What are we excited about in 2016?

There’s plenty to look forward to in 2016 at the RMG! The New Year brings all new exhibitions, community programming, learning opportunities and RMG Fridays to the gallery. We asked our staff what they were most excited about in the upcoming year and we hope you’ll let us know what you’re most excited about too!

“I am excited about new exhibitions in the second half of 2016 that will be in galleries with new floors! A beautiful wood floor in the upper Alexandra Luke Gallery and polished concrete in the RS McLaughlin Foundation Gallery will serve to highlight the amazing work that graces those spaces.”
– Linda Jansma, Senior Curator

“I’m super excited about curating, Durham Regional artist, Jay Dart’s exhibition Greetings from Yawnder! Jay Dart has created fictional worlds known as Yawnder and Elsewheres in order to explain his creative process. This exhibition will bring Dart’s world, Yawnder, to life. Each illustration will recount a different layer to his fictional story, inviting the viewer to help the character, Jiggs, on his journey. There will be installations of geist trees, jars with Magical Mystery Beards, and twig libraries, bringing Yawnder beyond the pages and into the gallery space. This participatory exhibition will have the visitor contributing to both the story and the creative process. It will be a lot of fun to work on and so rewarding to watch the community engaged with it!”
– Sonya Jones, Associate Curator

“I’m really looking forward to the Art Lab and Gallery A residencies and exhibits by contemporary artists at the RMG this year. We have an exciting line up of practicing artists who will partake in absolute audience engagement in the process of their residency. It will be fantastic!”
– Parvathi Bhat, Gallery Educator

“Prepare yourself for February 5th. RMG Fridays will be celebrating its 5th anniversary and will be off the hook amazing!! Dance performances, 2 musical acts and the opportunity to watch an artist paint live on site are just a few things in store. We even have Museum Hack, all the way from New York on-site hosting interactive exhibition tours and I can hardly contain my excitement! It has been a thrilling night to program and will be even more epic to see first-hand. I’m also counting down the days until the March 4th RMG Fridays to hear Birds of Bellwoods perform! The incredibly talented band that stole the hearts of our guests will be back by popular demand for both sets of music. This time I’m buying a CD; They sold out before I could get my hands on one last time!”
– Carla Sinclair, Manager of Community and Volunteer Development

“I’m really excited about Sarindar Dhaliwal’s exhibition in May. I first saw her work while I was a student in 2006 and am looking forward to seeing what she does at the RMG in 2016. I’m also looking forward to ‘meeting’ more of our community online through social media. Log on and say hello on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!”
– Sam Mogelonsky, Manager of Marketing and Communications

Image: Now Entering Beyawnder, Jay Dart, 2015-2700

A look through the lens…

This winter, the RMG shifts its focus to exploring how artists view the world through images. Photography is used to document history, to capture a memory, to tell a story or to create an imaginary landscape. We invite you to consider capturing these moments and the role of the artist behind the lens when you visit.

The Other NFB: The National Film Board of Canada’s Still Photography Division, 1941-1971 is an exhibition exploring our national identity and history by showing how Canada was presented to the world. Through this collection of images, we see a slice of Canadian life at this important time in history. This exhibition serves as a reminder of how photography informs our national identity. How do you relate to these images? How does the photograph relate to your personal narrative or family story?

In Their Stories: Unidentified Portraits from the Thomas Bouckley Collection we are taking a different approach to historical photography. In this exhibition, we put out a call for writers to create narratives for a selection of unidentified portraits from our collection of historical Oshawa photographs. The stories we received were varied, creative and shine a new and exciting look into the possible lives of these people. We encourage you to think about these unidentified subjects and the lives they may have lived.

We take another look at the photographic image in Holly King: Edging Towards the Mysterious. In this mid-career retrospective, the artist presents a series of idealistic and beautiful landscapes. At first glance, you hope these are real— possible utopian escapes. But at second glance you feel a sense of loneliness and anxiety from something unsettling in the landscape. This feeling is caused by King’s use of staged photography. By manufacturing her landscapes, we are forced to question the image we are presented with— is it real, is it fake, or are we lost in our imaginations?

In April, we will celebrate the CONTACT Photography Festival with an exhibition by RMG Exposed winner Lindsay Lauckner Gundlock entitled Familiarity in the Foreign. The images represent the quiet moments that she found among the chaos of travel, as well as memories of places visited.

