January 14, 2006 – May 7, 2006
In the Shadow of the Midnight Sun: Inuit and Sámi Art: 2000 - 2005
Guest Curator Jean Blodgett
This exhibition presents a selection of work by Canadian Inuit artists and Sámi artists from Norway, Sweden and Finland made between 2000 and 2005. Although there is no evidence that the Sámi and Inuit are in any way related, they are both indigenous cultures who originally inhabited the lands now incorporated into the confines of contemporary nations. Their circumstances in the years since contact have many similarities as far as the affects on religion, language, lifestyle, learning and politics, with the exception that Sámi European contact was earlier and more intense.

Both cultures have a long history of making specially crafted objects for functional and religious use; the contemporary manifestations of this tradition show varying degrees of connection with previous times as well as clear indications of change. Artworks from both cultures are displayed side by side in this exhibition and their juxtaposition invites comparison in such characteristics as continuing connection to the original culture, size, media, content and reference to the past.

It is not always easy at such a geographical distance from these cultures to know just what is happening right now—it takes time for information about the art to trickle down. The title of this exhibition, In the Shadow of the Midnight Sun, is taken from a book of contemporary Sámi prose and poetry edited by Harald Gaski (Karasjok: Davvi Girji, 1996). This poetic phrase emphasizes the distance that separates the Inuit and Sámi from the more populated areas south of them. They are far enough away, in their land of the midnight sun, to retain an element of romantic exoticness for many people. With this exhibition we hope to throw some light on at least one aspect of their recent lives—the art.
Purchase the catalogue related to this exhibition.


January 14, 2006 – May 7, 2006
GREAT MASTERS SERIES
Quiet Elegance: Henri Fantin-Latour
Curated by Patrick Shaw Cable
Five works from the AGH collection created by French Realist painter and lithographer Henri Fantin-Latour (1836–1903). The exhibition continues the gallery’s Great Masters Series, shows focusing on singular works from the permanent collection or other public and private collections. Fantin-Latour was a master portraitist known particularly for his large group portraits of fellow artists. The AGH’s portrait of Henri de Fitz-James is an outstanding example of his skilful observation and sober elegance. Also exhibited will be the painting of a robust Bather, painted in the soft-contoured, gently glowing style that Fantin favoured for his female nudes. Perhaps the artist was partly inspired for this filmy manner by his work in drawing on the lithographic stone. Fantin was a leading figure in the revival of lithography in the second half of the nineteenth century, and the exhibition will include three of his imaginative lithographs.


January 21, 2006 – April 16, 2006
The Manchu Era (1644-1912), Arts of China's Last Imperial Dynasty
Organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria with assistance from the Department of Heritage Museums Assistance Program
On February 12, 1912, the Emperor of China, five year-old Pu-Yi, abdicated the throne, ending the remarkable Qing Dynasty, China’s last imperial dynasty. The Qing (or “pure”) Dynasty was established by the Manchu, a militaristic frontier people who swept down into China in 1644 and placed a Manchu emperor on the throne.

In order to control China, the Manchu minority kept their racial identity, status and privilege separate from the Han Chinese majority. Despite stressing their ethnic differences, the Manchu cultivated artistic practices that displayed a strong underlying current of Chinese influence, demanding perfection in all areas of artistic expression.

This quest for perfection is especially evident in the porcelain of the period; many experts consider the porcelain of the Qing dynasty to be the most splendid ceramics ever crafted. The Manchu Era (1644-1912), Arts of China’s Last Imperial Dynasty highlights the ceramics of the period, as well as elaborate costumes, painting and calligraphy scrolls, and intricately carved jade, ivory, amber, and bamboo.

The Manchu Era examines the arts that emerged during a period of unprecedented prosperity in China; during their rule, the Manchu brought China to the zenith of her power materially and geographically, expanding China's territory to create its largest pre-modern boundaries. Several of the most powerful Manchu emperors were also involved patrons of the arts, establishing workshops dedicated to the production of exquisite decorative pieces. For example, Qianlong, emperor from 1735-95, was an enthusiastic collector-connoisseur who amassed an enormous collection of painting and calligraphy masterpieces. His reign is considered the greatest age of decorative art in China.
Purchase the catalogue related to this exhibition.


