Charlottetown PEI – This summer the Confederation Centre Art Gallery invites you to see works by 18 Canadian and international artists that range from contemporary magic realism paintings, to sculptural models of urban spaces, to video projections, to photographs, drawings, prints, sketchbooks, and historic paintings. The Gallery invites the public to its summer gala opening on Friday, June 12 to help celebrate.
“I am struck by the fascinating resonances between the individual artist’s works within the various exhibitions” comments Kevin Rice, Acting Director of the Confederation Centre Art Gallery. “Several artists looking at urban spaces; several look at portraits often in the context of their communities and landscapes; several deal with real and others imagined spaces, but all can make us think about our own communities and how they impacts our lives.”
Other Worlds examines the role of the artist as a visual explorer. The exhibition as a fabulatory essay, brings together painting, photography and video works by Canadian and international artists from the mid-19th century to present day, including Brian Burke, David Burliuk, Robert Scott Duncanson, Rockwell Kent, Rodney Graham, Rosemary Laing, John Massey, and Kelly Richardson. Curated by Ihor Holubizky.
Steve Higgins, All Things Considered: thoughts about cities and history, war and peace – Over the past 30 years, American-born Canadian artist Steve Higgins, has worked at the intersection of sculpture, architecture and the urban environment with large-scale temporary projects. This exhibition focuses on his current body of work, table-sized sculptural models of imagined cities as seen through the lens of history and the modern age. Curated by Ihor Holubizky
Seth: Dominion is the elaborate, work-in-progress of the renowned Canadian cartoonist Seth. An imagined place combining elements of numerous early modern Canadian cities, Dominion captures the spirit of the booming small metropolis at a time of community boosterism and growth that, to the contemporary eye, can seem at times quaint and alien. Curated by Andrew Hunter and organized and circulated by RENDER, University of Waterloo.
Tom Forrestall: Paintings, Drawings, Writings is a retrospective exhibition that chronicles the career of renowned Canadian realist painter, Thomas DeVany Forrestall. It documents his works in oil, watercolour and egg tempera over the course of several decades. Accompanied by sketches and journal writings, the works explore a world at once familiar but usually unobserved or dismissed. Curated by Tom Smart and organized and circulated by the Art Gallery Nova Scotia.
Robert Harris: From the Collection, offers a visual chronology of Harris’ eminent later 19th thru early 20th century career. Including sketchbooks covering five decades of Harris’ practice--his youth, his study in Paris, from his term as president of the Royal Canadian Academy, to late work, these sketches contextualize his major portraits, genre and landscape paintings. Selected from the Gallery’s extensive Harris collection and archives, the works demonstrate the careful observation that underpinned his successful painting practice rooted in Canada but informed by international travel, study, and exhibition. Curated by Kevin Rice.
Anna Karpinski and Peter Wilkins: 10 & 60. April 1st marked the 10th anniversary of the creation of Nunavut, and March 31st the 60th anniversary of Newfoundland and Labrador joining Canada. Exploring a subliminal regionalism, Anna Karpinski and Peter Wilkins examine a particular knowledge of these places through its people. Curated by Mireille Eagan.
The gala opening takes place in the Gallery on Friday, 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 eight downtown Charlottetown art galleries on June 12.
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Media contact: Dan Wall, publicist, Confederation Centre of the Arts, phone (902... ; email: confederationcentre.com, web www.confederationcentre.com
or
Ross Mair, PR Assistant, phone (902) 628-1864 Ext 315 Email: confederationcentre.com