Evidence and Then: 2026 MFA Graduating Students’ Exhibition

Exhibition Details

The University of Calgary's Graduating Master of Fine Arts class of 2026 includes three outstanding artists, Cerys Davies, Damilare Idowu, and Louie Villanueva-Eyre. Through drawing, painting, photography, installation and mixed media the artists showcase their research-led creation.

Organized by the Department of Art and Art History, hosted by Nickle Galleries.

Artist Biographies

Cerys Davies is an artist and photographer based in Calgary, Alberta. An MFA candidate at the University of Calgary, her current work centers on environmental contamination and archival re-performance. Juxtaposing photography captured during fieldwork and historical archival material of a former oil refinery, Cerys creates archival montages exposing the then and now of contaminated land and the abuses of past land use practices.

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I am Damilare Idowu, a painter and Master of Fine Arts student at the University of Calgary. My work explores migration, identity, and the experiences of Africans living in the diaspora.
Inspired by my own journey from Nigeria to Canada, I create figurative paintings and portraits that reflect the emotional and psychological experiences of migration. Through realistic imagery, muted colours, cool tones, and Yoruba cultural symbols, I explore themes of belonging, vulnerability, uncertainty, resilience, and cultural identity. My work invites viewers to look beyond idealized stories of migration and engage with its complex human realities.

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Louie Villanueva-Eyre (b. 1995) is a photographer based in Moh'kins'tsis, located on Treaty 7 territory—also called Calgary, Canada.

Born to parents of Filipino descent, Villanueva‑Eyre’s work moves between identity and mindfulness. His photographs emerge from listening and an attention to the ordinary as a site of intimacy and inquiry.

A background in photojournalism, event, and studio photography gives Villanueva‑Eyre a practical foundation for his examination of form and subject. He works with an autobiographical approach that treats photography as both medium and method—a way of being present, slowing down, and noticing what persists beneath the surface.

Villanueva‑Eyre’s subject matter: care, grief, and the residue of living come about slowly. He approaches photography as a kind of ritual—deliberate and attuned to the emotional texture of the spaces and people he photographs. This process mirrors the mindfulness practices that inform his way of seeing: taking time, paying attention, and allowing images to emerge through relationship.

Villanueva‑Eyre is the Technical Lead, Photography, for the University of Calgary Department of Art and Art History, documents weddings for Light Theory, and founded Neat Film Lab, now run by his partner and wife, Haley Villanueva‑Eyre. He was nominated for the 2022 Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award and is a Master of Fine Arts candidate at the University of Calgary.

RECEPTION

Join us to celebrate the achievements of the 2026 MFA students: September 10, 2026 5:00 - 8:00pm.

Everyone Welcome.

(From right to left) Louie Villanueva-Eyre, Kill the Buddha, 2025, Pigment Print on Awagami Premio Unryu, 23.39”x33.11” - Cerys Davies, The Lookout, 2026, Archival Pigment Print, 41”x21.75”. Courtesy of the artist and the University of Calgary Digital Collections. - Damilare Idowu, Between Departure and Arrival, Oil on Canvas, 55”x 55”.