In conjunction with our photography exhibitions, we are excited to offer accompanying programming. Please join us for a symposium, featuring The Other NFB, that will examine Canada and Canadian identity through visual image. A tour of the exhibition will be given by curator Carol Payne, followed by an interactive discussion with 5 panelists. This will be an invigorating day so register early to guarantee your spot!

Moving Image: The RMG’s New Permanent Collection Exhibition

This blog post comes from the desk of Senior Curator, Linda Jansma.

Each year The Robert McLaughlin Gallery completely revamps the Isabel McLaughlin Gallery, a space that is dedicated to the RMG’s permanent collection. When I first came to the gallery, the norm was to give a slice of art history from a chronological perspective: 19^th century landscapes and portraits were followed by the more experimental works by member of the Group of Seven. From there, a selection of works by artists of the Canadian Group of Painters, a group that was formed in 1933 and on to the 1950s and ending before abstract expressionism. It was a traditional way of showing things, but a little on the dull side.

What would happen if an A.Y. Jackson landscape from the 1940s was placed beside a Rae Johnson landscape from the 1990s? A traditional Emily Carr landscape beside a wildly exuberant work by regional artist Lynn McIlvride? A large scale photograph by Montreal-based artist Holly King, beside a small still life by Arthur Lismer? Well, a lot more fun from a curatorial perspective and something that requires more work/thought from our audience!

During the third week of August, we’ll install the exhibition Moving Image. It will include paintings of landscapes that show rushing water and clouds scuttling across the sky; the migration of both people and animals; works that are emotionally moving and create illusions of movement. Works will be historic and contemporary, include painting, drawing, sculpture and photography.

A favourite of mine in this exhibition is a work called Flock from 2009 by Kingston-based artist Don Maynard. From a distance, the installation looks like a swooping flock of birds, but on closer examination, you see a number of traditional paper airplanes (made of thin aluminum rather than paper) with their noses embedded into the wall. When I saw the work in Don’s studio, my first thought was “what a great idea!!” I still think that, and I hope visitors to the gallery enjoy both it and the other works in Moving Image.

Image- Flock (installation views and details), Don Maynard, aluminum, 2009

Interview with Running On Empty Curator Heather Nicol

“Hot Topics” blog posts come from the desk of Sam Mogelonsky, our Communications & Social Media Coordinator.

The RMG caught up with Running on Empty’s guest curator Heather Nicol for a quick chat about the exhibition and her artistic practice.

RMG: Firstly, please tell us a bit about who are you and your curatorial/ artistic practice?

Heather Nicol: I’m an artist and independent curator based in Toronto. I’ve created exhibitions for gallery spaces, but more often I work in what might be considered off-site locations, such as underutilized or repurposed urban spaces. My installations often are cited in public places, such as large atriums or, for example, in the great Hall of the Union station. Also in unusual exhibition venues, such as an crumbling rail terminus in Buffalo, a three-story carriage house in upstate New York, or in a château, in France. I am very excited about a large-scale public art project coming up in March, in lower Manhattan’s Winter Garden, an enormous barrel vaulted interior space opposite the new World Trade Center.

RMG: What was the inspiration behind Running On Empty? Oshawa has a long history with the car – does this play into your exhibition at all?

HN: Architecture or geography serve as a point of departure in my curatorial work. I am interested in ways that the histories and physical properties of exhibition spaces impact the reception of the art that is presented in them.

So, yes, Oshawa’s, and the Robert McLaughlin Gallery’s history with the automobile industry afforded me the opportunity to pursue an idea that had been percolating concerning cars as a mediating force in our relationship with the landscape.

RMG: How did you select the artists in the exhibition?

HN: I seem to have a strange habit of keeping a lookout for potential off-site exhibition venues as I go through life, whether it’s a vacant warehouse or decommission school. I have thought that a wonderful old-fashioned gas station near where I live would be a terrific place to create a show about cars, and have kept an eye on it for years, wondering it it might close or be up for rent. Ironically, it’s up for rent right now!

From from the beginning of my thinking about this show, I hoped to include the famous traffic jam sequence from Jean-Luc Godard’s 1967 film “Weekend”. I saw the film in my early 20s, and that particular imagery has apparently been tucked away in my mind for years. It is quite fantastic.

