MACLARENARTCENTRE
Summer 2011 Exhibitions
Reception: Thursday, June 16, 7:00 to 9:00 pm

Frederick Hagan: Figure in Place
June 4 to September 11, 2011
Gallery 3
Curator: Ben Portis
Artist Frederick Hagan (1918–2003), born and raised in Toronto and a resident of Newmarket, Ontario for over sixty years, held a lifelong fondness for the Near North and Muskoka regions, its histories and its people. Prior to his death, he gave to the MacLaren three definitive, career-spanning paintings: Skeleton Shore Timbers (1966), God Saving Patterns (1974–75) and Artist's Masks (1991). These gifts were accompanied by figural and compositional studies for each painting. Figure in Place brings these together for the first time, illuminating Hagan's creative process and demonstrating how he sensitively set the human condition, at once physical and psychological, in the picture.

Figure in Place is organized by the Maclaren in conjunction with Figuring out the Landscape: The influence of "the land" in the paintings of Frederick Hagan on view at the Campus Gallery, Georgian College, September 13 to October 9, 2011 and curated by artist Ted Fullerton. A catalogue accompanies both exhibitions published by the Campus Gallery in collaboration with the MacLaren, and features essays by the curators and an introduction by Dennis Reid, former Chief Curator of the AGO. 

Frederick Hagan was born in downtown Toronto in 1918 and exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy by the age of twenty-one. He taught at the Ontario College of Art for thirty-seven years. His life's work consists of over sixty years of drawings, prints, paintings and diaries that plot a unique and courageous voyage through time and place. Frederick Hagan passed away on September 6, 2003 at the age of 85. His work is represented by Bau-Xi Gallery.

Figure out of Place
June 11 to September 4, 2011
Janice Laking Gallery
Curator: Ben Portis
In counterpoint to Hagan's exhibition, Figure out of Place showcases figuration's anxious resurgence in the 1980s. Eight powerful works from the MacLaren's Permanent Collection—canvases by David Craven, Will Gorlitz, Rae Johnson, Tony Scherman, David Urban and Shirley Wiitasalo, and a bronze by Marlene Hilton Moore—portray exaltation and agitation, strained bodies and nervous minds. The arc from 1981 to 1991 traces new representational and narrative impulses emerging out of abstraction, decorative and conceptual art.

Robert Hengeveld: Wile Wild
June 16 to October 30, 2011
Massie Family Sculpture Courtyard
Curator: Ben Portis
Robert Hengeveld has built his reputation on archly witty installations that readjust the public spaces for which they are designed. For the MacLaren sculpture courtyard, he conceives a tatty, natural history-type display from synthetic elements including artificial Christmas trees, fake rocks and plastic deer. This simulated scenic view, perched upon stilt-like scaffolding, offers variously odd and unnatural outlooks from ground level or the upper-storey windows.

Hengeveld has a MFA from the University of Victoria and diplomas from the Ontario College of Art & Design and Georgian College. He is based in Toronto, where he is represented by Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects.

Café Culture
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Rotary Education Centre
Speakers: Michael Coughlin and Borys Kowalsky
$5 admission/free for members and students
Join artist Michael Coughlin and author Borys Kowalsky for a Café Culture event featuring a gallery tour of Figure out of Place and Frederick Hagan: Figure in Place and an open discussion of the artworks in the context of humanism and philosophy in the 21st century.

Café Culture
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Rotary Education Centre
Speaker: Ted Fullerton
$5 admission/free for members and students
Join artist and curator Ted Fullerton for a Café Culture event featuring a discussion on the work of Frederick Hagan.

Image credits: Will Gorlitz, Bad Faith Blue, 1987. Collection of the MacLaren Art Centre (left). Frederick Hagan, Artist's Masks, 1991. Collection of the MacLaren Art Centre (right). Photos by André Beneteau. 

GENERAL INFORMATION

The MacLarenArtCentre is Simcoe County's regional public art gallery. Located in downtown Barrie, the MacLaren is housed in an award-winning building that combines a renovated 1917 Carnegie library and a contemporary addition by Siamak Hariri. The complex includes multiple galleries, visible storage, an education centre, a sculpture courtyard, café, gift shop and framing department. The MacLaren presents a year-round programme of contemporary local, regional, national and international exhibitions. Education provides the unifying link that activates our collection and exhibitions, and fosters an appreciation of the visual arts.

Gallery Location: The MacLarenArtCentre is located at 37 Mulcaster Street, Barrie, Ontario, 90 km north of Toronto. From highway 400 north, exit at Dunlop Street East, continue on Dunlop Street through to Mulcaster Street, and turn left. We are one block north of Dunlop Street, on the south-east corner of Collier and Mulcaster.

Gallery Hours: The MacLarenArtCentre is open Monday to Friday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, Saturday 10:00 am to 4:00 pm and Sunday noon to 4:00 pm. The MacLarenArtCentre is closed statutory holidays.

Gallery Admission: Suggested general admission $5. Cafe Culture: $5/free for members and students. Family Sundays: The Family Sunday workshop is offered each Sundays through June from 1:30 to 3:00 pm in the Rotary Education Centre. Materials are provided. Space is limited, so arrive early! Admission: $5 per child/Family Membership holders free.

Gallery Tours: Guided tours of the gallery for groups and schools are available by appointment. Free public tours of the summer exhibitions are scheduled for Sunday, June 19 at 1:00 pm.

Contact Information: For full details of exhibitions, programmes and events visit us at www.maclarenart.com

Acknowledgements: The MacLarenArtCentre gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of its members, benefactors, partners and donors, the City of Barrie, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts and exhibition sponsors Angie's Outdoor and the MacLaren Collectors' Circle.