between Winnipeg’s art and student communities. Opening a window into the School of Art’s industrious student printmaking community with emphasis on finesse and mastery of their craft, the works in this show range from intaglio to screen print and relief, each connected to the other by a boundless enthusiasm to create.

    Assorted Editions draws together the best of student work in a celebration of the Flat Land Print Studio’s new generation of printmakers.

    //

    Through a selection committee composed of various community members within the School of Art and faculty, the artworks showcased in this exhibition were carefully chosen with the intention of showing high quality works that fairly represent the School of Art and its printmaking community. Students included in this exhibition come from diverse range of backgrounds, uniting various undergraduate years and programs including the honours stream and postgraduate studies. This broad selection of work brings together contemporary student printmaking into dialogue with each other, breaking new ground in print and nurturing roots with Martha Street Studio.

    //

    Located within the University of Manitoba’s campus, the School of Art facilities reside on Treaty 1 territory and are composed of a diverse community of students and faculty members who all come from distinct cultural, artistic and educational backgrounds. Printmaking and its many specialties are among the most vibrant of the myriad disciplinary focuses available at the School of Art.

    Known as the Flat Land Print Studio, this studio space provides opportunity for students and instructors to practice and perfect specific forms of printmaking. Providing materials and resources for students to explore their artistic practice and expand upon their own voices through printmaking, Flat Land Print Studio provides equipment to produce works in intaglio, lithography, silkscreen, papermaking, using non-toxic processes. Flat Land Print Studio holds an extensive archival collection of prints donated by former students since the 1950s.

    //

     

    Documentation photos by Sarah Fuller








































































































































































































































































































































































  • Printed Flight // Lisa Matthias

    Printed Flight // Lisa Matthias

    Exhibition Dates: March 1 – April 5, 2024

    Opening Reception: Friday March 1 @ 5 – 8 pm

    Artist talk: Saturday March 2 @ 1pm
    In-person and livestream via Zoom

    This talk is free to attend and open to the public.

    Exhibition Text by Blair Fornwald

    //

    Martha Street Studio is pleased to present Printed Flight, a solo exhibition by Lisa Matthias (AB).

    Printed Flight explores the worlds of songbirds, insects, and landscapes, through the media of woodcut printmaking, ecological soundscape, and stop-motion animation.

    Matthias not only highlights songbirds but also brings attention to insects in this exhibition. The fusion of printmaking and time-based intermedia is evident in an animated video piece that offers a unique depiction of moth-watching as a form of wildlife observation. The captivating soundscapes presented were recorded during two artist residencies undertaken by Matthias in 2023, providing an immersive auditory experience complemented by woodcut print landscapes.

    Printed Flight features Matthias’ largest work to date, The Ornithology Collection, a 15-foot woodblock print. This piece, part of a series depicting bird nests of various species, arose from the artist’s in-depth study of natural history specimens at the Royal Alberta Museum. 

    Matthias, who is also an ecologist, seamlessly integrates her scientific knowledge into her creative practice. The result is a collection of contemporary visual artworks that challenge and engage viewers, emphasizing the critical themes of biodiversity and our environment.

    //

    As an interdisciplinary artist and trained ecologist, my work revolves around natural history, conservation biology, and the environment. After working for over a decade as a botanist and wildlife biologist in western Canada, I switched career paths to pursue the visual arts full-time, completing a Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking. The foundation of my creative exploration lies in observation and inquiry. I document and study nature and the environment through various art media and often using science-based processes like microscopy, field sound recording, writing, wild species counts, and collaborations with scientific colleagues.

    My ongoing conceptual and field research spans several areas. A primary focus on songbird ecology examines bird vocalizations, nest-building, and migratory patterns. This work was influenced by my documentation of the ornithology nest collection of the Royal Alberta Museum and an artist residency at Point Pelee National Park, Ontario, an international birdwatching destination. My exploration of insects in my creative practice parallels my avian studies. Several years ago I started moth-watching, or “mothing”, using nighttime moth lures. This led to other new developments such as recording insect sounds and making insect-based stop-motion animation.

    Embracing multidisciplinary studio approaches, I maintain a common thread of experimentation and production. Within the visual arts, the uniqueness of printmaking lies in its diverse technical procedures, aesthetic qualities, and the potential for innovative approaches. A significant portion of my work involves black and white woodcut prints. The sculptural quality of the woodblock; the materiality of the wood, paper, and ink; the graphic nature of relief print images; and the layers of technique and skill involved all draw me to this medium. Additionally, I regularly create multimedia pieces featuring ecological soundscape and hand-printed or drawn stop-motion animation. By pushing the boundaries of my creative practice, conceptually, aesthetically, and materially, I strive to create meaningful work that engages with contemporary dialogues surrounding environmental crises, including biodiversity decline, habitat loss, climate change, and interconnected global inequalities.

    //

    Residing just outside of Edmonton, Alberta, Lisa Matthias is an interdisciplinary visual artist with a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Alberta, and a Master of Science in plant ecology from the University of Manitoba. Her artwork has been exhibited in exhibitions across Canada, the US, and internationally, and is represented by two commercial art galleries. Transitioning from a career as a botanist and wildlife biologist in western Canada, Matthias‘ creative process integrates science-based approaches with a studio focus on printmaking, and expanded print practices incorporating stop-motion animation and sound. Alongside her studio practice she teaches community art classes in Edmonton. She is a parent to twin school-aged children, and her love for animals and the outdoors deeply influences her work.

