(Fredericton, NB) – The Beaverbrook Art Gallery is opening three major exhibitions featuring contemporary Canadian and Indigenous art, and four excellent exhibitions showcasing Atlantic Canadian art during a free public celebration on January 20th from 4 to 6 PM.
Beginning with Graeme Patterson: Strange Birds, curated by the gallery’s recently appointed Ray Cronin, Curator of Canadian Art, this thematic exhibition is an exciting new contemporary production for the Beaverbrook. In Strange Birds, Graeme’s sculptures are the settings for both a projected animation and a virtual reality environment. The starlings in Strange Birds are an invasive species, propagating uncontrollably until they overwhelm the fragile eco-system of the marshland. Eventually the sea overwhelms the world constructed by these strange birds, erasing all evidence of their presence, leaving just the water and a great blue heron who has acted as a kind of observer of the antics of the birds who settled in its ecosystem. These avatars reflect two aspects of the artist, and through his vision, we viewers can slip into his world, one which eerily mirrors our own.
“I’m thrilled to be working again with Graeme Patterson on his new exhibition Strange Birds.” says Cronin. “Graeme is one of this region’s most accomplished artists and I know that audiences at the Beaverbrook are going to love the ambition and the humour in his work.”
Opening alongside Strange Birds are two other major exhibitions: Working On It: New Canadian Sculpture Curated by Ray Cronin, and Kenojuak Ashevak: Life and Legacy, Organized by Dorset Fine Arts.
With a career spanning more than five decades, Cape Dorset artist Kenojuak Ashevak (1927-2013) was part of a pioneering generation of Inuit creators. She enjoyed an illustrious international career and continues to be recognized as one of Canada's preeminent artists and cultural icons. This national touring exhibition presents never-before-seen drawings from the archives of the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative, that inspired some of Kenojuak's most emblematic prints in stonecut, lithography and etching.
Working On It: New Canadian Sculpture addresses the relative lack in the Beaverbrook’s permanent collection of contemporary Canadian sculpture, with a selection of offered gifts, proposed purchases, and temporary loans from some of the most exciting Canadian sculptors working today. An art collection, like an art career, is a work in progress. Working on It: New Canadian Sculpture will provide a glimpse into how both can be fostered by New Brunswick’s provincial art gallery.
Visitors will also have the opportunity to view the following exhibitions during this celebration: Greg Charlton: Attic; Ian MacEachern: Black and White is Like Radio; Drawings by Sculptors; and Joseph Kashetsky: T-Shirts and Sweatshirts, 50 Years on.
“We are very pleased to open this diverse array of exhibitions to the public on January 20th. Ray’s addition to the Beaverbrook’s exhibition program will offer new perspectives on contemporary Canadian art that we are sure visitors will enjoy.” says Tom Smart, Director of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.
The public is invited to view all of these exhibitions, along with our permanent collection, during a free opening on Saturday, January 20th from 4 to 6 PM. Visitors can view the new exhibitions, enjoy refreshments from the Daily Espresso café, and browse our gift shop. No RSVP is necessary.
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Kenojuak Ashevak: Life and Legacy is sponsored by Cobalt Art Gallery.
The Beaverbrook Art Gallery enriches life through art
Media Contact
Curtis Richardson
Manager of Marketing and Communications
Beaverbrook Art Gallery
703 Queen Street, P.O. 605
Fredericton, NB E3B 5A6
