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The BAC's contemporary visual art program is collaboratively developed and delivered by a Program Team that is lead by George Wale, M.Ed., Director of Programs and includes the Curator of the Collection, Jonathan Smith, M.F.A.; Laura Arseneau, Curator of Education and Preparator, Brad Isaacs. Curatorial objectives are achieved through a series of exhibitions over a number of years rather than any in one fiscal period. Our visual arts program has three areas of focus:
The Burlington Art Centre pays artist fees in accordance with the CARFAC Exhibition Fee Schedule. Please note, dates and content subject to change without notice, contact the Director of Programs to confirm information.
Real Abstraction: W.R. Warren
November 18, 2006 - January 7, 2007
Imagery that appears to be non-objective yet represents real ‘matter’ used in the production of itself. Silver gelatin photographic prints that record the abstract images of crystalized sodium thiosulphate … a chemical which is used to fix photographic images in the photographic processing process.
F.R. Perry Gallery
W.R. (Bill) Warren, Burlington
Curator: George Wale
Artist's Talk with W.R. (Bill) Warren. January 7, 2007 2pm
Publication
Modern Majolica
December 3 - February 4
Curator: Jonathan Smith
This exhibition tracks the revival of the fifteenth-century Italian tradition of Majolica, a highly decorative glazing technique that produces bright colours on a brilliant white background. The re-emergence of Majolica is traced through its development from classic decorative arts motifs to the rise of the personal autobiographical history and mythology that now dominates the scene.
Featuring works by Matthais Ostermann (Montreal, Que.); Walter Ostrom (Halifax, Nova Scotia); Richard and Carol Selfridge; Deborah Schrader (Hamilton, ON)
AIC Gallery
Reception: December 3, 2-4 pm
Seminar: January 21, 1:30 pm
Presented by Walter Ostrom
Publication
Jean Hanson's Horizons: Serene and Sublime Selected paintings from Jean's Horizon series. "The Horizon paintings grew out of an inner spirituality and desire for calm and tranquilitiy combined with her desire to share these feelings. By staying focused, in harmony with her Universe, her line, light, and clear mind are embodied in these paintings." from Jean Hanson: a happy memory, 2005.
F.R. Perry Gallery
Jean Hanson, Burlington, Ontario
Curator: George Wale
Reception
January 14, 2007 2-4pm
Publication in PDF
Still Moves, Inside and Outside the Still Life Genre Still Life as a genre is about display and presentation. In northern Europe Still Life flouished amidst the rise of capitalism, the accumulation of surplus possessions, and the widespread acceptance of the protestant contention that a "State of Grace" is evidenced in one's journey through life by "worldly success". None of this seems foreign to early twenty-first century North America, in fact it seems to be the underpinning of the culture of greed and the celebration of the simulacre. But still life, because it deals with the quotidian - the lives of objects routinely used by human subjects, has always signified a second discourse. The discours of the unseen and uncelebrated user: the cook, the gardener, the gatherer, the arranger of domestic spaces. This exhibition encourages the attention of viewers to move freely from the traditional position of Still Life work into uncharted outside territories where the previously constrained second discourse can emerge unmuzzled.
AIC Gallery
Marlene Bird, Elmvale, Carolyn Dover, Grimsby, Donna Marie Giles, Dundas, Catherine Herzog, Kitchener, Rose Pearson, Haliburton.
Curator: V. Jane Gordon
Reception
March 4, 2007 2-4 pm
Tour and talk with V. Jane Gordon, Curator. March 4, 2007 2:30 pm
Publication
Mentoring Project - Painting An exhibition of new works by artists participating in the Burlington Art Centre Painting Mentor Project. This project is meant to be a significant transformative learning experience for the participating artists ... one that has a positive, creative impact on their careers. The participants set learning goals and objectives in consultation with the mentor and were challenged to take some risks in their artistic practice. The primary focus was on ideas and concepts for each artist. Some technical studio-oriented skills were incorporated as they relate to each artists' ideas and concepts.
AIC Gallery
Thomas Scott Anderson, Burlington, Diane Cizek, Burlington, Susan Dain, Etobicoke, Teri Donovan, Toronto, Judith Finch, Oakville, Helen Hendry, Burlington, James Paterson, Oakville, Rena Sava, Oakville, Mikolaj Ziolkowski, Hamilton
Mentor: Lorne Toews
Reception
May 6, 2007 2 pm
Tour and talk with the artists in the exhibition. June 24, 2007 2 pm
Publication
They say it can't be done: Impossible art Operating on the premise that art can be anything that an artist can imagine, this project investigates a particular segment of this imagined art - artists' ideas that for some reason(s) cannot be actualized. The focus is on art that cannot be made into works of art.
