Suzy Lake’s approach to art making over the past 40 years has been both rigorous and
challenging. A pioneer of body-based work, Lake examines, both politically
and aesthetically, the experience of gendered embodiment. In
the 1970s Lake began using her own body and life as the subject of her work.
From series such as On Stage (1972-75), Choreographed Puppets (1976) and Impositions (1977) through to Peonies and the Lido (2002) and Extended Breathing (2008-present)
she has photographed herself in staged situations often using costumes,
props and actions to examine models of femininity. In so doing, she broke
ground for other artists including Cindy Sherman. Lake’s photo-based and performative explorations of the body,
femininity, and beauty offer a
powerful and nuanced investigation into the experience and expression of
female identities within the context of contemporary political, social
and
media environments. Lake’s practice of performing for her own camera
results in a complex body of work that politically and aesthetically
engages with herself as both the subject and the object of vision.
Through her image doubles, Lake opened up the fraught relations between
image and identity that have become a central concern of contemporary
art practices. Suzy Lake: Political Poetics has been organized by the
University of Toronto Art Centre and the Scotiabank Contact Photography
Festival. The accompanying catalogue, produced with the generous support
of Partners in Art, includes essays by curators Carla Garnet and Matt
Brower and cultural theorist Dot Tuer. It is available at McIntosh
Gallery for $30.
Barroco Nova: Neo Baroque Moves in Contemporary Art presents
projects by 18 Canadian and international contemporary artists whose
approaches rely on intensified appeals to our senses that produce an
engaged address to our very cultural moment. Among the exciting and
multi-layered works in the exhibition are those that demonstrate
divergent responses to shifting notions of identity and foreground
renewed ideas concerning the body, especially within
entertainment-oriented and media-charged cultural environments. At McIntosh Gallery, works by Brendan Fernandes (Toronto/New York) and Kent Monkman (Toronto) take up and extend the post-colonial sub-themes that are significant to Barroco Nova.
Using photography, video, sculpture and installation, their projects
bring together an environment where the surface of the body and social
space confront and interweave to exaggerate questions about both
identity and nation. In the work of Fernandes—a graduate of Western’s
MFA program—the video project Foe shows the artist (himself an
immigrant to North America from many years ago) engaged in the often wry
undertaking of learning to speak accented English with the help of a
voice coach. This dramatic and entertaining piece was recently exhibited
to great acclaim at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Kent Monkman’s installation, Theatre de Cristal, presents a
crystal teepee with a chandelier at its centre, which brings attention
to the complex, layered histories within North American aboriginal
identity formation. Monkman himself is presented within the teepee, via
a video projected on a buffalo skin, playing his alter-ego character,
the Berdashe, or village transvestite—a character who, historically, was often a celebrated member of native tribes in North America. Barroco Nova: Neo Baroque Moves in Contemporary Art is linked with a larger research project, The Hispanic Baroque,
which was initiated by Dr. Juan Luis Suarez of Western’s Modern
Languages program over four years ago. A major
collaborative research undertaking funded by the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), it involves 35
international multi-disciplinary researchers who are examinging the ways
in which the Baroque persisted and was transformed after the eighteenth century in order to meet the needs of
different cultural systems and forms of artistic production up until
today. Organized by and presented at Western's ArtLab Gallery, McIntosh Gallery and Museum London. More on McIntosh Barroco Nova events and activities: programs For more information on the entire project : http://www.barroconova.ca/ Curated by Fredericton-based Laura Ritchie, Fantastic Details: Building Materials for the Construction of Other Worlds
brings together an array of monsters, mutants and fantastic landscapes
from the McIntosh Gallery’s collection of over 3,500 works. Fittingly,
the show is installed at University College, Western’s oldest neo-gothic
building. A celebration of detailed, meticulous work, the exhibition includes
contemporary artists Rebecca Burke, Evergon, Kim Moodie, Gillian Saward,
Roly Fenwick and Bogdan Zarksi. In addition, elaborately detailed and
inventive works by 19th century British artists George Baxter, Sir
William Blake Richmond and early 20th century artist Annie French
provide a remarkable historical context for our enduring interest in
phantasmagorical excess. As Ritchie puts it: “Fantastic Details
