Photos by Wendy Shepherd
Students, fans, and critics braved frigid temperatures and icy driving conditions to experience three new exhibitions at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre (MSAC) on Jan. 23, 2014. Featuring pieces from Monica Tap, Ron Shuebrook, and Baroque-era artist Claude Lorrain, the opening reception drew in an audience of 100 people, including members of the local community, students from the University of Guelph, and colleagues, family, and friends of both Tap and Shuebrook.
Held in the sprawling atrium, inner galleries, and two floors of the MSAC, visitors were greeted with a relaxed atmosphere as they took in each piece.
Lorrain’s Ink and Light: The Etchings of Claude Lorrain featured a collection of 40 prints drawn from a selection of his works found within The Brink Collection. Renowned for his interpretation of the French and English landscape, yet relatively ignored by contemporary collectors and art historians, Lorrain’s work is now considered one of the most important contributions to the establishment of 17th and 18th century aesthetics in England.
Having given rise to English pictorialism in art and landscape architecture, Lorrain’s work has influenced schools of thought that have reached through the 19th and 20th centuries.
With gratitude to Andrew and Helen Brink for gifting the collection to MSAC, Lorrain’s exhibit will be on display until Mar. 30, 2014.
Tap’s Monica Tap: the pace of days, was specially curated for the MSAC, and features 16 pieces from her expansive collection, including the pace of days pieces and the One-second Hudson series.
Tap traveled through the landscape of Santiago de Compostela for 36 days, creating 72 paintings in pairs to commemorate the trip. These 36 pairs comprise the pace of days collection.
Utilizing individual frames from a series of QuickTime videos captured through windshields and windows along the Hudson River, the One-Second Hudson series is Tap’s interpretation of the landscape she witnessed.
“I live in Toronto and work in Guelph, so I commute and I have a lot of time to think about the landscape,” explained Tap. “I’ve travelled across the country a few times and it becomes clear pretty quickly that the experience of the landscape is mediated by a windshield or a screen unless you’re a hard-core camper or hiker. I was trying to use the canvas to collapse centuries onto one canvas.”
Curated by MSAC’s acting director Dawn Owen, the Tap exhibition will be on display until April 6, 2014.
Shuebrook’s Ron Shuebrook: Drawings is a collection of the Guelph-based artist’s intricate monochromatic drawings utilizing charcoal on rag paper. Featuring 22 drawings, Shuebrook’s exhibit is matched by a concurrent exhibition entitled Ron Shuebrook: Paintings, on display at the Boarding House Gallery in downtown Guelph from Feb. 1 to Mar. 8.
“The Shuebrook exhibition is part of a five-venue national tour, produced and circulated by the Thames Art Gallery (Chatham-Kent). The MSAC is the second venue on the tour,” explained Owen. “We received special funding support from the Guelph Community Foundation through the Musagetes Fund, which helped us to present the Shuebrook exhibition at MSAC.”
Curated by John Kissick, the director of the School of Fine art and Music (SOFAM) at the University of Guelph, Shuebrook’s exhibit at MSAC will be on display until April 27, 2014.
“The Shuebrook and Tap exhibitions, like most exhibition projects, were created over long periods of time,” explained Owen. “As a gallery that is committed to contemporary art practice, we work with artists on exhibitions that include new and recent examples of their art, which are planned in 3 year cycles, giving the artists the opportunity to make new work.”
Though much of Tap’s work is featured at the MSAC, this is her first large-scale exhibition held in Guelph.
“[Tap’s] work has been shown in numerous group exhibitions since the late 90s,” said Owen. “The Tap exhibition features a series of vibrant new paintings, as well as selected works from the last 15 years. Tap is a SOFAM faculty artist (Associate Professor of Painting) at the University of Guelph.”
Both Shuebrook and Tap were present at the reception, and gave brief speeches to commemorate the event. They were also available to answer questions throughout the evening.
The MSAC is excited to be featuring the works of all three artists, and encourages all students at the university to experience the creations of the three seminal artists.
“At the gallery, we strive to create a narrative among our exhibitions, so that visitors can have a cohesive experience and move in a logical way from exhibition to exhibition,” explained Owen. “[We encourage] gallery goers to find their own narrative and understanding of the art works.
In addition to the three exhibitions, the MSAC will be holding artists talks and walkabout tours delivered by both Shuebrook and Tap.
Shuebrook will be holding a tour at the MSAC on Feb. 11 at noon, while Tap will be holding her tour on Jan. 28 at 6 p.m..