Lynn Millette Interior Experience
Vernissage: Thursday, February 1 at 6 pm
Exhibition: February 2 to 24, 2007
Exhibition Press Release:
The McClure Gallery is pleased to present Interior Experience, an exhibition of recent large format acrylic paintings by Lynn Millette.
The richly detailed and undulating surfaces of Lynn Millette’s paintings record the process of self-reflection. The artist focuses on the sensations inside her body and traces the anatomical journey of her thoughts. A line, like an electrical current, marks every moment of her experience of time. The accumulation of coiled lines creates hills and valleys that reflect an internal landscape of sensory experience.
Lynn Millette states, “Through my process, I consider the surface of the canvas as a place to connect, intersect, weave or knot things together. I express physical states like tension, pressure, tightness, and other human phenomena like intuition or projection. Beneath me I imagine cables, lines and other networks like nerves, veins and tissue.”
Marcel Marois
Curator: Roger Bellemare
Vernissage: Thursday, March 1 at 6 pm
Exhibition: March 2 to 24, 2007, 2008
Conference: Thursday, March 8 at 7 pm
Exhibition Press Release:
The McClure Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of tapestries by Marcel Marois, curated by Roger Bellemare. Marcel Marois celebrates the narrative tradition of tapestry using the Gobelins technique of high warp loom tapestry, developed in France hundreds of years ago.
Marcel Marois is an outstanding figure in the field of textile arts, in Canada as well as on the international scene. Since 1975, he has created many small and large works, some of which require a year to produce. The allegories illustrated are often inspired by images from the artist’s collection of newspaper photographs. Marcel Marois’ work underlines the contrast between the spontaneous and ephemeral nature of the news, and the labour intensive and permanent nature of tapestry.
Marcel Marois has contributed to the renewed interest in textile arts through the quality of his work, his engagement with the medium and his teaching. Born in 1949 in Saint-Éphrem de Beauce, Marcel Marois lives and works in Quebec City. He studied tapestry at the École des Beaux-arts de Québec from 1967 to 1971. Since the beginning of his practice he has been influenced by the tradition inherited from the National Gobelins Manufacture in Paris.
Roger Bellemare has been devoted to the distribution and promotion of contemporary art in Montreal since the early 70s. His numerous activities and projects have brought contemporary art to a larger public. Since 1971, he has been Director of the Roger Bellemare Gallery in Montreal.
Annual Student Show
Vernissage: Saturday, March 31 at 12 pm
Exhibition: March 31 to April 18, 2007
Exhibition Press Release:
Students registered in the School of Art’s winter session are invited to exhibit their work in our Annual Student Exhibition. The exhibition, which includes hundreds of works in a wide variety of media, gives students the experience of seeing their work in the context of a professional gallery. It also provides an opportunity for students and public to see the great diversity of creative activity that takes place at the Centre.
Harold Klunder Amorphous Amoebae: Recent Paintings and Etchings
Guest Curator: James D. Campbell
Vernissage and Book Launch: Thursday, April 26 at 6 pm
Exhibition: April 27 to May 19, 2007
Curator’s Talk: Thursday, May 3 at 7 pm
Exhibition Press Release:
The McClure Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of recent paintings and etchings by Harold Klunder, curated by James D. Campbell, well-known critic and writer. The paintings, oil on canvas and board, have all been recently executed in the artist’s Montreal studio. To coincide with the exhibition, the McClure Gallery is also pleased to launch the monograph, Harold Klunder, Amorphous Amoebae. The monograph offers over 40 colour plates of the artist’s work, with a major text on the artist by Mr. Campbell.
Harold Klunder, one of Canada’s most accomplished and respected painters, has enjoyed an active studio practice for almost 40 years. For his exhibition at the McClure Gallery, Klunder will present new works which are being exhibited for the first time. The richly coloured paintings include elements of both abstraction and figuration, creating, in Klunder’s words, a “psychic realism” that depicts the process of transformation subject matter undergoes as it is translated through the artist’s mind. Each painting creates its own world, abundant with richly coloured organic forms, many of which reference his on-going investigation of the theme of self-portraiture.
