The Art Gallery of Windsor presents
The Optimism of Colour: William Perehudoff, a retrospective
Luanne Martineau
John Kissick: A Nervous Decade


Image (left): William Perehudoff, The Dance, 1953, oil on canvas; 86.2 x 101.0 cm. Collection of the Mendel Art Gallery. Purchased with funds from the Canada Council
Image (centre): Luanne Martineau, Aidan's Fiddle 2009, industrial felt, needle-felted wool, yarn and thread; 223.5 x 223.5 x 25.4 cm; Courtesy Aidan Larock,
Image (right): John Kissick, No. 3 2007, acrylic on canvas, 167.6 x 167.6 cm; Courtesy of the artist


Fridays Live! January 20th 7 – 10pm
Opening reception for 3 new Winter Exhibitions

music by Crissi Cochrane & Mike Hargreaves
studio activities
cash bar
Admission $7, free for AGW member, children 12 and under


The Optimism of Colour: William Perehudoff, a retrospective
January 14 – April 1, 2012

The Optimism of Colour is the first major retrospective of the career of internationally renowned Canadian abstract painter William Perehudoff. Drawn from public and private Canadian collections, the exhibition features more than 60 works, created between 1945 and 2002. The exhibition traces the evolution of Perehudoff's approach from early figurative works and murals to the radiant abstractions of his mature vision, their interplays of colour suggestive of musical chords.

This exhibition is curated by Karen Wilkin of New York City and organized and circulated by the Mendel Art Gallery. The Mendel Art Gallery has developed a number of interactive features including a contextual video; and a dedicated website: www.mendel.ca/Perehudoff




Luanne Martineau:
January 21- March 25

Montreal artist, Luanne Martineau produces needle-punched felt by piercing dyed raw sheep's wool fibres over and over again with a long needle. Strands of various colours are entwined and compressed together to create a decidedly painterly effect, while the building up of many layers hardens the felt, resulting in dense, thickly sculptural masses. From Abstract Expressionist painting to the Duchampian ready-made, Martineau juxtaposes specific moments in the historical narratives of art and craft.

This exhibition is curated by Lesley Johnstone, Conservatrice/Curator, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal and is organized by Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Windsor


John Kissick: A Nervous Decade
January 21 – March 25, 2012

John Kissick's work has enjoyed acclaim over the past decade for its viable, if highly critical, dialogue with the historical conventions of abstract painting. Kissick weaves the familiar - such as the supergraphics on 1960's civic architecture and contemporary popular music - into an expansive conversation about quotation and the institutionalization of artistic processes. A Nervous Decade brings together paintings from public and private collections throughout Canada. This exhibition traces Kissick's early exploration and re-assembly of an abstract expressionist lexicon, through to a current immersion in hybrid painting informed by popular culture.

This exhibition is curated by Crystal Mowry and organized and circulated by the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery in partnership with the Kelowna Art Gallery.


PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Friday, January 13, 7 – 9 pm
Dylan Miner: History, Memory and Collaboration
Miner will discuss the significance of contemporary Indigenous and anti-colonial aesthetic practices, a methodology based in community collaboration and the saliency of local history. Miner holds a PhD in the history and teaches in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University, coordinates the Michigan Native Arts Initiative, and is Curator of Indigenous Art at the MSU Museum.

This event is part of the series Alone + Together, a 2011/2012 Visiting Artists Series presented in collaboration with the University of Windsor's School of Visual Arts and the AGW.

This event is free with regular $5 gallery admission and free for students

Saturday, January 21st 12 – 2pm
Unpacking Abstract Art Practices Today
Panel Discussion with Karen Wilkin, Luanne Martineau and John Kissick, moderated by Roald Nasgaard
Based on the winter season of exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Windsor that brings together a retrospective of major Canadian abstractionists, William Perehudoff and two leading Canadian artists: Montreal-based Luanne Martineau and painter John Kissick, this panel discussion will examine abstract art practices and its relevance, continuity and discontents within contemporary art practice

This event is part art of Alone + Together, a 2011/2012 Visiting Artist Lecture Series presented in collaboration with the University of Windsor's School of Visual Arts and the AGW.

Public Tours
Wednesdays at 2 pm, part of FREE Wednesdays and Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm free with admission
Free with admission.

Catalogues for all three shows are available in ShopAGW.

For more information about the exhibitions, please contact: Nicole McCabe, nmccabe@agw.ca 519-977-0013 ext. 134

AGW 401 Riverside Drive, Windsor, ON N9A 7J1 www.agw.ca