looks at the way in which pattern, repetition and meticulous
craftsmanship are used by artists to construct other worlds full of
imaginative deviation that transcend conventional representations of the
real.” A Department of Visual Arts MA candidate at The University of
Western Ontario, Laura Ritchie is an intern at the McIntosh Gallery. An
exhibition catalogue is available. For more information, contact James Patten at jpatten2@uwo.ca or phone (519) 661-84602. Robert Williams: So it Goes includes
paintings, drawings and paper models that explore the limits of
describing the mundane domestic spaces of the artist's apartment. With
broad areas of pale, tonally similar colours and a conspicuous absence
of pictorial drama, Williams' detached rendering of everyday life belies
his acute observations of light and atmosphere within otherwise
unremarkable interiors. The copious preparatory drawings and models
painstakingly made of bits of paper reveal the acute analytic approach underlying Williams' seemingly uncomplicated paintings. Michelle McGeean also looks at architectural space, but from quite a different angle. The title of her exhibition, This Will Kill That, is taken from Victor Hugo's 1831 novel Notre Dame de Paris.
With references to an array of architectural histories, including
failed utopian housing projects, McGeean's continuously evolving
installation evokes the often unacknowledged volatility of the built
environment in contrast to the stability and persistence of its
representation in printed material. Buildings come and go, but they
often exist virtually in residual form through photographs,
architectural drawings and descriptive texts. Michelle McGeean: This Will Kill That and Robert Williams: So It Goes are MFA thesis exhibitions presented in collaboration with Western's Department of Visual Arts. For more information contact James Patten at jpatten2@uwo.ca or (519) 661-2111 ext. 84602. Jason Hallows' recent work explores the relationship between an object's production and its display. Demonstration consists of a series of table-like constructions on which rubbery sheets of dried paint are placed. Other such sheets are hung like pictures on the wall. The tables include moulds in which these sheets of paint were cast. Residual traces of paint on the mould and, conversely, wood-grain texture on the paint, provide further evidence of the entire process. All well and good, but it doesn't end here. Hallows disrupts this satisfyingly linear narrative through various temporal and spatial recursions. Salvaged studio materials and workshop debris bring unexpected histories to bear on the work. Viewers must negotiate through an array of such heterogeneous materials, which appear to struggle and resist their newly assembled contexts. All of which makes Hallows work unabashedly provisional. Parts of one work show up in another. Entire sculptures are taken apart and reassembled. Hallows reminds us that the words "demonstration" and "monster" are related in order to suggest how the implicit narratives of production and display in his work are distorted through corruptive transgression and parasitic transformation. Hallows completed undergraduate studies at OCAD and received an MFA from the University of Guelph. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Art and Visual Culture program at the University of Western Ontario where his supervisory committee includes Patrick Mahon (primary advisor), Bridget Elliott and David Merritt. Hallows is also co-director, with Anna Madelska, of The Parker Branch, an independent gallery and archive. For more information contact James Patten at jpatten2@uwo.ca or (519) 661-2111 ext. 84602. Art has long been understood to convey spiritual values in many cultures. But even within secular societies artistic expression is often synonymous with spiritual or exalted experiences of our world and indeed the universe. The exhibition Sacred Space presents works of art from the McIntosh collection that evoke reflection upon our metaphysical relationship to nature, people and the cosmos. Curated by Catherine Elliot Shaw and Jan Shepherd McKee, the exhibition includes works by David Milne, Joseph Hubbard, Ed Zelenak, Walter Redinger and Anne Meredith Barry. To complement Sacred Space, the McIntosh has organized an exhibition of paintings by Windsor-based artist Jeet Aulakh. With Anahada Naada, a Sanskrit phrase that describes a primordial sound experienced in deep meditative states, Aulakh seeks to understand the incomprehensible connections between secular and spiritual identity through paintings of glowing, multi-coloured circles. Sacred Space and Jeet Aulakh: Anahada Naada are presented to coincide with the 137th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, which will be held from June 5th to June 11th at Western. Join us on Thursday June 9th at 7:00 P.M. for a reception with the artists featuring a guided tour of sculpture located throughout Western's park-like campus. For more information, contact: