2008 Exhibitions & Events
John Venditti
Short Soldiers, Long Guns
January 5 - 29, 2008
Short Soldiers, Long Guns is the supreme revolutionary genius, the sun of the nation and the benevolent brother of our people, which has built a creative paradise on this land and brought the people the happiness and glory we see today, by leading the arduous regional revolution along the path of trials to victory without the slightest vacillation. Because of its immortal feats performed for humankind, extraordinary intelligence, outstanding leadership ability and lofty artistic virtue, Short Soldiers, Long Guns is supported and boundlessly revered by the people.
Short Soldiers, Long Guns provides the people with the greatest happiness and continues to provide the condition for their lives to flourish, and once they experience it, they brim over with the resolution to give their wholehearted loyalty to the artist, as they are engrossed in infinitely solemn feelings and emotion.
January 5 - 29, 2008
Short Soldiers, Long Guns is the supreme revolutionary genius, the sun of the nation and the benevolent brother of our people, which has built a creative paradise on this land and brought the people the happiness and glory we see today, by leading the arduous regional revolution along the path of trials to victory without the slightest vacillation. Because of its immortal feats performed for humankind, extraordinary intelligence, outstanding leadership ability and lofty artistic virtue, Short Soldiers, Long Guns is supported and boundlessly revered by the people.
Short Soldiers, Long Guns provides the people with the greatest happiness and continues to provide the condition for their lives to flourish, and once they experience it, they brim over with the resolution to give their wholehearted loyalty to the artist, as they are engrossed in infinitely solemn feelings and emotion.
Maggie Groat
Time and Space
February 1 – March 10, 2008
Working entirely with found images,Time and Space looks at the overlooked or in-between moments of captured memory. This multimedia exhibition includes video, light boxes, photographs, and 35mm slides. Each work has been created through subtle manipulations of appropriated imagery, both personal and foreign. The moments chosen are linked by themes of everydayness, banality, routine actions, insignificant events, and nostalgia.
Maggie Groat lives and works in Toronto, Canada. In 2007 she received her BFA at York University
The Artist acknowledge the support of the Emerging Artist Video Project Grant programme of the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $17.1 million in visual arts throughout Canada.
February 1 – March 10, 2008
Working entirely with found images,Time and Space looks at the overlooked or in-between moments of captured memory. This multimedia exhibition includes video, light boxes, photographs, and 35mm slides. Each work has been created through subtle manipulations of appropriated imagery, both personal and foreign. The moments chosen are linked by themes of everydayness, banality, routine actions, insignificant events, and nostalgia.
Maggie Groat lives and works in Toronto, Canada. In 2007 she received her BFA at York University
The Artist acknowledge the support of the Emerging Artist Video Project Grant programme of the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $17.1 million in visual arts throughout Canada.
Stephen Remus
ski-doo
March 20 - April 9, 2008
The cultural crisis continues! Be there to experience another load of useless creative energy dumped atop the slag heap of ideas! Enjoy at no expense another get-poor-quick-scheme realized in vivid colours that won’t match your living room! Don’t miss this opportunity to view nonsensical forms, lines, and words arranged specifically to please an audience that endures ennui just like it was nothing at all.
Take advantage of this occasion to be bored witless by products of unpracticed craft and an undisciplined mind. Wonder aloud what the point of it all could possibly be! Find solace in knowing that it can’t possibly matter! Conclude your experience with a feeling of relief when you realize so much of the rest of the world makes perfect sense. This exhibition includes a hip new-media component with predictably poor production values and really cheap prints of the sort you’ve come to expect.
Stephen Remus lives and works in St. Catharines, Canada. He is the Director of the Niagara Artists’ Centre. His haircut is a little bit country and a little bit rock ‘n’ roll.
March 20 - April 9, 2008
The cultural crisis continues! Be there to experience another load of useless creative energy dumped atop the slag heap of ideas! Enjoy at no expense another get-poor-quick-scheme realized in vivid colours that won’t match your living room! Don’t miss this opportunity to view nonsensical forms, lines, and words arranged specifically to please an audience that endures ennui just like it was nothing at all.
