Mendelog

For Immediate Release:

3:30 p.m., Friday, April 3, 2009

NEW ART GALLERY AT RIVER LANDING

The Saskatoon Gallery and Conservatory Corporation and the City of Saskatoon are embarking on a journey to develop a new public art gallery as the destination attraction at River Landing.

The Board of Directors of the Gallery and Conservatory Corporation has unanimously approved in principle pursuing construction of a new art gallery at River Landing rather than expanding at the current location, Dr. Art Knight, Chair of the gallery board, told a press conference today.

“A new gallery, to be known as the Art Gallery of Saskatchewan (AGS) is being proposed for federal infrastructure funding under the project category of sport and culture,” Mayor Don Atchison told the press conference. “The project will be dependent on federal funding and necessary notification of the project has been made. The City remains committed to funding their proportional share of the project.”

Thus far, the Gallery’s transformation has received a commitment of $4.6 million from the City of Saskatoon. The provincial government had previously committed $4.1 million from the Building Communities Program to the Saskatoon Gallery and Conservatory Corporation. The Gallery Board of Trustees remains committed to raising $6 to $8 million from the private sector.

The AGS would be built adjacent to Persephone Theatre for a cost estimated at $55 million, and, in the Mayor’s words: “We are ready to go.” Shovels can be in the ground constructing the first phase of the project – a 250-stall underground parking structure – this year. The parking structure was envisioned when Persephone Theatre was built and will serve all of River Landing.

“The arrival of the Art Gallery of Saskatchewan at River Landing is a bold and imaginative vision capable of building an epicenter of arts and culture,” Mayor Atchison said. “This alignment symbolizes the new Saskatoon, bringing together a new place for art with a new destination for people. The result is a defining moment that will shape our city for the century ahead.”

The expanded, purpose-built art gallery will meet the needs of a growing Saskatoon, Knight said.

“As every growing family experiences, there is a moment in life when the time is right to move to a new and bigger home,” Knight said. “Construction of a new and expanded art gallery makes more financial sense, and delivers a better end result, than wrestling with renovation.”

Separate and independent projects for a River Landing destination attraction and an expanded art gallery ultimately don’t make as solid economic sense as a joint project, Mayor Atchison said. “There simply aren’t enough dollars from either governments or private donors to fund many different riverbank projects. A co-operative approach – where the gallery is the destination centre is a more elegant solution for Saskatoon and the people of Saskatchewan.”

The Conservatory will remain at its current location and the old gallery building, owned by the City, will become available to house an organization or organizations which better fit within the existing space. When major expansion of the building is not required, as would have been necessary to accommodate the art gallery, the old building can be easily upgraded to continue to serve Saskatoon residents. 

For further information contact:

Vincent Varga

Executive Director

Saskatoon Gallery and Conservatory Corporation

306-975-7612

Media Release MR2009-04
For Immediate Release: January 15, 2009

2008 RBC Canadian Painting Competition

Exhibition: January 16–February 1, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday, January 16, 2009 at 8pm

The exhibition of the 2008 RBC Canadian Painting Competition makes a brief two-week stop at the Mendel Art Gallery as part of its cross-country tour. The exhibition opens on Friday, January 16, 2009 at 8pm as part of the Mendel’s winter exhibition season. The show continues on view until February 1, 2009.

Established in 1999, the RBC Canadian Painting Competition is a tribute to Canada’s artistic talent, and is the largest competition of its kind in Canada. The competition supports and nurtures Canadian visual artists early in their careers by providing them with a forum to display their artistic talent to the country. This exhibition features the 15 artists in the 2008 edition of the competition, selected by jury from over 1,200 entries nationally.

This exhibition will give Saskatoon viewers a sample of the best young painters from across Canada. Mendel Chief Curator Dan Ring says, “It’s great that RBC has been supporting young artists with its Canadian Painting Competition for a decade. We’re delighted to be part of the tenth anniversary tour.”

