Past Exhibitions
Starting in 2022, the student projects subcommittee has been curating the second floor hallway of Hart House. Each semester we offer student artists of the university to showcase their creativity, original thinking, and ability to interpret themes chosen by us. Below you will find the archive of our past exhibitions.
2022 Fall Student Exhibition
2023 Winter Student Exhibition
Ephemeral Reverie
The 2024 Winter Talking Walls exhibition explores the theme of "Ephemeral Reverie”, an immersive exploration into the delicate dance of fleeting moments and the profound beauty found within life's transience. This exhibition serves as a contemplative space, inviting you to ponder the ephemeral quality of existence and the inherent value embedded in impermanence. Through a visual odyssey, we navigate the interplay of fragility and resilience, seeking to capture the elusive essence of life's transient wonders.
Artists interpreted the theme in diverse ways – by visualizing fleeting thoughts and feelings, finding reverie in chaos and death capturing its beauty, or presenting historical perceptions of our senses to capture ephemeral notions. Through a myriad of artistic mediums, from acrylic paintings to captivating ink works, we invite you to embark on a journey to explore the profound beauty that arises when we embrace life's impermanent nature.
“Ephemeral Reverie” is an invitation to embrace impermanence not as a source of anxiety, but as a source of inspiration. The artworks serve as windows into the artist's interpretation of the fleeting wonders. We hope you will discover a renewed appreciation for the fleeting wonders that shape our lives and our shared journey through time.
Sophie Disch and Chloe Lee
Hart House Art Committee
Student Projects Co-Chairs
More Play
Noor Al-Sehail
Mixed media on paper. Includes: Magazine and book cutouts
This work seeks to portray the fleeting wonders of our formative years, such as the simplicity and joy of play, by providing a perspective on the serious pursuits that make up our world. Juxtaposed against joyous playground experiences, I isolate passages from the journal "The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge" by Blackwood Gallery. Weaving these selections into a narrative resembling a child's viewpoint, the deliberate simplification of the text creates a subtle detachment from its serious tone and offers a different outlook on the pursuit of knowledge and meaning in our ever-changing world.
Nature's Mirror in Human Transformation
Afnan Rahman
Acrylic on Canvas
The artwork aims to show how humans and nature are alike in their transformative journeys. The world is always changing, reshaping itself, and affecting the people living in it. The earthly landscape symbolizes that transitional moment of the land breaking to meet its destiny—the water/ocean. Likewise, people go through several transitions before living in their truest form, aka their destiny. The peacock feathers at the bottom symbolize the renewing and redefining characters in humans.
Mom Where are You? It’s Scary Here.
Kodi Ume-Onyido
Acrylic on canvas
Memory acts as a frame that captures the ephemeral moments in our life. “Mom Where Are You? It’s Scary Here” encourages people to reflect on their childhood and appreciate the feelings attached to those experiences.
Backseat spectacles
Yehjeen Cha
Digital (35mm film photograph digitized)
This was taken last summer on the way to my dad’s hometown. We saw a rainbow on the highway and got very excited. This photo reminds me of all the views from the backseat of my dad’s car that I didn’t know I would want to cherish this much.
Aquatic Ephemera
Alessandra De Luca
Acrylic on canvas
In my acrylic on canvas painting Aquatic Ephemera, I strive to capture the intricate balance between fear and beauty within a singular moment. The artwork portrays a girl submerged underwater, embodying the paradoxical nature of an experience that can elicit both awe and trepidation. The underwater setting becomes a metaphorical abyss, where the moment's beauty intertwines with a sense of danger. The girl, surrounded by water, symbolizes the fragile vulnerability in exploring uncertain moments.
Submerged
Bhairavi Prasanna
Watercolour on canvas
Submerged represents the darkness one would feel when their voice isn’t heard. How the stillness of the subconscious is begging to be heard, but is met with silence. And how the pressure of not being able to talk (breath) can damage you.
Rebirth
Cher Yan
Oil on unstretched canvas
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The Catalyst
Victoria Lee
3 physical collages, cut and paste paper on letter size papers
"From Flavour to Taste" is a triptych that narrates the intersection of reality and imagination, inviting contemplation on the collision of historical perceptions with our post-industrial capitalist age. The set serves as a progression, initially presenting flavors—superficial, immediate, and evocative of the senses—transitioning to a nuanced appreciation of taste, symbolizing a multifaceted understanding of our relationship with abundance. The work aims to evoke a sense of connection with the impermanent yet invaluable moments that define our existence while engaging with the beauty found in life's ephemeral tapestry.