    Pronouns: She/her/hers
    Website: lisamatthias.com
    Instagram: lisa_matthias_art

    //

    Exhibition documentation photos by Sarah Fuller




























































































































































  • INKubator Showcase 2023

    Documentation photos of this year’s INKubator showcase are featured below. Participating artists: 

    Juca Shanski de Aquino

    Natalia Cassan

    Kielamel Siebal

    Jenna Li

    Kat Derbecker

    Hanna Reimer

    Sammi Campbell-Mymko

    Bronwyn Watson

    // Photos by Sarah Fuller.




































































































































































































































































  • Summer Song // Shogo Okada

    Summer Song // Shogo Okada

    Exhibition Dates: January 12 – February 16, 2024

    Opening Reception: Friday January 12, 2023 @ 5 – 8 pm

    Artist talk: Saturday January 13, 2023 @ 1pm

    In-person and livestream via Zoom

    This talk is free to attend and open to the public.

    Exhibition Text by Steacy Easton

    //

    Martha Street Studio is pleased to present Summer Song, a solo exhibition by Shogo Okada (QB).

    Working within a multi-disciplinary practice reverberating between art-making and music-making, Shogo Okada explores playful visual expression through the print works in Summer Song with intuitive, empathetic consideration. Building the exhibition from individual motifs the way a DJ builds a set, Summer Song takes its title and inspiration from a Dave Brubeck Quartet song of the same name. With precision and vibrant colour, Okada curates a warming ensemble of works that resonate with memories and impressions of summer.

    From the lushness of a tomato plant in full red bloom, to suggestions of an incomprehensible giraffe on a lazy dog day, Summer Song crafts an enigmatic view of warmer days. Resisting a linear reading in favour of exploring spatial relationships between each work, Okada doesn’t want you to think too much. Instead, he wants you to feel the rhythm and the relationship of each work, then experience them all like one playlist.

    //

    Artist Statement

    I predominantly work in screen printing and also make music, and both disciplines influence each other. I like making a composition out of subjects I encounter. The motifs vary from natural objects to artifacts and traditional works but I always pick something that has interesting shapes, colours and structures. I start from a theme, distill the essence of the subject and create my composition that works with the nature of the motif.

    As I process the image, I explore all kinds of composition possibilities and combinations. It’s similar to writing music. You make a theme, and develop ways to approach this theme. I like the fact that some unexpected phrases come out during the process of both music and visual art productions. Contrary to how painters work in general, as a printmaker I work in a subtractive manner to emphasize and focus on the core value of the subject so that I can keep the conversation simple and easy, but playful.

    When it comes to style, I go for abstract because it doesn’t tell you everything like figurative works do; it is more poetic and also provides space to think freely. As we digest things by referring to own memories when engaging with abstract works, we can have a more open and unique exchange of thoughts. I mainly work in the traditional or so-called “old-fashioned” analogue way, but I also use my computer for further development. I start an image by drawing, editing it in real life and also on a computer, and finishing the image by hand.

    I prefer working in both forms; manual operations limit the possibilities compared to digital work but the human hand gives warmth and an organic feel. On the other hand, the computer offers a lot more possibilities for editing and refinement. So, I combine both old and new techniques to develop an image and print the work by hand to create contemporary but timeless works.

    //

    Born in Osaka, Japan, Shogo Okada lives and works in Montréal, Québec. His practice explores the worlds of visual arts and music, and he is influenced both by counterculture and diverse historical eras. His technique shows impressive precision and warmth expressed by screen-printing without digital processes, watercolour drawings, and analog music production. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions and fairs in Canada and Japan. Okada’s work is included in many private collections and in public and corporate collections including the Bibliothèque et Archives nationale du Québec (BAnQ), Capital One USA, National Bank of Canada, and BMO.

    Documentation photos by Sarah Fuller and Bramwell Enan

































































































































  • Seasoned Ground // Martha at Galerie Buhler Gallery

    Seasoned Ground // Martha at Galerie Buhler Gallery

    Exhibition Dates: November 30, 2023 to January 28, 2024.

    Opening Reception: November 30 from 6 to 8pm at Galerie Buhler Gallery in St. Boniface Hospital

    Spanning intimate interiors and expansive environments, Seasoned Ground burrows into the intimacies of place and space and finds nourishment in the small corners of familiar rooms and cozy diversions.

    Through radical explorations of colour and shape, Seasoned Ground express faith in the power of sustained looking and thoughtful contemplation. From the Escher-like paradox of an endless yet self-contained staircase, to playfully inquisitive arrangements of matchsticks, Seasoned Ground reveals a depth that sustains us.

    Meandering through a diverse range of printmaking techniques, from the soft subtleties of intaglio and lithography to the sharp shouts of linocut and relief printing, Seasoned Ground carries reflections and meditations through 35 years of printmaking at Martha Street Studio into the dynamic currents of today.

    Photo Documentation by Bramwell Enan.






















































































































































  • Martha Street Studio Annual General Meeting

    Martha Street Studio Annual General Meeting

    Martha Street Studio will hold its Annual General Meeting on December 13, 2023 at 7pm. Join us in person at 11 Martha Street or online through Zoom.

    A Zoom link will be available on December 13.