Opening Reception | Sunday March 26, 2017
The Monday Night Painters group was founded on Jan. 1, 2008 after they met while taking a Barry McCarthy workshop at the Elora Centre for the Arts. Their desire to continue painting as a group brought them together every Monday night in the Casson room of the ECFTA
Sophie Hogan, Mary Karavos, Jessica Masters and Laurie Skantzos come together to exhibit new works. These four artists explore their subject matter in a wide range of mediums including photography, pastel, paper and paint. The common thread is a dedication to their craft and a commitment to their unique vision.
Creative Direction Micaela Campbell & Bear Epp
March 2 – 26, 2017
Minarovich Gallery
Artworks on canvas build and unfold over time as artist-in-residence Meredith Blackmore paints “Crowds” from objects on loan from you. Visitors to this interactive exhibition are encouraged to become part of the art making process by bringing in items that fit the following categories: model cars, animal figurines, vases, boxes and other small objects used on a daily basis.
Creative Direction Bear Epp & Micaela Campbell
Opening reception & book launch | January 5, 7-9pm
In Being Here Now textile artist Maggie Vanderweit captures moments in time with her soft, earthy hues and organic, ethereal renderings in cloth. Creative Direction Bear Epp & Micaela Campbell
On behalf of the ECFTA and the artcetera 2014 committee we would like to thank our artists, patrons , community supporters and volunteers.
We are looking forward to a successful, creative and inspiring 2015 year at the ECFTA .
Please join us to up wrap up this year with an amazing show put on by the artists who contributed to our 2014 annual artcetera ; all works for sale in perfect time for the holidays.Opening reception December 4th 7-9 ; the exhibit runs from December 4th till December 20th.
It takes a village to keep a centre going and we truly appreciate ours. From us to you… Have a happy and safe holiday season. We can’t wait for whats in store for 2015.
The 2014 artcetera committee ,
Talia Event Co-ordinator |
Gail Richardson Event Co-Chair |
Amy Corner Event Co-Chair |
I’m Feeling Lucky
October 11th – November 29th 2014
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 11th 2pm – 4:30pm
Minarovich Gallery, Elora Centre for the Arts
Presenting the recipient of the 2014 Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators
Can an exhibition be curated using Google search? And if so, what are the implications on knowledge formation, art-world social structures, taste-making, and other pillars of curatorial practice?
I’m Feeling Lucky, a wry reference to Google’s gamble option, is an experimental curatorial project that questions both the assumed authority of a curator and the ubiquity of Google as an epistemological tool. Using a number of pre-determined factors including media, region, and three thematic terms—“memory,” “knowledge” and “history”—curators Natasha Chaykowski and Alison Cooley assembled works by artists from across North America. The resulting exhibition, I’m Feeling Lucky, offers to a formulaic riff on the typical contemporary exhibition vernacular, while also engaging with popular exhibition themes like memory and the history of knowledge. At times tenuous while at others serendipitous, the connections between selected artists suggest both the unruliness of Google algorithms as curatorial tools, as well as their potential as mechanisms of mystery, chance and coincidence.
Bringing together work by Zoë Heyn-Jones, Elizabeth MacKenzie, Leslie Pearson, Alana Riley and Jessica Wiebe, I’m Feeling Lucky functions on two planes; it is at once an exhibition of contemporary art that examines history and collective memory, and is simultaneously an exercise in questioning the currencies of exhibition production. The exhibition plays with ideas about the popularity of curating in a digital age, the mechanisms by which artists gain exposure, and the circulation of knowledge in contemporary art.
READ: I’m Feeling Lucky Curatorial Essay by Alison Cooley and Natasha Chaykowski
READ: I’m Feeling Lucky List of Works
In its second year, the Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators was set up to challenge and encourage young curators by offering entrants a chance to create an innovative exhibition at the Elora Centre for the Arts. A unique prize in the Canadian art world, the Elora Centre for the Arts sincerely thanks the Middlebrook Social Innovation Fund at the Centre Wellington Community Foundation for their support and dedication to contemporary artistic practice.
READ: Announcing the Winners of the 2014 Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators
ARCHIVE: 2013 Middlebrook Prize
Elora Centre for the Arts
75 Melville Street, Elora, ON N0B 1S0
519-846-9698
Gallery Hours
Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm
Saturday & Sunday, 12 – 4pm
Sundays after Oct 11, closed
Announcing the Winners of the 2014 Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators
Elora Centre for the Arts — We are pleased to announce that Alison Cooley and Natasha Chaykowski have been awarded the Elora Centre for the Arts’ second annual Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators. Their proposal, entitled “I’m Feeling Lucky”, was selected by a panel of three judges and seeks to query Google’s capacity as a curatorial tool.
“We wanted to know: can an exhibition be curated using Google search?” Cooley and Chaykowski wrote in their exhibition proposal. “And if so, what are the implications regarding knowledge formation, taste-making, and other conceptual pillars of curatorial practice?” They see the exhibition as both examining history and collective memory, and as an exercise in questioning curatorial authority. The title, “I’m Feeling Lucky,” is a wry reference to the now-extinct gamble option on the Google search page. Using a formulaic combination of key words, based upon things like region, medium and the overarching theme of memory and knowledge, the curators identified a number of artists; what remains most compelling about the results are the intricate and surprising connections among the arbitrary selection of works.
Both Cooley and Chaykowski are recent Master of Arts graduates who’ve worked as curators, editors and writers, while conducting independent and scholarly research.
