An exhibition featuring IRIS group members:
Laura M. Hair, Judith A. Mason, Mary Ellen McQuay, Janice Taylor-Prebble, Margaret Rodgers, Sally Thurlow, Wendy Wallace
Reception: RMG Fridays, March 4, 7-10pm
Artist Talk and FILMIC Catalogue Launch: Sunday, March 6, 1-3pm
The IRIS Group, a collective of women artists, is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2016 with an exhibition that revisits ten International Women’s Day projects involving the collection of objects and writings invested with personal or symbolic meaning. These items, with photographic on-site documentation, form part of The IRIS Group’s extensive dialogue concerning women’s issues.
In IRIS at 20, members are creating new works based on the collected and archived objects from women across Canada and internationally. The many faces and donated artefacts and words become part of a major installation in Gallery A, the RMG’s exciting new space.
Artists’ Biographies:
Laura M. Hair is an original member of the IRIS Group who is an exhibiting artist/educator. In her work she references and combines historical and nature based imagery.
Judith A. Mason is an interdisciplinary artist, curator and arts educator whose recent work is an investigation of inner psychological experience and its collective manifestations.
Since 1983, Mary Ellen McQuay’s photo based work has been exhibited extensively, included in public and private collections, published in numerous books and magazines and won national and international awards.
Margaret Rodgers is a visual artist and writer, founder of IRIS, former art teacher at Durham and Centennial Colleges, and past Director/Curator at VAC Clarington. http://www.margaretrodgers.ca
Janice Taylor-Prebble, with a focus on printmaking and painting, discusses reflected human interactions. A graduate of Georgian College and OCAD + Florence, she is also a licensed electrician and has exhibited widely.
Sally Thurlow is a multi-disciplinary artist with a Fine Arts BA from the University of Toronto. Her work is held in private collections across Canada, and at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery. She is also a member of The Red Head Gallery in Toronto.
Wendy Wallace is a visual artist and educator with the Durham District School Board, a U of T, Banff Centre and UOIT alumna. She has been exploring the Badlands from Alberta to Montana for the past three summers.