Featuring the work of:

Caz Bently
wood block prints
Daniel Bernyk
metal scuplture
Pat Burns-Wendland
hand spun weaving
Scott Caple
illustrations
Larry Cluchey
wood turning
Catherine Crowe
enamels
Dark Ages Re-creation Company
living history
Sandra Dunn
& Steve White
metalsmithing
Dianne Edwards
marquetry
Kelly Green
wood carving
Allison Hamilton
painting
Lydia Ilarion
fine metalwork
David Ivens
metalwork
Lloyd Johnson
forged metals
Mary Lazier
ceramics
Elsa Mann
ceramics
Darrell Markewitz
forged metals
Rosemary Molesworth
ceramics
Kelly Probyn-Smith
metalwork
Mark Puigmarti
forged metals
David Robertson
forged metals
Brenda Roy
fine metalwork
Rob Schweitzer
tablet weaving
Graeme Sheffield
forged metals
A.G. Smith
illustration
Steve Strang
painting & drawing
Ruth Swanson
ceramics
Kathryn Thomson
blown glass
Mark Tichenor
ceramics
Laura Travis
stone carving
Catherine VamVakas Lay
blown glass
Sara Washbush
fine metalwork
Brigitte Wolf
stained glass

DAN BERNYK
LaSalle, ON
bernyk2@uwindsor.ca

Dan Bernyk is an artist born and raised in LaSalle, Ontario, and is currently completing his BFA degree at the University of Windsor. He is a sculptor specializing in metal fabrication and is interested in interwoven modular configurations. Dan has spent time living in Vancouver, British Columbia, while working at a custom metal fabrication shop. He is currently participating in a studio residency program at the University of Windsor and was recently nominated for the International Sculpture Centre Award for Outstanding Achievement. Dan aspires to further his education and ultimately obtain an MFA degree.

" As an object maker my practice is predominantly embodied through material research and exploration involving very meticulous, repetitive, and laboriously intensive procedures. I primarily work with steel because it resonates a strong sense of permanence capable of withstanding the depredation of time. Although I value the cultural association of steel to manufacturing, I believe the material should induce an individual ‘feeling’ and not merely adhere to imposed physical or aesthetic expectations.
For this exhibition I decided against representing traditional funerary objects with implicit functions, instead considering how the term ‘grave goods’ reflects my current working methodology. Grave goods are typically votive offerings intended to accompany the deceased into the afterlife. My interest lies not in the transcendence of spiritual boundaries, but rather creating objects personifying an aura surrounding burial customs. Both works, Practically Organic and 90 P.S.I., retain representational characteristics likened to shapes and forms from the physical world but resonate unusual and mysterious connotations as well. I believe my work manifests an energetic dynamism that will serve as a catalyst for discussion because of the innumerable visual interpretations associated with it. "

'Practically Organic' forged mild steel $5000 Practically Organic is compromised of several hundred hand-forged steel plates fastened together with steel rivets. The work maintains a strong physical presence while accentuating a fluid gestural movement. It is as though the material is becoming a liquefied solution, conjuring notions of the infinite and perhaps suggesting a presence beyond itself.

'90 P.S.I.' fabricated mild steel $3000 90 P.S.I. involves a process of seamlessly welding sheet steel together and using air pressure to inflate the shapes. As a result, distinct forms emerge producing unique curves and folds creating a paradox for contemplation; the strength and rigidity of the metal sharply contrast the soft contours and playful associations of the work. Perhaps the inflation process becomes an allegory for injecting life, or a form of being, into an otherwise static object.