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Sharyn YuenSojourner (detail), 1992sandblasted glass, photo transferCollection of the Kamloops Art Gallery 1993-04. Photo: Kim Clarke
Organized by: the Kamloops Art GalleryGuest curated by: Will Garrett-Petts and Donald Lawrence
Contemporary artists and authors have developed a curious love/hate relationship with such Modernist concepts as photography's "Frozen Moment": concepts of image making that emphasized stasis and containment. PhotoGraphic Encounters presents image-text constructions, ranging from artists' books to installation works, which explore a more process-oriented, vernacular means of narrative construction. These "prose pictures" and "visual fictions" recognize the aesthetic importance of everyday objects, exploring narrative's potential to redeem the ordinary and the historical as more than nostalgic souvenirs fixed in time and space. Finding and revitalizing the story languishing dormant in the everyday means confronting the neglect or indifference or misreading that everyday objects suffer.
Included in the exhibition are works by George Bowering, Fred Douglas, Roy Kiyooka, Ernie Kroeger, Robert Kroetsch, Lise Melhorn-Boe, Michael Ondaatje, Daphne Marlatt, Robert Minden, Brenda Pelkey, Michael Snow, Fred Wah and Sharyn Yuen.
The Cube and Gallery Under Glass feature a parallel exhibition, Word & Image, of image-text art and personal narratives by a selection of local artists. The exhibition is curated by Darlene Kalynka.
Patricia Schneider, Berniece Machuk and Debora Simoneau (l to r) Emanations, 1993mixed mediaPhoto: Donald Lawrence
The photo-based works in this exhibition are combinations of image and text, reflecting the theme of the exhibition PhotoGraphic Encounters currently showing in the main gallery. The works in Word & Image have been executed by students of English and fine arts at The University College of the Cariboo in response to their studies. All of the works offer an exploration of personal identity and its relationship to visual and verbal literacy, many by way of personal stories. Explorations like these are linked to ideas of personal and national identity. Identity is a common theme that runs through the art works of many Canadian artists, perhaps because the artists are part of a young country that continues to define itself in new ways. The artists featured in Word & Image are Wade Carson, Howard Glossop, Linda Goddard, Alice Joe, Cheryl Keay, Berniece Machuk, Erin Moen, Marie Roddan, Patricia Schneider, David Scott, and Debora Simoneau.
Tom WilcoxIndigo Bay Storm, 1990acrylic on canvas Collection of the Kamloops Art Gallery 1994-34. Photo: Roger Boulet
Organized by: the Kamloops Art GalleryGuest curated by: Roger H. Boulet
For many years the Kamloops Art Gallery has acquired, through gifts and purchases, a collection of works by artists who have chosen British Columbia as the subject of their work. While the collection is still in its early stages of development, landscape painting occupies a very significant portion of the collection. Over the past few years, the Gallery has acquired works by F.M. Bell-Smith, A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, Marmaduke Matthews, Paul Rand, Charles H. Scott and Fred Varley.In addition to these works are many others executed by artists from the region, and most of these feature scenes near Kamloops or along the Thompson River. Some of the local artists in the exhibition are Margaret Kobelt-Swetman, Jim Logan, Ted Smith, Tom Wilcox and Dorothy Wright. These works are highly prized items in the Kamloops Art Gallery collection and demonstrate the Gallery's ongoing commitment to the community and its artists.
Sponsored in part by CFJC-TV7, Oasis Gallery, and Kamloops Catering & Event Services
This preview exhibition provides an opportunity for everyone to view the selection of works by Canadian artists, including Rhona Armes, Barbara Astman, Alan Atterton, Ann McAllister-Johnson, Anne Meredith Barry, Nora Berkhout, Kevin Bogetti-Smith, Kim Clarke, Sylvia Garay, Tom Godin, Gisela Harrison, Laura Hargrave, Eric Metcalfe, Agnete Newman, Toni Onley, Opie Oppenheim, Carol Richardson, Tricia Sellmer, Ted Smith, Linda Walton, Gu Xiong, and Jin-me Yoon, that are available at our 12th Annual Original Art Auction, September 30.
