Theatre Brantford presents:

The Great Wacky Far Out Adventure Show

        by Alfred Rushton

        directed by Kristen Wilson

Dates:  Saturday & Sunday August 20th & 21st

                  Saturday & Sunday August 27th & 28th

 Times: 12:00pm & 2:00pm

Admission: $5 at the door

Location: Lower Gardens

Prepare to be mobile and move about the grounds

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ICHTHYS Theatre Productions presents:

Date: Sunday, August 14^th

Time: 3:00pm

Admission: $5/person  &  $10/family

Location: Upper Gardens (bring a blanket)

Come along with rival reporters Deb Jabber and Sonny Glamour as they track down the mystery woman who fled the Prince’s Desperation Ball, leaving a shoe behind. They interview the Prince, the Fairy Godmother, the Shoemaker, and the Mice to find Cinderella. It’s fun for the whole family. Please join us!

Produced by Special Arrangement: DRAMATIC PUBLISHING CO. of Woodstock, Ill.

Three artists work within the promise of painting to uncover and contribute their individual passionate attachments to this form of visual expression. The viewer will experience levels of emotion and relationships to the media of painting and to the artists who manifest these works.

Robert Achtemichuk works with gouache on silk or washi (Japanese paper). Achtemichuk’s studio looks out into an ordinary Ontario back yard in Kitchener. His interest is in the quiet contemplation of the small changes that occur due to time of day, weather, season and the inspirations and revelations from that kind of study. Misty, watery, sensual small paintings are titled the date they were painted.  Sultry, earthy colours of raw umber and grays, and washed out blues and reds direct the viewer through a quiet passing of time. There’s innocence in his work from a delicate touch that exposes poetic vibrating atmospheric simplicity. In today’s fierce world this may be considered otherworldly.  

Robert Achtemichuk received his BFA from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. He apprenticed in colour etching techniques in France and studied master classes at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas, Mexico City.  He has exhibited his work and taught courses across Canada. He has been the Executive Director at Open Studio, Waterloo Regional Art Council, and the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery. This work is accompanied by a catalogue written by Liz Wylie, Curator of the Kelowna Art Gallery.   Robert Achtemichuk acknowledges and appreciates support from the Ontario Arts Council and the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund.

Cristina Zanella is interested in the play of light and dark and its effect on the intensity of colour. She treats her subject matter, whether it is dead birds or subtle still life forms, with an eye to balancing broken space with colour, light and line. Her paintings are both vibrant and moody with a linear graceful approach to her marks.

Port Dover based Cristina Zanella has exhibited throughout Southern Ontario. She received a BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

Ian McLean uses colour to lure his viewer with his unusual environments and combination of elements. His imagery harks on a 1950’s feel but his colour palette is later; part pop art/ part post impressionistic. Residential environments hold an elusive chronology with his use of symbolic objects expressed through textured painted surfaces. Both McLean and Zanella use black as accents in their work and often include lime green, cadmium yellows, oranges and turquoise. McLean’s objects are infused with a landscape of these brilliant colours applied with creamy seductive brush strokes of oil paint on canvas.

McLean resides in the Sarnia area in Brights’s Grove and received a B.Ed. from the University of Western Ontario, and a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Guelph. He has had solo and group exhibitions in Ontario and he is represented by Gallery Moos, Toronto. 

In the Community Gallery Space, Jack Jackowetz’s photography is manipulated with computer software. His subject is our built heritage with a focus on architectural renderings. He calls his process post impressionism photography. “I start with an original photograph then I use software to ‘paint’ or enhance the image.” Jack has shown his work throughout the region and is represented by galleries in New York, Waterloo, and Paris ON.

Jean Maddison’s body of work, ‘Exploring Eden’, is presented as altered digital imagery on large sheets of vinyl in light boxes with a series of silk screen prints. Using the Darwinian theory of evolution as an inspiration for her imagery she observes, magnifies, and distorts biological variations and evolving life forms.
“My work looks at the attempts by science to change the genetic heritage of the natural world.. we are on the verge of producing hybrid forms which could not exist in nature, opening up the possibility of new hybrid humans.”
Jean Maddison is an Associate Professor at the University of Guelph in the computer graphics department. She received a Master of Arts degree from the Royal College of Art, London, U.K. Maddison has been exhibiting for twenty years in group and juried exhibitions in Europe and the United States as well as solo exhibitions in Canada. Her work is in over 35 public collections including the Art Bank of Canada, Art Gallery of Victoria, B.C, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London England.

Alejandro Arauz, is also interested in the concept of hybrid forms. Arauz has coined the phrase ‘Cantino’ to refer to his Canadian/ Latino culture and perspective as the product of migration. His interest in bi-cultural experience extends beyond his immediate family to what he calls the ‘fresh’ Diaspora. He questions how personalities are changed and redefined when one is transplanted to another culture. Using family photographs, mixed media, print-making, and performance Arauz explores identity through this hybrid art making process. In two video productions called ‘River Duality’ he makes the poignant comparison between the Rio Grande and the Grand River. He also integrates lithography, computer technology and drawing to continue the time honoured practice of print making. Alejandro Arauz has an MA in Fine Arts from Louisiana State University and a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Windsor. Arauz has exhibited in group and juried shows in the U.S. and Canada since 2005. Arauz was born in Managua, Nicaragua and now lives in Brantford, ON.

Community Gallery Space
Aliki Mikulich has been producing art work that reflects her interest in materials. Using Plexiglas boxes in her installation ‘Housing Project’ she creates a layered landscape of urban sprawl marking the identity of a city. Aliki Mikulich is a Brantford artist and has shown her work regionally, winning an Award of Merit and People’s Choice award at the Art Gallery of Mississauga Juried Exhibition in 2005. She has a BA from the University of Toronto in Art and Art History.

This exhibition is made possible through the support of the City of Brantford, the members of Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant and through the Ontario Arts Council.  

TRANSFORMATION, is an ambiguous condition
March 12 – May 15, 2011

The thread running through this exhibition is that of coming to terms with our lives whether it’s with the big emotions in life, and our socially repressive ways of handling these emotions, or the everyday mundane moments when we are trapped between the comedy and drama of life.

Corinne Duchesne Tether, 10 x 4’, mixed media on Mylar	Stepehn Mazza Unnatural Selection for the Workplace #4 and #6 17.5 x 5.5 x 3 & 16.5 x 5 x 3 in. ceramic, acrylic
	Fleur-Ange Lamothe All the King’s Men / Notre pain quotidian mixed media (Installation image)

Corinne Duchesne
Ten foot mixed-media drawings on Mylar possess commanding images of animals and humans in disruptive environments. Duchesne combines her reclaimed sketches, layering, glazing, and beautifully drawn figurative work. Duchesne works with the smooth surface of the Mylar to make it glossy, slick and visceral. She manipulates it further with collaged elements, and a variety of dry and wet mediums. The studies that are installed near each of the larger works give the viewer insight into her working process. She makes note of associations and colours that she may use, rethink, and rework in the finished piece. Duchesne is a master of moving the viewer’s eye throughout the work, leaving just the right amount of clear Mylar to contrast with the darks and gesso lights while striking a balance of surprising colour contrasts. Her layering doesn’t stop – there’s so much to look at and react to in Duchesne’s work.

Born in Quebec and residing in Burlington, Corinne Duchesne graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design. She has studied in Florence, Italy and has been exhibiting her work for twenty-five years including the United States, Korea and Europe. She is a recent recipient of the OAC Visual Artist Mid-Career Grant.