F.R. Perry Gallery
Curator: George Wale
Publication
In the Making: Contemporary Canadian Tapestry In an age when our lives are mediated by lightning-fast digital technologies and mechanized systems, the production of hand-woven tapestries may seem archaic, a touch anachronistic and maybe even a little dull. What motivates someone to spend hours upon hours hand-weaving textiles? Where is the “Art” in this traditionally craft-based practice? If artists’ works have the ability to open our eyes to new ways of seeing, then what can be gleaned from the works in this exhibition?
Artists: Line Dufour (Holland Landing, Ontario); Barbara Heller (Vancouver, British Columbia); Jane Kidd (Calgary, Alberta); Sondra MacLeod (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia); Marcel Marois (Quebec City, Quebec)
AIC Gallery
Curators: Dale Barrett and George Wale
Reception
September 9, 2007 2 pm
Tour and talk with the artists in the exhibition. September 9, 2007 2 pm
Publication in PDF
Gery Puley has spent her life creating. As an artist, a teacher, a mentor, a world traveler, and one of the driving forces behind the dream of the Burlington Art Centre, she has achieved professional success and generously shared her talents to enrich the community. This exhibition explores her journey through art and life and honours her work as a painter in the exacting medium of watercolour.
AIC Gallery
Gery Puley, Burlington
Curator: Dawn White Beatty, Guest Writer: June Watson
Reception
October 14, 2007 2-4 pm
Tour and talk with Dawn White Beatty and June Watson. November 4, 2007 2 pm
Publication
Echoes of Gery Puley A selection of works from the BAC Permanent Collection, all of which echo the paintings of Gery Puley, on exhibition concurrently in the AIC Gallery. This is an eclectic and invigorating set of contemporary Canadian ceramics which addresses many of the same concerns that Gery Puley has painted in her career.
Reception: October 14, 2 pm
Publication
Quilt Art 20th Anniversary"Quilt Art, long Europe's leading advocacy group for innovative quiltmaking, is celebrating its twentieth anniversary with this travelling exhibition of new work by group members. Formed in 1985 QUILT ART brought together a select group of professional artists in efforts to extend the boundaries of the quilt medium and increase recognition of the quilt as an art form. The members of QUILT ART … have continued to walk their own idiosyncratic paths as artists, and the consistently original work they have created over the years sets them apart both as individuals and as a group." Robert Shaw, Shelburne, Vermont, USA.
AIC Gallery
Members of 'Quilt Art'
Organized by Quilt Art
Artist Tour and Talk
December 2, 2007 2:30 pm
Discussion of R.G. Collingwood's description of 'craft' in the context of the Quilt Art 20 exhibition. January 13, 2008 1:30 pm
From Function: Paula Murray and Jim Thomson
November 18 - February 25
Curator: Jonathan Smith
Paula Murray (Lac Meech, Que.) and Jim Thomson (Ottawa, Ont.), two Ottawa-area ceramists, both work in the vessel tradition but long ago abandoned the functional nature of their work.
While both artists started from a similar inspiration working with texture and glaze, Murray created a body of work that is fragile and shell-like, while Thomson looked to the rock of the Canadian Shield for his ideas. The power of nature and landscape has always been a prime concern for Canadian art and has been captured here and abstracted into elemental forms.
Permanent Collection Corridor
Reception: December 3, 2-4pm
Publication
Seduced by Clay For this touring exhibition the Burlington Art Centre has taken the unusual step of marrying highlights from Canada's largest contemporary clay collection with the first published history of Canadian studio ceramics. The book concerns itself with objects and object makers and has much in common with a public collection of objects. Both celebrate technical and interpretive skills of a high order, artistic eloquence, historical precedents, and far from least, eye appeal. Artists and collectors will tell you that clay is a seductive medium and in the hands of the artists we have chosen to highlight, viewers will be rewarded by rich glazes, subtle firings, and unusual forms.
Permanent Collection Corridor
Various Canadian ceramists
Curators: Gail Crawford and Jonathan Smith
Reception
May 6, 2007 2 pm
Seminar - Ceramics
May 6, 2007 2:30 pm
The Next Decade: Canadian Ceramics
Speakers: Bruce Taylor, University of Waterloo, and others to be announced.
Curators, artists, and educators answer the question: What do you see in the next ten years of Canadian Ceramics?
Publication
Quiet Revelations - The Work of Bill ReddickA one-person show tracing the development of the work of Bill Reddick (Prince Edward County, Ontario), from his early association with Harlan House and the classical porcelain or wood-fired vessels that inspired them both to the pleated and twisted vase forms that mark the new direction of his work. This exhibition examines the relationship between iconic form and personal voice, one of the central issues facing the making of functional form.
