Janet Read – Mute Eloquence of Light: Arctic Works

Light Opens Over Water #7, Oil and graphite on Duralar, 17″ x 23″

Mute Eloquence of Light: Arctic Works
Janet Read

March 26 – May 23, 2026
Artist Talk & Reception: Saturday, April 11, 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Agnes Jamieson Gallery, Minden

Mute Eloquence of Light: Arctic Works, by artist Janet Read, consists of abstract paintings on linen, panels in oil and acrylic, and hybrid drawings/paintings on Duralar. These works spring from travels in the high Arctic in 2018, 2023, and 2025. Improvisation and spontaneous abstract mark-making visualize the processes of wind and water relating her experiences of the high Arctic in Canada and the Greenlandic west coast. These works extend earlier themes initiated by residencies in Newfoundland and western Ireland. Abstraction conveys an emotional and poetic response to the environment. It is mediated imaginative experience, re-created as visual works. What do you see? What do you feel? Are you moved to action?

Irish artist Tim Robinson writes a description that resonates with Read’s practice, “While walking the land, I am the pen on the paper; while drawing this map, my pen is myself walking the land… [to try to] keep faith with reality.”

Artist Biography

Janet Read is a painter, musician, poet, and music educator, whose childhood was spent near Lake Simcoe. The artist has sought the water’s edge ever since. Her roots go back to the Ottawa Valley Irish, Belfast, and county Wexford in Ireland: explaining a fondness for fiddle music, poetry, and the sea. Read studied graduate philosophy and education at the University of Toronto. Art studies at York and OCADU inform her practice of large-scale paintings, book works, works on Duralar and photo installation. She has had exhibitions in commercial and public galleries. Works are collected in hospital, public and private collections, including RVH in Barrie, Town of Markham, Whitby Station Gallery, Art Gallery of Northumberland, and the Royal Bank.

Learn more: www.janet-read.com | janetread3@gmail.com | @janetreadvisualartist

The Agnes Jamieson Gallery is a public gallery with year-round visual exhibitions of local and regional art. The Gallery is part of the Minden Hills Cultural Centre which also includes the Heritage Village & Nature’s Place Interpretive Centre. The Gallery is fully accessible. The Minden Hills Cultural Centre is located at 176 Bobcaygeon Road, Minden.

Minden Hills Cultural Centre – Agnes Jamieson Gallery
176 Bobcaygeon Road, Minden, ON K0M 2K0
Open Tuesday – Saturday, 10:00am – 4:00pm
705-286-3763 | culturalcentre@mindenhills.ca

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