Stephen Mazza
Stephen Mazza’s hybrid human/ rabbit sculptures are technically charming, combining tactility with integrated anatomy. Through his ceramic sculptures, Mazza takes us into the world of our mythological, fanciful heredity. We respond to his works with humour in these quiet disarming hybrid forms and with reserve as he touches on the dark side of the mundane, insufferable moments of life. Mazza brings us a body of work spanning four years that transform into a combination of figures with a narrative and installation dialogue.

Stephen Mazza has a BA in Art and Art History from the University of Toronto and graduated from Sheridan College. He has been exhibiting for the past ten years in group exhibitions. Solo exhibitions include the Cambridge Gallery and Transit Gallery, Hamilton. He resides in Hamilton, ON

Community Gallery Space
Fleur-Ange Lamothe
Through a series of mixed media works, Brant County artist Fleur-Ange Lamothe investigates the transformation of life in Smooth Rock Falls. Born and raised in this Northern Ontario town, her family worked at the town’s pulp and paper mill for four generations. Lamothe’s work responds to the impact of the demolition of the industry. Fleur-Ange Lamothe’s work has been shown regionally and most recently in Havana Cuba in 2009 as part of a Canada-Cuba collective.

This exhibition is made possible through the support of the City of Brantford and the members of Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant. Fleur-Ange Lamothe thanks The Ontario Arts Council and Shannon Boakes, financial advisor for TD Waterhouse, Paris for their support.

PERMANENT COLLECTION EXHIBITION

June 25 – August 21, 2011

A selection of work from Glenhyrst Art Gallery’s Permanent Collection focuses on landscape from the 1850’s to current day interpretations.

Anne Meredith Barry                                                      

Robert Reginald Whale  

Included in the summer exhibition are new acquisitions by Dundas artist Catherine Gibbon. Gibbon is an advocate for responsible environmental practices and through the medium of lithography, The Tire Fire Suite is documentation of the 1990 Hagersville fire that burned for 17 days and took  600 firefighters working day and night to extinguish. Her Benediction triptych gives an enlarged perspective; a work from a series of chalk pastels with accents of purple, bright oranges and ochre that reflect a beautiful frightening landscape. With Gibbon’s sensitivity to the pastel medium, she presents us with a history of our local environment by both exposing the impact of man-made disasters while praising man’s and nature’s efforts to contain our folly.

Gallery two contains the recent acquisitions of Anne Meredith Barry who was a painter and printmaker, born in Toronto, and who relocated to Newfoundland in 1986. The move changed her work and like Newfoundland artist David Blackwood, was also inspired by the rugged, rocky landscape.

Gallery 3 includes oil paint landscapes and seascapes by Robert Reginald Whale and his descendents.  R. R. Whale (1805-1887) was known as one of the first professional artists to work in the Grand River area. These works are a delight for the viewer for their Romantic approach to landscape and also to contemporary painters who can scrutinize the painterly quality of work by artists of this era who mixed their own pigments and used feathered brush strokes. David Milne and Brantford artist Ethelwyn Carlyle approach the Canadian landscape with water based paints and flowing impressionistic free lines to convey fleeting atmospheric imagery. A booklet accompanies the show that gives an added dimension to the history of these artists and their works.

In the Community Gallery Space, Daniel Hill’s mixed media paintings are a conversion of imagery originally stimulated from aboriginal symbolism. His new body of work has popping colour, grafitti scratches, and acrylic ink paint applied with squeegee bottles. The result is an inventive energized expression of man and nature. Hill studied at the Haliburton School of the Arts and has been the artist in residence at the Brantford Artsblock. Hill originally from Six Nations, has relocated to Hamilton.

Daniel Hill

This exhibition is made possible through the support of the City of Brantford, the members of Glenhyrst Art Gallery and through the Ontario Arts Council.

 

Robin Laws Field: Surfaces

Arlene Laskey thinks of herself as a cartographer who maps energies in space. Laskey has diverse areas of interests in literature, science and sociology that influence her art.  Interstices refer to small or narrow openings that could relate to mapping physical space or to the space of time between events.Arlene Laskey is a Brantford artist who has been exhibiting in the region and has studied with Harold Klunder and Tom Dean amongst many others. She has an extensive background in arts education including Arts Curriculum Coordinator for the Brant County Board of Education, and the Arts Education Officer for the Province of Ontario.

Fiona Kinsella brings three series of work to Glenhyrst in the form of cakes, eggs and paintings. Cracked open duck eggs enclose mixed imagery in a framed box presentation. Unusual visual combinations unveil ideas and stories about broken norms or traditions. In her Cake series, icing sugar acts as the initial design on cakes that are adorned with collected items such as porcupine quills and cicada wings. Kinsella’s cakes summon up ideas about celebration, preservation, and displaced relics. In her painting series, thick oil paint built up in extravagant, high swirls are dense, creamy and hard with shadows casting a spiritual glow. Fiona Kinsella has a BFA Honours from Guelph University and has an extensive exhibition history throughout Ontario, plus Georgia and Nashville, U.S.A., and Hungary.

This exhibition is made possible through the support of the City of Brantford, The members of Glenhyrst Art Gallery and through the Ontario Arts Council.

Barbara Rehus is interested in the way our institutions can make people disappear from society. Large hanging transparent panels are marked with the faces of people no longer part of society. She also offers the viewer a glimpse of their lives through brief writings of their personal stories. Rehus’ series ‘Re-visible’ is accompanied by a typewriter to encourage viewers to add their own stories of invisibility.

John Ide’s drawings reflect on how collective memory affects us as individuals. His drawings are made up of thousands of lines; juxtaposed elements borrowed from famous works of art in ways that both honour their original intent and stimulate new meaning.

Rey Baecher’s pastel paintings are a blending of colours in this sensual media to illustrate reflected light. Where Ide’s work emphasizes the individuality of line, Baecher looks to create a harmony of undertones and colour. ‘The Subject is Clear’ series expresses his delight with the interaction of shapes, colour, and shadow.

Teri Donovan is a mixed media artist concerned with identity in relation to time and circumstance. Using family photographs, wallpaper and paint, her work is layered, faded and under renovation to reveal past lives within a new framework.

This exhibition is made possible through the support of the City of Brantford, the members of Glenhyrst Art Gallery and through the Ontario Arts Council.

The exhibition Fire Water and Air includes three artists who independently work in fired clay, painting and drawing. The theme of the show asks the question; if the elements of fire, water and air that sustain humans can be articulated through symbolism and artistic endeavour – could the spiritual realm be exposed? Jane Adeney uses smoke fired clay, lights, water and sound to create sculptural installations that transform hard material into a state of mind. The metamorphosis in Adeney’s work inspires contemplation and sets the stage for a meditative experience. Her ceramic containers reflect the process of ritual and probe the mysteries inherent in the elements of nature and spirit.

Jane Adeney is a Hamilton artist who has been exhibiting her work in solo and group shows for the past 30 years. She studied art at McMaster University, Mohawk College, The Burlington Art Center and the Dundas Valley School of Art. This year she had a solo exhibition at The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, and was awarded a grant from the
Canada Council.

Fire
Jane Adeney, Font, smoke fired clay, findings, water, water pumps, Plexiglas,
75 x 175 x 175 cm

Phil Irish works with the idea of multiple experiences along the Grand River. Irish requests and receives maps from strangers that express an emotional, secret or noteworthy experience that they have had in a particular place. Irish follows the maps and visits these same places where he takes notes, illustrates and draws his own experiences. Later in the studio he imbeds the original maps into oil paintings that he builds up from these two points of view. These paintings on exhibit relate to the theme of water, usually the Grand River. Representation and abstraction often collide in Irish’s work with his rich brush work and documentary approach.

