Fall 2024 Exhibitions and a New Permanent Sculpture at the MacLaren Art Centre

Images (left to right): Derek Liddington, the thumb, Judith, the righteous, the dying, him, the dead, the seen, the concealed, the angry, the unheard, the listened, the breast, the hand, the mountain, the night, 2023, Oil on linen. Image credit: John Paul; Caroline Monnet, Soaring Divide, 2023, Insulating sheating foam, oriented strand board, Plexiglass, 45 x 45 inches; Jon Sasaki, Microbes Swabbed from a Palette Used by F.H. Varley (detail), 2020, archival print, 91.44 x 91.44 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Clint Roenisch Gallery.

On Friday, October 4, 2024, from 6:30 to 9:00 pm, the MacLaren Art Centre unveils three exhibitions for fall, and Grace Note: a new permanent sculpture in the MacLaren’s lobby created by artists Lyn Carter & Carl Taçon.

Remarks begin at 7:00 pm. Admission is free; registration encouraged. This event is held in conjunction with Culture Days, a national three-week festival highlighting colour, creativity, and community.

Jon Sasaki: Homage

September 27, 2024 – January 12, 2025
Janice Laking Gallery
Curator: Sarah Milroy

Homage gathers a suite of Jon Sasaki’s recent photographs depicting bacterial cultures grown from swabs of artist tools once used by the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson, historical artifacts long held in the McMichael’s collection. These large-scale works reveal enlarged details of those cultures, reflecting the artist’s wry obsession with Canada’s canonical painters and his revisiting of the tradition-bound genre of landscape painting through the lens of contemporary photography. Sasaki’s works will be on view alongside the historical artists’ tools. A short video documenting the process of swabbing these archival items, under the direction of McMichael conservator Alison Douglas, will also be presented. Curated by Sarah Milroy. Organized and circulated by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

Structural Integrity
Christine Howard Sandoval, Caroline Monnet, and Erdem Taşdelen

September 27 – December 29, 2024
Gallery 3
Curator: Noa Bronstein

Structural Integrity gathers together artworks that contextualize the built form through its social textures. Assemblages by Christine Howard Sandoval, Caroline Monnet, and Erdem Taşdelen encourage multiple inquiries and call into question the dominant value proposition assigned to specific private and public spaces, while resisting or referencing architecture’s slippage into colonial logics and pursuits. Shared between these layered and complex works is an architecture that moves beyond spatial reasoning towards deeper considerations for the narratives that support multi-vocal understandings of space and place.

Structural Integrity is co-produced by the Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin and the MacLaren Art Centre. The MacLaren Art Centre acknowledges Salter Pilon Architecture Inc for its generous exhibition support.

Derek Liddington: Their horizon was mountain, their distance reveals

September 27 – November 8, 2024
The Carnegie Room
Curator: Katie Lawson

A tangle of land and flesh spill over the edge of Derek Liddington’s canvases to consume the walls of the Carnegie Room. Their horizon was mountain, their distance reveals features the artist’s most recent explorations in painting that draw on his interest in embodiment, perceptual transformation, allegory and the residue of art historical images. Lobbed heads, fragmented hands and broken horizons move across the space of the gallery and the paintings themselves. Their horizon was mountain, their distance reveals is an exhibition that asks us to move slowly and look closely at what lies beneath surfaces.

This presentation is a satellite exhibition of Seeds to Sow, a temporary exhibition of public art presented by the City of Barrie from September 27 to November 8, 2024.

Images (left to right): A view of the MacLaren Art Centre’s upper level, where Grace Note will be permanently installed; Artists Lyn Carter and Carl Taçon.

Grace Note

Grace Note, by artists Lyn Carter & Carl Taçon, is a permanent sculpture created for the MacLaren Art Centre. By definition, a grace note is a musical notation added as an ornament. This sculpture is conceived as a gestural line in space, capturing a flourish of upward movement. Grace Note leads the viewer’s eye into the expanse of the building with a joyful, orange aerial twist–activating the space with vibrant energy, emotion, and colour. The sculpture is visible from the MacLaren lobby, and from Mulcaster Street through the Gallery’s second floor windows. Grace Note was made possible through the generous support of Pratt Homes.

Grateful thanks to our exhibition sponsors and supporters:

As a registered charity, the MacLaren relies on public and private support for its operations and programs. The MacLaren Art Centre gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of its Members, Patrons, Donors, Sponsors, Partners, the City of Barrie, the Ontario Arts Council, the Government of Ontario, the Canada Council for the Arts and Canadian Heritage.

About the MacLaren Art Centre:

The MacLaren Art Centre is the major public art gallery in Central Ontario serving the residents of Barrie, the County of Simcoe, and the surrounding area. The Gallery has a significant permanent collection of contemporary Canadian art and presents a year-round program of exhibitions, education activities, and special events.

The MacLaren is located on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabek, which include the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Pottawatomi Nations, collectively known as the Three Fires Confederacy. The local bands consist of the Chippewa Tri-Council, who are made up of Beausoleil First Nation, Georgina Island First Nation, and Rama First Nation. We would also like to acknowledge the Wendat Nation (Huron) who occupied these lands prior to the middle of the 17th century.

MacLaren Art Centre
37 Mulcaster Street
Barrie, ON, L4M 3M2
T: 705-721-9696
www.maclarenart.com

Gallery Hours
Mondays: Closed
Tuesday to Sunday: 10 am – 4 pm
Wheelchair accessible