News Release Archive
ART GALLERY OF NOVA SCOTIA-GALLERY EVENTS ----------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday Demonstrations Far & Wide The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia will have artists at work from the Far & Wide exhibition from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. each Sunday until Oct. 27. Far & Wide runs until Nov. 10 and is organized by Visual Arts Nova Scotia. This edition of Far & Wide includes work by 70 artists throughout Nova Scotia. Their works run a gamut of visual arts media, including paintings, prints, photographs, ceramics, bookworks, fibre, jewellery, sculpture, installation, mixed media and video. -30- Contact: Ann Marie McKinnon 902-424-8935 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Gearing Up for the Information Highway The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia is on the Information Highway. Features include upcoming exhibitions, special events, public programming, and the permanent collection. Items can be purchased from the gallery shop. The address is http://www.agns.ednet.ns.ca -30- Contact: Ann Marie McKinnon 902-424-8935 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Exhibitours The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia offers a tour of a featured exhibition one Sunday a month, at 2 p.m. On Oct. 27, Gil McElroy, editor of Visual Arts News will lead a tour of Far & Wide, the second biennial juried exhibition organized by Visual Arts Nova Scotia. On Nov. 24, there will be a tour of the exhibition A New Class of Art: The Artist's Print in Canadian Art 1877 - 1920 with Art Gallery of Nova Scotia deputy director, Virginia Stephen. -30- Contact: Ann Marie McKinnon 902-424-8935 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Flash From the Past The Living Stone, the 1958 award winning film about Canada's northern Inuit sculptors, will be featured on Nov. 12 as part of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia's Tuesday Lunch Series. The presentation begins at 12:15 p.m. in The Windsor Foundation Lecture Theatre, and will run for approximately 45 minutes. Admission is free. -30- Contact: Ann Marie McKinnon 902-424-8935 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Family Weekend 1996 The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia will hold its eighth annual Family Weekend, Nov. 2 & 3, 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. There will be craft demonstrations, hands-on activities, music, magic, storytelling, and an opportunity to meet local artists sculpting, painting and carving. Admission is free. -30- Contact: Erin Sonntag 902-424-7754 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Emerging Artist Series Dan O'Neill's Corpus Hermeticum opens at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia on Nov. 9, and runs until Jan. 26, 1997. The seven lithographs and the eight self-illuminating constructions outline a sophisticated perception of the shared biological vulnerability of all humankind, a frailty which transcends gender and ethnic border. Taken together, the 15 works are related and inter-related as one installation offering a wide perspective on our society and culture. The AIDS pandemic focused O'Neill's attention and ignited his imagination, with the result being Corpus Hermeticum. "Theme and imagery, the tenor of Corpus Hermeticum addresses issues of gender, mortality, mythology, science and religion. It is a statement which tells of our collective community," said Mr. O'Neill. -30- Contact: Ann Marie McKinnon 902-424-8935 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Pick of the Month The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, will display an untitled painting by artist Wayne Boucher as the Pick of the Month, 12:15 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 22. -30- Contact: Ann Marie McKinnon 902-424-8935 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Film Series: Flash From the Past The film The Rail Roader can be viewed at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 17. The film series complements the exhibition Flash From the Past, which explores early animation devices to present day state of the art technology. The exhibition is organized by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in cooperation with the Atlantic Film Festival. -30- Contact: Ann Marie McKinnon 902-424-8935 ----------------------------------------------------------------- A New Class of Art A New Class of Art begins Nov. 16 and runs until Jan. 12, 1997 at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax. This exhibition marks the first study of the origins and establishment of the artist's print in Canada. It includes over 130 works produced from 1877 to 1920, the majority of which come from the National Gallery of Canada's permanent collection. A New Class of Art was organized by Rosemarie Tovell, associate curator, Canadian Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Canada, and is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue. The artist's print has existed from the time of the invention of the printing press in the late 1500's, but by the late 18th century, printmaking was increasingly practised by technical craftsmen, with the medium becoming the agent for reproducing paintings and watercolours. In the mid-nineteenth century European artists rediscovered the etchings of the Dutch old masters, Rembrandt in particular, and in emulation returned to printmaking as a creative art form. James Abbott McNeill Whistler became chief exponent of this "etching revival" as the movement was called. The movement soon spread to the United States and sparked an interest in the artist's print by collectors, dealers, critics, and professional art societies on both sides of the Atlantic. From the mid 1800's to World War I, Canada could boast of a relatively small community of artists who were struggling just to maintain a presence in the well established class of artpainting. The few who undertook the art form of printmaking were true pioneers to the medium, establishing art societies to promote and exhibit their work. One of these associations, established in Toronto in 1884, was the Association of Canadian Etchers (ACE). In 1885, ACE organized an impressive international exhibition of original etchings, the first exhibition of its kind ever held in Canada. The crowd in attendance were both puzzled and uncertain about what they saw. For the most part these were small, informal looking prints, made in limited editions and their compositions were original subjects created directly by the artist on the printing plate. For Canada, as a guest speaker noted, they were "a new class of art." The exhibition features a number of internationally renowned Canadian printmakers including, Elizabeth Armstrong Forbes, a gifted printmaker who worked in the circle of artists associated with Whistler, Clarence Gagnon, whose Venetian etchings launched his career internationally and whose body of work was unexcelled by any other Canadian artist of the day; Homer Watson, whose etching The Pioneer Mill, 1890 (National Gallery of Canada) is one of the most distinctive Canadian prints of the period. -30- Contact: Ann Marie McKinnon 902-424-8935 ----------------------------------------------------------------- trp Oct. 03, 1996 - 1:15 p.m.