Past Archive
Here are a few entries from the past. Search or Sort the archive to view all entries.
#nofilterneeded
shining light on the Native Indian/Inuit Photographers’ Association, 1985 – 1992
January 2 – March 24, 2018
Curated by Rhéanne Chartrand
Featuring works by founding NIIPA members:
Simon Brascoupe, Dorothy Chocolate, Rick Hill, Martin Akwiranoron Loft, Tim Johnson, James (Jimmy) Manning, Yvonne Maracle, Murray McKenzie, Brenda Mitten, Shelley Niro, Greg Staats, Jeff Thomas and many more.
OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, January 11, 6 – 8 pm
PANEL DISCUSSION: Thursday, February 8, 6 – 8 pm. Details tba
In 1985, a group of Indigenous image-makers came together to form the Native Indian/Inuit Photographers’ Association, or NIIPA, with the core objective to promote a positive, realistic and contemporary image of Indigenous peoples through the medium of photography. They felt that, for far too long, Indigenous peoples had been portrayed through someone else’s lens, and that it was time they took control of the image in order to contest and demystify stereotypical representations of Indigenous peoples.
As a member-based organization, NIIPA played a significant role in training and advocacy for Indigenous photographers. Aside from the Society of Canadian Artists of Native Ancestry (S.C.A.N.A.), which actually incorporated the same year as NIIPA, the organization provided technical training and networking opportunities for Indigenous photographers at a time when there were few, if any, supports for Indigenous image-makers. Photography was still a relatively new medium of artistic expression in the mid 80s, and few institutions were actively collecting or exhibiting photography, much less photography by Indigenous artists. NIIPA filled a much-needed gap by providing a network and platform for Indigenous photographers to show their work and support each other’s art practice.
NIIPA’s founding demonstrates that Indigenous artists are equally adept at adapting to and making use of new technologies to advance Indigenous ways of seeing the world. The photographs presented in #nofilterneeded are derived from one or more of NIIPA’s early, self-produced exhibitions, and provide an unfiltered view into the interests and concerns of beautiful, resilient and thriving peoples.
#nofilterneeded shines much needed light on a significant moment in Indigenous art history by paying respects to the founding members of NIIPA and celebrating the momentum of the organization’s early years.
The exhibition will consist of 30-40 framed photographs, mostly black and white, of varying dimensions. The vast majority of the photographs will come from the Indigenous Art Centre at Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. Additional photographs will come from private collection and/or collection of the artist.
Susan Schelle: Selected Works
January 2 – March 24, 2018
Guest Curator: Ana Barajas
Sherman Gallery, Level 2
OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, January 11, 6 - 8 pm
ARTIST & CURATOR’S TALK: Wednesday, March 7, 12:30 pm
Susan Schelle, a Hamilton native, has been making art since 1976. Practicing over decades has given her the opportunity to revisit familiar themes setting up a dialogue between works and often re-working elements over time. This exhibition, and its upcoming companion at Gallery Stratford, serves as a resting perch from which to survey a working life embedded in visual thinking. The continuity of ideas point to an open-ended search for the location of the self within an environment that is at times ominous.
The element of water is at the center of Schelle’s explorations. It appears in many forms and states, but it always affects the position of the viewer. Infinitely relatable, the concept of water weaves in and out of this selection of works and posits questions about our relationship to it, our usage and misuse, and our subjugation to its force. The image of the physical body, often absent from the work, is hinted to be a peripheral witness, both rooted in the moment and detached from its referent.
Susan Schelle: Selected Works and celebrates a shift in the artists’ practice after twenty years as art educator; while recognizing the methodology of an artist deeply concerned with environmental phenomenology and its effects on the human environment.
Susan Schelle was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and currently lives and works in Toronto. She was an Associate Professor Emeritus in Visual Studies, J.H. Daniels Faculty, University of Toronto. Working with sculpture and photography, Schelle is interested in the "manipulation of the familiar: images that deal with the phenomenon of the physical world and the customs of a particular time and place." She has completed a number of public art commissions, notably salmon run The Rogers Center Toronto. passage York University Toronto and laws of nature Court House Square Park, Toronto, Ont. She has shown both nationally and internationally including The Cenci Gallery, Rome, Italy and The Freedman Gallery Albright College, Reading Pennsylvania. Her work resides in the collections of Air Canada, The Art Gallery of Ontario, The Art Gallery of Hamilton, McMaster Museum of Art, The Winnipeg Art Gallery, The Vancouver Art Gallery, and The National Gallery of Canada. In addition to her own work, Schelle has collaborated with Mark Gomes on several public commissions, most recently jetstream at Terminal One, Pearson International Airport, Toronto.
Born in Mexico City, Mexico, Ana Barajas holds a BFA from OCAD University in Sculpture/Installation. She received a MVA, Curatorial and a MA, Modern Art History from the University of Toronto. Barajas is Director of YYZ Artists’ Outlet, a non-profit artist-run centre.
