Creative Media Alum Celebrates Solo Exhibit in Denmark

Class of 2025 Creative Media graduate Vivi Torontali moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, last year, almost immediately after graduating from Champlain College. Amidst this major transition, she’s launched her career, full-send.

One year after graduation, Vivi is fresh off the trail from her first professional solo exhibition. We connected with Vivi to learn more about her journey: from New Zealand to Vermont to Denmark, where the exhibit took place.

Pursuit of Opportunity

While on the job search last August, Torontali attended a networking event for IMMART, an organization built by and for international artists. Connections she made at the event helped land her first solo show. “I met Melanie Smith, who used to own a gallery called the Art Escape. I attended the opening of her new gallery, MDS Studio and Gallery, and in September, she posted a Call for Artists on Instagram, so I spent a month polishing four out of the eight artworks that would ultimately be exhibited,” shared Torontali.

The artwork she exhibited? She actually began working on it in the fall of her senior year at Champlain — in Ken Howell’s Creative Media Portfolio II class. “After hiking a lot in New Zealand during an exchange partnership with AUT, I started to draw terrain maps of the mountains I had hiked there, as well as more recent hikes on Mt. Mansfield in Vermont and Catamount Mountain in the Adirondacks.”

That winter, Torontali learned there was a market for her work after participating in the first Winter Student Art Market. Seeing the opportunity, she co-founded the Creative Media Capstone Fundraiser with her cohort. “We sold our artworks to fund material costs and raised over $400, funding everyone’s Capstone projects!”

The success of sales in Vermont led Torontali to continue this work in Denmark. “This exhibition feels like the biggest thing I’ve ever done,” she shared. “It’s still such a small-scale show in a small gallery, but it gives me hope that I’ll be able to exhibit in a larger museum such as ARKEN one day.”

“It means a lot to have had the opportunity to showcase my artwork in a professional solo exhibition within a year of moving to Copenhagen. Not only that, but I found a full-time job that allows me to develop my creativity in different areas, and learn Danish in language school,” she said.

Recognizing this first step in her journey ahead, Torontali ended her reflection with a sentiment that many early-career professionals can relate to: “This is an ongoing journey, and I’m quite new to many aspects of it. There are a lot of updates to look forward to in the future.”