Artist in Conversation: Dara Humniski and Sergio Serrano

Dara Humniski grew up in Edmonton, Alberta and completed Bachelor of Design in Industrial Design at the University of Alberta in 2004. MASS (2011) was her first major gallery installation, hand-painted on site in Manning Hall at the Art Gallery of Alberta. Her work is included in the City of Edmonton’s Public Art Collection and Canadian Centre for Austrian and European Studies at the University of Alberta. She has shown in both solo and group shows since 2005. Humniski is a multi-instrumentalist with a diverse background encompassing fine art, industrial design and carpentry. Using the natural world as a starting point, she experiments with scale and media to assemble fictional worlds with open-ended narratives that express things about the human condition. She is also a founding member of the Loyal Loot Collective.

Photo credit: Fish Griwkowsky

Sergio Serrano is a graphic designer and artist born in Mexico, now based in Edmonton. He received a BA in Design from the University of Alberta in 2009. His design client-work focuses mainly on the arts and education. Literature and mythology are recurring themes in his artwork, which explores the narratives humans create in order to understand themselves and their place in the world around them. He works in print media and book works, creating images and objects that feel both familiar and unknown. His work also deals with the communication and transformation of these narratives in language, content and form. Serrano’s artwork was presented in Future Station: 2015 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art and he has co-produced public art commissions for the City of Edmonton Civic Art Collection.

Photo credit: Allison Dragsten