Ottawa Art Gallery opens 5 new exhibitions this spring

Press Release

Science, International Indigenous Collaborations, Martial Art Literature and Travel shape OAG’s spring and summer programming

OTTAWA – April 1, 2019 – The Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) launches 5 new exhibitions for spring and summer 2019 highlighting local, national and international artists. The exhibitions will officially open on Thursday April 11th from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm with a public vernissage with artists and curators in attendance. Informed by science and art, news, resistance as well as travelling, the exhibitions feature interactive sculptures, collaboratively-made art and a massive video projection.

Carbon + Light: Juan Geuer’s Luminous Precision (on view until August 18, 2019) celebrates the ground breaking and science-based art of Canadian artist Juan Geuer (1917 – 2009). To illustrate his legacy, guest Curator Caroline Seck Langill paired Geuer’s art with the work of new media artists Barry Ace, Doug Back, Darsha Hewitt, Catherine Richards, Daniel Sharp, Michael Snow and Norman White. Many of the pieces, whether large-scale installations, 3D photography or moving sculptures, require visitor interaction. The exhibition, held in OAG’s Spencerville Gallery as well as SAW Video Project Space, also showcases the importance of Ottawa as the site within which Geuer’s surprising practice emerged.

Organized by OAG, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Howie Tsui: Retainers of Anarchy (April 12 – September 15, 2019), is a touring solo exhibition of new work by Howie Tsui. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Lagos, Nigeria and Thunder Bay, Tsui has also lived in Ottawa. The title work, Retainers of Anarchy, is a 25-metre scroll-like video installation that looks at life during the Song dynasty (960–1279 CE). Tsui references Wuxia, a traditional form of martial arts literature now seen in popular film and television, which the artists considers a narrative tool for dissidence and resistance. See video excerpt here.

Wrapped in Culture (April 12 – September 15, 2019) brings together ten Indigenous artists from Australia and Canada who collaborated on a buffalo hide robe and a possum skin cloak, reviving two culturally distinct, yet similar traditions. Photographs by Rosalie Favell of each participant in the robe form part of the exhibition. This exhibition will be touring in Canada and Australia and features the work of Barry Ace (Anishinaabe [Odawa]), Kerri Clarke (Boon Wurrung), Maree Clarke (Mutti Mutti, Yorta Yorta, Boon Wurrung), Rosalie Favell (Métis), Mitch Mahoney (Boon Wurrung, Barkindji), Molly Mahoney (Boon Wurrung, Barkindji), Wade Mahoney (Barkindji), Meryl McMaster (Cree), Adrian Stimson (Siksika [Blackfoot]), and Vicki West (trawlwoolway).

Ottawa-based Cheryl Pagurek’s uses 3D depth technology and computer programming to explore the daily experiences of connecting to a networked world. Titled Connect (excerpt here), the interactive video and audio installation projects visitors’ body outlines onto global images and sounds sourced from news channels. Cheryl Pagurek: Connect is on from April 12 to August 11, 2019.

Dominic Laporte is an Ottawa-based artist whose work explores portraiture through painting and mixed-media methods. Laporte believes that portraiture has a unique ability to transcend the artist’s individual voice—whether he’s painting a respected personality in the local hip hop community or someone he met while travelling. His exhibition Pranayam runs from April 4th to May 11th, 2019 in OAG’s Galerie Annexe.

Listing information

Location and contact:

Ottawa Art Gallery
50 Mackenzie King Bridge, Ottawa, ON, K1N 0C5, CANADA
613.233.8699 | info@oaggao.ca
oaggao.ca

Exhibition, Artists and Dates:

Carbon + Light: Juan Geuer’s Luminous Precision
Barry Ace, Doug Back, Juan Geuer, Darsha Hewitt, Catherine Richards, Daniel Sharp, Michael Snow, Norman White
March 9 – August 18, 2019

Howie Tsui: Retainers of Anarchy
Howie Tsui
April 12 – September 15, 2019

Wrapped in Culture
Barry Ace (Anishinaabe [Odawa]), Kerri Clarke (Boon Wurrung), Maree Clarke (Mutti Mutti, Yorta Yorta, Boon Wurrung), Rosalie Favell (Métis), Mitch Mahoney (Boon Wurrung, Barkindji), Molly Mahoney (Boon Wurrung, Barkindji), Wade Mahoney (Barkindji), Meryl McMaster (Cree), Adrian Stimson (Siksika [Blackfoot]), Vicki West (trawlwoolway)
April 12 – September 15, 2019

Cheryl Pagurek: Connect
Cheryl Pagurek
April 12 – August 11, 2019

Dominic Laporte: Pranayam (Galerie Annexe)
Dominic Laporte
4 April – 11 May, 2019

Admission: Free

Gallery Hours: 9 AM to 9 PM daily (except holidays)

Free Childcare: Wednesdays from 3 PM to 7 PM

Opening Reception:
Thursday April 11th, from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Free and open to the public

Public Program Highlights:

In Conversation: Caroline Langill and Jean Gagnon
Wednesday, April 10, 2019, from 6 PM to 7:30 PM
Alma Duncan Salon, Floor 3

Artist Talk: Darsha Hewitt
Thursday, April 11, 2019, from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Alma Duncan Salon, Floor 3

Artist Talk: Howie Tsui
Saturday, April 13, 2019, at 2 PM

Artist Talk: Rosalie Favel
Sunday, May 12, 2019, from 2 PM to 3:30 PM
Alma Duncan Salon, Floor 3

IMAGES:

Carbon + Light: Juan Geuer’s Luminous Precision:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iuv16zo8u05mywh/AABSu6tRF26NvqgvbOOoCSR8a?dl=0

Howie Tsui: Retainers of Anarchy:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gkc11900wohfmeu/AABIFlekMjq079gvX_gK14r6a?dl=0

Wrapped in Culture:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gd3dqfcdcjng34a/AADx1z0EcZ_CgQzykBzdZF1-a?dl=0

Cheryl Pagurek: Connect:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rl5pzg0xokbpwtr/AADsCkdwcP4kHhGyZi6IvDB1a?dl=0

Dominic Laporte: Pranayam:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kzvp5lqn3cxlubp/AAD4xlvq7jLQo6vnj5XavA23a?dl=0

For media enquiries, to set-up interviews with artists, curators, artist estates or for media tours:

Véronique Couillard
PR and Media
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.