Kevin Bogetti-SmithUntitled, 1997
Kevin Bogetti-Smith, a young, local photographer, received his first camera from his parents after graduating from high school in 1981. Through trial and error he taught himself the technical aspects of photography and the process of fine art black and white printing. Over the years he has travelled the world documenting his journeys and refining his photographic process. Bogetti-Smith's work has been exhibited in Vancouver and his hometown of Kamloops, BC. Through My Eyes features a compilation of works produced while Bogetti-Smith was in Indonesia, Germany, the Czech Republic, and other countries. Most of his images are produced in black and white and are of people reflecting their culture and country.
Emily CarrHeina, 1928oil on canvas Collection of the National Gallery of Canada
Organized by: the Art Gallery of Greater VictoriaCurated by: Peter Macnair and Jay StewartPresented by BC Hydro Sponsored in Kamloops by the British Columbia Lottery Corporation and CFJC-TV7
British Columbia artist Emily Carr engaged in an heroic struggle to promote her paintings of coastal First Nations villagescapes, views that included totem poles, decorated housefronts, canoes and other monumental sculptures. Years passed before she finally achieved national and local recognition.
Her interest in totem pole villages was, in part, inspired by a visit to Sitka, Alaska, in 1907. There she viewed a stand of Tlingit and Haida totem poles, removed from outlying villages and re-erected in orderly rows in a public park, which later became the Sitka National Monument.
A surviving watercolour sketch from this trip, Totem Walk, Sitka, now in the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria collection, records her first experiences with the monumental sculpture of Northwest Coast Indians. The grandeur of the place was not lost on Carr, and upon her return trip by steamer to Victoria, she reflected in her autobiography, Growing Pains, "the Indian People and their Art touched me deeply. By the time I reached home my mind was made up. I was going to picture totem poles in their own village settings, as complete a collection of them as I could."
In the ensuing five years she visited and sketched Indian villages on northern Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands) and the upper Skeena River, all remote areas which were difficult to access at that time. Most of the works are quick watercolour sketches-a challenge on the rain drenched coast-although she also completed some field studies in oil on board. Later, in her studio, she reworked her favourite compositions into large canvasses.
In 1913, while living and teaching art in Vancouver, Carr mounted a show of her paintings; she enhanced the exhibition with a lengthy and informed Lecture on Totems. This presentation provided a history of coastal tribes and customs and contextualized her own work within this cultural milieu. In part, her intent was to persuade provincial authorities to purchase more than 200 of her works and support the continuation of her documentary endeavours. For a variety of reasons, fiscal and moral support were not forthcoming.
In 1927 Carr was asked to contribute some of her earlier works to a seminal exhibition at the National Gallery of Ottawa, sponsored jointly by the National Gallery and the National Museum. The display combined ceremonial artifacts from Northwest Coast tribes with paintings by prominent eastern Canadian artists, such as Edwin Holgate and A.Y. Jackson. Carr's inclusion in this major event brought her the national prominence she had long sought. During her trip to Toronto and Ottawa she met many of Canada's Group of Seven artists. Their enthusiasm for her vision profoundly influenced her confidence and personal style from that time on.
The exhibition To the Totem Forests: Emily Carr and Contemporaries Interpret Coastal Villages reviews Carr's evolution as an interpreter of the First Nations scene. The works of art in the exhibit are enhanced by historic photographs of the subject matter and insightful comments on First Nations people which explain the origin and meaning of the images on the totem poles.
Special admission rates are in effect during this exhibition.