Phil Irish graduated in Fine Art from the University of Guelph and lives in Elora, Ontario. He has had ten years of solo exhibitions including the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Cambridge Galleries, Latcham Gallery, and Robert Langen Gallery Wilfrid Laurier University. Irish has been a recipient of grants from the Ontario Arts Council including a Mid Career project grant. His work is in collections at the City of Kitchener, Centre d’exposition de Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec and the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph among others.

Water
Phil Irish, Water Wheel, oil on panel, 100 x 100 cm

Robin Hesse describes her work as being about the poetry and drama of the sky at night. Using a telescope for a closer observation of the celestial bodies, Hesse adds some knowledge of physics with her sensitive use of charcoal and graphite to render an interpretation of the sky as a metaphor for human behaviour. Hesse’s handling of her materials is thoughtful and gentle as she expresses the third element in this themed exhibition – Air.
Robin Hesse graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design as well as the University of Guelph. She has had many group exhibitions and solo exhibitions at the Burlington Art Centre, Latcham Public Art Gallery among others. Her work is in public collections including the Grimsby Public Art Gallery, Frederick Horsman Varley Art Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Peel. Hesse lives in Richmond Hill.

Air
Robin Hesse, graphite on Mylar, 27 x 27 cm

This exhibition is made possible through the support of the City of Brantford, the members of Glenhyrst Art Gallery and through the Ontario Arts Council.

The call for entry for this show went out to artists throughout Ontario in all media for work created within the past eighteen months. The works you’ll see in this exhibition are combinations of ideas, materials, and views of our environment and culture.

Mounting a show such as this brings together 46 artists’ works from diverse disciplines into a comprehensive, relationship of contemporary ideas. We encourage open discussion about the trends in contemporary art today and particularly Ontario artists’ participation in that discussion. Artists from all over Ontario are included in this exhibition.

THE ARTISTS: Rey Baecher, Aleks Bartosik, E.M. Carr, Robert Crosby, Kathryn Crowder, Bruce Cull, David Cumming, Sally Cumming, Martha de la Fuente, Maria Drazilov, Mary Elizabeth Duggan, Jeff Ferst, Fran Freeman, Warren Hoyano, Robin Hesse, Jane Hook, Robby J., Margie Kelk, Anna Kutishcheva, Ian McLean, Helga Morrison, John Novak, Wendy O’Brien, Kevin O’Connell, Irma Osadsa, Yang Yang Pan, Valerie Pearson, Malgorzata Pienkowski, Linda Rapai, Tom Ridout, David Samila, Robert Sandieson, Peter Schacht, Lynne Schumacher, Ryszard Sliwka, Marcia Tavernese, Kate Taylor, Vlodek Tydor, Bill Urban, Julia Vandepolder, Johannes Vloothuis, Donna Willard, Kathleen Warnick, Janusz Wrobel, Eve Yantha, Barbara Young, Cristina Zanella

Jurors Critiques
November 13, beginning at 5:30 p.m., before the Reception
To embrace the act of criticism to further artists’ practices, Jurors Critiques are available free for artists who submitted their work to the jurying process, for individual feedback. Please sign up before hand.

An Artist’s Guide to Working with

Feedback with Adam Lodzinski
Sunday, November 14th, 1 – 3 p.m.
This one day free workshop will provide artists with concrete strategies,

steps, insights and tips for getting the most out of valid and constructive feedback, as well as how to evaluate their own work. This is a good opportunity for artists from all art forms (visual, dance, music, writing) to

share ideas and experiences to develop a key set of skills. Adam Lodzinski holds a Ph.D. in psychology and is an established artist who has exhibited in over 100 art exhibits. Please RSVP by November 10 to info@glenhyrstartgallery.ca if you plan on attending.

Thank you to our lead sponsor MMMC Architects who will present the Jurors Award, Brian Stephen of RBC Dominion Securities who has sponsored the two Awards of Merit and Charles Jones Industrial Ltd. who sponsors the Peoples’ Choice Award which will be announced at the conclusion of the exhibition.

Roy Caussy, Bonnie Devine, Ali Kazimi, Afshin Matlabi, Yudi Sewraj, Greg Staats, Ehren Bear Witness Thomas and Jeff Thomas deliberate on the experience of loss and displacement and reflect on the ideology of reconciliation. The art works in the exhibition articulate the importance of engaging in dialogues with one another to better understand the multiple perspectives and histories that make up the contemporary Canadian society.

Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant has been exhibiting biannual, collaborative, Cultural Identity exhibitions since 2003. We are very pleased to partner with SAVAC and especially with Srimoyee Mitra who has curated this exhibition. The eight artists, from across Canada, have produced new works that compare and contrast South Asian and Indigenous perspectives. Crossing Lines: An Intercultural Dialogue will educate and stimulate local gallery patrons while attracting new audiences with its challenging, interactive dynamics. Video, drawing, projections, photography, and installation will be on exhibit throughout the galleries.

Please join us for the Opening Reception and Artist Talks on November 29, 2009, 1pm to 4pm.

A free Art Bus leaves from 401 Richmond Street West, Toronto, on the same day at 12 noon and returns from Brantford at 5pm.

Florence Vale’s early small oils were influenced by Picasso’s cubic distortions, the figurative work of Matisse and Modigliani, and landscape imagery flowing with spontaneity in her search for her own expression. Since 1979, Vale’s paintings were represented by Julie and Stephen Gadacsy in their Toronto and Port Dover Galleries. This exhibition is a Fundraiser for the Gallery, with works selected by Julie Gadacsy and a talk with Joan Murray, who has written authoritative books on Canadian art and is currently writing the catalogue, The Art of Florence Vale.

Marla Panko: New Abstractions
Jim Riley: Video Paintings and Projections
March 28 — May 24, 2009
Reception: Sunday, April 5, 1:00 — 4:00 p.m
Artist Talk with Marla Panko at 1:00 p.m. followed by a walking tour with Jim Riley 

Marla Panko has a continued interest in abstraction and the kind of new discoveries that can be made within that genre. Rather than working with natural forms, Panko’s inspiration comes from the shape, design and rhythms of manmade objects and their inherent mysteries. While some mechanisms that serve mankind may be too advanced to understand, the evocative spirit in Panko’s forms represent that advancement. Marla Panko teaches at Dundas Valley School of Art and has a MFA from the University of Windsor and a BA from University of Guelph.

Jim Riley’s art practice explores a blend of documentary evidence, personal ideology, and social commentary. Riley has been exploring the juxtaposition of traditional painting and video since 2005. The video paintings in this exhibition are from three bodies of work, dealing with the life of the inter-city commuter, the experience of a personal injury, and the impact of climate change on the Canadian Arctic. Riley graduated from Brock University.

A survey of seventy-five works made between 1974 and 2004, by master print maker, Carl Heywood, organized by the Burnaby Art Gallery, BC. Heywood grew up in Galt/ Cambridge, studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design, and then went to on Paris in 1967 to study with Stanley William Hayter who revolutionized the art of engraving. Heywood experimented with print making using new technology to transform and bridge a variety of media into possibilities for making art. Along with practicing his art, Heywood was Professor of Fine Art in the Printmaking department at Queen’s University. He currently lives in Montreal. What a treat it has been to be able to see such an inclusive body of J.C. Heywood’s work. This assemblage of work allows for an expanded understanding of his development in relation to Heywood’s prints that were collected for Glenhyrst’s Permanent Collection.

