Exhibitions and Events
Nova Scotian Pictures: Art in Nova Scotia 1940-1966
Guest Curator Sandra Paikowsky took a close look at the period 1940-66 in Nova Scotia, focusing mainly on painting and on the activities of organizations, such as the Nova Scotia Society of Artists and the Nova Scotia Museum of Fine Arts. This exhibition presented works by over 40 artists, including Robert Annand, Marion Bond, Mabel Killam Day, Horst Deppe, Carol Fraser, Siegfried Haase, C. Anthony Law, D.C. Mackay, Aileen Meagher, Alex Tissington, Ruth Wainwright, and LeRoy and Marguerite Zwicker. It was accompanied by an illustrated bilingual catalogue containing Ms.
Celebrating 40 Years: From the Permanent Collection
The Art Gallery’s Permanent Collection contains nearly 600 works which have been acquired by purchase or donation. In-house exhibitions regularly focus on aspects of this rich and varied collection, which is also available to scholars and study purposes. The collection is maintained and organized by the Gallery’s registrar/preparatory, and is held in trust for the enjoyment and education of all members of the community.
(1) 40 Years: 40 Gifts
Corpus Loquendi (Body for Speaking): Video in Halifax 1972-1982
Through a fortuitous combination of people, place and time, Halifax became a prominent centre of experimental video production in the 1970s. Video artist and NSCAD professor Jan Peacock focuses on the early development of video as an art form, on its often transgressive behaviour and obsessive preoccupation with body and language, in a selection of works by Vito Acconci, David Askevold, Dara Birnbaum, Susan Britton, Martha Wilson and many others.
FLUXUS: a Conceptual Country
The visual artists, writers and composers whose activities are known collectively as Fluxus, came together 30 years ago, staging art events, performances and happenings in major cities across Europe and the U.S. Fluxus contributed the term “intermedia” and popularized time-based performance, video, installation and multiple art forms. Marcel Duchamp was an influential precursor of Fluxus, and John Cage and Josef Beuys were closely associated with the group.
Uses of the Vernacular in Contemporary Nova Scotian Art
What are the relationships between folk art and forms of contemporary art which adopt folk idioms? Co-curators Cliff Eyland and Susan Gibson Garvey tackle this question in a vibrant exhibition of paintings, assemblages, prints, sculptures, and fibre works by contemporary Nova Scotian artists Nancy Edell, Gerald Ferguson, Kyle Jackson, Janice Leonard, Charlie Murphy, John Neville, Leslie Sampson and Eric Walker.
The 40th Dalhousie Student, Staff, Faculty and Alumni Exhibition
An unbroken tradition for 40 years! This time, the Gallery’s annual celebration of the artistic talent of the university community will kick off the Gallery’s year-long 40th Anniversary celebrations. The exhibition will include paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture and crafts by Dalhousie students, staff, faculty and alumni. If you are a member of this community take this opportunity to participate!
INDIGENA Contemporary Native Perspective
This major touring exhibition of paintings, sculpture, videos and installations by eighteen contemporary Canadian Native artists presents a challenging, sometimes exquisitely beautiful, sometimes profoundly disturbing experience. Curated by Gerald MacMaster and Lee-Ann Martin to coincide with the 500th Anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in North America, the objective of the project was to “address such issues as discovery, colonization, cultural critique, and tenacity” from the Native perspective.
Good Stories Well Told: Video Art for Young Audiences
Created especially for viewing by children and youth, this unique exhibition includes 38 tapes produced by media artists, often in collaboration with young people, arranged into three groups for differing ages levels. The stories in these videos take place all over the world, from Brooklyn to Beijing, and in the imaginary places of dreams and fantasies. Some are presented in familiar forms lives narrative and comedy, educational film, rap music video, documentary and animation. Others employ more inventive, hybrid forms.
Book Illustrations by Nova Scotian Artists
Rarely seen book illustrations and dust jackets created between 1900 and 1960 by such artists as Will R. Bird, Robert Chambers, Mabel Killam Day, Winifred Fox, William de Garthe, Jack Gray, Donald C. MacKay and Charles Payzant. Guest curated for the Art Gallery by John Townsend with loans from Schooner Books and the Public Archives of Nova Scotia.
Illustrations to Kipling’s Jungle Book
Not the Disney version, but sixteen beautiful turn-of-the century colour proofs by Maurice and Edward Detmold (1903) of subjects from Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book. All of the favourite characters are here: Bagheera, Baloo, Shere Khan and Mowgli himself, in wonderfully dignified images selected from the Kipling Collection, Dalhousie University Libraries.