Early on, I thought of some of the artists that are in Running On Empty, including Kim Adams and John Massey. I met Elinor Whidden while on a residency in Newfoundland, and Ioved the way she links cars and highways with historical notions of landscape. Her work inspired a shift in my musings about this possible show, away from auto bodies, toward the idea of the car as transportation device, particularly in relationship to the vast landscapes of Canada. I have previously worked with Monica Tap and Seth Scriver, both of whom have works that are very well suited to this idea – Seth’s film was made in collaboration with Shayne Ehman. I saw Asphalt Watches at its premier at TIFF, and was especially enthusiastic about the way it links with the Godard movie. I was interested in locating an artist who worked with taxidermy animals, in part inspired by a close friend’s terrifying account of hitting a bear, and the ensuing encounter with the animal’s body. It was through online research that I discovered Montreal based Kate Puxley, whose work “TransCanada” is a wonderful addition to the project.

RMG: We love the exhibition play list – can you please tell us more about it?

HN: It began with the titles for the show, Running On Empty, which is a 1977 song by Jackson Browne. That tune captures the groove of road trips, and for me, memories of listening to songs on car radios. At the same time, it refers to the ominous under belly of our relationship to cars – our reliance on fossil fuels, the environmental impacts, etc. The idea of running out of gas, both figuratively and metaphorically, seemed perfect for this show.

Last fall I spent an enjoyable afternoon with three dear friends with whom I took a road trip to the Maritimes thirty years ago. It was actually a cycling trip, but who’s counting wheels! the four of us began brainstorming the rich history of songs on the subject. Solidifying this spontaneous list-making experience, with the song’s names hastily written on paper towel, into a document for the exhibition catalogue felt like a wonderful extension of the way I approach curating, which is from the position of an artist. I take pleasure in bringing form to whimsical notions, and hope our readers will enjoy it. The playlist is not historically researched, it is a simple expression of our collective memories at that particular moment in time.

Images
Stills from film Asphalt Watches, Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver
Monica Tap, One-second Hudson no. 4, 2007
Kate Puxley, from the series Trans-Canada, 2011-ongoing

The RMG Remembers

Today the RMG remembers Canada’s fallen. With 2014 marking the 100th anniversary of World War One, we have the following special programming at the gallery:

Oshawa and the First World War: Selections from the Thomas Bouckley Collection
Until 18 January 2015

When Canada entered the Great War on August 4, 1914, the lives of Canadians across the country were changed forever. For the men who fought on the frontlines and the families that supported them from the home front, WWI was unlike anything Canadians had experienced. Canada’s contribution to the war led to growing autonomy and independence for the nation, but it came at a great price and many Oshawa men lost their lives.

The building of the new Oshawa Armouries was completed in 1914, and by September 1916, men from across Durham Region joined Ontario County’s 116th Battalion. They went on to fight in some of the great battles of the war including Vimy Ridge, Valenciennes and Passchendaele. On the homefront, local businesses worked hard to contribute to the war effort by manufacturing goods to support their family members, friends and neighbours fighting overseas. The Thomas Bouckley Collection’s large number of photographs taken in Oshawa during World War One act as a reminder of the great sacrifice that was made by the Oshawa community.

This exhibition is a part of the WWI Commemorative Project: Oshawa Faithful and Ready. The RMG, the Oshawa Community Museum & Archives, Trent University (Oshawa), Oshawa Public Libraries, Ontario Regiment Museum, Heritage Oshawa, City of Oshawa and Rogers TV have partnered to deliver an ambitious program throughout the year that commemorates the 100th anniversary of the beginning of WWI. Curated by Megan White.

Exhibition: The Wildman Collection: Posters from the Great War
Until 1 February, 2015

With a population of approximately eight million people, Canada, during World War I, managed to raise an army of 600,000, a navy of 9,600, send over 20,000 men to serve in the British Royal Flying Corps and over 3,000 nurses with the medical corps. There were approximately 60,000 Canadian military casualties and close to 150,000 wounded from 1914-1918.

Propaganda posters played their own role during the Great War. A relatively inexpensive means of mass communication, posters were primarily used to promote enlistment in the forces, raise funds through Victory Bonds, encourage the population against waste, and increase industrial and agricultural production. The tone of early posters was almost festive, as the Allies assumed the war would be over quickly. The images were often naïve and word heavy, appealing to the pride of the young men they were targeting. However, as the war continued and the list of casualties grew, the tone of the posters began to change—the need for new recruits was urgent.

The Wildman collection of war posters was initially a secondary collection: around 1998 Christine and Craig Wildman, both history enthusiasts, decided to augment a collection of rare ephemera with related war posters. The poster collection now numbers over 100, and encompasses posters from both Allied and Central Power countries. We are grateful to the Wildmans for sharing their passion as part of RMG’s commemoration of the beginning of the Great War. Curated by Linda Jansma.

