FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 2, 2014, KLEINBURG ON – The exhibition Changing Tides: Contemporary Art of Newfoundland and Labrador, which opens at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection on January 25, 2014, celebrates the vibrancy and diversity of Canada’s newest province through the work of some of the country’s most celebrated artists, including David Blackwood, Will Gill, John Hartman, Christopher Pratt, Ned Pratt, and Gerald Squires. It is the first wide-ranging group exhibition of Newfoundland and Labrador art to be shown in the Toronto area.
Changing Tides joins the exhibition Mary Pratt, a fifty-year retrospective opening at the McMichael one week earlier. Together these two exhibitions reveal the unique landscape and culture of Canada’s most easterly province.
Organized by the McMichael, Changing Tides is guest-curated by Patricia Grattan, former Director and Chief Curator of Memorial University Art Gallery (now The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery) in St. John’s, Newfoundland. The exhibition is comprised of sixty-six works, including paintings, prints, photographs, sculptures, and mixed media installations, by twenty-eight artists.
“Changing Tides will challenge any assumption that work from Newfoundland and Labrador slips easily into the category of ‘Atlantic Realism’,” said Grattan. “Realism is a predominant mode but only in the broadest sense of the term. Art-making in Newfoundland and Labrador has always been highly individualistic. Diversity in style, subject matter, materials, and intention prevail.”
From Pam Hall’s repurposed cod fishing trap to Scott Walden’s documentary photographs of small town clubs and Legion Halls around Conception Bay; and from Barbara Pratt’s paintings of oil industry vessels to Jordan Bennett’s interactive sound and video sculpture that lets visitors see through the eyes of various animals, the individuality and range of Newfoundland and Labrador art is on full display in Changing Tides.
Other artists whose work will appear in the exhibition include Scott Goudie, who received the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council’s 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award; Marlene Creates, winner of the 2013 BMW Prize at Toronto’s recent Scotiabank CONTACT Festival; and Mike Flaherty, a recent nominee for the RBC Ceramics Award.
“The extraordinary beauty of Newfoundland and Labrador has given rise to a unique visual language,” said McMichael Executive Director and CEO, Victoria Dickenson. “For the first time in the Toronto area, visitors will have the chance to experience the artistic visions of artists like Ned Pratt, David Blackwood, and Marlene Creates together in one place.”
From February 15 to 17, the gallery will celebrate the culture of Newfoundland and Labrador with a festival of traditional music, contemporary art, and animated conversation.
On Saturday, February 15 from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm the gallery will hold an illustrated lecture on the exhibition Changing Tides led by Patricia Grattan. To register, call 905.893.1121 ext. 2209 or email bookings@mcmichael.com. Students with valid ID may register free of charge.
On Sunday, February 16, JAZZ.FM91 radio personality and winner of multiple National Jazz Awards, Heather Bambrick, will host a Newfoundland jazz ceilidh at 2:00 pm, and Grattan will return to the McMichael for an informal discussion from 3:00 to 4:00 pm in the exhibition spaces.
On Monday, February 17, visitors will explore Newfoundland through music, stories, and art, including a hooked rug workshop. At 1:30 pm, artist Pam Hall will read from her award winning children’s book On the Edge of the Eastern Ocean, as well as from Al Pittman’s Down by Jim Long’s Stage.
Changing Tides: Contemporary Art of Newfoundland and Labrador runs from January 25 to June 1, 2014.
About the McMichael Canadian Art Collection
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is an agency of the Government of Ontario and acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport. It is the foremost venue in the country showcasing the Group of Seven and their contemporaries. In addition to touring exhibitions, its permanent collection consists of almost 6,000 artworks by Canadian artists, including paintings by the Group of Seven and their contemporaries, as well as First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists. The gallery is located on 100 acres of northern landscape and hiking trails at 10365 Islington Avenue, Kleinburg, north of Major Mackenzie Drive in the City of Vaughan.
For more information: www.mcmichael.com.
Media Contacts:
Wendy Campbell
Manager, Media Relations and Online Presence
905.893.1121 ext. 2201
wcampbell@mcmichael.com
Rachel Weiner
Communications Coordinator
905.893.1121 ext. 2210
rweiner@mcmichael.com
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