Image: Susan Schelle, flood (detail), video, 2015
The Herman Levy Legacy
A Cultivating Journey: The Herman H. Levy Legacy
1 September – 9 December, 2017
This exhibition examines and celebrates the collection of significant European historical and modern art donated to the McMaster Museum of Art by Hamilton businessman Dr. Herman H. Levy, O.B.E. in 1984. Featured are paintings by Claude Monet, Gustave Caillebotte, Gustave Courbet, Camille Pissarro, Chaim Soutine, J.M.W. Turner, Vincent van Gogh and many more.
RECEPTION: Thursday, September 14 from 6 - 8 PM
CURATOR’S TALK by Ihor Holubizky: Tuesday October 24, 12:30 – 1:20 pm
TALK | Cultivating Collections: Thursday November 23, 6 – 8 pm
by Tobi Bruce (Director, Collections & Exhibitions, Art Gallery of Hamilton) and
Ihor Holubizky (Senior Curator, McMaster Museum of Art)
Image: Claude Monet, Waterloo Bridge, Effet de Soleil, 1903, Oil on canvas, Collection of McMaster Museum of Art, Gift of Herman Levy, Esq., O.B.E., 1984
This touring exhibition, including a forthcoming publication, is generously supported by the Museums Assistance Program, Canadian Heritage.
Simon Glass: The Ten Commandments / Prohibited Weapons and The Thirteen Attributes of God
17 August – 2 December 2017
An exhibition of Simon Glass’s photo-hybrid series The Ten Commandments/Prohibited Weapons recently donated to the McMaster Museum of Art (a 2016 gift) and his series, The Thirteen Attributes of God, from the Art Gallery of Hamilton collection.
Simon Glass is an artist and educator based in Toronto. In his artistic practice, archival and original photographic imagery is combined with mystical, biblical and liturgical Hebrew.
Public Reception: Thursday, September 14 from 6 - 8 PM
Artist Talk: Thursday September 28, 12:30 – 1:20 pm
Image: Installation view of The Ten Commandments / Prohibited Weapons suite, 2005. Courtesy of the artist
The Power & Discontents of Artworld Analogies
Struck by Likening: The Power & Discontents of Artworld Analogies
19 August – 2 December 2017
Guest curator: Mark A. Cheetham
PUBLIC RECEPTION: Thursday, September 14 from 6 - 8 PM
CURATOR’s TALK - Getting Some Distance on Likening: Wednesday October 4, 12:30 – 1:20 pm
Struck by Likening explores commonplace declarations such as “Tom Thomson is the Van Gogh of Canada” and Norval Morrisseau is “the Picasso of the North” and the issues raised by such comparisons. These include national aspiration, genius, gender, anachronism, inter-media comparison, humour, and cultural appropriation.
Works of art in the exhibition are drawn from the historical, modern and contemporary collection of the McMaster Museum of Art, and loans from the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Museum London and the Corkin Gallery, Toronto.
Professor Cheetham gratefully acknowledges the research support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Image: Tom Thomson (Canadian 1877 – 1917) The Birch Grove, Autumn 1915–16, oil on canvas, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Gift of Roy Cole in memory of his parents, Matthew and Annie Bell Gilmore
Liss Platt: a CONSTANT decade
4 May – 19 August 2017
This exhibition is a “retrospective” of Liss Platt’s Constant photographic series and related videoworks, 2006 - 2016.
Liss Platt brings elements of the everyday, along with personal and autobiographical content, into a conceptual art practice. The particular landscape represented in the Constant series is a place she has been photographing for over ten years. She is interested in the process of sustained looking, particularly at something that is familiar, and what occurs through an accumulation of images. She is also intrigued by the tension between what changes in the scene and what stays the same.
Liss Platt is a mid-career media artist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia at McMaster University. Her works have been shown nationally and internationally. She is also a co-member of the “Shake-n’-Make” project with Hamilton-based writer and maker Claudia B. Manley. Liss Platt is represented by MKG127 in Toronto.
ARTIST’S TALK & RECEPTION:
at b Contemporary gallery, 226 James St North, Hamilton
Sunday, June 4, 2017 from 2 - 4 pm
Liss Platt’s formal presentation, centred on her Constant series, will begin at 2:30 pm. Join us, meet the artist and enjoy light refreshments.
MMA in the Community Event
NEW! Watch the video of Liss Platt's Talk
Image: Liss Platt, Constant: Vertical, 2012, C-Print, edition of 5, 2012. Courtesy of MKG127 in Toronto.
Coyote School
8 June – 19 August 2017
Curator: Rhéanne Chartrand, Aboriginal Curatorial Resident, MMA
Coyote School presents contemporary works by eight mid-career Indigenous artists who acknowledge the influence of senior Indigenous artists on the development of their own artistic practice.
Joi Arcand
Sonny Assu
Jason Baerg
Jordan Bennett
Christian Chapman
Amy Malbeuf
Meryl McMaster
Bear Witness aka EhrenThomas
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 8, 6 - 8 pm
6:30 - Opening Remarks by Elders and Curator
7:00 - Musical Performance by acclaimed, Indigenous composer and vocal artist Jeremy Dutcher. A classically trained operatic tenor, Dutcher blends his Wolastoq First Nation roots into the music he creates.
image: Meryl McMaster, Time’s Gravity (detail), 2015, Archival pigment print on watercolour paper, edition 3 of 3, 76.2 cm x 114.3 cm. Collection of the Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough
John Hansler: a life collecting
18 May – 5 August 2017
John Hansler graduated from McMaster University in 1956 and began collecting art the following year. In 2016, he offered his entire collection of nearly 100 works to the McMaster Museum of Art. This exhibition presents selections from his generous gift, focusing on his primary interest in post-1950 Canadian art and reflecting his enthusiasm for and support of artists he collected in depth.
