Art Gallery of Guelph Winter 2019 Exhibitions
Artist Talk & Opening Reception
Thursday, January 17, 2019 • 6 – 9 pm
Join us for an artist talk with Janet Werner at 6 pm followed by a reception to mark the opening of the AGG’s Winter Exhibition Season at 7 pm: Janet Werner: What Time Is It, Mr. Wolf?, Lisa Hirmer: We Are Weather, and The Curse of Geography. Free admission; all welcome. The Art Gallery of Guelph is grateful for the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council.
Janet Werner: What Time Is It, Mr. Wolf?
January 17 to April 14, 2019
Artist Talk: Thursday, January 17 at 6 pm
What Time Is It, Mr. Wolf? highlights the evolution of Janet Werner’s distinct approach to portraiture as she imagines nuanced women’s worlds where other identities and other stories play out. The antithesis of conventional portraits, Janet Werner’s subjects are composed of found images, often drawn from vintage beauty magazines, fashion catalogues, and illustrated books. The works in this exhibition highlight identity and gender as thoroughly social constructs – processes of performance and negotiation, always in flux and uncertain. Like the childhood game, “What Time Is It, Mr. Wolf?”, Werner’s art-making similarly eschews linear progression, evolving instead through a mix of starts and stops, intentions and accidents, risks and resistances.
Curated by Shauna McCabe and organized by the Art Gallery of Guelph in conjunction with the Guelph Resource Centre for Gender Empowerment and Diversity.
Lisa Hirmer: We Are Weather
January 17 to April 7, 2019
Studying the forces that shape and transform human relationships with surrounding ecologies, Lisa Hirmer’s work spans visual art, social practice, and community collaboration. In We Are Weather, she explores how we recognize and represent environmental change at a moment when the Holocene, a geological era of climate stability, gives way to a new epoch, the Anthropocene, in which humans act as a planet-scale force. While we are aware of the impacts – from mass extinctions to dramatic atmospheric alterations manifest as climate change – it can be difficult to understand the altered reality that these transforming conditions usher in. Juxtaposing the outcomes of Hirmer’s creative research with works from the gallery’s collection, the exhibition examines how we move from simply observing to registering these losses and measuring their effects.
Curated by Shauna McCabe and organized by the Art Gallery of Guelph.
The Curse of Geography
January 17 to April 7, 2019
Amber Art & Design, German Andino, Arahmaiani, Jacob Cohen, Esteban Figueroa, Emma Kazaryan, Rebecca Peeler, Daniel Phelan, and Suzy Xu Shuang
The Curse of Geography reflects on the effects of geographic isolation from and proximity to centres of power – on social justice, human rights, and public policy. Featuring graphic art, drawings, photographs, audio, video, and sculpture, the exhibition brings together the work of artists in Honduras, Newfoundland, Puerto Rico, Tajikistan, and Tibet produced in conjunction with reports for ArtsEverywhere, a platform exploring the “fault lines” of contemporary society. Mapping conditions globally, the exhibition offers material and ephemeral representations of the lived experiences of communities.
Curated by Sidd Joag and organized by the Art Gallery of Guelph in collaboration with Musagetes.
Images: Janet Werner, Studio (Miro), 2017, oil on canvas, 152.4 x 182.9 cm, Courtesy Parisian Laundry; German Andino, Tablelands, on the road from Bonne Bay to Trout River, 2018, digital illustration. Courtesy of the artist and ArtsEverywhere/Musagetes.
Art Gallery of Guelph
358 Gordon Street, Guelph, ON N1G 1Y1
Open Tuesday to Sunday, 12 – 5 pm • Accessible
519-837-0010
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