Reception
> Sunday, January 18, 2009
Lecture/ slide show with Carl Heywood at 1:00 p.m. reception continues until 4:00 p.m.
As part of this nationally touring exhibition, a catalogue is available with essays by Geraldine Davis, guest Curator, and Linda Belshaw Beattie, former Director of the Art Gallery of Brant

Art Rental Exhibition
> January 10 — February 10, 2009
Highlighting three local artists John Bonfield, Ann Jarvis and Jack Jackowetz. Artists in attendance at the reception, on Jan 18, 1:00 — 4:00 p.m.

The 2008 Juried exhibition promotes both emerging and seasoned Ontario artists. Forty-five works from two hundred fifty entries were selected from a variety of genres and technical manifestations with a strong showing in digital media and painting. This exhibition explores new paths artists are taking within their own work as well as the theoretical ground breaking movement within global styles that are of interest to contemporary artists.

Jurors, Carol Podedworny, Curator, McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, and Ryszard Sliwka, Artist, Professor of design and architectural theory at University of Waterloo also selected the Award winners.
JURORS’ CHOICE AWARD: Fausta Facciponte, Emma for $1.15, photograph
AWARD OF MERIT: Adam Lodzinski, for the series of three giclee prints
AWARD OF MERIT: Peter Schacht, Reservoir in Hand, oil on wood
HONOURABLE MENTION: Vlodek Tydor, Solaris, porcelain

The Artists:
Shannon Baker, Brian Barrer, Aleks Bartosik, Karen Cantello, Sean Chappell, Robert Crosby, Bruce Cull, David Cumming, Sally Cumming, Kim DiFrancesco, Fausta Facciponte, Adele Figliomeni, David French, Cathy Groulx, Warren Hoyano, Steve Jacobs, Fleur-Ange Lamothe, Arlene Laskey, Adam Lodzinski, Claudette Losier, Daniel Parada Palafox, James Parkhill, Margo Pienkowski, Kari Reynolds, Michelle Salter, David Samila, Peter Schacht, Susan Tanton, Caroline Telfer, Linda Trowell, Vlodek Tydor, Grazyna Ziolkowski

Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant is supported by the City of Brantford and Gallery Members. We Gratefully acknowledge the support of exhibition sponsor, Brian Stephen of RBC Dominion Securities.

Environmental Texture
August 16 — October 26, 2008
Artist Reception: September 14, 2008 1:00 — 4:00 p.m.
Artist Talk by Grace Loney at 1:00 p.m. followed by Modern Dance Performance by Victoria Slager and Ruth Sutherland on harp.Three artists respond to the environment with texture to explain their forms. 

Robert Cadotte creates acrylic paintings based on landscape. In his series, ‘Pairings’, the first image is a linear, monochromatic impression or glimpse of a faded memory, perhaps a response to a brief encounter. The second painting responds to the first image but this time with a vibrantly coloured palette. His paintings are not unlike the building of character or a reflection of the opposites in human nature through a response to abstract art.

Susan Norman is concerned with the market driven nature of our culture and it’s bent towards self-destruction. Her form is derived from a combination of textile, dye, wax, photo transfer and paint to present layers representing past and predicted results from corporate takeovers.

Grace Loney’s Symphony No. 1. in Colour is a “painting sculpture”, a maze designed in a Celtic cross pattern. She has built an outdoor experience for viewers to become physically immersed in a maze of abstraction.

Asking Questions:
Margie Kelk, Mansaram, Paul Roorda, Ilona Staples
March 15 — May 25, 2008
Artist Talk by Mansaram: Sunday, March 30, 2008 at 1:00 p.m.
Exhibition Reception: Sunday, March 30, 2008 from 2:00 — 4:00 p.m.Four artists embrace life by transforming and harnessing their found media to define their work. Topical questions and observations of religion, politics, and culture are illuminated through their resourceful artwork.

Paul Roorda, observes societal ambivalence towards religion through his sculptural installations. One work, Congregation of the Ambivalent, is a collection of sixty old and worn donated Bibles that have been reclaimed and altered by volunteers. Pages were wet, dried, wrinkled and forced open with varying degrees of devotion and ambivalence. A process of repetition that was entangled with memories of childhood structure, results in a work that is a multi-layered transition of colour and form. Roorda’s selection of materials for all of his pieces are wonderfully managed, visually surprising, and are open to discussions about faith, ritual, healing and judgment.

Each of Ilona Staple’s works tackles a section of the fabric of our society to reveal its essence. Simple construction materials give way to complex ideas. Her work looks at the codependence of people and nations, from immigration to the United Nations. In her installation, Leaky Margins, the continent of Africa is broken up into all of its nations and restrung in a way to create an appeal for harmony.

Mansaram relates cultural viewpoints in his Indo/Canadian fusion of imagery that is inspired by his yearly visits back to his native land of India. Bright and joyful combinations of collage, paint, photography and computer manipulation are joined by graffiti that marks a link to language. There is an optimistic harmony that Mansaram achieves with his merging cultural imagery of gala city life, combinations of East/West architectural structures, and rituals that vary from one part of the world to the next.

Margie Kelk makes extended folding books combining photography and painting to reveal the complexities of life in China. Her images show beauty, poverty, industrialization and myth. She has studied calligraphic line drawings, Chinese brush painting, witnessed the Hanging Temple built on the side of cliffs, and the 1500-year-old Buddhist Grottos. Kelk is also attuned to China’s environmental crisis as the Communist government makes its transition to socialism and industrialization.

The visual exploration in this exhibition can induce thoughtful consideration about the way our institutions contribute or fail to meet society’s needs.

Thanks to an Ontario Arts Council Project Grant, a catalogue accompanies the exhibition with essays by Kathryn Carter, Associate Dean of Laurier Brantford, Associate Professor of English and Contemporary Studies, and by the exhibition Curator, Kathryn Hogg.

Who Are We: Cynthia Kemerer, Katherine MacDonald, Mary-Anne Murphy, Remus Moldovan
January 6 — March 9, 2008
Reception: Sunday, January 20, 2008 2:00 — 4:00 p.m.
Lecture with Katherine MacDonald at 1:00 p.m.

The figure as subject in art has captivated the human race from the beginning of civilization. Humanity has a need for expression through the revelation of their own image. From idealism to abstraction, the figure has developed into a forum for the discussion of our daily preoccupations and premonitions.

The exhibition, Who Are We, presents the work of four contemporary artists who use their medium of choice in their distinctive visual language to present the viewer with their observations.

Dressing glimmering, life-size, wooden cutouts, Cynthia Kemerer offers the viewer a resolute presentation of society. The work is drawn from life models in a pointillist style, complemented by collaged and painted details of clothing, jewelry and tapestry. Kemerer is influenced by her repeated travels to countries less affluent then Canada and perhaps this dual lifestyle accounts for the uneasiness and single-dimensional quality in her characters.

Katherine MacDonald is immersed in the life of a painter, balanced in the midst of a lineage of artists. Both of her parents were artists, her mother Rae Hendershot and father, T.R. MacDonald, who was a Canadian war artist and past Director of the Art Gallery of Hamilton. From these sources comes the inspiration for her work that is fused with a subtly in layered colour and a fierce concentration on the relationship of form. The fresh figures she portrays in the studio capture a series of changing perceptions and moods.

