The BAC's contemporary visual art program is collaboratively developed
by a Program Team that is lead by George Wale, M.Ed., Director of Programs and
includes Executive Director, Ian Ross, M.F.A.; the Curator of the Collection,
Jonathan Smith, M.F.A.; Dawn Beatty, Associate Curator of Programs; Preparator,
Brad Issacs; and Kiln Technicians, David Kupas, Shane Norrie and Dorothy Heuck.
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 Minimum Copyright Fee Schedule.
Painted
Places: Andrea Blanar and Thelma Rosner
January 9 - February 13
Main Gallery
Curator: Dawn White Beatty
The paintings of these two artists have many interesting points of intersection. Andrea Blanar is a regional artist whose works reflect her reverence for East Coast marshes and all places where water meets land. Thelma Rosner is a London artist whose large scale works engage around issues of entering the garden, the elements and the domestic. Landscape and cultural icons are combined in ways that suggest narrative and memory, and provide rich insights into the way that these women bring order to nature in their work. Lush painting and the scale of the works create a dramatic dialogue; the combination of nature and the artifact in the grid-like structures of both painters presents the viewer with an intense experience of bold work and spiritual presence.
Originated by the Burlington Art Centre
Publication
Artists' talk and professional development critiques for area artists
Re-inventing
the House: Laima Bruveris, Mary Keczan-Ebos, and Cecilia Gossen
(working title)
February 27 - March 29
Main Gallery
Guest Curator: Regina Haggo
The house is one of the most familiar artifacts and emblems of our culture. Traditionally the designing and building of houses has been men's work while inhabiting houses is what women have done. For thousands of years the house has been perceived as the physical and social centre of a woman's world. In this exhibition three female artists turn the house inside out and outside in. The participating artists are as follows: Laima Bruveris from Etobicoke, handbuilt ceramic sculptures, installation work by Burlington artist Mary Keczan-Ebos, and mixed media sculptures by Cecilia Gossen from Calgary, Alberta. The guest curator is Hamilton art historian, feminist, and writer, Regina Haggo.
Originated by the Burlington Art Centre
Publication
Artists and curator panel
Walk in the Woods
With works by Kai Chan, Spring Hurlbut, David Merritt, Reinhard Reitzenstein, Peter von Tiesenhausen
April 20 - May 21
Main Gallery
Curator: George Wale
The primary concerns for this exhibition are wood as an integral medium, ideas about the intertwining of the environment, life, and art, and an exploration of some formal aspects of art. Kai Chan, sculpture, Spring Hurlbut, Toronto, "Specimen Tree Columns" (1990), David Merritt, London, installation, Reinhard Reitzenstein, Grimsby, bronze sculptures, and Peter von Tiesenhausen, Demmitt, Alberta, bronze sculptures.
Originated by the Burlington Art Centre
Publication
Artist's round table discussion.
Fragile Embrace: Reflections on the Environment
June 4 - July 23
Main Gallery
The exhibition celebrates the wonders of nature, reflects on the fragile condition of the earth's ecology, and examines the relationship between man, society, and the natural world. The artists represented in the exhibition work in a variety of media; painting, photography, sculpture, water colours, drawing, and printmaking. They embrace the whole of nature and its beauty. Artists include: Robert Bateman, Gary Blundell, Ken Danby, Martha Henrickson, Akira Komoto, Patricia Kozowyk, Stephen Scott Patterson, E. Robert Ross, Alan Sonfist, and Lorne Wagman. Guest Curator: Robert Freeman. Focusing on ecological issues and the visual arts with an exhibition, seminars, master classes, and other cross discipline activities.
Originated by the Burlington Art Centre
Publication
Public Lecture Series: Jay Ingram & Robert Bateman
Artist's Master Class Seminar
| The Paper Project I | The Paper Project II |
| August 6 - September 17 | June 18 - August 20 |
| Main Gallery | Perry Gallery |
An exhibition of works on or incorporating paper that celebrate the diversity of art-making processes using all aspects of the medium of paper. Papermaking, paper clay, origami and Japanese papers, Chinese brush painting, water-based media such as watercolour and acrylic and mixed media applications will all be featured in this eclectic mix of works that studies how paper has been used by artists across cultures and times. It will also examine how contemporary and experimental applications follow from these traditions. Demonstrations, workshops and artist talks are planned as well as a unique publication which will incorporate hand-made elements to celebrate paper and paper artists. Regional artists taking part are: Gery Puley , Doreen Wilson, Wesley Bates, and Cora Brittan.
Originated by the Burlington Art Centre.
Publications, artists' talks, demonstrations, & workshops.
Enchanted Threads: Anna Torma, Nora Levai, Valeria Sovaradi
October 1 - November 12
Main Gallery
Curator: Dawn White Beatty
An exhibition of 3 Hungarian textile artists; Anna Torma, Hamilton Ontario, has lived in Canada for 8 years and is respected in her medium of contemporary stitching, embroidery and applique. She will host the other two artists, visiting from Hungary, who will produce work at Anna's studio for the exhibition. Nora Levai makes contemporary embroideries and Valeria Sovaradi works in fibre, papermaking and casting to produce sculptural assemblage. All of the artists are well known in Hungary and have exhibited extensively in Europe.
