Art Gallery of Hamilton

Introducing our winter 2012 exhibitions:

 


Mark Lewis:
Rush Hour, Morning and Evening, Cheapside (2005) and Forte! (2010)

On view until May 21, 2012

Mark Lewis has been working with film since the mid-1990s. While some of his earlier film works directly addressed and examined the cinematic imaginary, his work of at least the last ten years has explored the grammar and syntax of film and the moving image more generally. Most of his works have no added sound and their "silence" insists that we look more closely at the (moving) image itself. In this way Lewis's works reveal a close connection with the pictorial tradition of experiencing and representing time.

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Mark Lewis lives and works in London, England. Lewis was the winner of the inaugural Gershon Iskowitz Prize in 2007. His work has been shown widely around the world to enthusiastic notices, particularly for his contribution to the 2009 Venice Biennale of Visual Art where he represented Canada.

Rush Hour, Morning and Evening, Cheapside is organized by the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal as part of the Momentum series, with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage through its Museums Assistance Program.

Forte! is curated by Melissa Bennett and organized by the Art Gallery of Hamilton.  


Kristin Bjornerud: Safe Harbour

On view until May 21, 2012
Curated by Melissa Bennett

Kristin Bjornerud's (Canadian, b. 1980) watercolours are lyrical, conveying myths, dreams and superstitions. She uses a combination of her lived experiences, literary sources and current events as inspiration for her works. Female characters are often portrayed as companions engaged in an ambiguous and magical narrative. When the women are pictured alone, they are frequently accompanied by an animal character or they are deeply immersed in a thoughtful and productive action. The title of the exhibition, Safe Harbour, is borrowed from one of the works. A harbour can provide refuge and signify community, while also alluding to a potentially frightening expanse of the unknown beyond it. This simultaneous warm tone and dark mystery characterize many of the works on display here.

Bjornerud lives and works in Ottawa. She earned an MFA at the University of Saskatchewan in 2005 and a BFA at the University of Lethbridge in 2002. She has received numerous grants and her work can be found in public and private collections. She was the 2010 winner of the Brucebo Fine Art Foundation scholarship, juried in part by the AGH.

With special thanks to Dale Smith, Gallery Jones, and private lenders.






William Kurelek: The Messenger

January 28 to April 29, 2012
Co-curated by Tobi Bruce (AGH), Andrew Kear (WAG) and Mary Jo Hughes (AGGV)

The time has come to revisit the work of one of the most recognized Canadian painters of the twentieth century. As the first exhibition of William Kurelek's (1927-1977) work in a quarter century, this project is an ambitious collaboration between the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and Winnipeg Art Gallery. With loans from institutions and individuals from across Canada, as well as the United States and Great Britain, and comprising over eighty important paintings, William Kurelek: The Messenger is the largest exhibition of the artist's work ever to be mounted.

William Kurelek—who was born in Alberta, raised in Manitoba and settled in Toronto—was an intriguing combination of everyman and visionary, and his work is equally complex. Widely recognized as a painter of reminiscences of his Prairie childhood and a chronicler of the experiences of various cultural groups in Canada, Kurelek conjured a sense of a timeless and innocent past. But there is another, equally important, Kurelek: the anguished prophet of a modern apocalypse, his art an indictment of the secular age and a testament to his unwavering Roman Catholic faith. Kurelek was at his best and most challenging when he successfully bridged the pastoral and the prophetic, combined memory and message. This exhibition explores the various ways in which he strove to reconcile the two poles of his thinking and practice—in essence, his being.

Only stop in Eastern Canada! Largest exhibition of this artist's work ever mounted!

This project is generously funded by the Canadian Government through the Department of Canadian Heritage Museums Assistance Program.

These exhibitions are part of A League of Their Own, a year-long celebration of visionary Canadian artists, presented by TD.

(Top image: Clockwise from the bottom left)

Mark Lewis
Rush Hour, Morning and Evening, Cheapside, 2005
Super 35 mm film transferred to 2K resolution, loop, 4 min. 34 sec., 2/3
Collection Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
Film still copyright and courtesy the artist.

Mark Lewis
Forte! 2010
4K transferred to 2K, 6'
Film still copyright and courtesy the artist, Forte di Bard, Valle d'Aosta

Kristin Bjornerud
Making the Land 2010
from the series Gotlandica
watercolour and gouache on paper


(Lower image)

William Kurelek
This is the Nemesis 1965
mixed media on masonite
114.8 x 115.6 cm
Art Gallery of Hamilton, Gift of Mrs. J.A. McCuaig, 1966


Media contact:
Steve Denyes
Manager, Communications
steve@artgalleryofhamilton.com
905-527-6610 x 255



 
123 King St W Hamilton,
ON L8P 4S8
(905) 527-6610