Exhibition
From the Vault
left: Marlene Creates, A Stone Placed in Line with an Iceberg, Baffin Island, 1985. Dalhousie Art Gallery permanent collection, gift of the artist, 2001
right: Unknown, Greek votive female head, 5-4 century BC. Dalhousie Art Gallery permanent collection
Although the Dalhousie Art Gallery recently passed its sixtieth year milestone, the start of Gallery’s collection dates back to the 1830s when Dalhousie University’s first President donated a print by John James Audubon to the school. Since 1953, the Gallery’s Acquisition Committee has actively developed, through purchase and donation, a varied permanent collection that promotes the mandate of the Gallery, engages with the evolving aesthetics of the times, and often reflects the collecting habits of the donors. For this exhibition, selected from the Gallery’s permanent collection, we are featuring works that embody a place and time through the chosen material of their production, including a small collection of objects from ancient Egypt, Greece and Persia, pre-Columbian huacos, plexiglass sculpture and wall pieces from the 1960s and 70s, and contemporary works that explore the materiality of fabric, paint and other media.
