CREDIT: KIERAN MCCAFFREY
Fanshawe fine art alumnus, Anthony Di Fazio received the 2018 Satellite Award Exhibition, which was on display in the Satellite Project Space at 121 Dundas St.

Satellite Project Space is composed of four significant London, Ont. arts institutions: Fanshawe College, Museum London, Western University and McIntosh Gallery. Satellite provides a flexible space for new and temporary projects, collaborations, and experiments in the arts and culture.

The Satellite Award Exhibition, Trying to See the Other Side of the Window, is active at Satellite Project Space at 121 Dundas St.

The exhibition showcases a variety of meaningful artworks from Julien Darling-Funk, Matthew Trueman and Anthony Di Fazio, who have individually excelled in interpreting the states of humanity, technology and the environment throughout different artistic mediums.

Fanshawe fine art graduate Anthony Di Fazio received the Satellite Project Space Award for recent graduates since his Satellite Gallery debut, as well as the Bob and Shelly Siskind Visual Arts Award last year.

Di Fazio’s featured work “Erosion Abrasion” illustrates artistic excellence through exploring the forms that emerge through the process of layering with disregarded materials in sculptural and painting mediums.

In a recent interview, when asked about his influences and design process, Di Fazio explained how he interprets the environment in an artistic perspective.

“My art consists of process-based work exploring areas such as silk screen printing, performance, sculpture, and audio visual,” Di Fazio said. “I have been working in the screen-printing business for five years and this type of atmosphere can be very inspiring, as well as wasteful, which is one of the main reasons why my process in art making is primarily based off of reclaiming materials and representing the existence or certain events.”

Despite it being clear why an artist with a keen interest in processes, the environment and its conditions belongs in the exhibition, it’s incredible to understand exactly where and how Anthony drew his influence and inspiration from.

“My Current art installation is ten mesh, two-foot stretched squares, representing the silk screen process, which is the process of pouring through mesh to make an impression. This process talks about the existence of plastic waste and how we can slow the production of plastic waste down but there will always be visual remnants of a trail left from previous years,” Di Fazio said.

Di Fazio explained that he had always been fascinated with the state of the world around us, discovering artistic inspiration from many unsuspecting and different things, such as oil spills in the road or the scrap metals that have fallen off of a rust bucket car. Deteriorating environmental materials are not the only motif of Anthony’s. He further explains that many of the artists who inspire him to create in such a unique form are certain renowned figures from the Abstract Expressionist Movement, such as Mark Rothko, as well as more contemporary musicians and graphic designers like Brian Chipenndale.

London is fortunate to have such talented local artists, as well as an organization such as Satellite, who are committed to providing an environment of professionalism and relevance for local aspiring artists and graduates. The gallery provides opportunities for artists to connect, showcase and develop ideas into a variety of forms such as those featured in “Trying to See the Other Side of the Window”.