Spencer Finch, Between the Moon and the Sea, 2010, water, wood and balloon light, dimensions variable.
Courtesy the artist and Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago. Photo: Ron Pollard.

Winter Exhibitions at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery 

Join us on Friday, January 20 for the opening reception of two new winter exhibits, Another Victory Over the Sun and Let's Glow. The evening begins with an Artist Talk presented by Scott Johnson at 7 pm, followed by opening remarks at 8 pm. Admission to exhibitions and all events is free and everyone is welcome.

Another Victory Over the Sun
Miguel Calderòn, Spencer Finch, Scott Johnson, Juan Muñoz, Erin Shirreff, Melanie Smith and David Zimmer.
Curated by Nora Burnett Abrams & Adam Lerner for the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA Denver)
January 20, 2012 – March 11, 2012

Another Victory Over the Sun offers an experience where art frames architecture. All of the standard gallery lighting has been removed for this exhibition, allowing many of the works of art to act as their own source of illumination. The resulting environment is immersive, an invitation for a theatrical encounter between the audience and work of art. The title of the exhibition refers to the 1913 opera, "Victory Over the Sun," a cornerstone for modern art, which celebrated the power of human creativity to invent new worlds. The original opera, with sets designed by the influential Russian artist Kasimir Malevich, evinced the desire to transcend the visible world, striving instead to arrive at a state of pure feeling. Written by the poet Aleksei Kruchenykh, the opera's text is nonlinear, separating language from logic and conventional meaning.

Museums often operate in the same way as theatre: the museum building is a stage on which visitors become performers moving through space and encountering works of art. Removing the incidental light in the exhibition space further announces the unfolding drama. Writer Brian O'Doherty once described the "white cube" spaces of museums and galleries as sites in which "...we see not art but the space first." Another Victory Over the Sun inverts this idea by creating spaces where the white cube of the gallery disappears in a series of discrete environments.

Marc Ngui and Magda Wojtyra: Let's Glow
January 18, 2012 – March 4, 2012

For Cambridge-based art and design duo Marc Ngui and Magda Wojtyra, allegory serves as a tool to reinvent familiar narratives of willpower and perseverance. Central to Let's Glow are the Crystal Kings (Luciferous Radii), a fictional group of self-generated beings conceived in collaboration between Ngui and Wojtyra. Resembling a hybrid of biological forms and crystalline rock structures found in caves, these brightly coloured creatures seem to fluoresce. The creatures are brought to life through a variety of means which, when seen together, form an exuberant counterpoint to the monochromatic nature of winter. Through the use of a variety of methods, including a series of animated videos, painted portraits, and an undulating, dimensional quilt-like sculpture, Ngui and Wojtyra create a portrait of an imaginary evolution in the dark.

Working collaboratively since 2000, Marc Ngui and Magda Wojtyra both studied architecture at the University of Waterloo. Their projects often merge craft and design with influences from subjects as diverse as comics, biochemistry, models of human consciousness, physics, and cultural iconography.

Visit the Gallery all this winter for an exciting line-up of public programming inspired by Another Victory Over the Sun and Let's Glow:

Artist Talk with Marc Ngui and Magda Wojtyra: Wed, Jan 18, 7 pm
Artist Talk with Scott Johnson: Fri, Jan 20, 7 pm (Ahead of the Opening Reception)
Walk the Talk, a guided Gallery tour: Thurs, Jan 26 and Feb 23, 7 pm
Off Topic Discussion: Wed, Feb 8, 7 pm

Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery
101 Queen Street North (Located in Centre In The Square)
Kitchener, ON
N2H 6P7 | 519.579.5860 | www.kwag.ca

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Media Contact: Teresa Chiavaroli, Communications Coordinator | 519.579.5860 ext. 222, tchiavaroli@kwag.on.ca

Gallery Hours: Daily: 9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Thursdays: 9:30 a.m. – 9 p.m. Saturdays: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sundays: 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Admission to the Gallery is always free.