Thames Art Gallery 2019 Exhibitions
What Motivates Her?
Allyson Mitchell and Madelyne Beckles
January 18 - March 10, 2019
The work of Allyson Mitchell and Madelyne Beckles leverages traditional domestic practices such as craft techniques and found objects into new meaning. Using a destabilizing humour, this collaborative installation addresses complicated negotiations with politics and identity, particularly when the impetus is on bringing gender and racial inequality into focus.
Breathing Room
Instant Places (Ian Birse and Laura Kavanaugh)
March 15 - May 5, 2019
In this new intermedia installation, artists Ian Birse and Laura Kavanaugh use performance, generative installation and telematics networks to create “instant places” of imagination and connection. The artists design software instruments that generate infinitely varied audio-visual works, transforming the gallery into an immersive environment in which visitors will not see or hear the same thing twice.
Rectangular World
Andrew J Paterson
March 15- May 5, 2019
Concerned with tensions between bodies, technologies and institutions, James Paterson engages in a playful questioning of language, philosophy, community and capitalism. His video or media works over the past decade use original and manipulated still-images often resembling colour-field paintings. Poetic and multi-layered, these early video works push the limits of the medium in unexpected, surprising and engaging ways.
Home
Economics
May 15 - June 30, 2019
Home Economics explores the unique stories and histories that have informed hooked rugs in Canada, the highly recognizable forms of folk art with roots in 19th-century North America. Selected from the Textile Museum of Canada’s rich archive of international material culture, the exhibition represents generations of artisanal entrepreneurship, women’s domestic and collective work, as well as rural development in Canada
Painting with Wool
Karen Dysarz
May 15 - June 30, 2021
Artist Talk: June 14, 2019
Artist Karen Dysarz vibrantly expresses the traditions and techniques of the celebrated craft of rug-hooking. Working intuitively, Dysarz creates beautifully intricate mats that are often biographical in nature, presenting a truly unique expression of historical and contemporary narratives.
We Come In Pieces
Remix Collective
July 12- August 25, 2019
Panel Talk: July 27, 2019
The Remix Collective consists of five Canadian artists from three provinces. Coming from very different backgrounds but sharing an affinity for Outsider art practices, these artists collectively dismiss premeditated ideas of what art should be in favour of embracing unbridled creativity.
The Best Defense
Kelly Kirkham
July 12- August 25, 2019
Artist Kelly Kirkham constructs whimsical sculptures and darkly humorous installations based on futuristic hybridized creatures. In The Best Defense, Kirkham takes the viewer with her on this ongoing exploration of the ways in which we protect ourselves, and receive protection from others.
Fireworks 2019
August 30 - October 20, 2019
Fireworks 2019, a celebratory exhibition of handcrafted works in clay and glass was organized by FUSION: The Ontario Clay and Glass Association. The talent and creative spirit of Fusion members is well recognized. Highlighting handcrafted, diverse and unique works of art, this exhibition stands as a testament to the vitality, originality and inventiveness of today's practicing crafts community.
Fuel
August 30 - October 20, 2019
As vast and varied as the ceramic world is, so are the artists coming together in this exhibition. Fuel is a material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as heat or power, the last step in the making of ceramic. In return, the ceramic itself fuels the artists’ inspiration to produce objects that reflect their personal journey, and their reverence to the process of making.
First You Need a Fire: The Raku Ceramic Artwork of Melvyn Malkin
August 30 - October 20, 2019
Directed by Anna Malkin
A look at Raku Ceramic Artist, Melvyn Malkin. This documentary screening progresses through Malkin's process from construction and bisque firing to glazing and reduction firing. Malkin talks about his prairie landscape inspired work and the technical development of his unique glazing and reduction firing techniques.
Ontario Juried
Exhibition 2019
October 25, 2019 - January 5, 2020
The jury is in! The Thames Art Gallery is excited to open the 2019 edition of this much-anticipated bi-annual exhibition featuring 20 artists selected by guest juror Matthew Ryan Smith.