Persona Volare: Extended Shelf Life
Guido Molinari Quantificateur Bleu #21 1991 & Carlo Cesta Compliment 2009 / photo Kris Rosar
Richness of local and regional public art collections is one of the great strengths of the Canadian art system. It’s also one of its great challenges. After all, a large percentage of the public art collections across the country are perpetually stored away for lack of exhibition resources. Which means there are significant gaps in seeing and understanding our own art history—not only for the viewing public, but also, and perhaps more critically, for otherwise unaware young artists.
A key curatorial counter-strategy for activating and engaging dormant public art holdings has been to invite contemporary artists to investigate and intevene on these collections. That’s exactly what the Tom Thomson Art Gallery has done with the exhibition “EXPO” featuring works by the Toronto artist collective Persona Volare.
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Lorne Wagman Figures in a Meadow 1987, Lorne Wagman Three Figures #2 1986 & Lorna Mills Me Too, Only More So 2009 / photo Kris Rosar |
The exhibition injects new, contemporary life into the gallery’s archive of artworks and ephemera. Chantal Rousseau draws an animated, CSI-flavoured reply to a painting by Cornelius Krieghoff. Lisa Neighbour creates a horizon-line installation of works by Lawren Harris, Takao Tanabe, David Bierk and William Kurelek, among others. John Dickson provides an artifact-based video-sculpture on the legacy of Tom Thomson. Carlo Cesta delves in to the "deep spaces" of Guido Molinari's abstraction using Plexiglas and window blinds. And that's just to name a few of the group's cleverly eclectic responses to the gallery's permanent collection.
The success of this curatorial scheme lies in the overarching sense that a dialogue has opened between Persona Volare and its predecessors. It’s a reciprocal conversation that sights collected histories through a dynamic contemporary lens, proving the lasting value and potential of public collections. (840 1 Ave W, Owen Sound ON)
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John Dickson Looking for Tom Thomson 2009 / photo Kris Rosar |
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