Glitch art from mexico city at the 5th parallel
Check them out, right now
by brett nielsen
What is glitch art? Come see!
When Mexico’s Begoña Malo came to the University of Regina to finish her degree, she didn’t exactly plan on curating an exhibit at the U of R’s Fifth Parallel Gallery.
But it happened.
Malo, with the help of Fifth Parallel director Dillon Lewchuk, proposed and curated ID-10T, which is on display at the gallery in the Riddell Centre.
“I’m a dancer, and my boyfriend is a digital artist and a painter. We were working back in Mexico to put on an exhibit for his digital work, but we couldn’t do it because we couldn’t find a place and I had to come here to finish my work at the university,” says Malo, an exchange student from Mexico City.
“When I arrived here, I saw the gallery, and I had to ask because I didn’t have anything to lose by asking. They had two weeks available, so we began working.”
The exhibit, which includes eye-catching glitch art from several other Latin American artists, encompasses digitally altered photographs and projections.
“The opening reception for the exhibit was held on Nov. 25 and it was a huge success,” Lewchuk says.
“The gallery was packed with eager individuals curious about what glitch art was and how it was created. Begoña Malo, who proposed and curated the show, surprised the audience at the reception with a spontaneous performance art piece. The show has created a lot of questions on how the artwork is created.”
The work, Lewchuk adds, is created by removing, altering or adding code in the digital format of the media.
Malo has enjoyed her time in Saskatchewan, where she says she’s happy to be greeted by locals in a much more laidback setting than Mexico City. Like the Queen City, she adds, her exhibit has also garnered a lot of positive feedback.
“I didn’t know what to expect, but the people are coming and telling me they like it ,” Malo says. “We had about fifty people who came to the opening and stayed the whole time.”
“It was really nice. We’ve been getting a lot of good feedback about the exhibit.”
Lewchuk says the exhibit affords students the opportunity to see what’s possible when working with digital art.
Thankfully, he adds, “the University is now offering numerous creative technologies courses where the exploration of glitch art could be explored.”
“I see an overlap of the curiosity this exhibition has created and having opportunities for students to actually take classes to explore this contemporary media,” the first-year director continues. “The Fifth Parallel is always welcoming newcomers out to experience the artwork featured in the gallery and to be apart of opening receptions to create a rich dialogue about art.”