Collectors Talk: Craig Wildman
Thursday, 13 November at 7pm
Join to learn about the history of WWI posters and their use as a form of mass communication. Local collector Craig Wildman takes us through his and his wife Christine’s collection of posters featured in the exhibition The Wildman Collection: Posters from the Great War. This lecture is part of the 100th Commemoration of WWI: Oshawa Faithful and Ready programing happening throughout the year. Free admission, no registration required.

Lecture: Nursing Sisters of WW1
Sunday, 30 November from 1-2pm
Nursing Sisters of WW1: a presentation by Sher Leetooze. This talk is being held in conjunction to The Wildman Collection: Posters from the Great War.

Image: Anonymous Bring him Home with the Victory Loan, 1918

The Curator’s View: Blockbusters

This post comes from the desk of Linda Jansma, Senior Curator at the RMG.

One of my colleagues at the gallery, forwarded the following quote to me:

people who favour these shows [blockbusters] are like people who prefer to see cut flowers arranged in rooms rather than go out into the garden and see what is growing there.

Why then are people still so attracted to only seeing cut flowers?

I visited two blockbuster exhibitions this past summer: Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris at the Art Gallery of Ontario and Van Gogh: Up Close at the National Gallery of Canada, and, just a few weeks ago, Frida and Diego: Passion, Politics, and Painting at the AGO. I had heard negative things about the Picasso exhibition, and, having gone to the Musée National Picasso in Paris many years ago, I understood those comments. What was “left” in Picasso’s estate was a lot of experimental work and some work, let’s be honest, that he couldn’t sell.

But the gallery was packed, of course; the name, being the primary draw. One of the best things about working in an art gallery is that, when I arrive early, I’m almost alone in the building—I can hear Ralph’s vacuum running somewhere… I get to experience the works of art alone, taking as much or as little time as I want. So, the crowds in blockbusters can make me grumpy.

Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Dora Maar, 1937

I prepare myself for the swarm of people and look for the positive takeaway. In the case of Picasso, there were some superb mixed-media wall sculptures: cubism in 3D that I hadn’t really been expecting. There were also some really beautiful personal drawings.

Vincent van Gogh, Giant Peacock Moth, 1889

Van Gogh, if possible, was even more crowded. There are advantages to being 5’11”, and seeing work over the top of people’s heads is one of them. I think I would have missed half of the exhibition if I were shorter. But the work was simply beautiful. Not the Doctor Gachet and vase fulls of sunflowers, or self-portraits with bandaged ears that people think of when they think of Van Gogh—but stunning landscapes and close cropped studies of nature. I love looking at how exhibitions like these are installed: butter yellow walls in one room and a light blue/grey wall in another; immaculate labeling—what more could one ask for? (Other than fewer people, of course!)

Frida Kahlo, Self Portrait with Monkeys, 1947

The Frida and Diego exhibition was a Saturday excursion—with a week and a half left before the close of the exhibition, I didn’t have much choice. In this case, our 19 year old son joined us and watching him experience the work of these two Mexican artists and talking to him about his thoughts, brought an added dimension to this blockbuster. Kahlo’s work is beautifully detailed and trying to spend any amount of time in front of one work is challenging, to say the least, however, even a minute in front of these masterpieces is certainly worth it.

Leaving Van Gogh, we wandered into the exhibition Arnaud Maggs: Identification. A handful of people looking at the work of one of the country’s important senior artists (who passed away before Christmas): the recent recipient of the prestigious Scotiabank Photography Award and Governor General Award winner. Better numbers than the AGO, where we were the only ones in the beautifully curated, albeit smaller, exhibition of internationally renowned artist Michael Snow’s sculpture entitled: Objects of Vision. We were also almost completely on our own in the AGO’s Evan Penny: Re Figured exhibition that we spent time in after Frida and Diego (this third important senior Canadian artist was also new to our son, so spending quality time with the work was a bonus).

Artist Evan Penny and Arial #2, 2006. (c) Evan Penny 2012

Will those who prefer cut flowers ever wander into the garden to look at the flowers in depth and take in the work of Maggs, Snow, and Penny? Isn’t that what presenting exhibitions like Van Gogh, Picasso, and Frida and Diego is supposed to foster—gallery goers who want to go beyond the blockbuster? The AGO and NGC did an admirable job of linking up three senior Canadian artists against four famous international ones. Now to get the crowds smelling the flowers from the garden, as well as the vase.