Reflection is a reoccurring theme in Remus Moldovan’s work with mirrored images that either act as illusion or are actual mirrored elements. Using the science of perception he challenges the viewer to interpret the distortion. Using personal subject matter and relying on symbolic imagery he distorts his canvases into new shapes with constructed frames that are an integral element in the presentation of the work.

Mary-Anne Murphy’s articulate body of work is entitled Life Maps and is a concentration in respectful depictions of the elderly. The drawings are graphite on paper, selectively cropped to focus on intimate details of the face or of hands in occupation.

 

For some artists it’s the scratching through or subtraction of line. Some works are complete within themselves and look to a clear mode of communication. Narrative drawings are informed by personal experiences, while others celebrate the media as expression. Gauze drawing replaces the hard medium, and architectural renditions celebrate draftsmanship. Garner Beckett’s DVD is a “sketchbook come to life.“ All of the works acknowledge gesture and rhythm.

Jurors, Julie Oakes, Artist and Curatorial Assistant of the Headbones Gallery in Toronto and Peter Kirkland, Hamilton Artist who exhibited at Glenhyrst in 2006 selected the work for the show.

The artists include, Rey Baecher, Aleks Bartosik, Garner Beckett, Tyler Bright Hilton, Oksana Bumstead, Kawong Chung-Shipman, Vivian Darroch-Lozowski, Brad Emsley, Ryan Gibson, Birte Hella, Robin Hesse, Scott Jensen, Betty Kaser, Fleur-Ange Lamothe, Gordon Leverton, Ramune Luminaire, Wilek Markiewicz, Mori McCrae, Derek McLarty, Ortansa Moraru, Lynne Munro, Helena Pravda, Barbara Rehus, Michelle M. Salter, David Samila, Ram Samocha, Steve Spears, Cole Swanson.

Awards include a tied Jurors Choice Award to Aleks Bartosik for Incurable Indecency, pencil on paper 246 x 306 cm. and to Ortansa Moraru for her series of Nests l, ll and lll each in pastel, 100 x 70 cm. The Award of Merit was given to Garner Beckett for his DVD, A Regular Day and the Honourable Mention went to Tyler Bright Hilton for Leap Alone, mixed media on mylar, 46 x 61 cm.

The People’s Choice Award, sponsored by Brian Stephen of Scotia McLeod went to Derek McLarty for his work The Shadow and the Light.

Canadian artists from Toronto include; Erika James who has created a series of textile work called Big Toys, an installation of fabric with inflatable components that have a variety of textures and audio elements. Max Streicher sews giant, inflated floating figures that viewers can walk amongst and Susan Szenes uses reclaimed material illustrating a bird’s eye view of urban life. From Ottawa is the work of Ryan Lotecki whose textured stained glass windows incorporate Braille text in poetic verse. Meg Lauder, of Vancouver, presents an eccentric look at eye patches as decorative garments that become a conduit to communication, understanding and tolerance. Also from Vancouver, Alison Hodson uses textile and photographic illusionary combinations that question both sighted and visually impaired perception.

Stephen Handschu from Chicago creates sculpture using power tools. With 5% vision he sees his work as shadow, space and volume as he forms his figures with 100% of his tactile perception.

Nicola Green’s (Edinburgh, UK), ‘The Laughing Record’, is a playable vinyl record of people from a variety of cultures, ages and continents – laughing – to illustrate a tapestry of identities through sound.

Braille and English text and an audio tour accompanies the show. We gratefully acknowledge the support of W. Ross Macdonald School. The artist Erika James thanks the Ontario Arts Council for their assistance.

Exhibition & Related Programmes are sponsored by S.C. Johnson.

Exhibition Related Programmes
All events are free except where stated.

• Walk the Labyrinth — experience your own sense of space
  September 16, 2007 1:00 p.m. (outdoors, lower gardens)
• Meet the Artists Reception
  September 16, 2007 2:00 — 4:00 p.m. (gallery)
• Artist Lecture “Inquiries” with Stephen Handschu
  September 16, 2007 2:00 p.m. (outdoors)
• A Form & Space Workshop with Karen Bell
  September 16, 2007 3:00 — 5:00 p.m. (outdoors in tents)
• Comedian/Inspirational Speaker, Gord Paynter
  Thursday, September 20, 2007 1:00 p.m. (Coach House)

Isabella Stefanescu and Karen Fletcher work from the model to create anatomical studies of the human figure. While Isabella draws, Karen builds up clay, informed by the model’s pose. This exhibition expresses the methods of the artists as they look to capture a gesture, a line, and to articulate the tensions and rhythms of the human form. Fletcher says, “An impulse to understand the inherent dynamics of structure within the human body lie at its core.”

Isabella Stefanescu graduated with a fine arts degree from the University of Waterloo. She continues to exhibit her work throughout Southern Ontario in both private and public galleries. She was the founder and organizer of CAFKA, Contemporary Art Forum in Kitchener from 1996-2004, and was on the City of Kitchener Public Art Committee from 1997-2002.

Karen Fletcher has exhibited her work in Ontario and Newfoundland and has her work in seven Public Collections. She received a BA from the University of Waterloo and a BE from the University of Western, London. She has lectured and instructed in the visual arts within University and Secondary School Art Departments.

There are 14 sets of Etudes/Studies, plus an exhibit of the artists’ completed paintings and sculptures. This comprehensive exhibition is an opportunity to see development that leads to accomplished works of sculpture and painting.

Isabella Stefanescu acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council.

Karen Fletcher acknowledges the support of Waterloo Region assistance.

The phenomenon of the natural world is the source of inspiration for sculptors, Judy Raymer Ivkoff and Fran Freeman. Their distinctive choices of sculptural material and the technical aspects inherent in them influence their individual approach to their subject.

Fran Freeman sows, reaps and transforms peat and plants into plant fibre paper that she shapes over wire forms. Suspended from the ceiling, they look like giant wasp nests or cocoons that expose the viewer to their inner workings. The plant fibre paper is fragile and built up in layers to suggest growth from within as the artist explores nature’s mysteries of birth and death. Freeman’s influences include Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, stories from Greek mythology, the Bog People and the Green Man archetype. What these references have in common are their persistence in human memory and their endurance of their imagery over the centuries.

Judy Raymer Ivkoff’s Forest Series is a collection of wood, stone and metal sculptures. Freestanding and mounted on limestone bases they are lyrical, linear, and made of hand-hewn planks of wood. Within them are strategically placed metal fragments that draw the viewer into Ivkoff’s eye for design and richness of materials. Ivkoff has had a lifelong relationship with the wilderness. In the forest she observes, sketches, and reacts to life’s inevitable changes. Her awareness of nature’s fragility and strength, its regeneration and vulnerability are noted in her work through its rugged texture and open spaces.

In a second body of work, Earthbound, Ivkoff works almost exclusively by hand, without power tools. These “series of structures” are table-like wood constructions that hold abstracted bronze forms resting on stone slabs to establish a physical environment. Ivkoff looks for the delicate balance of the vulnerability and endurance that she sees as tensions in nature. Fran Freeman gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council.

Artist Talk and Walking Tour with Judy Raymer Ivkoff
> April 15, 2007 at 2:00 p.m.
Judy Raymer Ivkoff will give a slide presentation that illustrates with quick sketches her emotional response to her treks through the woods that are the inspiration for her sculptures. She will then elaborate about the process of creating wood and bronze sculptures exhibited at the gallery. The presentation will take place in the Coach House building on Glenhyrst grounds and progress to the gallery where Judy will take the group for a walking tour of her exhibition. Everyone is welcome.