Take advantage of this occasion to be bored witless by products of unpracticed craft and an undisciplined mind. Wonder aloud what the point of it all could possibly be! Find solace in knowing that it can’t possibly matter! Conclude your experience with a feeling of relief when you realize so much of the rest of the world makes perfect sense. This exhibition includes a hip new-media component with predictably poor production values and really cheap prints of the sort you’ve come to expect.
Stephen Remus lives and works in St. Catharines, Canada. He is the Director of the Niagara Artists’ Centre. His haircut is a little bit country and a little bit rock ‘n’ roll.
Rena Burns
In Calling
April 11 - 28, 2008
Rena Burns' interactions with birds began as a child in her backyard with her parents, offering bits of string to birds for nest building. Her interest in their habits and behaviours manifested into an act of offering and exploration; she has spent time in the forest feeding them by hand, encouraging an interaction with them on a closer level.
In this exhibition, Burns uses birds as a symbolic signifier of our cultural understanding of language. Burns' work focuses on communication as a connector between birds and humans. A bird’s song or call becomes a means of identification, a link between two worlds. Some species learn their songs, just as humans learn to speak through interactions with others. Using drawing with found, natural objects, Burns creates delicate installations that reflect the ephemeral and transcendental qualities of birds and our fascination with them.
April 11 - 28, 2008
Rena Burns' interactions with birds began as a child in her backyard with her parents, offering bits of string to birds for nest building. Her interest in their habits and behaviours manifested into an act of offering and exploration; she has spent time in the forest feeding them by hand, encouraging an interaction with them on a closer level.
In this exhibition, Burns uses birds as a symbolic signifier of our cultural understanding of language. Burns' work focuses on communication as a connector between birds and humans. A bird’s song or call becomes a means of identification, a link between two worlds. Some species learn their songs, just as humans learn to speak through interactions with others. Using drawing with found, natural objects, Burns creates delicate installations that reflect the ephemeral and transcendental qualities of birds and our fascination with them.
Sheldon Rooney
NUTS - another mixed bag
May 9 - 27, 2008
pastel on paper, 2008
Self taught and driven to record his daily life, St. Catharines' artist Sheldon Rooney presents a new portfolio of pastel drawings. His direct, unschooled style represents the freshness we come to expect from the best forms of primal regionalism in the post modern world. Whether sitting at home, attending a wedding, or visiting metropolis, all Rooney's views are fair game for colourfull statements about everyday life. It is what you might expect to come from a Heavy Rock lover - simple, crazed, and a bit loud...
May 9 - 27, 2008
pastel on paper, 2008
Self taught and driven to record his daily life, St. Catharines' artist Sheldon Rooney presents a new portfolio of pastel drawings. His direct, unschooled style represents the freshness we come to expect from the best forms of primal regionalism in the post modern world. Whether sitting at home, attending a wedding, or visiting metropolis, all Rooney's views are fair game for colourfull statements about everyday life. It is what you might expect to come from a Heavy Rock lover - simple, crazed, and a bit loud...
Alan Flint
Look Power
May 30 - June 17, 2008
Alan Flint has been using words combined with various types of visual images and materials for a number of years. Most of his work has taken the form of large-scale installations that often use words and images presented in unconventional ways using such things as found objects, sculpture, digitally altered photographs, print media and video. In this way, he treats visual art as a radical way to research how the process of communication operates.
His newest works are 3 groupings of silkscreen images produced during his 2 year visit as Artist in Residence and the Emily Carr Institute for Art and Design in Vancouver, BC. The first group, Primer Series, is derived from images taken from turn of the century school readers, primers and spelling books. Flint has focused on how language is acquired and taught to us at a primary school age. The images attempt to expose a subtext beyond “learning to read" by exposing themes such as gender, servitude, vocational training and other questionable social issues.
The second series of prints, Sentimental Works, are images derived from early chromolithographs. Flint adds various kinds of texts and alphabets into the vintage images to disrupt a clear viewing of the picture. The veil of words and letters strewn across the image attempts to refocus the viewer’s attention on the printed object and disrupt our ability to be sentimental about the picture. He also uses a 3 color palettes to create the images. Flint goes for maximum effect and efficiency, thereby promoting a culture of sustainability where limited resources are used to achieve maximum results.