February 11, 2006 – April 30, 2006
ATELIER SERIES
Shirley Elford
Curated by Shirley Madill
Celebrated Canadian artist and glass blower Shirley Elford has gained an international reputation for her handcrafted glass sculptures. Not only has she received many awards such as Woman of the Year, Canadian Achiever, and an inductee into the Hamilton Gallery of Distinction, she is also known for designing and sculpting presentation pieces most notably the Juno Awards in 2000. Through her glass works, Elford carefully explores and articulates line, form and structure. This recent installation reveals a Shirley Elford never before witnessed. Shirley will transform the Steiner Gallery into an environment comprised of glass, light and euphoria.


February 11, 2006 – April 30, 2006
CONTEMPORARY ART PROJECT SERIES
C. Wells: WHITE ROMA/WHITE PELEE
Curated by Shirley Madill
Through the exclusive use of line marker paint, the industrial medium used to define the boundaries of our highways Canadian artist C. Wells has developed a painting practice akin in spirit to that of a topographer. Since 1996 he has audited the history of line marking, beginning with its origins in Trenton, Michigan in 1911. The material properties of line marker paint may be considered ‘global’, that is, universal not only in its make up but also its meaning all over the world. In this recent installation, WHITE ROMA/WHITE PELEE, C. Wells adds to his ongoing project that combines performance and painting, bringing a unique perspective and meaning to “all roads lead to Rome”. Through conceptually positioning the relationship (topographically and metaphorically) between Rome and Point Pelee, he reveals how the line marker becomes an allegorical emblem of urbanization bringing out the historical context and contemporary meaning of this urban code.
Purchase the catalogue related to this exhibition.


February 11, 2006 – April 30, 2006
CONTEMPORARY ART PROJECT SERIES
Alan Flint: Commerce
Curated by Shirley Madill
Alan Flint is known for his large-scale installations that range from floor works to large-scale sculptures that often use letters or words. In past works, Flint has transformed words into things with reflective surfaces that play with the immediate environment whether it inside or outside. His sculptural forms are physical masses that occupy space in distinct ways. The words he uses are “charged” with meaning. In this installation comprised of four distinct components, words such as “WORK”, “JESUS”, and “NOTHING” take on many meanings not to mention varying shapes. Generally speaking, Flint is interested in the complex dynamics surrounding language and the power of the word, and how it affects our attempts to render the world meaningful. In Commerce through the use of found objects, sculpture, digitally altered photographs and video, Flint plays with the concept of commerce in all its manifestations such as the buying and selling of ideas and thoughts as well as objects – manipulating language and deliberately using distortion to allow slippage between word and thing. What is Alan Flint selling?


February 11, 2006 – August 20, 2006
Chagall's Lyrical Visions
Curated by Patrick Shaw Cable
A selection of lithographs and etchings by Marc Chagall (French, born Byelorussia, 1887-1985) from the AGH Permanent Collection with be on display in the Gallery's Central Staircase. A leading figure of 20th-century modernism, Chagall produced more than a thousand prints. The fifteen examples on view display the colour, lyricism and imaginative space that characterize Chagall's style, as well as the images he favoured throughout his career, such as flowers, animals, moons, angels, and the amorous embrace of lovers.


May 27, 2006 – September 4, 2006
Sublime Embrace: Experiencing Consciousness in Contemporary Art
Curated by Shirley Madill
Sublime Embrace: Experiencing Consciousness in Contemporary Art is a concerted exploration of the theme of consciousness in art, bringing together an international spectrum of work that engenders a visceral sensation of conscious experience. Since the nineteenth century, consciousness has been arguably the primary subject of Western art – shifting artists’ goals from direct representation of seen reality to the expression of felt experience. In the past few years this exploration has become much more focused and fueled in part by scientific and technological discoveries.

This international, multidisciplinary exhibition includes artists who have assimilated into their work strategies of sensation. Artists featured lead visitors to a fuller experience through sensory perception such as audio, touch, emotion and smell, bringing visitors into the work physically or psychically.