THE PERMANENT COLLECTION’
One of the strongest momentums for collecting artwork for Glenhyrst’s Permanent Collection was during an affluent culturally supported period from 1972 until 1984 when the Art Gallery of Brant initiated nine national juried Graphex exhibitions. These shows would eventually attract up to 1000 submissions, most of which were original prints.

The exhibition medium X process = perception is a selection of 35 works from the Graphex printmaking acquisitions. The whole stream ofconsciousness from the 1970’s and 80’s was reflected in the Graphex original prints. This show will highlight themes from humour to anguish and compare them to the current art practices of two Brantford printmakers, Robert Creighton and Rose Hirano. Included within the exhibition will be illustrations and concise explanations of the printmaking process.

The hoofed animal was an unusual choice of subject matter repeatedly selected for the collection. Vernon Chilton’s subject was the bovine. His serigraph, The Rite of Spring, is a humourous bow to Henri Matisse’s oil painting, The Dance, from 1910. Gary Olson is another printmaker who was engaged with the image of the cow through etching and lithography. Both of these artists were working in Alberta at the time. Alberta was a hotbed of productive printmaking probably due to the encouragement of the province that embraced all things cultural and developed new art venues and institutions of learning. Otis Tamasauskas also explored animal imagery in his signature style that is removed from realism. In Coyote Sonata, jagged movement and rich surfaces cross over media boundaries with experiments including collage and found objects imbedded into his work that summon up impressions of an environment. He refers to the print makers’ ‘intimacy with the paper to catch a fleeting, fragile idea’.

To exhibit a more inclusive cross reference to reoccurring themes, the emotion of anguish is revealed in the intaglio work by Walter Bachinski, and in the lithographs of Gene Chu and Peter Mah. Distorted perspective is illustrated in the work of Barbara Zeigler-Sunger and David Denyse. Brantford artist, Rick Pottruff’s etching selected in the Graphex 5 (1977) show, Tourist-Terroriste, expresses a relevancy to our current political times. And finally a concentration on colour and form expresses unconscious connections in the abstractions of Charles Ringness, Karen Dugas, Bonnie Sheckter and Walter Jule. These works will reflect how printmakers’ choice of technique and concepts work together to create a stimulating work of art.

> Artist Talk with Robert Creighton: January 21, 2007 3:00 p.m.
> Printmaking Workshop with Rose Hirano: January 28, 2007 9:30 a.m. — 3:30 p.m.

TWO BRANTFORD PRINTMAKERS
Printmaking is Robert Creighton’s choice of medium because of its expressive qualities and its ‘technical rigors’. He works in intaglio with chine collé. Intaglio is a method of printing on a metal plate using a sharp tool to draw with incised lines. Ink rolled over the plate enters the cut lines and is then wiped from the surface of the plate. The artist uses a printing press to exert pressure over the plate to transfer the ink from the plate to the paper. Chine Collé is a process that introduces tones and texture into an etching by laminating torn lightweight natural fibre paper onto the etched paper through the pressure of the printing press. Creighton’s subject is figurative in a mythological context to describe contemporary life. Robert Creighton’s studio is in Lynden, near Brantford. He also teaches visual art for the Grand Erie District School Board in Brantford, Printmaking at the Dundas Valley School of Art, and is affiliated with The Print Studio in Hamilton.

Rose Hirano creates original reduction wood block prints. She refers to her process as being methodical and meditative. Reduction woodcut is an exacting process in which the artist uses only one block of wood. The block is cut and used to print the first color; that same block is cut again (reduced) and used to print the second color over the first. The artist continues to cut and print until all of the colors have been printed. There is no opportunity to go back to the first color, since the wood has long since been cut away. Hirano’s imagery is landscape in the shape of pathways, fog and shadow in monochromatic hues to enhance the mood. Her subject and technique is a means to explore her own psychological landscape. Hirano is a self taught artist and works from her studio in downtown Brantford.

In association with the exhibition, Robert Creighton will be giving a printmaking talk at the exhibition reception on January 21 at 3:00 p.m. Rose Hirano will be sharing her process through a reduction woodblock printmaking workshop on Sunday, January 28, 9:30 — 3:30 p.m. Register for the workshop at 519-756-5932.

2006 Juried Exhibition

This contemporary exhibition demonstrates knowledge of materials, a relationship to the subject of the work, and a willingness to experiment. The artists include: C. Audit, R.Baecher, B.Bald, M.Batte, O.Bumstead, C.Couse, K.Crowder, B.Emard-Haskett, N.Farrell, J.Horgan, H.Horton, R.Kearns, M.Kelk, J.Kipfer, R.Krupka, P.La Porte, C.Lee, S.Martin, M. Murphy, H.Pravda, P.Roorda, H.Saunders, S.Simpson, S.Thompson, C.Vieira, L.Wisebrod.

Congratulations to Margie Kelk for winning the Juror’s Choice Award for her work “Datong”, Mary-Anne Murphy, “Reminisce” and Paul Roorda, “Keep” for winning Awards of Merit and Lorne Wisebrod,“Friday Night” and Heather Saunders, “Untitled (pink with ribbon)” for winning the Honourable Mention Awards. Also, congratulations to Sandra Martin for winning our first People’s Choice Award for her work, “Fractured Memory #1” (photo at right). The gallery thanks the sponsor, Brian Stephen of ScotiaMcLeod and all visitors who voted in this new award category.

HEAVY METAL: SCULPTURE IN STEEL AND STONE BY MARIANNE REIM
August 5 — October 8, 2006
Reception: Sunday, September 10, 2006Working with stone and metal is a challenging process that includes drilling, welding, burning and cutting. Marianne Reim takes on this challenge to articulate her ideas in the form of interactive steel books. The books area numbered series each entitled, Das Buch. The information on the pages uses Reim’s personal interpretations of her own history and concerns, and humankind’s fragility, strengths, and spirituality as a catalyst to present a variety of interpretive readings, in unfamiliar language. Not only using international languages, her books are mysteriously masked by coded message in Morse Code, Roman numerals, and Ascii; the language of the computer. An aura of mystery and wizardry is palpable as one turns the weighty steel pages of these constructed books. 

Reim also ventures into other combinations of materials, such as photo transfers, imbedded wax and glass that over time takes on the patina of the metal. In the work, Hearing the Song, she drilled into large slabs of stone to break it into two pieces. The drilling created tunnel marks that represent the musical staff that she then implanted into wedges of steel. This work will be mounted outside in Glenhyrst’s gardens for the duration of the exhibition.

Marianne Reims lives in Beamsville, Ontario. She received a B.A. in Art and Art History from McMaster University and has been an artist in residence in Japan, Yugoslavia, Italy, and British Columbia. She participated in International Sculpture symposiums in Vietnam and China where she has built her work on site without the convenience of heavy machinery, sharing her knowledge of process with other artists. Reim searches for the education that she needs to pursue her art form. She has had the opportunity to show her work, worldwide in Germany, Italy, England, Scotland, Holland, Yugoslavia, Japan, Vietnam, China, United States, and Canada. For 2007 she is making plans to create work in Korea.

Marianne Reim gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council.

BLACK AND WHITE:
CATHERINE GIBBON, PETER KIRKLAND, ADAM LODZINSKI, MARCIA PRACZ
May 27 — July 30, 2006
Reception: Sunday, June 4, 2006 2:00 p.m. — 4:00 p.m. 

The strength of imagery in black and white is the bond between the artists in this exhibition. With black and white, the concentration falls to line and form, hue and saturation.

Catherine Gibbon and Peter Kirkland are involved with the simplicity and power of the line as a creative form to express emotion and content.

