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1900s genderqueer artists and contemporary Indigenous worldviews this fall at the Ottawa Art Gallery

September 25, 2019

OTTAWA – September 25th, 2019 – This fall, the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) inaugurates exhibitions featuring local, national and international artists, with subjects ranging from genderqueer identity to contemporary Indigenous worldviews. Works include large-scale photography, video, sculpture, textile, collage, installation, and painting.

The exhibition Facing Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore presents the ground-breaking collaborative photographs of Surrealist genderqueer pioneers Claude Cahun (1894–1954) and Marcel Moore (1892–1972), in dialogue with 6 contemporary artists (Cara Tierney, Dayna Danger, Laura Taler, Mark Clintberg, Sarah Pucill and Zanele Muholi) who play with language, photographs, performance, film, costume and textile to look at gender norms.

“Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore’s work, which emerged from obscurity thirty years ago, exemplifies the idea that identity is performed and culturally coded. Today, it is gratifying to recognize the impact their photographs have on new generations of artists. Seen through a contemporary lens, it is clear that this argument is timely: we can resist the efforts of others to define who we are.”
– Michelle Gewurtz, Senior Curator, Ottawa Art Gallery

In Anishinaabemowin, the word inaabiwin can be interpreted as “the art of seeing.” Contemporary Indigenous Artists in the exhibition Inaabiwin (Scott Benesiinaabandan, Hannah Claus, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Meryl McMaster, and Greg Staats) reclaim ways of seeing relationships that exist within and around us through memory, body, land, material objects and identity, while Indigenous writer Billy-Ray Belcourt responds to the exhibition with a poem that speaks to connections between the past, present, and future lives of Indigenous peoples.

Facing Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, curated by OAG’s Senior Curator Michelle Gewurtz, will be on view from September 14, 2019 to February 9, 2020 in Spencerville Gallery.

Inaabiwin, curated by Danielle Printup, will be on view from October 4, 2019 to January 19, 2020, on level 4. It is presented in conjunction with the National Gallery of Canada’s exhibition Àbadakone / Continuous Fire / Feu continuel and is organized and circulated by the Robert McLaughlin Gallery.

The public is invited to the free Opening Reception on October 3, 2019, from 6 PM to 9 PM. The evening will include a conversation with Inaabiwin artists in the Alma Duncan Salon starting at 7:30 PM, and will also celebrate the exhibition Molly Lamb Bobak: A Woman of the Crowd, in the Firestone Gallery, and the stunning painting exhibition Adrian Baker: Watershed, in Galerie Annexe. Free childcare is offered during the Opening, and every Friday evening.

Michelle Gewurtz is Senior Curator at the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG). She holds a PhD in the History of Art from the University of Leeds with a specialization in Feminism and the Visual Arts. Her curatorial projects explore the convergence of gender politics and creative identity, and her research interests extend to both historical and contemporary art practices.

Danielle Printup is a Hodinohso:ni / Algonquin arts administrator and curator from Kitigan Zibi Anishnabeg, QC, with maternal roots in Ohsweken, ON. She studied art history at the University of Guelph and went on to intern at the National Gallery of Canada before completing the Aboriginal Training Program in Museum Practices at the Canadian Museum of History. She has held various positions at SAW Gallery, the Indigenous Art Centre, and the City of Ottawa’s Public Art Program and is currently based in Ottawa where she works at the Carleton University Art Gallery.

Press images:

Facing Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore artworks and captions:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8clqnbqoavk2spr/AADUDryQULEc5Sb9cQZ5pk5ga?dl=0

Inaabiwin artworks and captions:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y9hilr4gzrq3s0m/AAC1V6H7f6ZItzCPrESEBBvJa?dl=0

Molly Lamb Bobak: A Woman of the Crowd artworks and captions:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2w8vrwlvve8xp21/AAD1yQX9j_4NuViczMaMeOeNa?dl=0

Adrian Baker: Watershed image and caption
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/reo148k4xydui1p/AAC5O-cacfgOkcH-j6uGjJLka?dl=0
___

Listing information:

Exhibition Title: Facing Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore
Exhibition Dates: September 14, 2019 to February 9, 2020
Curated by: Michelle Gewurtz
Public vernissage: October 3, 2019, 6 PM
Location: Ottawa Art Gallery, Spencerville Gallery, 50 Mackenzie King Bridge, Ottawa, ON, K1N 0C5, CANADA
Admission: Free
Gallery Hours: 9 AM to 9 PM daily (except holidays)
Free Childcare: Fridays from 3 PM to 7 PM, and on the evening of the vernissage

Facing Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore selected events:

October 5, 2019, 2 PM
Spot Talk: Mark Clintberg
A personal tour in the exhibit with artist Mark Clintberg.

November 7, 2019, 7 PM
Screening: Claude Cahun : Elle et Suzanne [She and Suzanne] (2015) is a documentary about Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore directed by Fabrice Maze.

December 7, 2019, 2 PM
Spot Talk: A personal tour in the exhibit with artists Laura Taler and Cara Tierney.

December 17, 2019, 7 PM
Lecture: Senior Curator Michelle Gewurtz will give an in-depth lecture based on her research behind Facing Claude Cahun & Marcel Moore.

January 16, 2019, 12 PM
Bag Lunch Film Screening: Difficult Love is an intimate, thought-provoking portrait of internationally celebrated South African photographer Zanele Muholi.

Exhibition Title: Inaabiwin
Exhibition Dates: October 4, 2019 to January 19 2020
Curated by: Danielle Printup
Public vernissage: October 3, 2019, 6 PM
Location: Ottawa Art Gallery, 4th floor, 50 Mackenzie King Bridge, Ottawa, ON, K1N 0C5, CANADA
Admission: Free
Gallery Hours: 9 AM to 9 PM daily (except holidays)
Free Childcare: Fridays from 3 PM to 7 PM, and on the evening of the vernissage

Inaabiwin selected events:

October 3, 2019, 7:30 PM
Artists’ Talk: Inaabiwin
Join artists from the Inaabiwin exhibition for an informal conversation in the Alma Duncan Salon.

November 3, 2019, 2 PM
Tea and Bannock Tour
Join curator Danielle Printup on a walkthrough of Inaabiwin, and stay afterward for tea and bannock.

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For media enquiries, to book an interview or for a tour:
Véronique Couillard
Officer, Media, Public and Francophone Relations
vcouillard@oaggao.ca
613-233-8699 +244

About the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG)
OAG is Ottawa’s municipal art gallery and cultural hub. Located in Ottawa’s downtown core, the expanded Gallery is a contemporary luminous cube designed by KPMB Architects and Régis Côté et associés.

oaggao.ca

OAG receives funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Ottawa.

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