The summer show at Artful : The Gallery features a curated collection of eight local artists: James O’Reilly, Kathy Nash, Fatlind Melani, Martha Jablonski-Jones, John Janzen, Dave Ingram, Ian Fry and Kristina Campbell.
The exhibition includes a wide variety of mediums and methods including painting, photography, multimedia collage, bookmaking and experimental video production, all gathered together under one theme: location, location, location! Each of these artists has a particular way of speaking to the question of “Where am I?” Here, there, nowhere, somewhere — as each artist creates, there is a melding of past, present and future.
Each piece represents a unique space and time. A moment captured by the artist and transformed into a visual memory: a shaft of light, a lingering scent, or the absence of something becoming more meaningful than what is present. Clarity and ambiguity evoke thoughts and feelings, and thus begins a conversation between two intuitions, those of the artist and of the viewer.
Each artist wants to take you somewhere and show you something important to them. Like a child offering their open hand, “Can I show you what I found?” This collection of work will ignite memory and nostalgia for other spaces and times, and generate a multitude of emotional responses; from curiosity to anxiety, ambivalence to wonder.
Curiously, both space and time are infinite intangibles, defined only by their containers. And yet, these intangibles are the very things with which we construct our identities, rituals and traditions; we use them to organize and communicate knowledge, experience and location.
If art (and the artist) has courage enough, it can exist in liminal space; the place between artist and viewer, strong enough to hold both the intentions of the artist and the projections of the viewer. Expanding and integrating as these two worlds collide with curiosity and connection, the air at the intersection is palpable, and inhaling fills you with the recognition of “ahhhh….this moment, this place.”
Locality: Space and Time runs through the summer to Sept. 17 at Artful : The Gallery.
Artful : The Gallery is a vibrant contemporary art gallery in Courtenay, owned and operated by local multi-media artist Kristina Campbell.
It’s located at 526C Cumberland Rd.
Follow Artful : The Gallery on Instagram at @artfulthegallery or visit their website at www.artfulthegallery.com.
