Gathering at the Owens Art Gallery

Nancy Stevens, GATHERING, 2026, acrylic on hardboard with collage, 36″ x 36″, Courtesy of the Artist. © Nancy Stevens.

Gathering

March 14 – May 31, 2026
Reception: Sunday, May 10, 4:00 – 6:00pm
Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB

Making art and making a life is an ongoing inquiry.
– Nancy Stevens (Class of ’56)

Organized in conjunction with the seventy-year reunion of the Class of 1956, Gathering features recent work by Nancy Stevens alongside a selection of graduate self-portraits from the Owens’ archive. Known primarily for vibrant, geometric abstractions, Stevens draws inspiration from a wide range of interests, including music, language, art history, nature, and the transient events of everyday life. As she explains, “I am drawn to the clarity of geometry and the aesthetic potential of music and words. Combining these interests with the natural rhythms of land, sea and sky, I have translated them into optical events where spatial conflicts and their resolutions can occur.”

Stevens’ abstract paintings are accompanied by her graduate self-portrait, which is part of a selection of self-portraits from the Classes of 1951, 1956, and 1961. From the late 1940s to the mid 1960s, Mount Allison Fine Arts students were required to paint a self-portrait in their fourth year, which they submitted as their “Diploma Piece” before receiving the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. The portraits were to be life-sized, painted in oil on canvas or board, and measure 40 x 30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm). Forty years after Stevens graduated from Mount Allison, her self-portrait appeared in the exhibition Face Value: Nova Scotia Portraiture (Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 1996). At the exhibition opening, Stevens was reunited with her former teacher, Alex Colville (1920-2013), who looked at her self-portrait and remarked, “It stood up very well, hasn’t it Nancy?”

All the artists in this exhibition studied under Colville, who taught at Mount Allison University from 1946 to 1963. His influence had a particularly profound impact upon the Classes of 1956 to 1961, whose graduates include Mary Pratt (1935-2918), Christopher Pratt (1935-2022), Nancy Stevens, Dawn MacNutt, Tom Forrestall (1936-2024), and Ken Tolmie. In 2000, Colville Gallery was created to honour Alex Colville’s contributions to the artistic legacy of Mount Allison, and it now houses the triptych mural Athletes, which he was commissioned to create for the lobby of the university’s new Athletic Centre when it opened in 1961. These and other histories are featured in the recent publication, Leaders in the Field: The History and Legacy of Art at Mount Allison, which “showcases the vitality and significant contributions of Mount Allison University’s Fine Arts department to Canadian visual art and culture.”

We would like to acknowledge that the Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, is located within the traditional territory of Mi’kma’ki, the unceded ancestral homelands of the Mi’kmaq. Our relationship and our privilege to live on this territory was agreed upon in the Peace and Friendship Treaties of 1725 to 1752. Because of this treaty relationship, it is to be acknowledged that we are all Treaty People and have a responsibility to respect this territory.

Owens Art Gallery
Mount Allison University
61 York Street
Sackville, NB E4L 1E1
506-364-2574
owens@mta.ca
www.owensartgallery.com

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Monday to Friday, 10:00am to 5:00pm
Saturday and Sunday, 1:00pm to 5:00pm

Admission is Free

The Owens is partially accessible. The stairs from the entrance nearest the University Chapel have a handrail. There is also ramp access at this entrance, however, the ramp is steep. The stairs to the entrance off York Street have a handrail, but no ramp, and are covered with temporary wood treads. The main floor of the Owens is wheelchair accessible. Our second-floor gallery and gendered bathrooms are located in the basement and are not accessible. Two flights of stairs lead to each of these floors. LED lights are used throughout the building. The Owens welcomes guide dogs and other service animals. The closest accessible parking spaces are located on York Street across from the Owens. For detailed information on venue access, please visit our Accessibility page. If you would like to visit the Owens at a quieter time, or when all staff and visitors are masked, private visits can be arranged from 9:00-10:00 am on weekdays.

If you have any questions about your visit, please email owens@mta.ca or call (506) 364-2574.