In its second year, the Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators was set up to challenge and encourage young curators by offering entrants a chance to create an innovative exhibition at the Elora Centre for the Arts. A unique prize in the Canadian art world, the Middlebrook is funded by the Centre Wellington Community Foundation’s Middlebrook Social Innovation Fund. The Elora Centre for the Arts sincerely thanks the Middlebrook Social Innovation Fund at the Centre Wellington Community Foundation for their support and dedication to contemporary artistic practice.
“I’m Feeling Lucky” will be exhibited in the Minarovich Gallery, October 11 to December 1, 2014. The opening reception will be held Saturday, October 11 between 2pm and 4pm.
Elora Fergus Studio Tour Group Exhibition
September 18 – October 5, 2014
Opening Night: Thursday, Sept 18, 2014. 7 – 9:30pm
Have you ever wondered what an artist’s studio really looks like? Studio Tour is your chance to get a look behind the scenes. Take a self-guided tour over two consecutive weekends this fall and meet local artists where they live and work.
28th Annual Elora Fergus Studio Tour Weekends:
Saturday and Sunday, September 27 – 28 & October 4 – 5, 2014. 10am – 5pm
Studio Tour is completely free of charge. You’ll get a chance to meet directly with the artists and often see work not shown in gallery settings. You’ll visit the working spaces of both established and emerging artists, from basements to self contained studios. It is suggested that you begin your Studio Tour at the Elora Centre for the Arts where a group exhibition of all participating artists’ work is featured.
Also available at the Elora Centre for the Arts are:
• Studio Tour brochure with map and directions
• Tours of the heritage building
• Public washrooms
• Free Parking
Plan your trip! For more information, directions and artist spotlights go the Elora-Fergus Studio Tour website: www.elorafergusstudiotour.com
Artist’s participating in the 2014 Elora-Fergus Studio Tour are:
Elora Centre for the Arts
75 Melville Street, Elora ON N0B 1S0
519-846-9698
Gallery Hours
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
Saturday & Sunday, 12 – 4pm, 10am – 5pm during Studio Tour weekends
July 19 to September 7, 2014
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 19, 2 to 4pm
Curated by Tarin Hughes
Within their individual practices Groat and Hobot investigate presence and absence, whether through collage and object-based sculpture or through formal, observational painting. Groat’s work and research are concerned with the margin and the centre, shared histories and the role of the explorer. This broad scope of interest combines with Groat’s usage of circles, mirrors, and field chairs projecting imbued and associative meaning and ultimately, a simultaneously traditional yet futuristic artist/explorer. Similarly, Hobot considers herself a vehicle or transmitter of the void, the beneath, the interior. While she maintains a formal, abstract drawing practice, the artist’s hand is not prescriptive or communicative, instead she creates a space facilitating the possibility of getting out of the body, experiencing the void, the life of what lies behind the surface.
Together Groat and Hobot’s exhibition at ECFTA investigates curiosity, possibility, life and form. The artist’s works, however divergent, weave a dialogue between their practices, their individual means of exploration and their shared pursuits.
MEDIA: Canadian Art Must-Sees This Week, July 17 – 23, 2014
MEDIA: Akimblog Exhibition Review by Kim Neudorf, July 22, 2014
About the Artists
Maggie Groat is a visual artist working in a variety of media including collage, sculpture, artists’ books, site-specific interventions, and field studies. Forming an ongoing research-based practice, her work explores studies for possible futures, relationships and reconnections to Indigenous land and the interdisciplinary potential of artistic intervention and envisioning. Maggie studied visual art and philosophy at York University before attending The University of Guelph, where she received an MFA degree in 2010. She is represented by Erin Stump Projects in Toronto. www.maggiegroat.com
Barbara Hobot produces sculptures and works on paper with the assumption that they have a mind of their own. This seemingly preposterous belief allows her to imagine what an inorganic decision might look like. Her responsiveness to the potential energy of materials guides some of her creative decisions, as do ancient and contemporary ideas about the characteristics of matter. Hobot holds a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Waterloo and is currently an MFA candidate at Western University, London. She has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally with recent exhibitions at Art Mûr, Montreal; Harbourfront Centre, Toronto; Galerie Kurt im Hirsch, Berlin; and Chiellerie Gallery, Amsterdam. She has participated in residencies in Canada, the United States, and Europe and is the recipient of awards from the Ontario Arts Council among other foundations. www.barbarahobot.com
July 14 to August 16, 2014
Installation opening Saturday, July 19, 2 to 4pm
Solaris works within a modernist tradition of geometric, non-objective art reminiscent of early abstractionists. Solaris re-imagines prosaic objects like giant industrial plastic bags or empty prescription pill bottles, transforming them from their original function into calming vistas of linearity. Making use of the detritus of contemporary products, she subtly subverts the noise and busyness of everyday life into tranquil and contemplative sculptural images. The disorder of debris is ordered into a harmonic visual language which utilizes minimal information to bring about feelings of serenity in the viewer.
During her residency at the Elora Centre for the Arts Solaris will explore ceramics working in our pottery studio. Solaris began a body of work involving ceramics in 2009, this residency will enable Solaris to experiment with the medium and interact with the numerous potters and sculptors in Centre Wellington.
About the Artist
Sophia Solaris was born in Germany and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe in 2011. She had her first solo exhibition in Canada at Cambridge Galleries in 2011 and since then continues to show both in Canada and Germany. She currently lives in Kitchener, Ontario. http://www.sophiasolaris.com/
© Elora Centre for the Arts. Site by Digital Chaos Inc.