Staff and Board

STAFF:

Executive Director – Julia Prudhomme
Education Coordinator – Natasha Smith

BOARD:

Secretary – Carol Wallace
Treasurer – Marilyn Lee
Youth Chair – Gabby Asbell
Director – Alison Talbot-Kelly
Director – Laurel Terlesky
Director – Christine Wallace
Director – Vincent Karcher
Director – Riya Garg

Staff

Julia Prudhomme is a curator and an artist who lives and works on the tum xula7xw of the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx otherwise known as Winlaw/Nelson, B.C. She is developing a feminist curatorial practice that focuses upon artistic process, experimentation, and radical care within (and against) institutions. In addition to curatorial projects Julia holds a Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies at UBC (2013). Her artistic practice is often collaborative, working in video and installation, zines and mixtapes, and has presented this work across Canada, United States, and Europe. Julia has contributed to public art galleries and artist-run centres in numerous capacities for over ten years and continues this work as a doctoral candidate at McMaster University (PhD-c ABD, 2017-present) and Executive Director at Oxygen Art Centre in Nelson, BC (2019-present). 

Natasha Smith holds a BA Hons. in Fine Art Printmaking and has been a practicing visual artist for over 20 years. Natasha’s personal and physical environment inspires her most recent semi-abstract works, which combine printmaking, collage, painting and assemblage. She is a self-defined teaching artist and has taught at KSA (Kootenay Studio Arts at Selkirk College), Oxygen Art Centre, Red Deer College, Metchosin International School of the Arts, and Malaspina Printmaking Studio. Natasha works from her studio in beautiful Krestova, BC. and is the Education Coordinator at Oxygen Art Centre. http://natashasmithart.com/

Board of Directors (2023-2024)

Carol Wallace is a visual artist living on unceded Sinixt Territory, also known as Nelson BC. Her art practice consists of drawing, painting, textile and sculptural installation focused on geological phenomena. Carol holds a degree in Geology from the University of Calgary (’92) and worked as a geologist for 20 years, locally and in northern BC, Yukon Territory. Since 2014 Carol has focused on her professional art practice in a studio located in the beloved Brewery Building in uphill Nelson. This will be Carol’s fifth year as secretary on the Oxygen Board.

Marilyn Lee
I have taught at KSA in the textiles department for over 20 years. Since graduating I have run and owned my own business selling high end textiles and am a recipient of the British Columbia Achievement awards. 

Gabby Asbell is a local highschool student and aspiring artist. Gabby is looking to pursue a career in filmmaking, and is very grateful to be a part of Nelson’s thriving art community through local theatre, choir, film and organizations like Oxygen. Recently she has been working on her portfolio through photography work at Tiny Lights, videography for social media and her own creative writing. Community is very important to her, especially in the arts, and her goal is to better the connections between young creatives and seasoned artists in the area.

Alison Talbot-Kelly
I like sitting in the thick of things natural and not. I am curious about too much and appreciate expression in all media. As an educator I love plumbing for a good question and the myriad ways it may be perceived and considered. I excel at the Irish leave.

Laurel Terlesky is an interdisciplinary Canadian artist. Her works have been experienced internationally on-screen — television, large-scale projection, the internet — and in exhibitions. Relatively new to the Kootenay region, she is excited to share her practice and connect with the community. This is her second year on the Oxygen ARC board.

Terlesky’s work examines the use of technology to communicate and build relationships. She explores what is often left out: tacit recognition and implicit awareness through a physical encounter: visual, touched, and sensed.

Explore more of Laurel Terlesky’s work at http://laurelterlesky.ca and follow her on Instagram at http://instagram/twirlingsky

Christine Wallace
Concerned with the threads of natural textiles and authentic information, as a textiles artist and librarian. 

Vincent Karcher
Born in 1990, Photographer visual Artist. Art contemplator and autodidact dreaming by hyperactivity and curiosity. He was nomadic for more than half of his life and still will be. Currently Basecamp in the majestic mountain jungle of the Sinixt and Ktunaxa territory, Kootenay lake.
Passionate Forager for surviving, he wants to learn from all elements. He studied Photography back in Montreal over a decade ago.
Former portraitist, he is currently questioning traditional landscape photography and our concept of vision reality using light tools as a painting altering medium.
His work was published and exhibited internationally. Once ridiculously, in the Stratosphere.
Currently working on his first pictorial manuscript.
Website : vincentkarcher.com   Instagram : vincent__karcher

Riya Garg
I view design as a bridge between people and environments; this feedback loop is central to my approach. I am moved by the environment, as I move through it. I draw and dance to understand. I am endlessly inspired.

Through design I create connections and channel my energy. all my work is eternally in progress; I remain curious and operate in layers. I strive to be embodied, and often return to add new strands to old threads. this relays a recognition of the currents and cycles along my path.

I currently work at f2a architecture as a designer and curator.
www.riya.run 

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