Permanent Collection Corridor
Curator: Jonathan Smith
Reception
June 3, 2007 2 pm
Tour and talk with Bill Reddick. June 3, 2007 2:30 pm
Publication
Kasia Piech: In the Garden of Earthly Delights - Courtyard Installation In a modern-day take-off on the famous Bosch painting of the same name, Piech’s (Hamilton, Ontario) mixed media installation of full-sized ceramic figures of children borders on the grotesque but addresses the issues of perceived ideas and the role that mass culture plays in the development of identity.
These figures are fired with glazes composed of fruit to create skin textures that look diseased in order to question the imposition of our consumer society on those who we regard as innocent, but who really need to be raised to be civilized in order to maintain an organized free society.
Courtyard
Curator: Jonathan Smith
Reception
June 3, 2007 2 pm
Tour and talk with Kasia Piech. June 3, 2007 2:30 pm
Publication
Ken Gangbar: Flow Ken Gangbar's work is all about simple luxury, rich textures and high quality materials. He has a passion for quality, design excellence and an attention to detail. The architectural elements of his sculptural work is intriguing, curious, striking, playful, modular, sectional, full of movement, and whimsical. Ken's sculptures are all about surface and form without being overly decorative. Sectional elements are combined as form and surface at play. The surfaces possess natural textures inviting the viewer to touch and explore.
Permanent Collection Corridor
Curator: Jonathan Smith
Reception
October 14, 2007 2-4 pm
Tour and talk with Bill Gangbar. October 28, 2007 2 pm
Publication
Toronto Potters An exhibition of work by select members of the Toronto Potters Guild, co-curated by Susan Card and Jonathan Smith. The Toronto Potters Guild has produced some of the leading functional potters in Ontario over the years because its members organized themselves into small groups who work closely together to pursue technical and aesthetic issues of interest. Members of the Toronto Potters have been particularly involved with other cultural organizations, such as Fusion, The Ontario Clay and Glass Association and the Japanese Cultural Centre, which has produced a vibrant cultural atmosphere. Some of the artists included in the exhibition are Celia Brandeo, Judith Graham, Danuta Weisenbluth, Louise Macnab, Alexander Kastulin, and Laima Bruveris.
Permanent Collection Corridor
Curators: Susan Card and Jonathan Smith
Reception
December 2, 2007 2 pm
Tour and talk with curators, Susan Card and Jonathan Smith. January 20, 2008 2:00 pm
Recent Acquisitions 2006
January – December, 2007
This exhibition comprises a selection of acquisitions accepted by the Collection Committee during 2006.
Brock Lobby Collection Atrium
Curator: Jonathan Smith
Built in 1978, the Burlington Art Centre was developed as an ideal home for the many visual art and craft guilds that had been active in Burlington since the 1950s. Currently, there are seven guilds that have fully-equipped studios at the Centre … Quilting, Photography, Handweavers and Spinners, Potters, Fine Arts, Sculptors and Woodcarvers, and Hooking Craft. Each guild runs a varied program to promote a greater understanding of their specific art form and to involve people as creators. The guilds represent an important point of access to the Centre as a whole. Typical guild participants will enter as beginners and, through classes, critiques, discussions and exhibitions; they develop themselves to a serious amateur or professional level.
The 2006 guild exhibition schedule focuses on members’ juried exhibitions with the exception of the Handweavers and Spinners Guild.
Each juried exhibition includes a feedback session / critique with the juror and all artists who have submitted work(s). These are well-attended, provocative, and important educational events.
F.R. Perry Gallery
Guild members.
Juror: Victor Paroyan. Coordinator: Brad Isaacs
Organized by the Burlington Art Centre
F.R. Perry Gallery
Guild members.
Juror: Jennifer Long, Director, Gallery 44. Coordinator: Brad Isaacs
Originated by the Burlington Art Centre
F.R. Perry Gallery
Guild members.
Juror: Jonathan Smith. Coordinator: Brad Isaacs
Organized by the Burlington Art Centre
F.R. Perry Gallery
Guild members.
Coordinator: Brad Isaacs
Organized by the Burlington Art Centre
F.R. Perry Gallery
Curators: Deb Schrader and Vera Rehill.
Organized by the Burlington Art Centre
F.R. Perry Gallery
Guild members.
Juror: Barry McCarthy. Coordinator: Brad Isaacs
Organized by the Burlington Art Centre
The focus is personal creative processes in the fibre arts. These processes are as varied as the artists/makers, as rich and rigorous as those in the fine arts, and employ many of the same tools and techniques. The show will provide visitors with a glimpse into the fibre arts creative process through the exhibition of sketchbook and/or sample work alongside finished pieces.
F.R. Perry Gallery
Coordinator: Brad Isaacs
Originated by the Burlington Art Centre