Glendon Gallery announces its 2009-2010 program

The Glendon Gallery on York’s Glendon campus is launching its 32nd annual program, titled body, clothes/perspective, space. Running from Sept. 17 to April 29, 2010, this year’s exhibitions will highlight drawing, painting and photography, focusing on themes of the body, clothing, perspective and space.  

There will be six exhibitions at Glendon Gallery, each featuring an opening event, as well as guided visits with guest artists and the gallery’s curator, Marc Audette. The new season presents two group exhibitions – the first in collaboration with Antares Publishing House of Spanish Culture, the second with Quebec’s Sagamie Édition D’Art, as well as two solo exhibitions with Toronto artists Lorène Bourgeois and Charles Beamish, and two student exhibitions, one from Glendon’s visual arts class and the other by a York master of fine arts student. 

The following is a list of the upcoming exhibits:

Sept. 17 to Oct. 9Presencia/ Presence/Présence, Antares 2009

Opening Thursday, Sept. 17, from 6 to 8pm.

Artists: Carlos Aranha (painter, Equador), Encarnita Gardner (painter, Spain), V. Tony Hauser (photographer, Canada), Guillermo Martinez-Cañizales (painter, El Salvador), Vincenzo Pietropaolo (photographer, Italy) and Harry Tanner (painter, Canada/Cuba).

Presence gathers artists from the last edition of Antares 2009, a literary and artistic publication under the direction of Glendon Professor Emerita Margarita Feliciano. The exhibition is also part of the 2009 Festival of Images & Words – Beyond Frontiers: Manifestations of Hispanic Canadian Creativity, which will run from Sept. 17 to Oct. 30, bringing together visual arts, literature and the Sí-Sí-Cine Toronto Latin Film Festival.

Oct. 27 to Dec. 11 – enveloppes du corps/works on paper and slate

Opening Tuesday, Oct. 27, from 6 to 8pm, with a guided visit at 5:30pm.

Artist: Lorène Bourgeois (drawings, paintings).

Born in France, Laurène Bourgeois has lived in Canada since 1984. She has completed apprenticeships in Paris, Philadelphia and Halifax. Her drawings, paintings and etchings belong to both public and private collections and have been shown across Canada, as well as in France, Korea, Russia and the US. 

Her recent work, comprised of a series of drawings and paintings, explores the formal and material aspects of clothing and its relationship with human and animal bodies. The artist examines the tension created by these objects, teetering between the functional and the theatrical, the absurd and the menacing. The exhibit will focus on the point where clothing’s functionality becomes blurred. The sensuality captured by Bourgeois’ paintings provides new perspectives on viewing fabrics and clothing.

Jan. 19 to Feb. 15, 2010 – Spatial Networks

Opening Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010, from 6 to 8pm, with a guided visit by the artist at 5:30pm.

Artist: Charles Beamish (drawings, paintings, sculptural environments).

Charles Beamish lives and works in Toronto. His formal education in architecture and the visual arts informs his interest in studying the relationships between painting, sculpture and architecture. His work examines the theoretical and technical potentials of these three dimensions.

The gallery presents an entirely new corpus of the artist’s work, conceived specifically for its space. The exhibit consists of large-format drawings, paintings and sculptures, aiming to stimulate the discovery of a new and different spatial universe in the audience.

The artist proposes a series of paintings where the vanishing point, horizon lines and even the frames invite us into a constant flow of impressions and sensations to renew our artistic experience. 

March 2 to 31, 2010 – Digital Printing in Contemporary Art

Opening Tuesday, March 2, 2010, from 6 to 8pm, with a guided visit by curator Marc Audette at 5:30pm.

Launching of publication with Nicholas Pitre, director of the Sagamie Centre.

Artists: Yvan Binet, Mario Duchesneau, Jocelyn Philibert and Catherine Sylvain.

Glendon Gallery joins with the Sagamie Centre, a national research and distribution centre of digital contemporary art in Alma, Quebec, for an exhibition of the work of several artists in residence, also to be presented in a publication. The four artists participating in this group exhibition address landscape as their central theme.

This exhibition is a companion event with the launching of the publication, in which artists, curators and theoreticians share their reflections around issues of the day and the implications of new instruments for digital creation on the realm of creative art.

April 5 to 16, 2010 – Glendon Art Class Annual Student Show

Opening Monday, April 5, 2010, from 6 to 8pm.

April 17 to 30, 2010 – York University MFA Student Exhibition

Opening Saturday, April 24, 2010, from 2 to 4pm.

Glendon Gallery is more than just a space, it is situated in a liberal arts institution where artists, professors and students, as well as Torontonians at large can discover the world and reflect on the ideas and events of our time, says Martine Rheault, coordinator of cultural and artistic affairs for the gallery.

“This year, 12 professional artists, as well as over 20 Glendon and York students will exhibit their work at the gallery. They come from many different backgrounds and locations, bringing their culture, language and their particular vision of the world. Our aim for the Glendon Gallery is to be a place for developing an interest in the ‘new’, where moments of happiness are shared and exchanged,” she says.

The Glendon Gallery is part of the Department of Student Services at Glendon College, York University, under the direction of Associate Principal Rosanna Fergiuele.

For more information, visit the Glendon Gallery Web site or call 416-487-6721.