Arts

From abstract paintings to sculptures, elephant artists to termite architects, the art on display at SAW Gallery’s Animal House exhibition is of avant-garde calibre. The show is light-hearted in nature, but therein lays the question: how much more do we have in common with our mammalian counterparts than scientific classification? Are animals capable of expressing themselves through art in the same way that humans do?

Though many of the pieces featured are abstract, abstract art is one of the best ways to connect with an artist as well as with your own self.

The “Zombie Girl” of the title – 12-year-old Emily Hagins – is not a blood-spewing freakazoid come to terrorize your local grocery store, eat your dog or stagger down your residential street, moaning dejectedly.

Instead, that’s what she sets out to have her characters do.

Because Emily is a director.

She’s also a script writer and editor for her first feature-length film, Pathogen, a zombie movie full of fake blood and pre-teens.

Ontario folk artist Jon Brooks is playing at the Blacksheep Inn on Sept. 24 (Photo Provided)

The National Arts Centre offers discounted tickets for students registered in the Live Rush program ( Photo: Amanda To )

Jim Dow’s empty baseball stadiums fill a new exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada ( Photo Provided )