Charles Stankievech: The Desert Turned to Glass

Autumn 2024 Program at Oakville Galleries

Charles Stankievech, The Desert Turned to Glass, 2012/2023. Courtesy of the Studio Stankievech.

Charles Stankievech
The Desert Turned to Glass

October 19, 2024 – February 1, 2025
Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens and at Centennial Square

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 19 2024 | 2 – 5 pm
Charles Stankievech will be in attendance at Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens. All are welcome. ARTbus from downtown Toronto to Oakville and Shuttle buses between both Oakville Galleries locations are available!

Oakville Galleries is pleased to announce the exhibition The Desert Turned to Glass by Charles Stankievech, in two parts. Spanning the abyss of space and the depths of the earth, The Desert Turned to Glass is an epic meditation on beginnings, endings, and infinity. Altogether, the exhibition explores alternative theories concerning the origin of life, consciousness, and art. The Desert Turned to Glass is a place where the cosmic and chthonic collide.

At the Centennial Gallery, the artist presents the 30 minute film, The Eye of Silence in an immersive black box video installation. Evoking the resplendence of Earth’s evolution and existence, the film depicts a vast tapestry of creation and destruction. High atmospheric footage of volcanoes and the atmosphere lead to images of other otherworldly aspects of our planet’s terrain – deserts, meteorite craters, cave paintings, fields of stars, and views from inside a darkened cave. Created using various extra sensory photographic and sound equipment, and combining both resulting image and sound in a spectacular intensity, The Eye of Silence embodies metamorphosis and the sublime while skirting around notions of the limits of knowledge and experience.

At the Gairloch Gardens gallery, in dialogue with the landscape, garden and light at this lakeside site, the artist presents a new series of photographs, various sculpture – including one that defies gravity, and new video work based on recordings made by the artist during the Total Eclipse at Gairloch Gardens on April 8th, 2024.

Accompanying the exhibition is the publication of the same title, which collects new work by Stankievech alongside texts by J.G. Ballard, Karen Barad, Walter Benjamin, Douglas Cardinal, Dehlia Hannah, Takashi Ikegami, Takafumi Kawakami, J. David Lewis-Williams, Clarice Lispector, Ala Roushan, Nadim Samman, Barbara Sherwood Lollar, Charles Stankievech, and Kim Tait.

Exhibition curated by Séamus Kealy, Executive Director, Oakville Galleries.

Charles Stankievech, Eye of Silence, 2012/2023. Courtesy of the Studio Stankievech.

Related Events

Concert by Charles Stankievech: The Glass Key
Free Admission | Ticket required
Saturday, November 23, 2024 | Doors open at 7:30 pm, Concert begins at 8:00 pm
Trinity College Chapel, University of Toronto

Roundtable: Charles Stankievech with Séamus Kealy (Executive Director) and Ala Roushan (Curator and Writer)
Tuesday, January 28, 2025 | 6:00 pm
Gairloch Gallery, Oakville Galleries

All events are free and open to the public.

About the Artist

Charles Stankievech is an artist redefining “fieldwork” at the convergence of geopolitics, deep ecologies, and sonic resonances. From the Arctic’s northernmost settlement to the depths of the Pacific Ocean, Stankievech’s practice uncovers the paradoxes of our existence on the planet by engaging with the imperceptible. His award-winning work has been presented at institutions such as the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal; Kunste Werke, Berlin; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; National Gallery of Canada; TBA21, Vienna; as well as several biennials from Venice to SITE Santa Fe. As a composer he mentored under World Soundscape founder R. Murrary Schafer and then Alvin Lucier, leading to the premiere of his work Radiance for Philip Glass’ MATA foundation. He has lectured at dOCUMENTA (13) and the 8th Berlin Biennale, and his writing has been published by Verso, MIT, Sternberg Press, e-flux, and Princeton Architectural Press.

About Oakville Galleries

A contemporary art museum housed in two gallery spaces and located 30 km west of Toronto, Oakville Galleries is one of Canada’s leading art museums, with a primary commitment to presenting the work of early and mid-career artists from across Canada and around the world.

Oakville Galleries operates with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario and the Corporation of the Town of Oakville, along with our many individual, corporate, and foundation partners.

Oakville Galleries logo