Catherine Elliot Shaw at celliots@uwo.ca or (519) 661-3181. Sense of Place explores the concept of place through the work by 36 printmakers from Canada and the United States. Including traditional techniques such as monotype, etching, woodcut, lithograph and serigraph as well as digital prints and found objects, this exhibition demonstrates the diversity of contemporary printmaking practices. Most of the artists in the show have approached the theme conceptually. While there are some landscapes that explicitly refer to a specific location, the exhibition focuses more on the way in which a sense of place is linked to individual identity, personal experience and memory. Mention London and medievalism in the same sentence and people naturally think of England. But it is the eponymous city in Southwestern Ontario that is the focus of this series of exhibitions and related programs. It really should come as no surprise that London, Ontario is replete with medieval features. Life in early 19th century rural Britain had remained essentially the same for centuries and many settlers were determined to replicate their homeland. The early 19th century was also a period of gothic revivals in literature and architecture.So it is understandable that much of what constitutes the region’s history parallels the development of Northern Europe a 1000 years before. What is surprising is that this continuity of medieval thought and values has not been examined seriously before Professor Kathy Brush of the Visual Arts Department at Western began her research for Mapping Medievalism at the Canadian Frontier. Assisted by graduate students, Dr. Brush explores the “Canadian frontier” as a source of myths and histories that stimulated multiple discourses—visual and textual —on both sides of the Atlantic well into the 20th century. By interpreting Ontario’s history and visual culture through the lens of medievalism the project charts the diverse cultural forms interpreted by colonists who transformed the deep forests into landscapes punctuated by castles and neo-Gothic buildings. The project also examines the rich First Nations’ cultures that flourished in the Great Lakes region during the period roughly contemporary with the European Middle Ages. Mapping Medievalism at the McIntosh Gallery includes historical maps, Native artifacts and early paintings and watercolours of the region. Its scope is extended through the complementary exhibition Mapping Iroquoia: Shelley Niro and Jeff Thomas, which provides audiences with a contemporary First Nations’ perspective on the complex issues raised by the topic. Concurrent exhibitions at Western’s D. B. Weldon Library and Museum London, which includes important medieval art from the University of Toronto Art Centre’s Malcove Collection, round out this ambitious project. A book is forthcoming. Mapping Medievalism at the Canadian Frontier received funding from the London Heritage Council of the City of London through its Community Heritage Investment Program, the Department of Visual Arts’ Cohen Explorations Program, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The McIntosh Gallery acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, The University of Western Ontario, Foundation Western, The Ontario Arts Foundation, and its members and donors. September 30 to December 11, 2010 While medieval Europe was undergoing dramatic religious and social upheaval culminating in the crusades during the late eleventh century, the Indigenous people of North American were also experiencing profound changes to their way of life with the arrival of corn-based agriculture. Gradually less reliant on hunting, corn cultivation afforded them more time to develop sophisticated forms of social organization including rituals, ceremonies, architecture and the arts. Great societies arose in eleventh century North America, an era that archaeologists, who discovered their remains in earth mounds, named the Mississippian period. In present day New York State, a leader known as the Peacemaker, a Seneca woman named Jigosase, and an Onondaga man named Hiawatha, established the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, the world’s oldest continuous democracy. This profound historical achievement continues to influence contemporary Iroquoia as well as other democratic nations. Mapping Iroquoia brings together Shelley Niro and Jeff Thomas who, through their art practices, build upon the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s enduring legacy. Curated by Jeff Thomas, Mapping Iroquoia has been organized by the McIntosh Gallery in response to the concurrent exhibition Mapping Medievalism at the Canadian Frontier. These complementary projects challenge conventional historical narratives by examining the way in which cultures interact over time in unexpected and productive ways through dialogue and exchange.Suzy Lake: Political Poetics
January 5th to February 18th, 2012
Curated by Matthew Brower and Carla Garnet
Opening reception January 19th at 7:30 P.M.