For more information www.emilycarr.org
members' preview and opening reception Saturday, June 10 at 7:30 pm curators' talk and tour with Peter Macnair and Jay Stewart Sunday, June 11 at 1:30 pm
Dana ClaxtonThe Heart of Everything That Is (detail), 2000Photo: courtesy of the artist
Dana Claxton is an interdisciplinary artist of Lakota (Sioux) descent, who works in video, film and performance art. Her work has been shown internationally and is held in the collections of the Vancouver Art Gallery, MacKenzie Art Gallery and Winnipeg Art Gallery. Her new work, The Heart of Everything That Is, manifests Lakota spiritual beliefs within the practice of contemporary art making. The narrative is about existence and a relationship to the universe-the above sky world and the below earth world. The narrative intellectualizes cultural practices of the Lakota, who believe that everything you need to know is in the sky and the sky is a mirror image of the earth. Traditional Lakota knowledge teaches that important symbols and stories can be found in the sky. Stars are considered to be the holy breath of the Great Spirit, and "the heart of everything that is" is a sacred place located in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
In this new work, Claxton has worked with Samaya Jardey, a Vancouver-based Salish actress who has been in two other projects of Claxton's, most notably The Red Paper. Samaya's character, Woman, represents the notion of the quintessential "Woman" and places the identity of an aboriginal woman in this westernized position. This work investigates a woman's freedom and autonomy, and signifies that perhaps, through a spiritual belief and cultural practice, this aboriginal woman can become free, despite the complexities of colonial systems and economies. Also in this work is accomplished theatre actor Glen Gould from Unama'ki'k (Cape Breton Island) of Mi'kmaq and Italian heritage. "Man" is his character; he and Woman represent a contemporary First Nations Adam and Eve.
Through this work the artist attempts to visit a spiritual site through art making, in the hope of presenting a sacred moment in space, place, and time.
members' preview and opening receptionSaturday, June 10 at 7:30 pmartist's talk and tourSaturday, June 10 at 8:00 pm
Norman LaRueno title, no datewood, paint, horsehair, rabbit fur, leather, plastic, beadsPhoto: Maureen Thompson
Shuswap artist Norman LaRue became widely known for his exceptional masks inspired by stories and myths of the Shuswap people. The exhibition, Masking Time, features LaRue's artwork from the collection of the Kamloops Art Gallery and private collections throughout the region.
Norman LaRue grew up on the Neskonlith Indian reserve and began his career as a radio broadcaster and newspaper writer before teaching himself how to draw, paint and carve. LaRue had a difficult life, but the one constant was his drive to express his cultural background and beliefs.
The work in this exhibition is influenced by traditional Northwest Coast images, First Nations spirituality, social and economic conditions, stories and myths of the Shuswap people gleaned from elders and ethnographic journals, and LaRue's need to express his personal interpretation of the world around him. While the exhibition features only a very small selection of the diverse work of Norman LaRue, it clearly articulates his love of material, his painstaking unmasking of red and yellow cedar, and his gift for illustrating stories through the haunting faces of his masks.
Norman LaRue passed away in February 2000.
members' preview and opening receptionSaturday, June 10 at 7:30 pm
Chuck St. JohnUntitled from Etched in Time seriesPhoto: courtesy of the artist
During the summer months, Gallery Under Glass features Etched in Time, a rotating series of glass works by local artist Chuck St. John. The opening installation consists of a large, three-panelled, etched glass screen. The static medium of glass comes to life with St. John's intricate mark-making techniques. The etchings, or marks on glass, combine to form an elongated pattern, one that is reminiscent of the turbulence surrounding an object moving through space.
The second installation, which takes place in July, presents three kiln-fired glass plates. These utilitarian pieces strongly reference cubist paintings, and St. John's modernist influences are combined with his own contemporary style to create original designs. These round glass structures, inset with bold, angular shapes, make one momentarily forget their fragile nature. St. John describes this work as a series of explorations in which he examines the psychological impact that occurs when a union of mediums converges with light and space.
The third and final installation, which takes place in August, presents another style of glass screen. This small, three-paneled piece has also been kiln-fired, providing a contrasting backdrop for the many melted, coloured chunks of glass permanently affixed to an etched ground of textured patterns. This piece is an exuberant expression of fire-polished, kiln-fired glass. Also included in this window display are two round plates in brilliant blue and green hues. Here, the landscape of Kamloops is subtly etched onto the interior portion of the piece, highlighting the well-known hills of Mounts Peter and Paul. Natural and artificial light radiates through the works, emphasizing the internal texture of the glass and producing a translucent canvas of etched images.
