[BCMA] The Penticton Art Gallery's Cultural Olymipix

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

Legacies 2010 ~ Exhibition

January 22 - March 14, 2010

Opening Reception Friday, January 22 at 7 p.m.
Crystal Heath artist on Saturday, January 23 at 1 p.m.
Ed Varney artist on Saturday, January 23 at 2 p.m.

Artist Roundtable ~ Saturday, January 23 at 3 p.m.

 

The Board and Staff of the Penticton Art Gallery would like to invite you to join us on Friday January 22 for the opening of three highly important exhibitions, Legacies 2010 and the 2010 Mail Art Olympix and Crystal Heath: Allowing

 

For the Legacies 2010 exhibition, artists from across the province have been invited to examine the role of the artist in our society, the work they produce and asked them to consider how our society views and values art and the artist in light of contemporary events. This is not so much an anti Olympic, anti government or anti sport exhibition but rather, it asks us all to enter into a dialogue as to how this period of our history will be best remembered in five, ten or fifty years time. It is hoped that in the years which follow, the works included in this exhibition will provide a memorable snapshot of this moment in our cultural history. As history has overwhelmingly shown, it's the arts and culture which people remember and study not the winner of a gold, silver or bronze medal. 

 

The visual arts both reflect and affect the social, cultural, and historical contexts in which they exist and are an essential form of communication, indispensable to freedom of inquiry and expression. Artists have long been at the forefront of social change and their legacy is not only the barometer for which the health of a society can be ascertained but it is certainly a benchmark from which historians judge and record our passing. 

 

The Cultural Olympiad is being promoted as a celebration of the contemporary imagination, from artistic collaborations that fuse contrasting perspectives to emerging talents re-inventing the voice of contemporary Canada. Is VANOC's promise to re-inventing the voice of contemporary Canada accurate and if so, how democratic will that voice ultimately be?

 

The Mail Art Olympix is organized by the Comox Art Gallery and renowned curator Ed Varney who, in 1970, was one of the first Canadian artists to participate in what became the "Mail Art Network". The Mail Art Olympix was founded on the presumption that the viewing audience has the visual maturity to determine what they like, and the curator's roll is that of an organizer, not a censor or judge of "quality". This exhibition is truly democratic in that participation is not restricted to those who have excelled in some qualifying event - the work of all participants has been presented. This exhibition features over 350 artists, representing 42 countries. 

 

The Penticton Art Gallery invites artist and the public to gather en mass for our own Cultural Olympiad to celebrate the importance of the visual arts as an essential form of communication, indispensable to freedom of inquiry and expression. We hope the resulting exhibition and the dialogue which results will provide future generations with an opportunity to see where we were at this important point in our history and help them understand the circumstances behind all which follows as a result.

 

The Penticton Art Gallery is pleased to once again partner with Island Mountain Arts and the Toni Onley Artist Project through the presentation of Crystal Heath's Exhibition Allowing. The Toni Onley Artist Project for professional and emerging artists is as an open forum for artists to explore and develop their ideas in relation to their own visual arts practice. With hands on experimentation as the starting point, artists engage in an exchange of ideas aimed at bettering their understanding of the possibilities of the creative act. Last summers two mentor artist were John Hall, RCA and Harold Klunder, RCA who selected Crystal's work from the 20 participants for this exhibition opportunity.

 

Of her work John Hall writes: "Crystal Heath, in many ways symbolizes the profound impact artist residencies can have on participants.  Clearly a thoughtful and talented painter, Crystal Heath presented work in her introductory slide presentation that was competent if somewhat clichéd.  However, within no more than a couple of days her work took a dramatic turn and by the residency's end she had produced what seemed like dozens of remarkably intense, fresh and very exciting paintings.  >From early in the morning until late in the evening Crystal Heath worked through an agenda of change that was refreshing and inspiring to witness."

 

For more information on her work, please visit: www.crystalheath.com

For more information on these exhibition or the Penticton Art Gallery please contact...

Paul Crawford
Director/Curator
The Penticton Art Gallery
199 Marina Way
Penticton, B.C. V2A 1H3

Phone: (250) 493-2928
Fax: (250) 493-3992
Web: www.galleries.bc.ca/agso
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20100119/ff3ae83b/attachment-0001.htm 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Mail Art Olympix.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 540381 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20100119/ff3ae83b/attachment-0003.pdf 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: legacies 2010.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 231330 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20100119/ff3ae83b/attachment-0004.pdf 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Crystal Heath.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 479271 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20100119/ff3ae83b/attachment-0005.pdf