Artists represented include Ernesto Neto (Brazil), Annika Larsson (Sweden), Janet Cardiff and Georges Bures Miller (Germany, Canada), Bill Viola (USA), Barbara Steinman (Canada), James Casebere (USA), David Rokeby (Canada), Tania Bruguera (Cuba), Katarina Matiasek (Austria), David Hoffos (Canada), Miroslaw Balka (Poland), Toni Oursler (USA), Robert Longo (USA), Anish Kapoor and Mark Karasick (Great Britain).
Purchase the catalogue related to this exhibition.


May 27, 2006 – September 23, 2006
GREAT MASTERS SERIES
Vincent van Gogh
Curated by Patrick Shaw Cable
This summer, visitors to the AGH will have the unique opportunity to admire a select group of masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), loaned from museums near and far. Van Gogh is one of the most broadly loved artists of all time; his canvases consistently set record prices on the market. However, misconceptions persist regarding his life, art and the sources of his originality. Van Gogh zealously embraced his artistic profession and prolifically created close to a thousand paintings in a career spanning only a decade (1880–90).

This focus exhibition unites five major works from each of the key periods of van Gogh’s career—his early Dutch period (1880–85), his time in Paris (1886–87), his first mature period in Arles (1888–89), and his last years in Saint-Rémy and Auvers—interpreting the images contextually in order to provide a richer understanding of van Gogh’s approach, and to allow viewers to discover the roots and development of his style and themes.

The prestigious Musée d’Orsay in Paris has agreed to lend The Saint-Paul Hospital in Saint-Rémy from its 1973-donated Kaganovitch Collection. Dating from the artist’s last period in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and Auvers-sur-Oise (1889–90), the captivating picture shows a faceless man standing by a twisting tree outside the asylum where van Gogh committed himself in 1889. The distinctive brushwork of this late canvas underscores the painter’s development in his final years, when he complemented his bright colours with equally powerful swirling and masterful strokes.

The exhibition presents four other works coming from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton. Each of these pictures dates from a different stage of the artist’s stylistic evolution. Together this select spectrum allows us to enjoy and understand the development of van Gogh’s colours, forms and lines, and to consider fundamentals that lay at the heart of his project, such as van Gogh’s eternal commitment to express his feelings for the world and humanity boldly in paint.


On view June 24, 2006 to February 18, 2007
Michel Lambeth: (Re)producing Identity: Selves and Others in a Multicultural Canada
Curated by Debra Antonic
This exhibition of photographs explores the formative period in the history of multiculturalism in Canada by focusing on the work of photographer Michel Lambeth. Taken primarily in Toronto during the 1950s and 60s, Lambeth’s photographs present an idealized view of happy co-existence between immigrants and Canadians. Providing visual evidence of successful integration and diffusing tension through humour and perceptive observation, these photographs helped shape contemporary notions of diversity and Canadian identity.


On view June 24, 2006 to February 18, 2007
A Glimpse of the Sublime through 19th Century Canadian Art
Curated by Alicia Boutilier
Monstrous heights, foaming falls, precipitous ice, rugged cliffs, hanging woods: the sublime landscape inspired astonishment, terror, and awe. Words could barely convey what the sublime was intended to evoke. In the “New World,” 19th century painters of European birth or descent found subjects in abundance for creating pictures of power and magnificence.

An aesthetic revived in the 18th century, the Sublime was defined in contrast to the more civilized and inviting Picturesque, though both often coexist in one landscape. It shared sentiments with the Gothic—the mystery of ruins, the hint of ghostly presences, the fear of wild beasts—and eventually fed into Romanticism and its evocation of intense emotion. In Wordsworth’s poem Tintern Abbey, great joy is a “sense sublime” brought about by the memory of childhood and a closer tie to nature. The loss of this connection—a loss of innocence—also brings with it a sublimity of sorrow. In 19th century Canadian landscape, such sublime feeling is sometimes transcribed into romantic representations of First Nations people.

