Public Program

Panel Discussion: How is Food Metaphorical?

Saturday, May 27, 2017 | 12:30 pm – 4 pm

Clare E. and Anne Winterbottom Gallery, 3rd floorThird Floor

How is Food Metaphorical?

Join speakers Vincent Georgie, Theresa Bembnister, IAIN BAXTER&, Anna Frlan and David McNamara. Moderated by Jaclyn Meloche. 

(with intermission and hot dog lunch served from 12:30- 1:30pm)
Ticket price includes gallery admission.

Theresa Bembnister is the curator of Snack. She works as associate curator at the Akron Art Museum in Ohio. Her previous positions include associate curator at the Beach Museum of Art in Manhattan, Kansas, and internships at the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas; the Drawing Center, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio. Bembnister holds an MA in art history and museum studies from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and a BFA in illustration and creative writing from the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri. Her art writing has appeared in Cleveland’s Scene, Kansas City’s Pitch, the Kansas City Star, and Glasstire.com. 

IAIN BAXTER& was born in Middlesborough, England in 1936. His family moved to Calgary, Alberta the following year. He received a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Education from the University of Idaho and a Master of Fine Arts from Washington State University. In 1961, he studied fine arts and aesthetics theory in Japan.

In the 1960s, BAXTER& formed the N.E. THING CO. which was instrumental in turning Vancouver into an internationally recognized centre for conceptual art. BAXTER&`s artistic practice involves a wide range of media including photography, painting, video, installation, and performance. His use of popular, mass-marketing techniques and communications technology to reach a broad audience parodies corporate public relations and advertising strategies.

For his contribution to the visual arts in Canada over the past forty years, BAXTER& has received many awards and prizes. He became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2002. In 2004, he received the Governor General`s Award in Visual and Media Arts and an honorary doctorate from the University of British Columbia. In 2005, he received the Molson prize for the Arts and, in 2006, The Gershorn Iskowitz Award.

In 1988, BAXTER& joined the faculty at the School of Visual Arts at the University of Windsor, where he is now Professor Emeritus. Previously he taught at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, York University, Emily Carr College of Art and Design, and the Alberta College of Art. To express his philosophical approach to life as an open-ended series of connections, IAIN BAXTER& legally added an ampersand to his name in 2005.

IAIN BAXTER& lives in Windsor, Ontario with his wife Louise Chance Baxter.  

Sculptor Anna Frlan, the daughter of Croatian émigrés, seeks new ways of transforming the industrial material of steel in her art practice. Frlan received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Ottawa and established her studio practice in 1999. Significant themes are her Kitchen Anatomy and Interbellum (In Between Wars) series. Frlan exhibited at the Diefenbunker, Canada’s Cold War Museum, as its artist-in-residence in 2016. She has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Ottawa, and the Corel Endowment for the Arts Award. Her work has been written about in Espace and Canadian Art magazines, and can be found in the corporate collections of the City of Ottawa’s Fine Art Collection, Nortel Networks, the Canadian Medical Protection Association and Deloitte & Touche.

Dr. Vincent Georgie is the newly appointed Director of the School of Creative Arts at the University of Windsor, Marketing Professor at Odette School of Business and Executive Director of Windsor International Film Festival. He holds degrees from the University of Toronto, the University of Windsor and HEC Montreal.

David McNamara was born in Windsor Ontario. He is the son of the late, well respected Windsor writer and teacher Eugene McNamara. David received a BA in Communication Studies at The University of Windsor. His career has taken a few different paths. For 35 years, he worked in the produce industry starting out as a part time clerk at Miracle Food Mart. He then worked as a produce manager for seven years at a Loeb IGA store in Windsor.

David and his wife moved to Calgary in 1995 where they lived for 16 years. He worked as a Produce Specialist with Sobeys for five years. He then worked for Federated Co-op in the position of Produce Retail Sales Co-ordinator for ten years. He has always had a great passion for the produce business.

Windsor became home again in 2011 for David and his family. He worked as a Financial Consultant with investors Group for three years. He has served on the Parent Council at his daughters` school for three years.

He is an avid antique toy and vintage advertising collector and he is also a part time antique dealer. He has amassed a collection of interesting collectables and artifacts from the early to mid twentieth century. In his spare time, he does not like to golf. He enjoys watching classic and science fiction films. He is also a passionate audiophile and he enjoys collecting vinyl records. Spending quality time with his wife and daughter is very important for him.