Dualities: Contemporary works from the Permanent Collection

Opening reception: Thursday, 22 May, 8 pm.

Double entendres, contradictions, twins, paradoxes, mirrorings — any instance of knowledge or expression can conjure a parallel or opposite: on the one hand this, on the other that. Without contrast, visual form loses much of its point and pleasure, and qualitative measurements lose their meaning. While religious or socio-political conflicts are seldom truly reconcilable, dialectical argument challenges our deep convictions and refines our thinking. The works in this exhibition represent dualities either in physical fact (they are actual pairs) or in their dialectical content — or both.

Curator Susan Gibson Garvey has selected sculpture, painting, prints, photography, fibre and mixed media works by Canadian artists Abraham Anghik, Ned Bear, Bruce Campbell, Lyn Carter, John Clark, Marlene Creates, Nancy Edell, Art Green, John Greer, Gerald Ferguson, Alex Livingston, Guy Montpetit, Richard Mueller, and Marina Stewart from the Gallery’s permanent collection. Often in a state of oscillation or tension, these works invite us to consider the idea of duality on many levels, from the purely visual to the social and political.