(Fredericton, NB) – The Beaverbrook Art Gallery is excited to open six new exhibitions on Saturday, October 28 with a public celebration from 4 to 6 PM with admission by donation.
Visitors to the gallery will have the opportunity to view and celebrate the opening of the following exhibitions: Studio Watch: Rotchild Choisy – “Strike a pause / pose or wear your emotions!; Omar Gandhi Architects; Creativity from Adversity: The 1902 Keough Wall Paintings; Escape: Art from New Brunswick's Internment Camp; Vision & Dialogue: Jennifer Pazienza and Paul Édouard Bourque; and wesuwe-tpelomosu.
With a variety of exhibitions opening, visitors to the Beaverbrook will enjoy a range of artistic styles, from paintings on canvas and plaster walls, to architectural sketches, construction photos, drawings and physical models, sculptures, and more. “This opening is an excellent opportunity to come to the Beaverbrook and view styles of art that are infrequently shown at the gallery.” Says Tom Smart, Director and CEO of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.
We’re excited to announce that Studio Watch is back this year! The 2023 Studio Watch Emerging Artist exhibition features Rotchild Choisy whose exhibition “Strike a pause / pose or wear your emotions!” will be on display in the Emerging Artists Gallery. The drawings comprising this exhibition by Rotchild Choisy, an emerging, multidisciplinary artist living in Riverview, New Brunswick, explore the way multiple identities can be formed and performed by wearing masks in social situations and in private.
A keen observer of human interaction, Choisy is an attentive student of how moods, feelings, cultural mores, sexuality, memories, and experiences all inform the body’s gestures and postures, and are portents of how one might navigate the future. They express his responses to the unseen forces he faces, laid down as poems and dances that affect the figures’ attitudes.
The Studio Watch Emerging Artists Exhibition is generously supported by Sandy and Earle Brewer.
Travelling to the gallery is Omar Ghandi Architects, an exhibition showcasing the work of Ghandi’s Halifax-based firm, which is known for blending contemporary architectural styles with rural vernacular influences, and for sensitivity to the natural landscape of Canada’s Atlantic coast, where the majority of his work is found. The exhibition will include 32 large-scale photographs, 23 beautiful hand-crafted architectural models, and one custom-designed architectural enclosure by Omar Gandhi Architects.
“I'm honored to showcase our studio's work for the first time, curated by John Leroux. Our exhibition captures a moment in our studio's evolution, offering introspection into our architectural journey. We aim to make architecture relatable and enjoyable, emphasizing its functional and emotional aspects, inviting the public to connect with our creations.” Says Omar Gandhi, owner of Omar Gandhi Architects.
John Leroux, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery's Manager of Collections and Exhibitions, himself a retired architect, acknowledges that "the recent work by Omar Gandhi Architects is some of the most innovative and exciting architectural designs to have ever come out of Atlantic Canada. It is no surprise to me that Omar and his office are held in such high international regard. They care deeply about people, place, and the craft of building.”
Creativity from Adversity: The 1902 Keough Wall Paintings, organized in collaboration with Kings Landing, features large paintings were found on the walls of the third-floor attic of the Keough Family home in Blackville, New Brunswick. The eldest son, John, suffering from tuberculosis in 1902, was isolated there for many months, and possibly several years. John’s response was to paint the plaster walls, doors, blinds, and anything handy. The results are fascinating: paintings of explorers, historic figures, and women he was rumored to have lovingly admired.
Escape: Art from New Brunswick's Internment Camp curated in partnership with Dr. Todd Caissie, Director of the NB Internment Camp Museum who will be at the gallery to give a presentation on the exhibition at 3 PM before the opening. Originally, B70 Internment Camp about 25 miles outside Fredericton was home to German and Austrian Jews who fled the Nazis during the Second World War. Later, it became a prisoner-of-war camp. Escape presents a collection of artworks that explore the metaphorical escape from the painful reminders of internment behind barbed wire.
New Brunswick artists Jennifer Pazienza and Paul Édouard Bourque will also be at the Beaverbrook to open their two-person exhibition Vision & Dialogue. The artists celebrate the power of conversation in Vision & Dialogue that features their distinct and complementary views on painting and drawing, landscape, and portraiture. At once critical and poetic, themes of identity and of explicit and implied human presence infuse their unique compositional styles. Place, friendship, and the fluidity of time punctuate the narrative threads of this dynamic duet exhibition.
wesuwe-tpelomosu, curated by Emma Hassencahl-Perley, examines modern matriarchy from examples of Indigenous women's leadership, self-determination, and activism within their families and communities. In Wolastoqey latuwewakon, wesuwe-tpelomosu translates to "returning to a former condition in being responsible for oneself.”
Featuring the art of Lisa-Maude Aubin, Shirley Bear, Chief Lady Bird, Catherine Blackburn, Samaqani Cocahq (Natalie Sappier), Vienna Francis (Sanipass), Larissa Kitchemonia, Caroline Monnet, David Neel, and Roger Simon, this group exhibition considers the gendered experiences of Indigenous mothers and grandmothers and how they utilize their voices to rally against settler colonialism.
The public is invited to view all these exhibitions, along with the many other excellent exhibitions that are opening this month listed above, during a free opening on Saturday, October 28th 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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The Beaverbrook Art Gallery enriches life through art
Media Contacts
Rachel Forrestall
Marketing Coordinator
Beaverbrook Art Gallery
703 Queen Street, P.O. 605
Fredericton, NB E3B 5A6