Chuck St. John lives and works in the community of Pinantan Lake, 29 kilometres east of Kamloops in south central British Columbia. He has been expanding his technical abilities and exploring his artistic production with glass, gradually incorporating a wider variety of materials in his mixed media sculptures. The design and production of fine art and craft have become the focus of St. John's work. His non-representational designs come from his continuing study of art, architecture, spirituality, mythology and social structures.
Organized by: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Guest curated by Toni Greenbaum Weyerhaeuser Gallery
Sponsored in Kamloops by CFJC-TV 7, Weyerhaeuser Canada Ltd., and Jonathan Buchner Gems and Jewellery
An exhibition of American Modernist jewelry, organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, has been travelling throughout North America and Europe since November 1996. Since its inception, this exhibition has been extremely well received. Messengers of Modernism: American Studio Jewelry 1940-1960 focuses on a unique collection of mid-twentieth-century jewelry acquired by the Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts in 1993.
The collection contains ninety-one pieces of rare jewelry considered to be the most significant of its kind. According to jewelry historian and guest curator Toni Greenbaum, "This landmark collection is both definitive and comprehensive. Furthermore, it chronicles a distinctive jewelry movement that emphasized hand-craftsmanship and non-precious metals, and that was based on modern art theories."
Essentially a post-World War II development, the American Modernist jewelry movement was a natural outgrowth of the American Arts and Crafts movement, which, at the turn of the century, rejected the machine and championed hand-craftsmanship. One of the chief contributing factors in the flowering of the post-war jewelry movement was the proliferation of metal-working programs, including jewelry-making workshops, set up to help rehabilitate veterans through the manual manipulation of material. These led to a general renaissance of crafts and the creation of craft schools and the American Craft Council. While the movement focused on craftsmanship, however, many of its sources lay in the fine arts. American studio jewelers allied themselves with modern art movements such as Cubism, Surrealism, Constructivism and Primitivism. This was a logical association, for they were more interested in the expressive possibilities of jewelry than its precious qualities. Furthermore, lacking the traditional jewelry training of their European counterparts, which focused on noble materials, gems and time-honoured techniques, American jewelry-makers were free to adapt modern art theories to their unique, handcrafted objects.
Messengers of Modernism features works by the major studio jewelers of the 1940s and 50s. There are several of Sam Kramer's extraordinary figurative brooches. Kramer, one of Greenwich Village's most picturesque figures, created a unique body of work inspired by surrealist imagery. By contrast, Margaret De Patta, a leading proponent of Modernism, adhered to the tenets of Constructivism as promoted by Moholy-Nagy. Among the numerous examples of her work is an innovative wire-screen brooch. Earl Pardon, known for his colourful assemblages incorporating enamels, wood inlays and beads, is represented by the finest pieces from his forty-year career. The exhibition also includes works by respected artists in the fine and decorative arts, such as sculptor Alexander Calder, and sculptor and furniture designer Harry Bertoia. In addition to these contributions, the exhibition reveals some unexpected treasures. Among these are a brooch by renowned sculptor Jose de Rivera and an unusual necklace by Marianne Strengell, one of North America's most distinguished textile designers. Irena Brynner, Peter Macchiarini, Ed Wiener and Bob Winston are among the other respected jewelers represented.
A comprehensive, fully illustrated catalogue by Toni Greenbaum has been published by The Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts in association with Flammarion. This publication is supported in part by a grant from the Birks Family Foundation.
