Exhibitions 2009

Crossing Lines: An Intercultural Dialogue
Presented with SAVAC (South Asian Visual Art Centre)
November 29, 2009 – January 22, 2010
Opening Reception: Sunday, November 29, 1:00 p.m. -- 4:00 p.m.Crossing Lines: An Intercultural Dialogue brings together eight artists from different parts of Canada to examine the issues of connection and disconnection that exist between immigrant and Indigenous communities.

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, early oils (1948-1957)
Gallery Fundraiser
Plus Works from the Glenhyrst Permanent Collection
Oct. 31 – Nov. 22, 2009
Reception: Sunday, November 8, 1:00 p.m. -- 4:00 p.m.
Talk with Joan Murray

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.

Also on exhibit is a selection of figurative works from Glenhyrst’s Collection that contrast and challenge the viewer’s aesthetics and ideas about form. They include the historical works of Robert Reginald Whale and contemporary works from recent acquisitions including artists Gerald Vaandering, Ethelwyn Carlyle, Robert Creighton, Lotti Thomas, Robert Cadotte, and Michael Allgoewer.

Reclaiming: Hind & Company
August 15 -- October 25, 2009
Reception: Sunday, September 13, 1:00 p.m. -- 4:00 p.m.
Artist talk at 1:00 p.m. and Tim Turvey jazz ensemble

David Hind creates new, exciting forms from forgotten material, often through a collaborative process. As an accomplished artist living in Brantford, his art makes an impact for its technical achievements, visual revelations, and his collaborative view towards personal experience.

Hind rivets coloured, cut out, reclaimed aluminum shapes into street scenes that he grinds and etches to reveal the raw aluminum beneath the surface. These weather durable paintings are reactive to changing light from their luminous surface. He focuses on portraits of Brantford’s grand trees with a concern for the way they have been pressured to grow in accordance with human needs.

Hind, who has been working with assistance from an Ontario Arts Council Project Grant, has created a community mural that includes elements by students from area schools, cultural groups, and community members. The 8.5 x 16 foot mural is testament to the symbolic imagery that embraces the multicultural nature of the Brantford community. In this solo exhibition, Dave Hind moves freely between community projects, and functional objects.

In 2007 Hind installed the sculpture Meg’s Pause, a fifteen-foot, two-dimensional drawing of hands in steel, located in the Glenhyrst sculpture gardens. Watch for another Hind outdoor sculpture in Glenhyrst Gardens for the duration of this exhibition

Marcia Tavernese: New Paintings
May 30 -- Aug. 9, 2009
Reception: Saturday, June 6, 2009 6:00 -- 9:00 p.m.

Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant presents the first major solo exhibition by Brantford artist, Marcia Tavernese. Vibrancy and energy exemplifies the new works that Tavernese has been constructing for the past several years. She works with large sheets of paper that are built up and broken through to create environments for the viewer to enter and explore. Our eyes travel through her structured spaces that are a whirl of activity. We are within the inner workings of a mechanism that translates into a new world. Black and white images have an architectural inner structure with a layering of graphite, oil, and collage. Brilliantly coloured works invite us to fly, edge along, slip behind, or sail into the atmosphere. She presents us with environments that are geometric in nature exploring the architecture of manmade spaces, and with symbolic imagery that becomes self-revealing with the titles of her works. She engages the viewer on a level beyond the spoken or written word where her markings, colours and textures invite an idea, a feeling, or an experience.

Marcia Tavernese graduated with a BFA from the University of Windsor and an MFA from Southern Illinois University. This exhibition is supported by the City of Brantford and gallery membership.

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.

J.C. Heywood: A Life in Layers
January 10 -- March 22, 2009

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.