Included in the exhibition are works by Walter Bachinski, Paul-Émile Borduas, Ulysee Comtois, David Craven, L.L. FitzGerald, John Hartman, Harold Klunder, J.W.G (Jock) MacDonald, Kazuo Nakamura, Harold Town, and Tony Urquhart.
photo: Kazuo Nakamura, Central Seven, C. 1961. Oil on canvas. Gift of John Hansler
Ann Kipling and Takao Tanabe
18 May – 5 August 2017
Ann Kipling and Takao Tanabe are senior British Columbia based artists who have made substantial contributions to the visual arts in Canada.
This exhibition presents works by the two artists recently gifted to the McMaster Museum of Art. It includes sixteen Ann Kipling drawings and etchings, donated by Toronto collector Christopher Varley in 2014, and six Takao Tanabe works on paper, donated by the artist in 2015. The latter were included in the retrospective of Tanabe’s work presented at the Museum in 2012.
This exhibition focuses on selected books from donations acquired by McMaster University Library from Professor Pierre Conlon (1924-2014) between 2007 and 2011. The collection consists of nearly two hundred 18th century books and includes important and rare editions of works by philosophers such as Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu. The books were collected by Conlon over a period of 40 years and used to compile his monumental bibliography of the entire French Enlightenment: Le Siècle des Lumières (32 volumes) preceded by Prélude au Siècle des Lumières (6 volumes). The bibliography includes works by French authors beginning in 1680 to the onset of the French Revolution. The exhibition is a tribute to Pierre Conlon’s extraordinary scholarship and his contribution to McMaster University.
It is complemented by selected works of art from the Museum’s collection, including works by:
Jean-Victor Bertin (French, 1767-1842)
Francois Boucher (French, 1703-1770)
Pierre Drevet (French, 1663 - 1738)
William Hogarth (English, 1697-1764)
Jiri Ladocha (Canadian b. Czechoslovakia, born 1942)
George Romney (English, 1734-1802)
Tony Scherman (Canadian, born 1951)
Jean-Joseph Taillasson (French, 1745-1809)
RECEPTION: Thursday, January 12, 6 – 8 pm
GUEST SPEAKER Dr. William Hanley on the exceptional career and influence of Dr. Pierre Conlon: Thursday, January 26, 6 – 8 pm
TOUR and Bookmaking Activity - Telling our stories: February 11, 1 – 3 pm
Guided Tour followed by an accordian bookmaking activity for Hamilton Winterfest . FREE
Contact Nicole Knibb to register: knibbn@mcmaster.ca or 905-525-9140 x.27576.
A selection of recent works by Hamilton-based artist Paul Cvetich alongside woodblock prints from McMaster Museum of Art’s collection by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese 1797 – 1861).
Paul Cvetich is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of Guelph and completed his Hons BA in Art and Art History at McMaster University in Hamilton. He has previously exhibited work in Hamilton, Toronto, Waterloo and St. Thomas. In 1990 he completed the Day of Mourning Memorial, a public commission installed at the City Hall in Hamilton, Ontario.
Kuniyoshi was one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints and painting.
RECEPTION: Thursday, January 12, 6 – 8 pm
ARTIST TALK by Paul Cvetich at Mills Hardware: Thursday, January 19, 7:30 pm
(doors open at 7pm) Mills Hardware is located at 95 King St E, Hamilton. This event is presented as part of the Hamilton Arts Council’s Echo Artist Talk series.
Artist Talks: April 6, 5:30 - 6:30 pm
Reception and awards: April 8, 2:30 - 4:30 pm
The McMaster Museum of Art proudly presents Equinox, the annual Studio Art exhibition, representing twenty-seven emerging artists from McMaster’s Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts program. An equinox occurs when the sun crosses the equator, making both day and night equal in length. This event therefore signifies not only an end, but a beginning for these artists as they embark on the next chapter of their careers. From material exploration to conceptually-driven processes, this culminating exhibition will showcase this diverse and ambitious group’s evolution as they celebrate a period of change.
See installation views and event photos here.
ARTISTS:
Jaslin Bhangoo
Gillian Bochenek
Laura Brandreth
Angela Busse
Justine Ciaramella
Mischa Dabrowski
Kristina Durka
Parker Flood
Stephanie Grant
Rachel Hillock
Wing Lau
Camelia McLeod
Meaghan McMurrich
Dana Milton
Jonathan Mitchell
Hilary Rosa
Hannah Sampson
Maria Simmons
Jasmyne Smith
Whyishnave Suthagar
Jennifer Tewnion
Riley Vanderzee
Tess Visser
Alexandra Walker
Cassandra Whall
Serim Ye
Qianyu Zhou