Together, Apart

Virtual Exhibition, April 30–May 15, 2021

Presented by Union Gallery, Curated by Jung-Ah Kim and Roy Zheng

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Featuring artwork by Lexie Braden, Yifan Chen, Megan Divinski, Grier Drummond, Ashley Gringhuis, Leah Kendall, Lee Lapointe, Clare Lee, Emma Loiselle, Katie Marshall, Elise Ngo, Bronwen Parr, Tyler Pearse, Yanzhi Wang, and Ailene Zamora.

Together, Apart features fifteen artists within the 2021 graduating class of the Fine Art (Visual Art) program at Queen’s University. Student artists express their meditation and reflection of memories, nostalgia, human-nature connection and conflicting relationships with reality through oil painting, sketching, short videos and sculptures.Together, Apart is a virtual exhibition that will be launched across Unity and Instagram. This year, the unexpected reality has forced a group of promising emerging artists to stay distanced from their familiar studio environment. Regardless, it did not stop them from pursuing their passion. As artists, they creatively engaged with the given reality to process and express themselves.The ever-shifting circumstances that students have faced this past year seemed to have pushed their creativity even further. While distanced from their familiar on-campus studio environment, Queen’s BFA students have been converting their bedrooms, spare rooms and apartments into temporary studios, and experimenting with alternative mediums. Amidst the hardships, solitude and loss of connection that this year has wrought, the limitations of producing art under lockdown has enabled new directions for artists to have intimate conversations with themselves and their personal surroundings.Although COVID lockdown has forced them to stay apart, their shared passion for arts and the determination to create regardless of the outer environment bridges the distance. Thanks to the innovative technology that frees us from our physical limitations, we’re able to realize their desire to stay together, share their passion and creativity through digital exhibition. Beyond the physical gallery space, this project hopes to bring everyone together virtually and celebrate the creativity of Queen’s BFA program, Class of 2021.

Curator Biographies

Jung-Ah Kim is a filmmaker and programmer from Seoul, South Korea, currently in the first year of her Ph.D. in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies at Queen’s University. Before she came to Queen’s, she received her MFA in Documentary Media from Northwestern University (2019) in Chicago. Her films have been shown in various venues and festivals across North America and South Korea, and she organized regular Korean film screenings in Chicago as well as programming for film festivals. Currently working as a curatorial assistant at the Union Gallery supported by a Research Fellowship from her program, she wishes to continuously engage with curatorial practice as well as producing her own work.

Roy Zheng is a filmmaker, videographer and visual artist entering the second year of his Master’s degree in Cultural Studies. Currently, his graduate research explores the social ecology of independently operated film exhibition institutions in Toronto.

Roy holds a BA in Film and Media from Queen’s University, having graduated in 2019. He has previously worked as the Production Assistant at Kingston Canadian Film Festival, Media Archivist at Vulnerable Media Lab and Event Assistant at Kingston Film Office. Roy has created visual projects and artwork in multiple cities and countries through his studies at the University of St. Andrews, the University of Havana, the University of Hong Kong and the Bader International Study Center in the UK.