STAGES Speaker Series 2019 | Artist Talk with Andrea Roberts | Wednesday, June 12th • 7pm
It was Plug In ICA’s honour to present a talk by multidisciplinary artist and musician Andrea Roberts, who spoke as part of the STAGES Speaker Series in anticipation of their temporary public artwork for the STAGES biennial in August 2019.
Roberts is a respected Winnipeg-based artist whose work is detailed in its execution and research. Their work blends abstraction with a narrative underlay linking material to subjects that amplify processes of labour. Roberts’ situates their concerns within “everyday experiences of technology, labour, identity and trauma within capitalism.” Their work often inverses the function of common materials, using patterns, sounds or video to accentuate the position of the body, annunciating the way human’s conform our movement in relation to objects, place and technology.
What: Artist Talk by Andrea Roberts
When: Wednesday, June 12, 2019 | 7pm
Where: Off-site location, X-Cues Cafe & Lounge, 551 Sargent Ave, Winnipeg, MB R3B 1W4
For STAGES, Roberts produced a site-specific work on the outskirts of Winnipeg. Using elements within the abandoned site, Roberts’ produced a text-based work that will remain long after the exhibition has ended. They also produced a special sound performance event as part of the new commission.
*With its conception in 2017, STAGES biennial set out to activate the city of Winnipeg with temporary public sculpture, installation and performances by international and local artists. STAGES biennial 2019 launched on August 16, 2019. The Speaker Series was a means of initiating and connecting the artists with local audiences, and introducing visiting artists to Winnipeg.
Andrea Roberts is currently-based in Winnipeg and has exhibited in group and solo exhibition nationally and internationally, including TRUCK Gallery, Calgary; Film Pop, Montreal; The Auxiliary/MAW, Middlesbrough, UK; The University of Oakland, Detroit; SomArts, San Francisco as well as participated in the exhibition Superimposition at Plug In ICA. A former member of numerous DIY punk and noise bands including Kursk, Wolbachia and Hoover Death, Roberts has been performing as VOR, a solo experimental electronic project, since 2015.
Roberts is a recipient of the Murphy & Cadogan Contemporary Art Award, a recent nominee for the RBC On the Rise Award. Roberts holds an MFA in Sculpture from California College of the Arts (2014), a BFA Hons in Sculpture from the University of Manitoba (2011) and was recently artist in residence at Brooklyn’s Pioneer Works Center for Art and Innovation and Miami’s Art Center South Florida.
This talk is available in our online video archive.
Our Presenting Sponsor for Stages Speaker Series & STAGES 2019 was The Winnipeg Foundation, with the generous donation of our Featured Artist Sponsor: Mike Nesbitt; our Major Sponsors: Daniel Friedman & Rob Dalgliesh and James & Leney Richardson our Engaging Sponsors Susan Glass & Arni Thorsteinson; DIALOG design; and BLDG architecture; our Supporting Sponsors The French Embassy in Toronto and Downtown BIZ, Winnipeg; and our numerous Contributing Sponsors: Gary Ursell, Assiniboine Credit Union, and KMPG LLP.
Stages Biennial could not be presented without the support of our Community Partners: Alt Hotel, Alliance Française, MB, Studio 393, Trotzdem Inc., Winnipeg Tourism, the Winnipeg Art Gallery; and Leon A. Brown Ltd.
Acknowledgements
Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art recognizes we are in the territories of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Dakota, Dene, Métis, and Oji-Cree Nations. Plug In ICA is situated in Treaty 1 territory, the ancestral and traditional homeland of Anishinaabe peoples. Treaty 1, was signed in 1871, taking this territory from seven local Anishinaabe First Nations in order to make the land available for settler use and ownership. (referenced from the University of Winnipeg)
Plug In ICA extends our heartfelt gratitude to our generous donors, valued members, and dedicated volunteers. We acknowledge the sustaining support of our Director’s Circle. You all make a difference.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council, the Manitoba Arts Council and Winnipeg Arts Council. We could not operate without their continued financial investment and lobbying efforts.
Plug In ICA relies on community support to remain free and accessible to all, and enable us to continue to present excellent programs. Please consider becoming a member of Plug In ICA and a donor at https://plugin.org/support
For more information on this program and STAGES biennial, please contact: info@plugin.org or call 1.204.942.1043