The sublime was a thrill to be sought. Like the Lake District with its Tintern Abbey, Canada had its own tourist hotspots for experiencing the sublime: Niagara Falls, the Saguenay River, and—with the 1885 completion of the transcontinental railway—the Rocky Mountains. More locally, the escarpment was a draw for artists visiting or living in Hamilton, like Robert Whale and Henry Nesbitt McEvoy.

In this selection of 19th century Canadian art from the Art Gallery of Hamilton collection, we catch a glimpse of the sublime in landscapes, but also some portraits and genre paintings, by such artists as F.M. Bell-Smith, Marmaduke Matthews, Robert Harris, Charlotte Schreiber, Cornelius Krieghoff, Lucius R. O’Brien, T. Mower Martin, Otto Jacobi, and Frederick Arthur Verner.


On view August 26, 2006 to February 18, 2007
Peter Horvath: Inventory of Being
Curated by Caitlin Sutherland
Since 1994 Peter Horvath has been exploring the art of digital montage and other time based media. In recent years, his artistic focus has been based around the transitory nature of identity and human consciousness. Inventory of Being combines two series of work by the artist, Head on Collision and Love and other Ubiquity. Digitally combining family Polaroids, video, personal journal entries and sketches, Horvath has created a dark and intriguing look into his own personal ephemera, while inviting the viewer to delve further into theirs. Narrative is open to analysis, while the non-linear format allows both series to be considered equally through reoccurring imagery and themes. Horvath has had numerous successful exhibitions both throughout Canada and abroad.


On view September 23, 2006 – January 7, 2007
Hungarian Splendour: Masterpieces from the National Gallery in Budapest
Curated by Patrick Shaw Cable, Curator of European Art, Art Gallery of Hamilton and Gábor Bellák, Curator, Hungarian National Gallery
For the very first time across the Atlantic -- and the only stop in North America -- the Art Gallery of Hamilton is proud to present Hungarian Splendour: Masterpieces from the National Gallery in Budapest, a stunning 75-work selection of Hungary's beloved nineteenth-century paintings.

Spanning the entire century and including stellar examples of history painting, distinguished portraiture, landscape and genre scenes, the exhibition will disclose the beauties of a segment of nineteenth-century painting that is relatively unexplored in comparison to French or English art of the same epoch. Viewers will be able to understand the affinities between painting in Hungary and the rest of Europe, as well as to appreciate aspects unique to the Hungarian tradition.

Genre paintings will range from the work of internationally active Mihály Munkácsy (1844–1900), known for his stylish Parisian interiors, to the work of Miklós Barabás (1810–1898), who created colourful scenes of gypsy and Hungarian folk life. Similarly, landscapes will range from the work of Károly Markó (1822–1891) and his considerable coterie of followers, to the singular landscapes of Károly Lotz (1833–1904) who specialized in dramatic views of eastern Hungary’s Great Plain (Puszta), to later artists such as Pál Syinzei Merse (1845–1920), who captured the motifs of the Hungarian countryside through the new filter of Impressionism.

Compared to the vast region that was once the Austro-Hungarian state, modern Hungary is a relatively small country. But it lies in a land where peoples, cultures and empires have met -- and clashed -- for centuries. This is where Celts ceded to the Romans. Where Genghis Khan's Mongol armies wreaked their destruction. Where Gothic architecture and the influence of the Italian Renaissance took hold. Where a Turkish pasha ruled for 150 years. Where Joseph Haydn conducted an orchestra at the behest of a prince. Where German and Soviet tanks clashed during the Second World War.

Little wonder then, that Hungary's treasured paintings of the nineteenth century echo the influences of a country at the crossroads of the world -- where east, west, north and south intersect.


September 30 to December 31, 2006
TD Waterhouse Great Masters Series: Marcel Vertès and the Spectacle of Dance
Curated by Andrew Bucsis, Curatorial Intern
Complementing the loan exhibition Hungarian Splendour: Masterpieces from the National Gallery in Budapest, this installment of the AGH’s Great Masters Series focuses on Dancing, a series of colour graphic works from the permanent collection created by the Hungarian-born, 20th-century modernist Marcel Vertès (1895-1961). Moving from Hungary to France during the First World War, Vertès became famous with his stylish images of jazz and popular dance that captured the vibrant spirit of 1920s Paris. The AGH series of works, each of which uses light colours and fluid style to portray a different dancing couple, highlights a key theme from Vertès’ production and reveals in various ways the joy and liveliness of his modernist, Art-Deco style.