The final suite in the exhibition, Badge Magic, begins with images of police badges from British Columbia. Images and symbols from witchcraft and magic spell books are combined with the police badges to create strange juxtapositions. The two information systems mingled together present both a familiar and unfamiliar visual object. We sense the power of the legal authorities with the esoteric trickery of the magic symbols at the same time. The color scheme of the screen prints adds to the “earthy” and “pagan” aspects of the imagery.
Alan Flint received his BFA from NSCAD in Halifax and an MFA from Concordia University in Montreal. Flint worked for 5 years as Technical Director at Open Studio, in Toronto, Canada’s premier cooperative print facility. He also ran his own print media studio in Hamilton, Ontario for a number of years doing collaborative print productions with numerous provincial, national and international artists.
Flint’s teaching experience includes appointments at the University of Guelph, Sheridan College in Oakville Ontario and recently, 6 years at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He has also conducted numerous workshops throughout Canada and to a lesser degree in the USA. Currently, he is in his second year as Artist in Residence at Emily Carr Institute for Art and Design working in the print media department.
See feature article at Canadian Art Online: http://www.canadianart.ca/
May 30 - June 17, 2008
Alan Flint has been using words combined with various types of visual images and materials for a number of years. Most of his work has taken the form of large-scale installations that often use words and images presented in unconventional ways using such things as found objects, sculpture, digitally altered photographs, print media and video. In this way, he treats visual art as a radical way to research how the process of communication operates.
His newest works are 3 groupings of silkscreen images produced during his 2 year visit as Artist in Residence and the Emily Carr Institute for Art and Design in Vancouver, BC. The first group, Primer Series, is derived from images taken from turn of the century school readers, primers and spelling books. Flint has focused on how language is acquired and taught to us at a primary school age. The images attempt to expose a subtext beyond “learning to read" by exposing themes such as gender, servitude, vocational training and other questionable social issues.
The second series of prints, Sentimental Works, are images derived from early chromolithographs. Flint adds various kinds of texts and alphabets into the vintage images to disrupt a clear viewing of the picture. The veil of words and letters strewn across the image attempts to refocus the viewer’s attention on the printed object and disrupt our ability to be sentimental about the picture. He also uses a 3 color palettes to create the images. Flint goes for maximum effect and efficiency, thereby promoting a culture of sustainability where limited resources are used to achieve maximum results.
The final suite in the exhibition, Badge Magic, begins with images of police badges from British Columbia. Images and symbols from witchcraft and magic spell books are combined with the police badges to create strange juxtapositions. The two information systems mingled together present both a familiar and unfamiliar visual object. We sense the power of the legal authorities with the esoteric trickery of the magic symbols at the same time. The color scheme of the screen prints adds to the “earthy” and “pagan” aspects of the imagery.
Alan Flint received his BFA from NSCAD in Halifax and an MFA from Concordia University in Montreal. Flint worked for 5 years as Technical Director at Open Studio, in Toronto, Canada’s premier cooperative print facility. He also ran his own print media studio in Hamilton, Ontario for a number of years doing collaborative print productions with numerous provincial, national and international artists.
Flint’s teaching experience includes appointments at the University of Guelph, Sheridan College in Oakville Ontario and recently, 6 years at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He has also conducted numerous workshops throughout Canada and to a lesser degree in the USA. Currently, he is in his second year as Artist in Residence at Emily Carr Institute for Art and Design working in the print media department.
See feature article at Canadian Art Online: http://www.canadianart.ca/
Scott Waters
Domestic Violence
June 20 - July 13, 2008
For his exhibition at CRAM, Scott Waters’ Domestic Violence installation fills the gallery space with wallpaper and tediously painted military hardware. With warplanes appearing from behind floral patterns, the installation could be seen as inferior camouflage or as play between painted illusion and material ground, but it is also a personal fantasy world made public.
