Kaida Kobylka
Keith Kobylka
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Kaida Kobylka is an Edmonton-Montreal-based artist. They have their BFA in Painting and Sculpture from the UofA and are currently working through their MA in Art Education at Concordia University in Montreal. They have exhibited their works in galleries throughout Canada such as the Stollery Gallery, Mile Zero Dance, and Lowlands Project Space, and in festivals such as Grow Op Toronto, Nuit Blanche Saskatoon, and the Works Art & Design Festival.
Keith Kobylka is an Edmonton-based artist. He attended the Alberta University of the Arts and has taken courses through the UofA Continuing Education Arts & Design, and Series Summer Arts School at Red Deer Polytechnic. He worked for 35 years as a graphic designer, illustrator and layout artist for the Edmonton Journal and is currently exhibiting in art shows with the Sculptor’s Association of Alberta.
Keith and Kaida are a father/daughter artist duo. Despite their extensive careers in the arts, How to Vanish is their first collaborative exhibition.
how to vanish
Stanley A. Milner Library, South of Churchill Square
Keith Kobylka, Feast for the Thankful, 1990, painting printed on newsprint. 14” x 20”
ARTIST STATEMENT
How to Vanish is an intergenerational and interfamilial exhibition that examines the impact of technology on the world of art and our day-to-day consumption of visual culture. Technology and art have grown together since the camera was invented in the 1800s, negating the need for artists to create representation of the world that could be documented more officially by cameras. Artists responded in kind by assessing their craft, producing nonrepresentational art, and experimenting with the very meaning and desire to create art.
Newspapers have a long history in Western culture, one that was only disrupted very recently by the rise of the internet. Editors quickly realized that images were an asset to computers, and illustrators have been employed to illuminate their manuscripts since the early days of newspaper distribution. Though essential, it is hard to find many sources that speak about early newspaper illustrators, who seemed to fade into the background and be taken for granted in the process of creating newspaper stories. The Edmonton Journal employed a team of newspaper illustrators throughout the twentieth century and published large scale illustrations that captivated Edmontonians well into the nineties. With the rise of the internet, and the eventual demise of many print publications, came the easy spread of photographs. During this time, illustrators saw their jobs shift away from drawing and painting and more into graphic and web design. As a result, the Edmonton Journal, like many newspapers, was forced to reduce print copies and focus (perhaps too late) on online-only content, which unfortunately lead to many permanent layoffs.
