Exhibitions and Events
Rephotographing the Land
Marlene Creates, Patricia Deadman, Lorraine Gilbert, Ernie Kroeger, Sylvie Readman and Sandra Semchuk approach the idea of landscape photography from six very different perspectives.
The 38th Annual Dalhousie Student, Staff, Faculty and Alumni Exhibition
The Gallery’s annual celebration of the artistic talent of the university community, through an exhibition of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture and crafts by Dalhousie students, staff, faculty and alumni. Members of the Dalhousie Community are invited to submit works for this exhibition, to be accepted at the gallery from November 30 – December 8 inclusive, during regular gallery hours.
Shadow Area: Images of Illness and Healing by Robert Pope
Halifax artist Robert Pope draws on his own experiences as a survivor of cancer in these haunting images of illness and healing. His paintings and drawings combine a realistic technique with visual symbols, heightened tonal contrasts and compositions often cropped into almost unbearable intimacy, in order to explore the emotional and psychological dimensions of cancer treatment. Organized by the Dalhousie Art Gallery, in conjunction with the 1991 Year of Medicine and the Humanities ad Dalhousie University, with support from the Nova Scotia Department of Tourism and Culture.
Eleanor Bond: Social Centres
Winnipeg artist Eleanor Bond’s huge canvasses portray a not-so-distant future society, where public mega-projects and theme parks vie with environmental concerns and special interest groups. How can urban and rural societies be restructured to fulfill a variety of conflicting individual and collective visions? Bond ironically explores these issues in her provocative, lushly painted utopias. Curated by Shirley Madill for the Winnipeg Art Gallery, with support from the Canada Council and the Manitoba Arts Council.
Changers: A Spiritual Renaissance
This timely exhibition presents paintings, sculpture, installations, photographs, prints and videos by ten contemporary Canadian women artists of Native ancestry: Rebecca Baird, Rebecca Belmore, Ruth Cuthand, Freda Diesing, Faye HeavyShield, Glenna Matoush, Shelley Niro, Alanis Obomsawin, Jane Ash Poitras and Joane Cardinal-Schubert. Their work addresses a range of important issues, including native history, cultural appropriation, native women’s changing identity and spiritual renewal.
Snakes and Ladders: Recent Paintings by Harlan Johnson, Alex Livingston and Leslie Sasaki
Vigorous brushwork, saturated colour and biomorphic imagery characterize this exhibition of 28 figurative paintings by Harlan Johnson, Alex Livingston and Leslie Sasaki, all of whom have strong connections to this region. Their individual approaches to the problem of reinvesting painting with “content” derive partly from personal biography and partly from literature, both fiction and non-fiction, relating to culture, myth and natural history. All three artists employ allegorical, metaphorical and emblematic devices and an eclectic range of images.
The Logic of Ecstasy: Canadian Mystical Painting 1920-1940
This unusual exhibition provides some original insights into the spiritual roots of abstraction in Canadian painting, and some powerful examples of the work of Bertram Brooker, Emily Carr, Lawren Harris, Jock MacDonald and Fred Varley. Better known as members (or associates) of the Group of Seven, these five painters shared an interest in eastern mysticism, transcendentalism, Theosophy, and the poetry of Walt Whitman.
Selections from the Permanent Collection: Lawren Harris 1885-1970
To complement The Logic of Ecstasy, a small group of drawings by Lawren Haris, selected from the Permanent Collection of the Dalhousie Art Gallery, will be on display in the front alcove gallery. Of particular note in this selection is the working sketch of Harris’ painting “Isolation Peak,” which is included in The Logic of Ecstasy.
