Main Gallery Exhibitions (2011)

 

Momentum:

December 1 –  31

Terry Billings, Chris Hodge, Holly Hildebrand, Dana Standinghorn, Audrey Fine Day, Joel Carignan, Karen Kowalski, Oriol Dancer and Karlie King group show with artists in the “Creative Partnership Program”

For the past two years the Chapel Gallery has played host to a pilot artist-in-residence project. A group of eight artists from the Battlefords region have worked collectively, developed their individual practices and shared studio space. This exhibition showcases some of the results and provides insights into the possibilities of artistic communities.

Only Human - Iris Hauser

October 19 - November 27

Iris Hauser is one of Saskatchewan’s most prolific artists and exhibits her work in solo and group exhibitions across the country. This exhibition explores timeless aspects of the human condition through the aegis of symbolic and metaphoric imagery. Critical to Houser’s development as an artist came after she graduated from art school in the 1970s and traveled through Europe honing the skills of figuration and hyper-realism that she has become known for. Hauser’s subjects often display complex psychological states that are set within intensely-lit spaces. Her work is dramatic; it often catches the viewer off guard and provokes reflections on presence, myth and self.

Leah Dorion: Country Wives

August 29– October 16

Leah Dorion’s paintings are as delightful and insightful as folk-art and as tactile as textiles. They tell stories that are universally familiar, but they are drawn from her life as Métis artist. This exhibition honors the role of Métis women in building their families, communities, and nations in the past. The paintings include women raising children, preparing food, collecting fire wood and the many other duties that were women’s responsibilities. The land and the special relationship Métis women cultivated through their work and spirituality is an overarching theme in Dorion’s art.

Meditations: Jean Sonmor

June 20 – August 28

“ I believe the very essence of what we call life is a constantly evolving, intelligent, creative force. The earth with it’s amazing diversity has the will, strength and creative genius to survive for a time beyond my imagining. Sometimes I wonder if there is a plan. Or is it like the act of painting where I begin with an idea and that idea seems to have a mind beyond my own which takes the work someplace else completely? Is the journey of all life like that? I wonder?”

– Jean Sonmor

A Wide Horizon: Terry Fenton

May 5 - June 19

These works by Saskatchewan artist Terry Fenton portray the Saskatchewan prairie landscape in an evocative way; a way in which anyone who has experienced Saskatchewan’s “living skies” can reminisce with at any given moment in time. Although they evoke a timeless quality, Terry has documented his time travel throughout Saskatchewan with these paintings, capturing exact moments of uninterrupted views of land and sky. The works presented here have been painted with oil paint on paper and are intimate in scale. Terry points out, “Because of their apparent lack of scenery, the open prairies haven’t been much painted by anyone. . . . I’m drawn south and west to the grasslands . . . because the color and light there is so luminous. Because the solutions found by painters from the past don’t work well in the wide-open spaces, I look for new ones.”

Motion Captured, Motion Denied:

Jody Greenman-Barber and Zane Wilcox

May 5 - June 19

The exhibition Motion Captured, Motion Denied presents the work of young, Saskatchewan contemporary ceramic artists Jody Greenman-Barber and Zane Wilcox. Although both artists work in very distinct and different approaches from each other, a commonality between their works is how each artist addresses the concept of motion. Jody’s work focuses on the representation of motion, while Zane’s work reflects a sense of stability or the denial of motion. Pushing the boundaries of wheel-thrown traditions and approaches while revolving her practice around the spinning motion of the pottery wheel, Jody’s work concentrates on the gestural qualities of clay and exaggerated wheel-thrown lines and forms. Zane’s work embodies a sense of immovability and stability, thus serving as an opposition to direct force or motion. This sense of stability, of permanence, then allows the work to serve as a reference point for the motion or physical movements of the viewer within the gallery space, as he or she moves around the works to take in the different angles and perspectives that they offer.

Joy of the Land: Dorothy Schmidt and Rigmor Clarke

March 23 – May 1

Joy of the Land brings together the works of Rigmor Clarke and Dorothy Schmidt: two artists who portray the beauty and harshness of the northern Saskatchewan landscape with passion and dedication. While both extend the Group of Seven tradition of rendering the Canadian landscape as pristine and unmarked by human intervention, they each employ different methods, references and approaches.

Flash: Terry Billings

February 2 – March 20

An immersive installation using video images, auditory recordings and other media, Flash constructs a space for the active contemplation of nature, beauty and the social sphere. What are the relations between nature and beauty or human and non-human? How do they mark the production and reception of art?

 Dorothy Knowles: Land Marks

November 3, 2010 – January 30, 2011

The latest exhibition of Dorothy Knowles's work, Land Marks, consisting of 27 paintings, is a retrospective gl