GALLERY CURRENTLY CLOSED BETWEEN EXHIBITIONS

Contact us by email: gallery@smu.ca 

Installation/creation of THIRD ELBOW will keep the gallery space closed to the public until April 23th. Please join us for the opening reception on Monday, April 22nd from 6-9pm!

Keep up with our activities by visiting our instagram @smugallery.

PAST:

FREE MEAT

Charvel Rappos & Bijan Ramezani: 14 January to 17 March 2024

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PITCHPOLE

William Robinson

A multi-media exhibition with video, sound, and sculptural components. Pitchpole investigates and interprets nautically-themed compositional and poetic works associated with Bas Jan Ader’s 1975 iconic work, and tragic transatlantic voyage, In Search of the Miraculous. As a sound and video-based installation, Pitchpole musically and cinematically transforms Henry Russell’s vocal composition A Life On The Ocean Wave and Johanna Adriana Ader-Appels’ poem of Memoriam From the Deep Waters of Sleep.

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KALEIDOSCOPE: a look at the permanent collection

a variegated changing pattern or scene

a succession of changing phases

a diverse collection

Fifty years in the making, Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery has a diverse Permanent Collection. Its focus is on contemporary Canadian art, favoring artists with connections to Nova Scotia, Saint Mary’s University and/or NSCAD University. In this exhibition we are featuring artwork recently added to the collection, some of which will be on display for the first time in our gallery space. In addition, we chose past acquisitions that share and compliment both visually and conceptually. Can you trace the visual themes? How about the conceptual ones? Please use our comment book or post on Instagram (@smugallery) to share with us.

Curators: Pam Corell, Adam Myatt, Mitchell Wiebe

Artists: David and Kyla Ready- Askevold, Jordan Bennett, Gerard Choy, Charlotte Lindgren, Amy Lockhart, Susanne MacLachlan, Andrew Maize, Leo Naugler, Daniel Olson, Amin, Rehman

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CRAFTS___SHIP

Carley Mullally, Gillian Maradyn-Jowsey and Inbal Newman

February 4 to April 16 2023

Opening Reception: Friday, February 3 from 6-9

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Crafts___Ship brings you into a world…

Where quilts are made out of lobster bands and bait bags.

Where red flames adorn a yellow dory and female mariners have their own flags.

Where hooked rugs show imagery of uncollected collectables.

Where forgotten domestic objects are re-imagined into contemporary colourful ceramic.

Where retired fishing line is re-employed as pom poms.

Where vessels have new purpose.

Where an intended use of a thing doesn’t define it or assign it value.

Where process makes perfect.

JIM: Jack Bishop, Ivan Murphy, Mitchell Wiebe

Exhibition: October 1 to December 11, 2022

You are here to meet JIM.

Let me introduce you. I first met JIM just over a year ago in the common area of the artists’ studios on the second floor of the Army Navy Surplus store on Agricola in North End Halifax. He was born up there, but some time before I made his acquaintance. The purpose for my visit was to see my friend and colleague, artist Mitchell Wiebe. It turned out he was one-third JIM. He kept that to himself for the time being as we walked around and chatted about what he was working on. He gestured towards a lively abstract leaning on one of the various storage racks that are built outside the studio spaces. It had a recognizable feature: the iconic red staircase that leads up to the studios from the side door of the Army Navy store.

“This is JIM.” I remember him saying. It took more information before I caught on, as things usually do when in conversation with Mitchell. “JIM who?” I think I said next.

JIM who indeed.

It was pre-pandemic, 2017-ish, and it wasn’t planned. Actually, it began as more of a diversion. Jack Bishop had only got his studio space a year or so before. Ivan Murphy had been there going on five years. Mitchell Wiebe’s arrival was in the middle. JIM’s beginnings were first as a band name. All three are also musically inclined, and during painting breaks ideas were floated about forming a band. Who plays what? That is up for interpretation as is the intention to ever actually play together. It was entertaining enough to just imagine having a bunch of swag made up emblazoned with the tantalizingly faceless name. However, according to Mitchell: “Well - a dream band scenario would be Jack on Casio keyboard, Ivan on drums and I might wield the guitbox!” This is the beauty of the Army Navy Surplus Store Studios. For years this space has brought together artists from all points in their careers, and across all mediums. They come for studio space, but if they want, they also get comradery. These three arrived at different times,but have been studio neighbors in this space for over seven years.

Eventually, JIM developed a physical presence in the form of JIM Studio Staircase. Made with acrylic, oil, spray paint, foam and tape, this was the first collaboration. For over four years, as it slowly came into being, it hung in the hallway next to the back stairs. A placement that still brings a smile (hello, a

painting with stairs next to stairs). I think you get where this is going.

In this exhibition you’ll see individual work both old and new from each artist. Sprinkled in amongst those are paintings that all three have worked on. Happily, a lot of the collaboration has happened right here in this space. They set up their studios here at the end of July and have been working ever since to bring JIM to life.

These three artists are obviously individuals. They have distinct styles, but clearly possess one essential sameness: they are painters that love the physicality of paint. As do I. It is among many extra special things in our world that cannot be accurately captured on a screen. A digital image can give an idea of a painting, but you must see the texture, the buildup, the layers, to actually see it. And, you have to spend time with it. A really good abstract painting takes you to different places at different times. Each time you come back to it and approach it from another angle or in varying light, you can always see something new.

It is a dream come true for me to see so many paint cans, tubes and full palettes at various stages of use in our space. And, it warms my heart to play a small part in the growth of JIM.

Pam Corell, Assistant Curator, Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery