Ignition 8: Dean Hossack, Celine Jeong, Alexandra Roberts

Ignition 8: Hamilton Artists Inc.’s Award for Distinction in the McMaster Studio Art Program
Dean Hossack, Celine Jeong, and Alexandra Roberts

February 8 – March 14, 2020
Opening Reception: February 8 from 2:00-4:00 pm

Hamilton Artists Inc. is happy to announce the recipients of the 8th annual Ignition Award for Distinction in McMaster’s Studio Art Program: Dean Hossack, Celine Jeong, and Alexandra Roberts. Ignition is an awards exhibition providing a launchpad to ignite emerging artists’ careers. Congratulations to this year’s winners on their outstanding work! In addition to a professional exhibition, the selected graduating students receive dedicated mentorship, a cash honorarium, and a certificate of distinction.

Hamilton Artists Inc. would like to thank and acknowledge its exhibition partner: McMaster University School of the Arts.

Auxiliary Programming:

INC.spots: Ignition Edition
Saturday, February 29, 2020 from 2:00-4:00 pm

INC.spots is a fast-paced artist talk event featuring presentations by local artists and Inc. members. It’s an opportunity for artists and community members to meet, discuss art and exchange ideas. This event will include talks by current exhibiting artists in Ignition 8, Dean Hossack, Celine Jeong and Alexandra Roberts, as well as past Ignition Award winners Katherine A. Laird (2019), Sarah Sproule (2018) and Kristina Durka (2017).

Do you want to meet fellow artists? Are you interested in discussing art and exchanging ideas? Join us for INC.spots on February 29! Free event, everyone is welcome! Learn more.

Dean Hossack is from Ancaster Ontario, growing up on a small historic vegetable farm that lies sandwiched between ever-developing suburbia and the Hamilton Airport. Having an extensive recorded knowledge of family lineage and being the last male of the bloodline to carry the family name, it has been engrained in him to value family and relationships that spark them. Moving closer to the Hamilton downtown core and going through public education to post secondary has helped influence Dean to delve into an art practice that holds on to his values while creating a portfolio of contemporary painting that expands beyond his.

Celine Jeong is a Korean-Canadian student artist based in Hamilton and Georgetown, Ontario. She makes mixed-media drawings, installations and dioramas that illustrate the tensions within children’s death narratives. She is interested in how childhood understandings of mortality are influenced by romanticism, fantasy, dichotomy, euphemism, ambiguity and perceived immortality. Also informed by her Presbyterian upbringing, she examines the disquieting implications of surveillance and enforced obedience in narratives constructed by childhood authorities, both religious and parental. Her inspirations include fairy tales, vanitas still life, Joseph Cornell, Victorian era aesthetics and illustrated children’s storybooks from the 80s and 90s. She is currently in her fourth and final year in the McMaster Studio Arts program.

Alexandra Roberts is an artist born in Richmond Hill, Ontario and currently studies Studio Art at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Alex has always been interested in drawing and music from a young age having been influenced by her parents and their love of music and art. She started playing guitar at the age of 12 and quickly found her passion within writing her own songs. Alex has also always been someone deeply interested in digital medias such as photoshop and digital drawing. In 2018, she started to turn her ink drawings into digital drawings and attempting to bring to light the validity of digital art in a fine art context. Considering all these interests Alex began to analyze the way in which humans associate sound and visuals and the relationship between the two. Her future plans include attending Mohawk College for welding in the fall of 2020.

About the Award:

As an artist-run centre, Hamilton Artists Inc. strives to support artists at all levels of their careers and to empower artistic expression and research. Established in 2013 by former staff member and McMaster graduate, Reg Gilmore, in association with the Studio Art Program at McMaster University, the Ignition award honours exceptional graduating students with the opportunity of a professional exhibition at Hamilton Artists Inc.

The Hamilton Artists Inc. award for Distinction in the Studio Art Program provides a perfect setting for McMaster University to celebrate its commitment to community engaged learning by involving young, talented, emerging artists within the greater Hamilton art community. McMaster University is historically tied to Hamilton Artists Inc. with art graduates from the University being among the founding members of the gallery some forty years ago. The gallery’s purpose-built exhibition facilities on James Street North offer a public, highly visible exhibition experience for the recipients and provide an opportunity for sustained connections.