In September 2008 Jeremy Hof of Vancouver was announced as the national winner of the competition for his work entitled layer painting red. Honourable mentions were awarded to Amanda Reeves for Untitled 03 2008 and Wil Murray for Sexe Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac. The national winner and the honourable mentions were awarded purchase prizes, and their works will become part of the RBC’s Canadian art collection.

This year, in honour of the tenth anniversary of the competition, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor-General of Canada, has lent her patronage to the event and the 12 semi-finalists’ works will become part of the Canadiana Fund’s Crown Collection. These paintings will be displayed in the Official Residences including Rideau Hall, 24 Sussex Drive, Harrington Lake, Stornoway, and others.

The exhibition of the 2008 RBC Canadian Painting Competition is presented by RBC in collaboration with the Canadian Art Foundation. Since opening in September 2008 at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the exhibition has toured to Québec, Ontario, and Newfoundland. After its presentation at the Mendel, the exhibition will conclude its tour with stops at the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton and the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver.

The exhibition and opening reception are free, open to the public, and will be held at the Mendel Art Gallery, 950 Spadina Crescent East in Saskatoon. Everyone is welcome!

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Media Release MR2009-03
For Immediate Release: January 13, 2009

Jean-Pierre Gauthier: Machines at Play

Exhibition: January 16–March 29, 2009
Artist’s Talk/Tour: Friday, January 16, 2009 at 7pm
Opening Reception: Friday, January 16, 2009 at 8pm

The exhibition Machines at Play by Montréal artist Jean-Pierre Gauthier opens at the Mendel Art Gallery on Friday, January 16, 2009. The artist will give a free talk/tour of the exhibition at 7pm on opening night, followed by the official opening of the Mendel’s winter exhibitions at 8pm. The show continues on view until March 29, 2009.

In Gauthier’s hands, pipefittings, funnels, and electrical wires are transformed into an astonishing investigation of order and chaos, permanence and fragility, usefulness and gratuitousness. Machines at Play presents three large automated drawing machines that produce graphite drawings on the gallery walls, and a new kinetic and sound installation created specifically for the Mendel Art Gallery presentation of this touring exhibition. These artworks start moving when you come near them, and stop when you walk away.

Gauthier’s highly innovative practice incorporates visual arts and audio exploration. His kinetic installations combine humour and poetry in a highly rigorous artistic approach that examines the reciprocal relations between installation, sound, and everyday objects. Examples of his work in motion can be seen (and heard) on YouTube. Mendel curator Jen Budney says, “Gauthier’s work seems alive the way other sculpture doesn’t—his objects seems to possess a will of their own.”

Jean-Pierre Gauthier has been active on the contemporary art scene since the mid-1990s, when he quickly gained recognition for the inventiveness of his work. He was born in Matane, Québec in 1965, and lives and works in Montréal. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions in Québec and the rest of Canada as well as in the United States and Europe. In 2004 he was the winner of the prestigious Sobey Art Award, and in 2005 he received the Victor-Martyn-Lynch-Staunton Award, presented by the Canada Council for the Arts to an artist in mid-career.

Curated by Pierre Landry, this exhibition is organized and circulated by the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. The national tour of the exhibition has been made possible through a contribution from the Museums Assistance Program, Department of Canadian Heritage.

All events are free, open to the public, and will be held at the Mendel Art Gallery, 950 Spadina Crescent East in Saskatoon. Everyone is welcome!

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Media Release MR2009-02
For Immediate Release: January 12, 2009

Hysteria and the Body

Organized by the National Gallery of Canada
Curated by Josée Drouin-Brisebois

The Mendel Art Gallery is pleased to host Hysteria and the Body, an exhibition of art by prominent Canadian and international artists from the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.

Exhibition: January 16–March 29, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday, January 16, 2009 at 8pm
Talk/Tour & Panel Discussion: Saturday, February 7, 2009 at 11:30am

In the late nineteenth century, the burgeoning fields of psychology and psychiatry paid increasing attention to hysteria, a functional disturbance of the nervous system which they deemed a “female malady”. Yet, since the 1970s, many contemporary women artists—and some male artists—have mimicked hysteria as an act of resistance to traditional gender roles.

