Celebrations, milestones, key events, civic pride, and shared tragedies all bring a community together and shape its history. Today, news is updated instantly while at the turn of the 20th century, one had to wait 24 hours to read about historical moments.

Headlines have the ability to attract or repel readers to stories and play a significant role in marking history. What headlines helped shape Oshawa’s history? This exhibition explores important headlines of Oshawa’s past through photographs taken during or immediately after the events, alongside the newspaper headline that would have appeared in the newspaper the next day.

 

In the fall of 2011, Regina-based artist Heather Cline created an immersive experience as an artist-in-residence in downtown Oshawa, designed to draw out memories and stories from residents, which in turn, would be used as the basis for the exhibition The Office of Identity Collection (1 September – 28 October).

Using the Thomas Bouckley Collection as a starting point, Cline layered her
paintings with the various histories and stories she had collected, showcasing the community’s reminiscences.

The process in Cline’s artwork reminds us how interwoven our past, present and future is, and shows the continuity of time in a community’s collective memory. The photographs that were used as source material for The Office of Identity Collection make up this exhibition. They offer the viewers a look to the earliest layers of the Oshawa’s history.

In title, Decolonize Me references the 2004 Morgan Spurlock film Supersize Me, a film in which the director looked at themes of corporate responsibility alongside the experience of the individual. By riffing on the title, Decolonize Meseeks to emphasize the importance of recognizing the role an individual plays in larger discussions. The works not only look at specific issues, but also at the impact the processes of decolonization have on Aboriginal identity, both individual and collective. In Decolonize Me, the individual’s role is considered within the larger discussion of shared colonial histories and present-day cultural politics.

Bringing together the work of six contemporary Aboriginal artists, the exhibition challenges, questions, and reveals. In doing so, it makes visible a history and legacy of a shared colonial past. Visitors are encouraged to consider the ways in which they are implicated in this history. The works explore not only past wrongdoings, but also strategies for reclaiming Canadian Aboriginal voices and honouring traditions and ancestors whose memories have endured despite centuries of aggressive colonial practices. Included in the exhibition are works by Sonny Assu, Jordan Bennett, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Nigit’stil Norbert, Barry Pottle, and Bear Witness.

The six emerging, mid-career, and established Canadian Aboriginal (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit) artists work individually interrogates the history of oppression, marginalization and disenfranchisement with grace, humour and dignity. Visitors are invited to consider the ways they are implicated in this history, not as perpetrators or victims, but as active participants with agency and shared responsibility.

Over five days in the month of October 2011, artist Heather Cline, with assistance from performance artist Michele Sereda set up in-residence in downtown Oshawa, working on a project called The Office of Identity Collection. The project involved setting up a 1950’s inspired “passport office” at 16 King Street East and collecting stories and photographs from participants. A range of ages and interests were sought in order to provide diverse impressions of the city and its history. The immersive experience was designed by Cline to draw out memories and stories from residents of Oshawa, which in turn would be used as the basis for this exhibition. The interviews and photos collected at The Office of Identity Collection, along with historical images sourced from the RMG’s Thomas Bouckley Collection, make up the source material and inspiration for this exhibition.

After returning to Regina, Cline began reviewing the stories and photographs she had collected, chronicling the project on a blog. In addition, Cline continued to follow Oshawa’s local media to gain greater understanding of the community. The works she has created for this exhibition include mixed-media paintings and multi-media presentations.

Heather Cline lives and works in Regina, Saskatchewan and has participated in group exhibitions throughout North America, with a solo exhibition at the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon. This project is supported in part by the Saskatchewan Arts Board.

The Optimism of Colour is a major retrospective of the works of renowned Canadian abstract painter William Perehudoff. It traces the evolution of Perehudoff’s approach from early figurative works and murals to radiant abstractions, their interplay of colour suggesting musical chords. The exhibition emphasizes the later works, which established the artist’s reputation nationally and internationally.

Known as a prominent colour field painter, Perehudoff’s artistic vision embraces a specific response to place, showing inspiration related to his native landscape in the prairies. It also demonstrates his belief in the evocative power of abstract form.

Perehudoff studied in both Colorado and New York, as well as at the University of Saskatchewan and has had a remarkable number of exhibitions. He has exhibited across Canada, as well as in London, England, and in New York, Chicago and Portland. He has been recognized for his remarkable contributions to art in Canada, and is a member of the Order of Canada and of the Saskatchewan Order of Merit.  Organized and circulated by the Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon. This project has been made possible through a contribution from the Museums Assistance Program, Department of Canadian Heritage.

