By Pepper Parr
October 5th, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
Membership has its privileges – The Art Gallery of Burlington launched their fall season with a members only reception that had the xx artists in the fall program on hand to chat up their work and answer questions.
Laurin’s work plays with family and found photographs that he reinterprets
In Spirit
In Spirit presents the work of Timothy Laurin, John Latour and Heather Murray. Timothy Laurin’s work plays with family and found photographs that he reinterprets. His practice focuses on identity and memory and how one informs the other and keep in flux one’s sense of self.
John Latour’s text-based art, sculpture, and found photography highlight the ways in which we connect with the past, and how this uniquely human activity is mediated through words, objects, and images. Heather Murray is influenced by her rural backdrop and creates diligently and enthusiastically out of her haunted historical studio in Owen Sound Ontario.
This exhibition is co-curated by Virginia Eichhorn, Tom Thomson Art Gallery, and Denis Longchamps, Art Gallery of Burlington. The exhibition will run from September 19, 2015 to November 15, 2015.
Co-curation with the Tom Thomson Art Gallery is not small potatoes.
Drawn from the AGB’s Permanent Collection of Contemporary Canadian Ceramics, five artists – Bruce Cochrane, Reid Flock, Harlan House, Ruth Gowdy McKinley, and Kayo O’Young demonstrate their mastery over the medium. Not to be missed.
Thrown
While the thrown vessel is the most common ceramic form, great skill is required to achieve total control in the medium. Once this level of skill is reached, the artist can then either create ever more complex forms or loosen up and relax. Drawn from the AGB’s Permanent Collection of Contemporary Canadian Ceramics, five artists – Bruce Cochrane, Reid Flock, Harlan House, Ruth Gowdy McKinley, and Kayo O’Young demonstrate their mastery over the medium.
The permanent collection is gem that is all too often hidden – it was what validates the existence of the gallery – the rest of the country just hasn’t discovered it yet.
Curated by Jonathan Smith, the exhibition will run from September 19, 2015 to December 31, 2015 in the Perry Gallery.
a snapshot of one of the collages “5 Glasses” featuring a photo of artist Clive Tucker surrounded by five different types of glasses.
Click. Clip. Paste.
Jonathan Smith presents fifteen of his photo-collages ranging from the earliest created around 1997, to the latest one hung while the glue was still wet. Friends and family of the artist act as his models in this show.
The presence of the artist is suggested through his reflection with his eyeglasses or drinking glasses located in the foreground. Each work follows a set of formal principles: a grid is used for the collage composition following concerns of proportions, dynamic tensions and lines. The photos however were taken without any planned composition in mind. Many are captured at a table sharing a meal, at other times the models pose for the purpose of creating a collage.
Smith is the curator of the permanent collection. He has been with the AGB for 25 years and is an artist in his own right. The showing of his personal work in an exhibition was part of the thank you from the gallery board. Well deserved.
The exhibition is on until October 18, 2015 in the RBC Community Gallery.
The AGB is going to use the corridor spaces to focus on regional work from different parts of the country. This preserve jar is a prairie contribution.
Amber Fields of Grain
The wide open spaces of the Canadian Prairies have been home to a great many well-known Canadian ceramic artists. Beside such great functional potters like Robert Archambeau, the Prairies have produced its own particular brand of sculpture, “Prairies’ Funk” that was created by such notables as Joe Fafard and Victor Cicansky. The Wild West has its own unique culture that is explored, often with great humour and insight that reflects the wide open spaces of the plains.
This is an ongoing 2015-2016 exhibition curated by AGB Permanent Collection Curator, Jonathan Smith.
The Gallery is open to the public:
Monday: 9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Tuesday – Thursday: 9:00 am – 10:00 pm
Friday – Saturday: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday: 12 noon – 5:00 pm
Admission is free