Catherine Gibbon is interested in metamorphosis and life cycles. Her charcoal drawings reflect the power of nature and her concern for its survival. Her earlier work has dealt with chalk pastel in
brilliant colour to contain imagery of fire and its positive and debilitating affect on the environment. Gibbon looks for new pathways of understanding, healing and growing. Her drawings in this show are large and formidable reflecting her awe of nature, its elements, its impact and correlation with humanity.

Peter Kirkland’s non-representational work presents the form and flow of ideas of anatomical and botanical internal structure. He works in charcoal, rubbing and incorporating the fibre of the paper, as part textural, part imagery. Overlaying and erasing are part of the physical process. Both familiar and unfamiliar, emotional and mysterious, the forms are grounded within a floating surface. Energy, through strong lines comes alive, pulls out from the sketch, intermingles, and forms shapes. His personal forceful language opens the viewers to their own impressions and interpretations.

Looking to address non-representational art through the media of photography, Adam Lodzinski, shoots multiple exposures from a variety of angles of paper constructions. Using laser processing he enlarges the image to enhance the sense of landscape and mood while still pursuing the possibilities of abstraction. Other experimentation with media includes airbrushing chemical developer on paper with heat for effects of shade and form. Shapes float, shift and peer through, creating dramatic subtleties.

Maria Pracz photographs organic forms that generate the feeling of weightlessness. Photographing the unassuming weed in black and white transforms these organic shapes into a ballet of tone. Her enlargement of the photographs allows for the observation of detail, perhaps not known to the naked eye and therefore presents the viewer with information about our natural world. This combination of documentation and drama unveils the beauty that lies in humble imagery.

WHERE THERE’S SPACE: Martin Pearce and Jesse Stewart
March 18 — May 21, 2006
Reception: Sunday, March 26, 2:00 — 4:00 p.m.
Artist Performance with Jesse Stewart: Sunday, March 26 at 3:00 p.m.
Artist Talk with Martin Pearce: Wednesday, April 19 at 7:00 p.m. 

Martin Pearce has been observing and painting circumstances of the weather and the light, creating worlds of frantic brush strokes and scratched colour. Through the process of breaking down an image his work has been aggressive and illusive.

Since I visited his studio, Pearce has been awarded an Ontario Arts Council, mid-career grant that has allowed him to focus exclusively on his work for an eight-month period. His format has become larger, and along with his earlier work, it is the fruits of this period that will be on exhibit at Glenhyrst. He still includes cold and hot wax to his paint that acts as a medium for his oils and creates texture. Now his work includes the new component of rectangular shapes that infuse the canvas. They remind one of buildings, projecting concepts of control and a sense of community to his work. He still breaks down the imagery by laying down colour and then removing it. Now the combination of recognizable form and decomposition are a direct enquiry into uncovering what lies beneath the surface, the formation of the earth, and the powers that form it.

Martin Pearce was born in England and studied art there, culminating in an MA from the Royal College of Art in London. Along with his own discipline of painting, he is also a painting instructor at the Universities of Guelph and Toronto.

Jesse Stewart pulls his work from the multiple disciplines of Music, Art, Literature and Theatre that he has studied. As a result, installation art becomes a natural choice of medium for Stewart. With an idea to explore the cycle of nature and the way that its elements affect each other, he begins with an installation work that speaks about the element of water. Waterworks, is comprised of a large curved water bowl with a cone suspended above it. A released valve allows droplets of water to slip through the cone and to strike the surface of the water bowl casting a wave pattern against the walls when projected with light. A meditative, mandala pattern results through this drawing in light, from shadow. This space is set-up to reflect on the passage of time and the impermanence of form.

In a second gallery, a video installation depicts the artist on film with a water-filled shell. The contrast of this image with an actual shell, set up in the gallery space, creates a connection or dysfunction between reality and technology. The thread between the two works is in the comparison between audio and visual waves. Stewart received a BA from the University of Guelph in Music and Art, an MA in music from York University and has returned to Guelph as a PhD candidate in Literary and Theatre Studies. Jesse Stewart has written musical compositions to include experimental percussion instruments.

PORTRAITS OF SOCIETY:
Paintings by Wynne Paquette & Shannon Reynolds & Portraits from the permanent collection
January 7 — March 12, 2006
Reception: Sunday, January 29, 2006, 2:00 — 4:00 p.m.
Lecture: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 at 7:00 p.m.Portraiture has an illustrious history of stylistic and interpretive changes. Where once the artist was in the employment of a benefactor, called on to interpret a likeness of the sitter, the artist has since grown into a creative interpreter of society. This exhibition compares and contrasts contemporary approaches to portraiture by Shannon Reynolds and Wynne Paquette with works from the Permanent Collection that will include oil portraits from the mid 19th Century and 20th Century works on paper. 

Shannon Reynolds sets up two kinds of dialogue in two separate series of paintings. For Suspect Profiles, Reynolds solicits volunteers to pose as criminals against a measured backdrop that indicates the prospective criminal’s height, akin to a police line-up. These works address subtle forms of discrimination, racial profiling, and fears in general. In Dramatis Personae, acting as artistic director, she casts characters in the poses of archetypes such as The Coquette or The Dandy. She allows her models an interpretive leeway in their costumes, makeup and characterization. Drawing from her background in literature and to dramatize theatrical imagery, she includes literary text that lingers just below the surface of the painting. The result is an imposing interaction between model, artist, and ultimately the viewer.

Wynne Paquette paints large female figures, up-close, drawn from life models and concentrating on sculptural shapes. Often in foreshortened composition, the viewer is above looking down on the figure. There is not a feeling of superiority on the part of the viewer; on the contrary, the viewer enters a world of form and energy. Brilliant colours on nude skin tones create a combination of power and sensuality. Paquette paints large oil canvases of defiant women who simultaneously expose and challenge themselves to the viewer.

To create a forum comparing stylistic changes that reflect on changing attitudes within society, the paintings by Shannon Reynolds of Kitchener and Wynne Paquette of Guelph, are accompanied by works from the Permanent Collection. These include portraits of former Brantford residents, painted in the mid 1850’s by Brantford artist, Robert Reginald Whale and portraits from the 1970’s collected through the Art Gallery of Brant. Artist Lecture with Shannon Reynolds. ARTIST LECTURE WITH SHANNON REYNOLDS: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. Shannon Reynolds will discuss her unconventional approach to the model and her interpretive use of painting and portraiture to reflect on society.

Turning Points is Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant’s 2005 Juried Art Exhibition. It is a thematic exhibition open to all media and to all Ontario artists. The theme focuses on the visual expression of the artists’ own artistic or philosophical turning points, or those that they observe socially or politically.

This year’s jurors are: Ingrid Mayrhofer, Assistant Curator, McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, Ontario. Ingrid comes from a background that includes a BFA from York University, Toronto, Ontario, and she continues to engage in printmaking and installation work. She has also completed her MA in Cultural Studies; Carolyn Dover is a practicing artist and art Instructor. Carolyn graduated with a BFA from Mount Allison University, New Brunswick, and has an extensive exhibition history including the intriguing three-person exhibition, Three Female Perspectives, in 2004 at Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant.

This exhibition is always an exciting one, allowing emerging artists the opportunity to first show their work to the public and for mid-career artists, the prospect of showcasing their most current work. In both cases it becomes a meeting of thought and a delight for the audience.

The Group of Seven first exhibited in Toronto, May 1920. They were interested in the ideal of a “Canadian Art” and so explored the spiritual resources of Canada. While the common thread in the group’s work was the Canadian landscape, their styles and development were individual.