September 30 to December 31, 2006
Sara Angelucci: Everything in My Father’s Wallet/Everything in My Wallet
Curated by Sara Knelman
Photographer Sara Angelucci’s installation developed from the discovery of her father’s wallet in a box of family memorabilia ten years after his death. Inspired by the portrait fashioned from the wallet’s contents, Angelucci has meticulously photographed each object, revealing not only a father, but also immigrant, labourer, husband, hunter. Angelucci subjects herself and her own wallet to the same treatment, creating an emotional comparison that looks at once at a particular father/daughter relationship, and goes beyond the expression of the individual to issues of gender, generation, class and culture.

Made up, finally, of 97 distinct photographs, each object appears blown-up in size and side by side to display the visible tropes of active identity, and the fragile remnants of lives lived.

Angelucci’s father worked at Stelco for 27 years, and her mother’s family immigrated to the area from Italy in the 1950s. Born here, Angelucci is thrilled to be showing the project in Hamilton “where it belongs.”
Purchase the catalogue related to this exhibition.


September 30 to December 31, 2006
ATELIER SERIES - Anna Torma: Entering the Garden
Curated by Sara Knelman
Canadian textile artist Anna Torma’s new work is inspired by the garden, her own and those recalled from childhood. With the techniques of embroidery and sewing, Torma transforms cloth and thread into intimate objects that speak about memory, family and above all, the careful cultivation and toil equally central to the work of gardener, homemaker and artist. Torma is consistently inspired first and foremost by her family, who are alive in the textured histories woven through her pieces.

Raised on a farm in Hungary, Torma was taught hand sewing and embroidery by her mother and grandmother, and went on to train at the Hungarian University of Applied Arts in Budapest. In this period much art was subjected to state-controlled censorship. Textiles were often overlooked, considered a ‘low’ art form and the domain of women. By this ironic turn, Torma and her contemporaries were allowed an unusual freedom of expression.

Shown in conjunction with the Hungarian Splendour exhibition, her work, together with the exhibition of work by Clarissa Schmidt-Inglis and Peter Horvath, speaks of the country’s cultural Diaspora, and of an identity informed by old and new worlds.


October 21 to December 31, 2006
Susan Kealey: Synopses
The Art Gallery of Hamilton is pleased to announce the recent acquisition of a body of work by Susan Kealey.
Susan Kealey was born in Boston on March 22, 1959 and studied at the University of Ottawa, McGill University receiving two Bachelor of Arts, and then went on to study at the Ontario College of Art. Kealey died on May 30, 2000 at the peak of her career.

The work of Susan Kealey is inextricably linked with her personal strife - she was diagnosed with chronic leukemia at the age of sixteen, however, in spite of this condition, she completed high school, went on to university studying in between bone marrow transplants and recoveries. Her formal training in philosophy and translation informs her work. Her photographs are of everyday objects that are made meaningful, independent, original and beautiful in their “everydayness”. Between 1995 and 1999 Kealey completed five series of photographic works of which this work is a part.

The permanent collection of the Art Gallery of Hamilton is recognized as being distinctive due to the number of quality works that are included in it. A key collection of contemporary works by major Canadian artists has developed over the past ten years. The AGH’s policy for future collecting aims at continuing to acquire significant singular works of art by Canadian and International artists who have contributed to contemporary issues in the contemporary landscape, artists whose works are critical to discussions that were prevalent in the 1980s to the present day. Susan Kealey was a strong player in the Toronto arts scene in the 1990s and despite her short-lived career her impact was great. Her work is situated amongst many artists that were interested in popular culture, many of whom used found objects in their work as a means to explore and address it. With a strong Duchampian slant, Kealey takes a strong philosophical attack to her subject combined with humour and the observation of a scientist documenting popular culture as one would observe and document historical museum artefacts of past civilizations.


