Exhibitions

Earth Skins: Three Decades of Drawing by Susan Wood

13 January to 26 February

A retrospective exhibition which documents the production of Halifax artist Susan Wood, whose practice is devoted primarily to drawing. Her work of the past decade embodies the idea of finitude, reflecting on mortality and loss. A range of graphic techniques, often on textured handmade papers, begins within the frameworks of geography, museology and botanical illustration and broadens into an appreciation of the drawings as metaphors of entropy and death. This exhibition includes the dramatic series Devil’s Purse (1985) and Dress (1989-91), which were inspired by various stages of women’s corporeal experiences. The exhibition has been organized by the Mount St. Vincent University Art Gallery, guest curated by Susan Gibson Garvey.

Scarlet Tanagers 2. 1997, watercolour, ink, collage on paper. Collection of the Owens Art Gallery. Purchased with funds from the Canada Council Acquisition Assistance Program and the Friends of the Owens Art Gallery.

D'Arcy Wilson: Tuck

13 January to 26 February

Tuck is a multimedia installation by New Brunswick artist D'Arcy Wilson, which explores themes of absence, isolation, and vulnerability in western society’s postcolonial relationship with wildlife. In May 2011 the artist filmed a performance coinciding with a residency at the Banff Centre during which she sang lullabies to the taxidermied animals at the Banff Park Museum National Historic Site. As the artist notes: "This act offers an alternative to the liaison formed between the specimens and their creators (the hunters and taxidermists who prepared them a century ago). Nevertheless, there is perversity in both our actions: the animals were killed for display, and now I propose to sing them to sleep, overlooking their inability to abandon their posts".  The exhibition is accompanied by a brochure by guest-writer Rita McKeough. Organized by the Owens Art Gallery.