The best photography exhibition in Canada this summer anchors the seven exhibitions at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, and the Gallery invites the public to the gala opening on June 12 to help celebrate. Jon Tupper, director of the Art Gallery, unabashedly declares Photography 101: push the button to be the most significant photo exhibit in the country this year.
Photography 101: push the button is a survey of 130 works by 58 Canadian and international artists and photographers that span 140 years. It is the first broad survey photography exhibition at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery and a rare opportunity to view work by historically significant artists and photographers such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Stieglitz and Man Ray, including works never before exhibited anywhere.
Thursday’s gala marks the official opening of Photography 101 and the other six exhibits that commemorate Canadian culture and art. Imagining Anne: Celebrating the Creation and Centenary of L.M. Montgomery’s Classic, Anne of Green Gables and Looking for Anne, a documentary video are part of the Island’s 100th anniversary celebrations of the novel.
Homecoming brings to the Island the earliest known portrait of an Acadian who was born here, Pierre Douville (1745–1794), to acknowledge the 250th anniversary of the expulsion of Acadians from Prince Edward Island.
Drawing Up a Storm features more than 80 works from the Confederation Centre Art Gallery’s 20th century Canadian collection examining how the language of drawing continues to change and adapt to different ideas and expressions.
More Island history is on display with Printed in PEI, a selection of nearly 40 prints created between 1991 and 2006 by members of the Printmakers Council of Prince Edward Island. The exhibit highlights varied approaches to printmaking as a form of artistic practice. The pieces range from traditional mezzotints, to woodcuts, to book work, to mixed techniques.
Prominent Canadian artist Michael Snow has been exhibiting for more than 50 years. This summer the Confederation Centre Art Gallery is presenting a recent video work, Solar Breath (Northern Caryatids), which was inspired by Snow’s annual sojourns to a cabin in Newfoundland. The result of years of Snow’s attention, Solar Breath (Northern Caryatids) is a 62 minute video of the movements that the sun, wind, windows and curtain created in his small cabin. The work was recently purchased by the prestigious Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
The gala opening takes place in the gallery June 12 from 7 to 9 p.m. and is open to the public. Some of the artists featured this summer will be in attendance. The opening is also part of the Gallery Crawl an event taking place at seven downtown Charlottetown art galleries on June 12.
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Media contact: Dan Wall, publicist, Confederation Centre of the Arts, phone (902) 628-6135
Email: confederationcentre.com, web www.confederationcentre.com
or
Megan Gauthier, PR assistant, phone (902) 628-1864 ext 315, Email: confederationcentre.com