Domestic Violence is not necessarily a critique of military, or domestic culture – of western hegemony creating an unholy union with the juggernaut of interior design – but more Waters’ admission/confession of a long-standing affinity for the machinery of destruction and the aesthetics of violence.
This is physical evidence of how the pre-occupations of his youth colour his adult life. Domestic Violence admits to hours spent as a child, building plastic models without any real concern for what these machines are capable of, designed for. The project is a display of the long, rewarding hours Waters now spends painting militaria onto wallpaper (while watching TV shows on DVD), aware of their singularly destructive purpose but none-the-less happy to wile away the hours.
http://www.scottwaters.ca/
June 20 - July 13, 2008
For his exhibition at CRAM, Scott Waters’ Domestic Violence installation fills the gallery space with wallpaper and tediously painted military hardware. With warplanes appearing from behind floral patterns, the installation could be seen as inferior camouflage or as play between painted illusion and material ground, but it is also a personal fantasy world made public.
Domestic Violence is not necessarily a critique of military, or domestic culture – of western hegemony creating an unholy union with the juggernaut of interior design – but more Waters’ admission/confession of a long-standing affinity for the machinery of destruction and the aesthetics of violence.
This is physical evidence of how the pre-occupations of his youth colour his adult life. Domestic Violence admits to hours spent as a child, building plastic models without any real concern for what these machines are capable of, designed for. The project is a display of the long, rewarding hours Waters now spends painting militaria onto wallpaper (while watching TV shows on DVD), aware of their singularly destructive purpose but none-the-less happy to wile away the hours.
http://www.scottwaters.ca/
Ernest Harris Jr.
CLUTTER DRAWINGS
September 12th - September 21st, 2008
Pheasant, ink & watercolour on paper, 2008. Arts & Crafts, ink & watercolour on paper, 2008
I must have been 15 years old when I first realized that my perpetually unkempt bedroom was more than laziness; that the clutter, mostly paper, was a way to psychologically protect myself. My parents were all about self-awareness and critical thinking and I excitedly shared my epiphany over family dinner. My dad considered the statement for as long as it took him to chew and swallow his mouthful, and told me flatly to clean my room already.
Twenty years later and even though I've found more practical ways to protect myself (thank you caller ID), I still haven't completely exterminated the mess. These ink & watercolour drawings are of recent apartment clutter.
September 12th - September 21st, 2008
Pheasant, ink & watercolour on paper, 2008. Arts & Crafts, ink & watercolour on paper, 2008
I must have been 15 years old when I first realized that my perpetually unkempt bedroom was more than laziness; that the clutter, mostly paper, was a way to psychologically protect myself. My parents were all about self-awareness and critical thinking and I excitedly shared my epiphany over family dinner. My dad considered the statement for as long as it took him to chew and swallow his mouthful, and told me flatly to clean my room already.
Twenty years later and even though I've found more practical ways to protect myself (thank you caller ID), I still haven't completely exterminated the mess. These ink & watercolour drawings are of recent apartment clutter.
Marinko Jareb
VISUAL REMIX
September 27 - October 12, 2008
"Over the years my work has changed significantly, but I constantly come back to the idea of mixing and remixing to generate new work. Recently I became conscious of how much my visual practice relates to and mimics what I do on the turntables. Collecting music, listening and sorting, mixing and remixing. My mixing has become a visual collage."
Marinko Jareb
Prices for original, one of a kind artwork start at only $5 and top out at $200, so come by with a fist full of cash and support contemporary art in Niagara by buying some dope shit for your pad or gifts for your friends. Marinko's work has been gaining momentum and notoriety, so get in on the bottom floor and invest now!
September 27 - October 12, 2008
"Over the years my work has changed significantly, but I constantly come back to the idea of mixing and remixing to generate new work. Recently I became conscious of how much my visual practice relates to and mimics what I do on the turntables. Collecting music, listening and sorting, mixing and remixing. My mixing has become a visual collage."
Marinko Jareb
Prices for original, one of a kind artwork start at only $5 and top out at $200, so come by with a fist full of cash and support contemporary art in Niagara by buying some dope shit for your pad or gifts for your friends. Marinko's work has been gaining momentum and notoriety, so get in on the bottom floor and invest now!
