Realism & Drawing Exhibition 2020

​After Covid-19 related closures, we are returning to our 2020 exhibition schedule!

“Realism and Drawing” will be on display, in-person and online, from June 30th – July 18th 2020. 
 
Art is a way of communicating and these artists have chosen the genre of realism as their language. They convey ideas about beauty, emotion, resistance, history and connection between artist and audience. The collection includes paintings, sculptures and drawings, and highlights the importance of drawing, as study and finished work, within an artistic practice.

Landscape painter Denise Antaya was a finalist on “Landscape Artist of the Year Canada,” which premiered in early this year and is set to air again in the fall on CBC. The competition of artists from across the nation had contestants creating a finished work, on location, in 4 short hours. Realism painting is often very time-intensive, giving an added challenge to Denise during the competition!

Kristy Blackwell studied fine art at the University of Guelph. In 2007, after a career as a digital matte painter and compositor on over 60 feature films, Kristy returned to her passion of fine art and was inspired to experiment with various traditional techniques and materials. Blackwell blends realism with minimalism to create compelling compositions that reflect on the female experience. She uses elements of realism as an entry point for the viewer to creating a sense of familiarity among the patterns, lines and abstract elements.

Artist’s Sandra Murphy and Nancy Calder studied, alongside Denise Antaya, at the Academy of Realist Art in Toronto. Both artists have focused on still life compositions that incorporate vintage items. There are beautiful narratives tucked into each of Murphy and Calder’s still life paintings. Vintage scales and colourful farm-fresh eggs in Calder’s paintings are nostalgic and comforting. In one of Murphy’s paintings we see a doll given to the artist at age 6.

John Krygsman’s work creates an interesting dialogue between drawing and sculpture. The viewer can recognize the artist’s style in both mediums. Krygsman’s artistic outlook has been strongly impacted by the Covid 19 pandemic.

Pieces in the exhibition titled Separate and Separated are reflections of this time. The graphite and fiberglass sculpture was created previously but took on new meaning with social distancing that prevents us from embracing our loved ones. The accompanying drawing recalls a joyful family outing but with all figures distanced.

Brent Schreiber continues his Listen series, reflecting on the barrage of information in modern life. Schreiber works in graphite, charcoal or acrylic to render portraits of men and women wearing large headphones. Brent has been working on this series for over 5 years, but these recent paintings bring in a new approach of blending realism in the faces of the sitter and abstraction and looser brushwork elsewhere on the panel.