The Ottawa Art Gallery Opens New Exhibits and a Unique Opportunity to Explore OAG's Role in the Evolving Ottawa Arts Community!

Opening Reception: March 1, 2012 at 5:30 pm

With the opening of three new exhibitions, including a major retrospective of the work of long-established Ottawa artist and activist Pat Durr, a focus on the work collected by the Firestone family by Toronto artist York Wilson, as well as work by local artist Erin Robertson featured in ART Rental and Sales, the Ottawa Art Gallery provides the opportunity for visitors to explore a slice of history regarding both the Gallery and the Ottawa arts community.


2 March 2012 – 3 June 2012
Pat Durr: Persistence of Chaos

"Central to my work, whether it is formal or allegorical, is a celebration of life and its complexities."[1]

Whether painting large-scale colourfully-abstract canvases, levering down a five by ten foot hydraulic press to create prints of industrial waste, reversing her car over soda cans to crush them for her installations, or fighting for artists' rights on a local and national scale, Pat Durr tackles art-making and activism with unrivalled vigour. The retrospective exhibition Persistence of Chaos displays several decades of Durr's work, from early drawings of the 1960s, to explosive multi-panel paintings from the 1980s, as well as her large-scale collagraphic monoprints, and Soda Culture web-based and installation project of recent years. Durr investigates the interplay between life, as represented by the cyclical, orderly nature of things, and its complexities, as represented by personal experiences, and environmental, political, and social interventions.

          - Catherine Sinclair, Curator



Waiting (War), 1988, acrylic on canvas 167.6 x 241.3 cm, collection of
the City of Ottawa, © CARCC 2012, photo : Justin Wonnacott


Public Programming – Pat Durr: Persistence of Chaos

Thursday 8 March 2012, 5:30 pm
Artist Talk (in English)
Artist Pat Durr will take visitors through the exhibition to talk about her practice and the works on view.

Wednesday 21 March 2012, 5:30 pm
Talk with Curator Catherine Sinclair (in English)
Curatorial walkthrough of the exhibition.

Thursday 31 May 2012, 6:00 pm
Last Chance Tour (in English and French)
A free guided tour of the exhibition, just before it closes.

Saturday 14 April 2012, 1:00 pm
Rearview Mirror: A Discussion on the Visual Arts in Ottawa (in English with bilingual staff).
Artist Pat Durr is also a determined community activist, having advocated for the arts in Ottawa from the moment she arrived in the early 1960s. This panel discussion with Durr and other artists-cum-activists will look at how the Ottawa arts scene has grown and evolved over the years, and what that tells us about the future of the arts in Ottawa. A light reception will follow.


February 18, 2012 – May 27, 2012
Collecting York Wilson

By the 1960s, Toronto painter and muralist York Wilson (1907-1984) had reached an echelon of international success that few Canadian artists can boast. Nationally, he gained recognition for his impressive mural commissions, yet Canadian collectors shied away from his abstract artworks. A family with vision, the Firestones actively acquired his abstract work from the mid-century. Featuring these, as well as small sketches and oil paintings from Wilson's travels, and a large body of life-drawing sketches, this exhibition highlight this collecting family's interest in Wilson's overall practice.

          - Catherine Sinclair, Curator



York Wilson, Paean to Autumn, 1971, acrylic and charcoal on canvas, 98.6 x
113.7 cm, Firestone Collection of Canadian Art


Public Programming – Collecting York Wilson

Friday 16 March 2012, 12:30 pm
Talk with Curator Catherine Sinclair (in English)
Curatorial walkthrough of the exhibition.

Thursday 24 May 2012, 6:00 pm
Last Chance Tour (in English and French)
A free guided tour of the exhibition, just before it closes.


February 27, 2012 – March 24, 2012
Erin Robertson: Dominant Species

ART Rental and Sales

ART Rental and Sales invites you to visit Erin Robertson's Dominant Species, a body of work focusing on our shifting relationship with nature and influenced by historical landscape paintings, bestiaries and the great outdoors. Erin Robertson is a sculptor and painter with art marked by whimsical and subversive plays on every day idioms, domesticity, urban landscapes and mythology.

All pieces are original and priced at $400 or less. This is a great opportunity to add to your collection and explore a local artist!



Erin Robertson, if, 2012, oil on canvas


For more information on public programming contact 613.233.8699 ext 228 or public@ottawaartgallery.ca