 

When we stop to look around us, art is everywhere. It can be found in our homes, our workplaces, cultural institutions, and the media.

Art has the power to transport us to other places and worlds. It also allows us to reflect upon ourselves, to make us think outside the box and question what we know.

But what happens when art refers back to itself as a subject within the frame? In this situation, when art is displayed within art, we are confronted with understanding how it can be perceived by the artist and in relation to the scene. This exhibition questions how we interpret what we see when art is integrated within the overall theme or message of another artwork.

Art: A Self-Portrait not only includes works where the primary subject is art itself but others where there are additional elements at work within the frame. In one case the viewer takes the place of a voyeur, in another, art within art takes centre stage.

In each case, Art: A Self Portrait asks viewers to slow down and look not only at the objects directly in front of them, but to focus in on how others see art as shown within the artworks. It is with this insight that we can look at our own viewing habits and uses for art, understanding how art fits within our own lives and how it becomes part of our personal stories.

This collection of thirty two large format photographic colour prints is selected from a body of work that focuses on arctic and sub-arctic regions of Canada. The images are captured using a traditional large format 4×5 view camera, technology that is unsurpassed for landscape photography in this digital age. The method allows for fine details and subtle nuances of form and texture to emerge. Though you might think the colours and contrasts have been enhanced, these works have no special filters or treatments. Zageris states his commitment is “to search and find the quality of light that can inspire the imagination.”

His combination of traditional technique and methodical patience lends him the ability to show us a world we may not see otherwise; an extraordinary view of a geographic region not often travelled. The result is a photograph with a painterly quality, bewitched with startling colours.

Such a dramatic beauty emerges that it may make you question the accuracy of the camera in portraying the subject matter. Depicting scenes both serene and rugged, these images are timeless. Beauty is extracted from the harsh landscape of rock and cliff in Labrador, creating images of curiosity.

This exhibition is Zageris’ first in Southern Ontario.

An exhibition that deals in nostalgia, humour and disorder, Adrian Norvid’s installation of drawings Showstoppers, Whoppers, Downers and Out Of Towners may be ornamental in design but are monumental in size.

Breaking boundaries using rock-and-roll references, wordplay, visual jokes and a tongue-in-cheek sense of humour, his work demonstrates wry wit and a passion for the craft of drawing.

The works muse on 1960’s psychedelia, while filled with components that resemble Victorian and Rococo decoration; they are nostalgic yet fresh in interpretation. Installed directly on to gallery walls, they are highly detailed, illustrative murals chock-full of detail and pun.

Each work takes considerable time to digest.

In one example, Sit Your Sorry Asses Down, a dinner party is portrayed; an event inhabited by a dozen disreputable sorts that include top-hat wearing whisky drinkers, feet-on-table hippies, sleeping or bug-eyed characters and scripts of French and English text, play-on-word brand labels, decorative scrolls and action moving in all directions.

Norvid emigrated from the UK as a child and grew up in Southern Ontario. The characters that are portrayed in his drawings are perhaps explained by this mid-childhood cultural shift as his perception of personality could be seen as an outsider’s view on those even farther outside—an adult’s eye put to the experiences viewed in childhood. Now a drawing teacher at Montreal’s Concordia University, Norvid received a BFA in music and an MFA in studio art from York University.

 

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, in partnership with the Oshawa Senior Citizens’ Camera Club, is proud to present the Oshawa Creek Project: Then and Now. Using historical images from the Thomas Bouckley Collection as a starting point, members of the Oshawa Seniors’ Citizens Camera Club have photographed the Oshawa Creek as it appears today.

Historically, the Creek’s water transportation was the primary reason for the first European settlers to call the Oshawa area their home. The Creek would later contribute to industry; without it “there would have been no power to turn the water wheels of the first grist and lumber mills.” (M. McIntyre Hood, Oshawa: The Crossing Between the Waters – Canada’s Motor City)
Today, it is enjoyed more recreationally but is still a central part of the city. The Thomas Bouckley Collection and Oshawa Senior Citizens’ Camera Club’s photos are juxtaposed, allowing for examination of the evolution of the Creek, then and now, and illustrate its continued importance to the foundation of this community.

In most cases, art is a visual experience that is meant to be experienced in person. However, the far reaching impact of the internet has undoubtedly done wonders for the art world—bringing otherwise inaccessible art into homes around the world.

Despite this wider access, can one truly appreciate an artwork by viewing it online? Details that greatly affect the impact an artwork has can be lost when viewing on screen: size, texture, presentation and location.