On view October 19, 2006 to January 28, 2007
Ferdinando (Fred) Bilanzola: Visual Sensations
Curated by Paul Ropel-Morski and Bryce Kanbara
The Art Gallery of Hamilton is pleased to share in a three-part collaborative retrospective exhibition on the life’s work of Hamilton artist Ferdinando Bilanzola (1957-2001). More familiarly known as Fred, Bilanzola’s artistic career spanned well over 30 years. His influence as artist, teacher and friend contributed broadly to the growing local artist community, and will not soon be forgotten.

Primarily a figure painter, Bilanzola’s work reflects the social environment of the City of Hamilton, its industries and communities, its triumphs and disasters. The Art Gallery of Hamilton’s exhibition focuses on work produced just prior to Bilanzola’s untimely death in a car accident in 2001, while the Hamilton Artists Inc. and Carnegie Gallery feature earlier works.
Purchase the catalogue related to this exhibition.


On view October 19, 2006 to January 28, 2007
ATELIER SERIES - Clarissa Schmidt Inglis: Devotion
Curated by Sara Knelman
Hamilton resident Clarissa Schmidt Inglis has long been grappling with issues of Devotion – to Religious faith, to family, to popular culture, and to her own creation and expression. Born in Hungary, Inglis grew up a strict Catholic, and her often repressive early religious and cultural experiences continue to inform her art. The pieces in this exhibition continue to resonate with the intimacy and intensely personal qualities the artist is well-known for, while at the same time speaking to a set of broader, human issues.

In this body of recent, evolved work, Inglis examines the dual devotion to religious and popular icons, to spiritual faith and to the culture of consumption. Inspired by her travels in Mexico, her shrines to the Virgin and to Frida Khalo celebrate two influential female figures in temporary temples made up of disposable objects from Mexican markets and local dollar stores. A third female figure in the exhibition is of the artist herself – the installation Cruciare literally lights up an exposed and vulnerable Inglis, a testament to her reclaimed knowledge, sexuality, and freedom.


On view October 19, 2006 to January 28, 2007
CONTEMPORARY ART PROJECT SERIES - Valeska Soares: Walk on by
Curated by Shirley Madill
Valeska Soares creates interactive multi-media environments that probe the depths of existence. Many of her installations make you aware of your position - alone in a crowd, watching, listening or lost in contemplation. She frequently uses illusory materials that are either transparent, such as acrylic, or reflective, such as mirrors and stainless steel. The installation Walk on by offers a simultaneous realm of reality, distortion, and reflection through sculpture and video.

Walk on by was inspired by Soares’s experience in Hamilton during the summer of 2003. Invited to produce a site-responsive work for the Art Gallery of Hamilton as part of the Contemporary Art Project Series, she spent a week becoming acquainted with the city and its environs. It was the downtown core that provided the subject of Walk on by, specifically Gore Park, a gathering place with park benches, a fountain, bus stops, and a performance stage that is active during the summer months. The installation Walk on by consists of two video projections, each beginning with the image of a park with a park bench. Then the magic happens as inadvertently, the spectator becomes part of the work. This work also simultaneously premiered at the Sao Paulo Bienale in October 2006.


June 24, 2006 to April 15, 2007
Visions of Nature: European Landscapes from the Collection
Curated by Andrew Bucsis (Curatorial Intern) and Patrick Shaw Cable
For several months visitors to the gallery can appreciate in context a large variety of European landscapes from the AGH’s permanent collection. Beginning with paintings and prints from the 17th century, the exhibition spans two centuries and includes landscapes representing different styles, schools and themes. The 17th century was a key period in the development of landscape art, particularly in The Netherlands, and the 19th century saw a subsequent emphasis on landscape, in France and other countries. Paintings, prints and drawings will come from areas such as Holland, France, Germany, Austria, England, Italy and the North. Visitors can admire works by well-known masters such as Courbet and Pissarro, as well as beautiful examples by lesser-known landscapists. Together the works offer the chance to study the evolution of landscape—from 17th-century naturalism to late 19th-century Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.