Messengers of Modernism: American Studio Jewelry 1940-1960, both the exhibition and the insightful catalogue, will acquaint the general public with remarkable objects and innovative artists appreciated until now by only a small group of cognoscenti. The catalogue is available at the Gallery Store.
members' preview and opening receptionSaturday January 29 at 7:30 pm in the Weyerhaeuser Gallerychampagne brunchWith Toni Greenbaum, Sunday February 13 at 11:30 am in the Gallery Atriumjewelry appraisalsWith Jonathan Buchner, Saturday February 26 and Saturday March 18 from 1:00 to 3:00 pmcurator's tourWith Susan Edelstein, Thursday March 2 at 7:00 pm
This timely exhibition coincides with the popular resurgence of mid-century modern furniture design. It focuses on some of the most influential designs produced during the last half of the twentieth century and features a collection of rare prototypes and important pieces from this period, some of which are still in production today.
Organized by Kamloops Art Gallery curator, Susan Edelstein, the exhibition features work produced by artists and designers between the 1940s and 1960s. Lounge-Ware and the concurrent exhibition, Messengers of Modernism: American Studio Jewelry 1940-1960, give gallery goers insight into the post-war period. Bolstered by the collective optimism of the era, design work was steeped in Modernism's unyielding optimism and idealism. This work pushed certain boundaries and carved out new directions that continue to affect design production today.
Early modern furniture evoked a sculptural presence through the unity of form and function, eliminating much of the applied decoration and elaborate upholstery of earlier times. Unlike the ideology behind mid-century jewelry production, which promoted hand-craftsmanship, the furniture was designed with mass production in mind as available materials--plastic, metal and plywood--proved to be flexible and inexpensive.
Included in the exhibition are works by renowned sculptor/ designer, Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), who worked as an assistant to Constantin Brancusi in Paris, and sculptor/designer Harry Bertoia (1915-1987). During his extraordinary career Bertoia worked with Charles and Ray Eames, developing techniques for molding plywood. By 1951 his innovative series of sculptural chairs, designed exclusively for Knoll International, had become so successful that he was able to live off his production royalties and concentrate solely on his career as a sculptor. Work by Noguchi and Bertoia are included in both exhibitions at the gallery.
Others represented in this exhibit are Eero Saarinen, Dick Schultz, Pierre Jenneret, Jens Risom, Verner Panton and Donald R. Knorr.
Accompanying the furniture exhibit are photographs of early advertisements designed by Herbert Matter, a well-known American graphic designer from the period. Matter was commissioned by Knoll International to promote their exclusive new lines, and his images were featured in magazines throughout North America. One advertisement, which is featured in the gallery, depicts Eero Saarinen's "Womb" chair. This image and the "Womb" chair soon reached icon status, and the ad was run in the New Yorker magazine for thirteen consecutive years. Videos on Harry Bertoia's sculptural work, the life of Isamu Noguchi, and a rare interview with Florence Knoll, designer and co-founder of Knoll International, will be shown daily in the gallery.
Accompanying the exhibition is an insightful catalogue essay by Vancouver designer Russell Baker. The catalogue is available in the Gallery Store.
My most sincere thanks to Albert Pfeiffer, AIA, Curator, Knoll Museum, East Greenville, Pennsylvania, who has embraced the Lounge-Ware project with great enthusiasm. Since our initial meeting last year, Pfeiffer, on behalf of Knoll International, has provided me with numerous details and information. Thanks also to: Bill Shea, Shea & Latone Inc., East Greenville, Pennsylvania; Russell Baker for his insightful and rigorous essay; the late Neil Malbuef who, along with Baker, has, over the years, informed and inspired my passion and deep regard for the mid-century period; Lorna Stewart of MIM Sales, which represents Knoll Manufacturing in Vancouver, BC: Dave and Elizabeth Riedel, Telstar Electronics, Dousman, Wisconsin; Harvey Reehal, Inform Interiors Inc., Vancouver, BC; Lorraine Lewis, Italinteriors, Vancouver, BC.
-Susan Edelstein, Curator
members' preview and opening receptionSaturday January 29 at 7:30 pm curator's tourWith Susan Edelstein, Thursday March 2 at 7:00 pm round table discussionWith Albert Pfeiffer of Knoll International, NYC, Russell Baker of Bombast, Vancouver, BC, and Lorraine Lewis of Italinteriors, Vancouver, BC, Sunday March 12 at 2:00 pm
Angela Grossmann is represented by Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver.