Suzy Lake, Extended Breathing: Under Porchlight, Performance/ photography, 2009. Courtesy of Paul Petro Contemporary Art. Barroco Nova:
Neo Baroque Moves in Contemporary ArtSeptember 30 to December 17, 2011
Curated by Susan Edelstein and Patrick Mahon
Brendan Fernandes (Canadian) Foe, 2008 Video stills (composite) Collection of the artist
Kent Monkman (Canadian) Théâtre De Cristal, 2007, installation, Collection of the ArtistFantastic Details: Building Materials for the Construction of Other Worlds
April 6th to Dec 15th, University College (second floor)
Kim Moodie, Wolf Heads and Dinosaurs,
1982 watercolour and graphite on paper, 71.2 x 101.2 cm. McIntosh
Collection, purchased with the Assistance of the Canada Council for the
Arts, 1983.Michelle McGeean: This Will Kill That and Robert Williams: So it Goes
August 19th to September 18th 2011
Michelle McGeean's installation at McIntosh. Photo: David KempJason Hallows: Demonstration
July 15th to August 12th, 2011
Jason Hallows' studio, John Labatt Visual Arts Centre, Western. photo: courtesy of the artist
Sacred Space and Jeet Aulakh: Anahada Naada
Opening May 19th, 2011 Sacred Space continues until July 2nd, Jeet Aulakh to August 12th
Jeet Aulakh's Anahada Naada exhibition at McIntosh
Sense of Place: A Cross Border Print Exhibition
January 6th to February 19th, 2011
Sense of Place at McIntosh
As cultural geographers suggest, "place" is a way of describing meaningful space. A"space" becomes a "place" when there is a sense of belonging or connection to it. For some, a sense of place is synonymous with home. For others, it entails searching somewhere else.
Through the production of many circulating images printmaking can evoke feelings of both proximity and belonging or, in contrast, remoteness and alienation. The experience of place mediated by printmaking is relative and variable, depending upon the viewer's experience and location. With multiple copies circulating in various contexts, they are subject to diverse interpretations and can evoke a range of responses.
Sense of Place includes works by artists: Joseph Banh, Nadine Bariteau, Mark Bovey, Yael Brotman, Dacia Celeste-Fauth, Patricia Coates, Meena Dhar, Lisa Driver in collaboration with Milky Way,
Christopher Durocher, Erik Edson, Joel Fullerton, Sue Gordon, Dieter Grund, Libby Hague, George Hawken, Liz Ingram, Hannamari Jalovaara, Melody Krauze, Bill Laing, Tara Lynn MacDougall,
Judy Major-Girardin in collaboration with Briana Palmer, Adam Medley, John Montminy, Rory O'Connor, Gary Olson, Terry O'Reilly, Kenneth Pattern, Shannon Phair, Dianna Rae Borel, Victor Romão,
Carol Rowland-Ulmann, Dan Steeves, Michele Tarailo, Susan Turner, and Terry Vatrt.
Organized and circulated by the Windsor Printmaker's Forum, Sense of Place was juried by artist Iain Baxter&, Nancy Sojka, Curator, Detroit Institute of Arts, and James Patten, Director, McIntosh Gallery. Mapping Medievalism at the Canadian Frontier
September 30 to December 11, 2010
Richard Airey (British, 1803-1881) London, Canada West 1847-51 watercolour on paper, 33.7 x 54.3 cm McIntosh Gallery Collection, Purchase 1957. Mapping Iroquoia: Shelley Niro and Jeff Thomas
September 30 to December 11, 2010
Shelley Niro Story of Jigosase, 2010, photo: courtesy of the artist
Opening reception: September 30th at 8:00 P.M.
Gallery information
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