Originated by the Burlington Art Centre
Publication/Video Documentation
Artists' workshops and seminar
Burlington Art Centre Collectivizing/Mentoring Project
10 Body Contexts: From 'Convergence' 
November 26 - December 31, 2000
Main Gallery
Guest Curator/Mentor: V. Jane Gordon
The artists in the collective will create an exhibition project for the Burlington Art Centre's Main Gallery, scheduled for November 26, 2000 - December 31, 2000. The exhibition context/concept will be decided by consensus within the collective with guidance from the mentor/leader of the group. The exhibition will be a unique opportunity to document important changes and developments experienced by the participants. The focus of the exhibition on the Centre's resident population of artists and the challenges they have managed to meet will be an inspiration for other BAC and guild members and will contribute to planning subsequent programs of interest in the future.
Originated by the Burlington Art Centre
Publication
Round table/Celebration
Imagining (An) Other Canada
Images of Nationalism in the Canadian Landscape
Curator: Carol Podedworny
Tentative touring schedule - Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, January/February; Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery,
March/April; The Art Gallery of Algoma, May/June, 2000
Service With a Smile.
January 3 - June 4
Curator: Jonathan Smith
This invitational exhibition will explore the nature of humour and form in "functional" ceramics. Twenty ceramists chosen from the local to the national level will be invited to submit tea services,(pots, creamers, sugars, cups, mugs, tumblers etc) that investigate the nature of not only function, and the relationship of forms to each other, but they will be asked to deal with a subject that most artists avoid, that being the nature of humour, from the whimsical to the down right outrageous. Artists to be included in the exhibition are Kayo O'Young, Diane Nasr, Paul Mathieu, Greg Payce and Tim Storey.
Originated by the Burlington Art Centre
Publication
Recent Acquisitions 1999
January 9 - February 13
Co-ordinator: Jonathan Smith
A review exhibition of the work donated in 1999 to the Art Centre's Permanent Collection of Contemporary Canadian ceramics.
Originated by the Burlington Art Centre
Carol Rossman - Nature of Inspiration
June 11 - September 10
Curator: Jonathan Smith
A solo exhibition of work by Carol Rossman, a Burlington Bay area artist who has received national attention in the last few years. Rossman's work, which revolves around two distinct areas, functional vessels and trompe l'oeil sculptural work, is united by her interpretation of the basket forms and ceramic work of the Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico and the landscape that inspired them. Rossman's ceramic sculptures of small cactus gardens are an interpretation of the desert landscape which give greater understanding to her vessel forms which interpret the patterns and forms of traditional basketmaking.
Originated by the Burlington Art Centre
Publication
Ingrid Nicolai - Courtyard Installation
June 11 - September 10
Curator: Jonathan Smith
Nicolai, an Oakville resident, has in the last decade transformed her work from small functional vessels to large sculptural forms which is inspired by the art of Byzantium and ancient Greek. Her work has gained national attention through her repeated exposure in the Trois Riviere Biennial of Contemporary Canadian Ceramics. Nicolai explores the optical illusions of three dimensional work enhanced with two dimensional decoration and texture to create objects that explore the relationship of space and decoration with each other.
Originated by the Burlington Art Centre
Publication
In the Image of...Creative Mould Making. 
September 17 - January 2, 2001
Curator: Jonathan Smith
The art of mould making has in the past been looked upon as the territory of hobbyist and amateurs, but in the past decade has risen to prominence through the creative efforts of some of Canada's leading ceramic artists. From the use of sprig moulds employed by Bronfman Award Winner, Harlan House to the use of sculptural moulds that allows Steve Heinemann to explore the nature of form, the differing techniques and applications of moulds will be explored as a creative medium. The exhibition will include original moulds from the artists whenever possible along with the work presented.
Originated by the Burlington Art Centre
FIRE+EARTH
Curator: Jonathan Smith
Tentative touring schedule - Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, April - June; The Art Gallery of Algoma, TBA; Surrey Art Gallery, TBA.
Burlington Art Centre Guild Juried Exhibitions
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. There are seven guilds that have fully-equipped studios at the Centre. The guilds include 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.
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.
Originated by the Burlington Art Centre
Publication for each exhibition and juror's critique for each exhibition
Quilters' Society Juried Exhibition
January 9 - February 20
F.R.Perry Gallery
Woodcarvers' Group Juried Exhibition
February 27 - March 26
F.R.Perry Gallery
Latow Photographers' Juried Exhibition
April 12 - May 7
F.R.Perry Gallery
Handweavers' and Spinners' Juried Exhibition
May 14 - June 11
F.R.Perry Gallery
Hooking Craft Juried Exhibition
August 27 - October 1
F.R.Perry Gallery
Potters' Guild Juried Exhibition
October 8 - November 12
F.R.Perry Gallery
Burlington Fine Arts Association Juried Exhibition
November 26 - December 24
F.R.Perry Gallery
