When Corner Gallery curator David Partridge was watching events unfold in the U.S. late last year and into this year, it sparked the theme ‘the view from up here’ for the gallery’s show starting May 24.
As Canadians, he was intrigued by the idea of “what about the view from being up here? What do we think about that?”
He said he is keeping many of the same artists from last year but challenged them, and some new ones, to explore the theme for the show. Partridge expected familiar works, such as the Highlands’s lakes, trees and rocks. However, there are some interesting interpretations on the walls of the 123 Maple Ave. gallery.
From the U.S. goings on, he expanded his thinking to, “just being outside the city, and then if we really want to press; what is something you look down on and maybe don’t want to? What if we start looking inward and going ‘hmm, do you have a little holier than thou maybe you shouldn’t?’ Let’s explore some of these things as artists.”
Partridge is excited about the show, providing an example of just one artist’s interpretation. He said a relatively new mom, of a three-or-four-year-old, had a “really profound moment” one day when her son climbed the slide for the first time. “And she realized for the first time in her life she was looking up at him.” She did a series of drawings. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. Flipping the narrative.”
Partridge describes returning artist Rod Prouse as “our golden boy. He taught at the college for a long time. He’s been exhibiting for 60 years.”
The curator tells a story of how Prouse had cataract surgery recently and it was like he had “newborn eyes” with colours popping off the canvass. He said someone called Prouse’s new work “deliciously wacky.”
For Partridge, hanging the new art has been cathartic after a long, hard County winter.
“I feel like having done a winter show, and experiencing the same thing everyone has this winter, this winter was way too long, and I don’t want to look at winter paintings anymore. Taking them down has been thrilling. It’s like the weather told me it’s time, and that’s part of the excitement about new work coming in.”
In addition to Prouse, artists who have stayed on from previous shows include: Ian Varney, Jared Tait, James Brown, Sophie Creelman, Snubsta, Kelly Whyte, Harvey Walker, Barbara Hart, Abby Aultman, Marissa Sweet and Charles Pachter. Ceramicists who have stayed on are: Renée Woltz, René Petitjean, Annika Hoefs and Lisa Barry. New artists this show are: Holly Hutchison, Jen Mykolyshyn, Dave Rolfe and Justine Eva Smith.
Partridge said, “I feel like we now have a community of artists and we keep adding to it. Artists keep coming back now. It used to be that we would just turn shows over, here a season and then gone. Now, they want to stay and I want to keep them because I have a hard policy that I won’t work with people I don’t like. There are enough brilliant artists that are also good people. If someone told me to sell a painting of someone I actively disliked, there’s no chance, I couldn’t.”
Opening reception for the show is Sat. May 24 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