Angela Grossmann was introduced to the Canadian art world in 1985 as one of the Young Romantics, a group of artists who were part of a major new art movement emerging in Vancouver. Since then her mixed media paintings have been exhibited nationally and internationally.
Angela Grossmann, Fraud, 1997, mixed media, 172.7 x 96.5 cm
Correction(s) is Grossmann's most recent body of work. Her research into the Canadian penal system actually began five years ago in a Vancouver junk shop when she found a package containing data from a BC prison. The files had somehow found their way through the channels of ephemera buffs, and Grossmann was able to purchase them for just a few dollars each. The documents contained very personal and revealing information: the names and addresses of families and friends, medical and criminal histories, and descriptions of prisoners' "amenity to discipline."
The crimes that had been committed were, for the most part, petty and ranged from vagrancy to minor fraud. The penalties, however, were severe and often included corporal punishment in the form of 'lashes' and jail terms of three or more years.
One of the most revealing things Grossmann discovered when reading the prison files was the lack of attention given to data inputting by the chief keepers. In one instance, what was reported initially as a 'burglary' was within the same document recorded as 'buggery.' With such oversights, one can only wonder how closely the penalties really related to the crimes.
The Kamloops Art Gallery has produced a catalogue of the exhibition Correction(s) with essays by Susan Edelstein, Curator, Kamloops Art Gallery, and Matthew G. Yeager, a clinical criminologist based in Ottawa. Yeager specializes in sentencing alternatives and parole in North America. The catalogue will be available in the Gallery Store.
members' preview and opening receptionSaturday November 27 at 7:30 pm in the Weyerhaeuser Gallery artist talkWith Angela Grossmann, Saturday November 27 at 8 pm in the Weyerhaeuser Gallery panel discussionNot in My Backyard: A Community's Role and Responsibility in Dealing with Issues of CrimeJanuary 16, 2000 at 1:30 pm in the Weyerhaeuser Gallery
The Italian verb parlare translated into English means "to speak."Voicing the alienation she has experienced as a result of growing up between two cultures has been the direction of Tonia Di Risio's practice for several years. Attempting to forge a juncture between ethnicity and culture, Di Risio explores cultural hybridization and Canadian identity. Questioning the construction of her own identity, she acknowledges what is foreign and what is familiar, creating a departure point for the work in Parlare.
In this exhibition Di Risio confronts imagery traditionally associated with women in relation to notions of ethnicity and femininity. When exploring her Italian lineage she is forced to negotiate through language, often encountering the limits of her ability to communicate with the women in her family. By pushing these boundaries, she establishes that she is no longer content to be on the outside of one culture looking in at the other.
Her photo-video installation juxtaposes a collection of family passport photos with photos of 'feminine' patterns and motifs. This massive installation of small individual portraits measures approximately four feet high by seven feet long. In close proximity to the photographic wall is a video monitor perched on top of a Queen Anne style table. The video portrays the artist attempting to enunciate verbs in Italian, a task that clearly appears to be foreign to her. Tonia uses the alienation she has experienced within her own ethnicity to challenge perceptions of culture, religion and the conflicting roles of women from one generation to the next.
Her desire to establish links with the past includes what she calls a social responsibility to claim an identity and to reinterpret history. Di Risio writes, "While being 'constructed' as a Canadian, my Italian heritage dissolves and disappears; I do not speak the language nor practice my religion. My only links are with the stories and domestic crafts. In previous works, I have attempted to experience, to know, and to learn about the identities of my lived and living female relatives."
Her studio practice deals with the relationships women have to the home, family, society, food and generational transitions. She defines her position as a third generation Italian-Canadian woman who is gathering, drawing and collecting the images, objects and structures she associates with female Italian-Canadian identity. Her work is an exploration of this position and lifestyle in relation to the women of her past. She explains that this body of work is not meant to transcend these women's lives, but to look to the past as a way of understanding and informing the present.
- - Susan Edelstein, Curator
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