The University of Guelph-Humber is hosting an art gallery for Canadian artist Rina Kazavchinski.
The opening night of her first solo art show Hues of Happiness – Palettes of Identity was on March 21.
Kazavchinski said this art event is about creating an open and welcoming space for all to visit.
“The show is about freedom of expression, acceptance, being able to be yourself, and gender identity,” she said.
Kazavchinski said her art technique is abstract and explained her reasoning for why she likes to paint abstract.
“It is abstract style where usually I paint without having a specific subject in mind,” she said.
“I hate boxes and being within the lines,” Kazavchinski said. “I’m very expressive and I have a lot of things to say, so it’s really nice to not keep me confined to a box.”
Her art includes a bevy of colours and multiple paint strokes to create a magical feel.
An example of her art is a piece named My Sweet Toronto.
Rina Kazavchinski’s art named My Sweet Toronto. It is an abstract representation of the city of Toronto skyline. Photo credit: Nicholas Rego
She uses many different colours with different paint strokes to articulate the skyline of Toronto.
Another art piece, Golden Freeze, uses other materials such as gold foil to make the colours and movements stand out.
Rina Kazavchinski’s art named Golden Freeze. This is an abstract painting eight-by-eight inches using gold foil as the main attraction. Photo credit: Nicholas Rego
Fourth-year business program event management student Nicholas Baschiera said the planning process for this event was a long time in the making.
“It took several months,” Baschiera said. “We started back in January and there’s been a lot of efforts in the finance, marketing, food, décor, reaching out to artists, so it’s quite extensive.”
A picture of Nicholas Baschiera, a fourth-year Business Program’s Event Management student. Photo credit: Julia Vellucci
Baschiera said there were many candidates considered before deciding on Kazavchinski.
“My professor went through 33 interviews and various candidates online who applied for the art position, to have their art promoted and gain exposure within a university campus,” he said. “Then she narrowed it down to Rina [Kazavchinski].”
Business program instructor at the University of Guelph-Humber Aida Memisevic said there were multiple reasons she decided on Kazavchinski.
“I love pastels and I immediately had a sense of calm,” Memisevic said.
“Also, the messaging behind it, the idea of inclusion, the idea of duality, being introspective in terms of who you are and your own sense of self and your own identity, all of those messages are really important as humans,” she said.
The event included free food, beverages, and a virtual reality (VR) booth, where students viewed the world from different perspectives.
The art gallery continues this week and ends on March 29.