Hysteria and the Body focuses on artworks from the 1970s through the 1990s, mainly by women artists, in its investigation of representations of the body, gender and identity. Including sculpture, video, artist books, printmaking, drawing and photography, the exhibition disrupts conventional ways of viewing the body and our preconceptions of “normal” behaviour.

Important artists from Canada and around the world are featured in this exhibition, including Jana Sterbak (Canada), Nicole Jolicoeur (Canada), Shelagh Keeley (Canada), Vito Acconci (USA), Louise Bourgeois (France), Marina Abramovic (Serbia), and Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland). The exhibition explores both widely shared themes, for example, aging and motherhood, and more specific issues associated with individual identity.

Hysteria and the Body Talk/Tour and Panel Discussion

Saturday, February 7, 2009 at 11:30am

The Mendel presents That’s Hysterical?! Embodying Reason and Dis-ease, a free talk/tour and panel discussion of the exhibition Hysteria and the Body. Josée Drouin-Brisebois, Curator of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Canada will give a talk/tour of the exhibition. Dr. Linda McMullen, Professor of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan will speak about the hysteria/depression nexus in recent decades. Dr. Len Findlay, Professor of English and Director of Humanities, University of Saskatchewan will speak about the construction of hysteria in the arts through the ages. Other panelists are TBA. This event is presented in conjunction with the University of Saskatchewan Humanities Research Unit.

All events are free, open to the public, and will be held at the Mendel Art Gallery, 950 Spadina Crescent East in Saskatoon. Everyone is welcome!

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Media Release MR2009-01
For Immediate Release: January 7, 2009

The Mendel launches its winter exhibition season with a public opening reception on Friday, January 16 at 8pm. On view are three significant exhibitions on tour from across Canada:

• Hysteria and the Body features work by prominent national and international artists from the National Gallery of Canada’s collection of contemporary art. The works deal with issues of representing the body, gender, and identity. The exhibition includes pieces by Louise Bourgeois, Jana Sterbak, Pipilotti Rist, Marina Abramovic, Vito Acconci, and others. Hysteria and the Body is organized by the National Gallery of Canada.
• Jean-Pierre Gauthier: Machines at Play presents an overview of the work of award-winning Montréal artist Jean-Pierre Gauthier. The exhibition includes a number of kinetic installations which produce graphite drawings on the gallery walls. Machines at Play is organized by the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.
• RBC 2008 Canadian Painting Competition features the 15 artists in the 2008 RBC Canadian Painting Competition. The exhibition, which is touring across the country, will only be on view at the Mendel for two weeks. On view until Sunday, February 1, 2009.

Also opening on January 16 is Linked, an exhibition created as part of the Mendel’s artistsbyartists program featuring Linda Knight mentored by Saskatoon sculptor Don Hefner. This exhibition presents a collaborative sculptural installation that makes cross-cultural links between past, present, and future.

Except for the RBC 2008 Canadian Painting Competition show, all exhibitions are on view January 16 through March 29, 2009. Other events this exhibition season include:

• Talk/tour of Jean-Pierre Gauthier: Machines at Play: Friday, January 16, 2009 at 7pm.
  Artist Jean-Pierre Gauthier will give a talk/tour of his solo exhibition.
• Talk/tour and Panel Discussion of Hysteria and the Body: Saturday, February 7, 2009
  In conjunction with the University of Saskatchewan’s Humanities Research Unit, the Mendel presents a free talk/tour and panel discussion of the exhibition Hysteria and the Body. Josée Drouin-Brisebois, Curator of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Canada will give a talk/tour of the exhibition. Dr. Linda McMullen, Professor of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan will speak about the hysteria/depression nexus in recent decades. Dr. Len Findlay, Professor of English and Director of Humanities, University of Saskatchewan will speak about the construction of hysteria in the arts through the ages.

All events are free, open to the public, and will be held at the Mendel Art Gallery, 950 Spadina Crescent East in Saskatoon. Everyone is welcome!

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