Curator’s Talk: James D. Campbell will discuss the major themes of his text on Klunder. The artist will be present and the audience will have an opportunity to ask questions of both Mr. Campbell and Mr. Klunder following the presentation.
Harold Klunder was born in 1943 in Deventer, The Nertherlands. In 1952 he immigrated to Canada with his family. He received his advanced education at Central Technical School in Toronto where he studied art under Canadian artists Doris McCarthy, Charles Goldhammer and Virginia Luz. Klunder’s practice reflects a diversity of interests including painting, printmaking, photography, performance and improvisational music. His work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions across North America, Europe, Asia and South America and is represented in public and private collections across Canada and abroad, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. While working and teaching in Montreal, he continues to maintain studios in Flesherton Ontario and Berlin Germany.
Mary Martha Guy The Newfoundland Series
Catherine Hoey Collage to Counterpane
Vernissage: Thursday, May 24 at 6 pm
Exhibition: May 25 to June 16, 2007
Exhibition Press Release:
The McClure Gallery is pleased to present two solo exhibitions. Mary Martha Guy’s The Newfoundland Series features paintings and drawings that express the artist’s love for the land and sea of Newfoundland. The works are inspired by the very basic life of the island, the white house built wherever needed, the simple fishing dory and the rock beneath it all. Guy, however, pushes these elements towards their most abstracted forms, offering the viewer a poetic and evocative interpretation of her subject.
Catherine Hoey’s Collage to Counterpane is a series of large fabric collages and small studies on paper. The counterpanes combine Hoey’s attraction to abstract art, as well as her interest in the Gees Bend Quilts and the Latin narrative of the Bayeux Tapestries. The rich colour and texture of the quilt’s recycled fabrics bear witness to the past. Stains, patches and tears from previous use are reworked into new forms through cutting, piecing, stitching and writing.
Mary Martha Guy lives and works in Montreal and North Hatley. She studied at the Arts Student’s League in New York from 1958 to 1959 and received a BFA from Concordia University in 1988. Most recently, Guy’s work was included in an exhibition at the Bombardier Gallery in Valcourt in 2005 and a solo exhibition at the Victoria Hall Art Gallery in Westmount in 2004. Her work is included in public and private collections in Canada, the US, France and England.
Catherine Hoey lives and works in Perth, Ontario. She studied drawing, painting and printmaking at the Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore (1972-74) and at Concordia University in Montreal (1975-80). She has worked extensively with wood block printing on fabric in Lagos, Nigeria. As a member of the OKWA (Organization of Kingston Women Artists) she exhibited paintings in juried exhibitions at the Edward Day Gallery (1993) and Union Gallery (1994) in Kingston. She presented a solo exhibition of paintings at the Mississauga Public Library in 2002.
L.O.V.E.
Vernissage: Thursday, June 21 at 6 pm
Exhibition: June 22 to July 14, 2007
Exhibition Press Release:
The McClure Gallery of the Visual Arts Centre is pleased to host a project by LOVE. Leave Out Violence, a non-profit organization, works with youth aged 13 to 18 whose lives have been burdened by violence, either as victims, perpetrators, or witnesses.
LOVE youth first learn to understand themselves through photography, writings, multimedia and video pieces. In this exhibition, the youth of Leave Out Violence trace the dramatic evolution of LOVE from its humble beginnings in Montreal to a global youth movement.
Through their creative work, LOVE youth transcend barriers and change people’s perceptions. More importantly, they acquire specific skills and in the process, develop a community conscience. In this way, they change the course of their lives.
One of Canada’s leading – and most successful – youth violence prevention organizations, LOVE spreads the message of non-violence in schools and communities across Canada in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and in New York City.
This exhibition is made possible through a generous grant to the Visual Arts Centre’s Teen Outreach Program from the TD Bank Financial Group.