A selection of moody, atmospheric landscapes from the 19th century, influenced by European painting will begin our look at the way Canada was first interpreted by the artist Robert Whale. Homer Watson was one of the first Canadian artists to attempt painting Canada as it really looked, when that was not popular, and in this sense can be considered a forerunner of the Group of Seven. His works capture dramatic skies, majesty of forests, and the atmosphere of rural Ontario. A.J. Casson, who became a member of the group in 1926, had a bold approach to landscape painting and a strong sense of colour and design. His focus was on the small towns of rural Ontario.

David Milne represents scenes, primarily in watercolour, that depict his spiritual interaction with nature. Lionel L. FitzGerald is most recognized for finding inspiration in everyday things through observation resulting in sensitive drawings. He was invited to be a member of the Group of Seven in 1932 and afterward became one of the founding members of its successor, the Canadian Group of Painters. The history of the Canadian landscape will be seen as one views the changes of style and impulse that has shaped our understanding of the Canadian experience.

Fifty works include a progression from Robert Whale through to Homer Watson, A.J. Casson, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, David Milne up to contemporary works by David Blackwood and Lotti Thomas.

This exhibition has been sponsored locally by the Brantford Community Foundation and is presented as part of the Group of Seven project 1920-2005; a province-wide celebration of the Group of Seven’s first public exhibition in 1920. For details on the project visit www.oaag.org

• OPENING WEEKEND CELEBRATION OF THE GROUP OF SEVEN
• September 17: Landscape Painting Workshop
• September 18: Lecture on Lawren Harris

Patrick Landsley’s work is based on abstracted architectural landscape inspired from the Greek Islands. His paintings were motivated by his interest in architecture and the colour of the country observed during his sabbatical in Greece. Using a combination of oil and acrylic on layered masonite, Patrick achieves a low relief that incorporates textured materials. Often appearing through a window or from above, the viewer gets the sense of the place as charming, romantic and illusive. His experience as an artist has been accompanied by a teaching career in the Faculty of Fine Art at Concordia University, Montreal. During this time he also exhibited extensively throughout Canada and now lives in Woodstock, Ontario. 

Ellen McIntosh-Green of Simcoe, paints the landscape of Southern Ontario from her knowledge and interest in the indigenous flora of the region. She integrates decorative patterns with abstracted floral motifs to create vistas of country fields. Her approach to the painting’s perspective has the viewer’s eye floating above and within the encompassing forms of plant life. Both artists have become close observers of their place and its forms. Their individual responses transform the land into pattern, light, atmosphere and colour.

Joseph Muscat constructs collaged works from acrylic painted pieces of tarpaper on wood panel. Torn edges give an overall soft and raw quality to the work. His images are of temples and vessels influenced by the culture that he grew up with in Malta. These sources of imagery are let loose with his imagination to create patterns that imply meaning rather than impose it. The result is rich in colour, spiritually enchanting and texturally stimulating.

With Latin text incorporated in his work, Ryszard Sliwka refers to love, peace and charity. The Votive is a symbol of fertility or life. After a period of working in Italy he incorporated rubbings and Italian influences in his work. His research into the symbolism of the Vesica (almond shape) and Votive (heart shape) are intellectual pursuits that guide his own dialogue. They are a part of ancient mythology, pagan and Christian teachings. They have associations with the sea and the sky.

Sliwka states that he attempts to explain the inexpressible emotions of the heart. Both artists come from a teaching background with Joseph Muscat who teaches art in a Toronto high school and Ryszard Sliwka who teaches design and architectural theory at the University of Waterloo, School of Architecture.

Joseph Muscat gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council.

“ What distinguished these examples from the conventional film poster… is that the artist was not motivated to glorify celebrity”, says Otto Buj.

Some of the techniques employed to entice the viewer is the altering of perspective or use of imagery from famous artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec, as in the 1955 film poster for French Can Can by Rene Grau. Often artists were commissioned to paint the posters such as in the case of the rendering of Marlene Dietrich in the 1932 Swedish film, The Scarlet Empress. The watercolour and ink montage rendering of Les Diaboliques (1954) on the other hand is more abstract and creates a sense of suspense.

The posters hint at the mood of the film with their creative visual interpretations by allowing the viewer’s imagination to take hold. The subtle qualities of the designs intrigue and draw an appreciation for the artwork enticing the viewer and encouraging them to see the movie. This collection includes a catalogue that draws together ideas about art and filmmaking, imagery and technique. It is an international trip through time and thought that reveals the entertainment, themes and issues of the day.

This exhibition was organized by Curator, Otto Buj and circulated by the Thames Art Gallery, Chatham, Ontario.

From traditional to contemporary artwork, the concerns of First Nations artists will be explored through painting, sculpture and multi media works. Using the resources of Woodland Cultural Centre with Director, Tom Hill’s collaboration, this exhibition will examine the changing depictions of aboriginal thought. Artists’ Stanley Hill, Cleveland Sandy and Vince Bomberry will reveal the past, illustrated through the traditional medium of carving: antlers, soapstone and steatite. Blake Debassige’s, Story of the Six Little Hawks, from Glenhyrst’s Permanent Collection will fill in the middle years. Shelley Niro and Gary Miller, contemporary First Nation artists will take a look into the future with the use of more experimental approaches as they broach the subject of status symbols and the state of an evaporating language.

Black and white photographs by internationally acclaimed photographer, John Reeves will depict images of Baker Lake, its artists, studios and images of the surrounding tundra from Reeve’s three separate trips to Baffin Island in 1968, 1971 and 1982.

Along with the opportunity to meet the artists at the opening reception on February 27, we will also present a lecture during the reception at 3 pm with Tom Hill, Director of the Woodland Cultural Centre. On April 3, we will offer Family Workshops by First Nations’ Artists introducing hands-on opportunities for children and adults to explore traditional media and legends.

Sponsored by the Guardian Members of Glenhyrst, Ontario Arts Council, Hudson’s Bay Charitable Foundation, Samuel W. Stedman Foundation and Brantford Community Foundation.

Lise Melhorn-Boe of North Bay, Ontario uses her papermaking and book making skills to tackle the issue of family relationships. She combines childhood memories of family quirks with topics such as food and money. Through her construction of three-dimensional books she reveals the tensions that exist within families, with humour. Lise creates well-designed pop-up books and tabletop stories that are quilted, coloured, stamped and collaged. Using her own stories and those from other women she has interviewed, she takes the viewer on an intriguing romp around the baggage that one carries from their youth. Like Elizabeth Barrett Milner, she expresses the influence that those situations have in who we become as adults.

Winter 2004

Damage Control: Michael Barber, Douglas Bedard and Andrew McPhail
November 6 — December 19, 2004
Opening Reception and meet the artists, Sunday, November 7, 2004, 2 – 4 pm

Three artists in their mid-careers create autobiographical work using personal visual vocabulary. Their sense of playfulness in colour and form belies their more serious underlying themes. Each artist in his own way confronts the alienation of men and the dark realities of their supposed freedom.

Michael Barber of Simcoe looks through the layers of his memory in search of hidden understanding. Scratching through surfaces of paint and wax both exposes and protects.

Using acrylic on canvas, Douglas Bedard of Windsor explores the confusion of man’s role in light of society’s male expectations.

Andrew McPhail of Toronto draws with pencil crayon on Mylar. He sets up the gist of innocence through his use of commonplace objects like plumbing or electrical wires but upon closer examination one sees that the images are metaphors that question societal issues.