Prosper and Flourish
Natalie Wang
Ink (ball-point pen and bottled ink) on watercolour paper
In the intricate depiction of koi fish, the delicate dance of fleeting moments is embodied. The ballpoint pen's precise outlines, meticulous and defined, contrast with the shapeless daubs of ink that cascade across the fish, forming an evocative representation of life's impermanence. The interplay between precision and fluidity mirrors the ephemerality of existence. The defined and the formless coalesce to portray the transient beauty inherent in our ever-changing lives. Although the artwork is still, it invites contemplation on the paradoxical nature of impermanence. Simply picture the fish effortlessly gliding across the surface and the scene is transformed in an instant.
Charity Chariot
Mariia Charuta
Acrylic on canvas
On one hand it explores the odd beauty and decadent elegance of the chaos inherent to the human experience. It is weirdly poetic and comforting how lost we all are. On the other hand, this work, just like the rest of my portfolio, is a diary entry of sorts - an imprint of my thoughts and feelings at that point in my life.
Tea set on linen
Leon Zhang
Oil on canvas
I tried to capture the visual experience subjected to "nothingness" in Lao Tzu's terms, perhaps also in Sartre’s terms. It is a state of mind in the absence of presumptions, opinions, and meanings on objects. A moment when the mind projects nothing onto things, and the mind processes nothing it receives. For the instant I was caught in it, colors were fueled with vitality as if the world revealed its true face from the limitation of thoughts. The arrangement of still life that makes no sense in their functionality is an attempt to put the audience in my shoes.
Dear Diary
Sammi Herlich
Ink, charcoal, marker, pastel, water colour, crayon, glitter, pencil
Amy Sillman described drawing as, “A visual form of what it’s like to think." Through documenting my raw, uncut, unedited emotions when they occurred and how they changed throughout the day, week and month, I delved into what it means to carry on a continual present. The colours, mediums and methods used were chosen instinctively based on what my body gravitated towards in a given moment; sometimes using objects surrounding me like a feather, bottle cap or my own body to make marks that reflected my feelings.
Transient Layers
Julia Collett
Graphite, ink pens and coloured pencils on paper
This artwork portrays the transformation and decomposition of a grapefruit from multiple perspectives. It captures the impermanent quality of organic matter and its susceptibility to being permanently altered. Further, this drawing depicts the fleeting moment of interaction between the object and a person, showing the changes of a grapefruit as it takes on new forms, textures and shapes through the process of being peeled, pulled apart, or juiced.
Transient Touch
Yiran Lai
Photograph print
Is there a glimpse so gentle and fleeting that it becomes a stubborn imprint in the mind?
When Stars Bloom
Yang Yu
Acrylic marker pen on cardboard
I think, therefore I am. Thoughts are like the universe, with undetectable breadth and depth. When surging, they may be as gentle as waves, or splash like tsunamis, reflecting the shimmering starlight. At some moments, thoughts carry inexplicable power, like stars blooming, like shooting stars passing by. That is the ephemeral reverie falling around, coloring me from flat in black and white. That is the transient beauty encapsulated in the brain, making me an independent spiritual being without relying on physical media.
Contributors to the Exhibition
Hart House Shalon Webber-Heffernan Sasa Rajsic Victoria Lee Chloe Lee Sophie Disch Serene Lam Natalie Wang Leon Zhang Jeffrey Han Miaochun Chen Milena Pappalardo Maha Aalrabeea May Zhusupbekova Leva Nowzartash Julia DeddaPari Bahrami Asl
Generation Why
This student art exhibition explores the theme: "Generation Why” – a generation that finds itself at the crossroads of the past, present, and future. In our modern, ever-evolving world, we find ourselves nostalgic towards tangibles and intangibles, experiences, impressions, and emotions of the past - suspended in our memories, forever out of reach.
"Generation Why" is more than a label; it's a generation that thrives on questioning and wondering about the world it has inherited and the one it is shaping. We are a generation caught in a whirlwind of rapid transformation, grappling with profound societal shifts and technological advances. As we stand at this pivotal moment, we can't help but wonder how we will situate ourselves in this ever-changing landscape.
The artists featured in this exhibition approached the theme in diverse ways – from expressing the way we reconstruct the places of our youth to how our unique generational experiences shape our identities. Their works are a bridge between the past and the present, capturing our generation’s perspective on how to make sense of our past and present as we forge a path into the future. "Generation Why" beckons you to question, to wonder, and to reflect on what it means to be a part of this transformative generation.
Sophie Disch and Chloe Lee
Hart House Art Committee
Student Projects Co-Chairs