Dave Gordon
Chicken Weather
October 17 - November 5, 2008
Chicken Weather #1, acrylic on canvas, 2005
My exhibition "Chicken Weather" plays with the conceit that the Intelligent Designer is having a little sport with humanity by sending cloud picture messages in this time of global warming and financial meltdown.
I recall an old "Peanuts" cartoon where Lucy, Schroeder and Charlie Brown are lying on the ground looking at the clouds. Lucy says " I see the profile of Frederic Nietzche". Schoeder says "I see the head of Beethoven." Charlie Brown says "I was going to say I see a ducky and a horsey but I change my mind." Robert Crumb's "Meatball!!" (Meatballs falling outta der sky!!) and the National Enquirer cover "Satan appears in smoke cloud over Waco!!" also come to mind. Apparently the word is "nephelococcygia".
Dave Gordon is a Kingston Ontario artist who has work in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Agnes Etherington At Centre, Museum London and the MacIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario among others. He has taught art in Millhaven Penitentiary and taught Kindergarten in Shanghai, China and will be artist in residence at MacArthur College in Kingston in November, 2008.
October 17 - November 5, 2008
Chicken Weather #1, acrylic on canvas, 2005
My exhibition "Chicken Weather" plays with the conceit that the Intelligent Designer is having a little sport with humanity by sending cloud picture messages in this time of global warming and financial meltdown.
I recall an old "Peanuts" cartoon where Lucy, Schroeder and Charlie Brown are lying on the ground looking at the clouds. Lucy says " I see the profile of Frederic Nietzche". Schoeder says "I see the head of Beethoven." Charlie Brown says "I was going to say I see a ducky and a horsey but I change my mind." Robert Crumb's "Meatball!!" (Meatballs falling outta der sky!!) and the National Enquirer cover "Satan appears in smoke cloud over Waco!!" also come to mind. Apparently the word is "nephelococcygia".
Dave Gordon is a Kingston Ontario artist who has work in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Agnes Etherington At Centre, Museum London and the MacIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario among others. He has taught art in Millhaven Penitentiary and taught Kindergarten in Shanghai, China and will be artist in residence at MacArthur College in Kingston in November, 2008.
Peter S. Wing
Letters To A Friend
November 14 - December 3, 2008
This suite of eight panels was conceived after a recent trip to Killarney Park on northern Georgian Bay and reflects constrained thoughts and feelings that i have been dealing with of late. The work attempts to express my views about the wider issue of the destructive relationship between humankind and the natural world, and also illustrates a spiritual journey through loss, to a place of emotional restoration and equilibrium.
In some mysterious way the wilderness has never seemed to me to be a static thing. In a physical way I move through it; yet in a metaphysical way, it seems to move through me. John Fowles
November 14 - December 3, 2008
This suite of eight panels was conceived after a recent trip to Killarney Park on northern Georgian Bay and reflects constrained thoughts and feelings that i have been dealing with of late. The work attempts to express my views about the wider issue of the destructive relationship between humankind and the natural world, and also illustrates a spiritual journey through loss, to a place of emotional restoration and equilibrium.
In some mysterious way the wilderness has never seemed to me to be a static thing. In a physical way I move through it; yet in a metaphysical way, it seems to move through me. John Fowles
Sandy Fairbairn
RECENT WORKS
A series of camera views capturing places and persons of astonishing interest and beauty in the Niagara Region
December 5 - 23, 2008
Sandy Fairbairn, born on September 11th and raised in Welland, is an artist who loves pickup trucks, beer and the idea of attending a "gala". He dreams of an invitation and a cheap tuxedo rental.
His mother taught him to load a roll film camera at the age of eight. She would have loved attending a "gala" too.
A series of camera views capturing places and persons of astonishing interest and beauty in the Niagara Region
December 5 - 23, 2008
Sandy Fairbairn, born on September 11th and raised in Welland, is an artist who loves pickup trucks, beer and the idea of attending a "gala". He dreams of an invitation and a cheap tuxedo rental.
His mother taught him to load a roll film camera at the age of eight. She would have loved attending a "gala" too.