X Marks the Spot

Art for Students, by Students at Gallery X

Fringe ArtsAlex Mcgill — Published September 13, 2011

Café X, located in Concordia’s VA Building, is home to more than just tasty treats and cheap coffee. The café also houses Concordia’s third—and most laid-back—art gallery, aptly called Gallery X.
Many Concordia students outside the Fine Arts faculty are currently unaware of the gallery’s existence, something that curator Clinton Glenn intends to change.

“We’re newer than the other galleries [the VAV gallery and the FOFA gallery, both located in the VA Building], so that gives us the opportunity to shape our mission/mandate as we go along,” said Glenn.

“I think we also have more of an opportunity to establish ourselves in the way we want, rather than already having been established within the Concordia arts community.

“One thing I noticed at the recent FASA picnic was that the people who visited us had never heard of us,” Glenn continued. “That’s a tremendous opportunity—to get the word out that we exist and that we are here for students.”

A typical show at Gallery X will feature one to two artists, and work in a variety of mediums. They don’t limit themselves to one style, providing an excellent opportunity for anyone to get involved.
“We want students to come to us with ideas and we will work with them to put together a show. I see it as much more of a collaboration between myself and the artists than us dictating what is shown,” Glenn explained.

The gallery’s first show will be kicking off with a vernissage on Sept. 20, featuring a theme of self-portraiture.

The first show of the year is always reserved for the staff of Café X. There will be six shows per semester, and Glenn thinks students from every faculty should come take a look.

“I would definitely encourage students from all faculties to come visit us and see our shows because we have some pretty amazing work that will be up over the year,” said Glenn.

“It’s also a good opportunity to see what students in Fine Arts are working on. I often get the feeling that the faculties at Concordia are segregated and often have no idea what is going on in the greater Concordia community,” he added.

“Coming to our shows will give them the opportunity to see the high-quality work that comes out of the Fine Arts program and get an opportunity to relax in Café X.”

Visit gallery-x.com for more info.

This article originally appeared in Volume 32, Issue 03, published September 13, 2011.