To July 3
Second Impressions
Image, text and sound interplay in print media artist Dan O'Neill's curation of lithographs, poetry and cool jazz. When curator Peter Dykhuis asked O'Neill to imagine an exhibition of Motherwell and de Kooning lithographs---limited edition prints paired with the poetry of Octavio Paz and Frank O'Hara, respectively---he jumped at the opportunity. Where both the poems and images suggested accompanying music, O'Neill, who approached the project as an "interpretive excursion," imposed his own musical taste: Art Pepper's 1956 album, Blues In and Blues Out. "Music, word and image in combined effort seem to show that, under any form or presence of fading spirit, failing truths or uneven compression, we can make our songs work wonders," says O'Neill in the exhibition write-up.
Dalhousie Art Gallery, 6101 University Avenue, Tue-Fri 11am-5pm, Sat-Sun noon-5pm
Through July 7
Eric Desmarais, Le mot traduit le bruit des contingences passées [The Word Reflects the Noise of Past Contingencies]
Anamorphosis, as in artwork that changes as the viewer moves: Not a word you hear every day, but it's at the heart of this multimedia artist's newest installation. Desmarais, from Sherbrooke, Quebec, arranged 21 surveillance cameras and monitors, hung from the ceiling at different angles and heights; they come together to create an image---in this case, the word "pas"--- that you can only see from one place in the room. "When you move, things start happening," says Desmarais. This is the first time he's installed this work as an anamorphosis.
The Khyber, 1588 Barrington Street, Mon-Fri 9am-5pm
July 1-17
Peggys Cove Arts Festival
Art comes to life in Peggys Cove this summer ---take part in workshops, listen to lectures about artistic practice, see demonstrations, or watch the musical and theatrical performances offered in this year's art festival, which coincides with Peggys Cove's 200th anniversary. Though the festival runs through July 17, The Peggy Show, a comic look at local history, performed by John Beale twice daily at the Old Red Schoolhouse (except Tuesdays), will run through September 5. To end each day, all are welcome to the Jo Beale Gallery to chat over tea and cake.
Jo Beale Gallery, 154 Peggys Point Road, Peggys Cove. For other locations and times, visit peggyscove.org or call 823-1960
June 29-July 24
Anna Horsnell Wade, The Art of Jazz
Two years in the making, the artist went to countless jazz sets before she came to understand, with the aid of her saxophonist son, how to visualize a musical phrase. Her paintings correspond to bars of music pulled from jazz numbers. It "isn't as much a new idea as it is a tribute to the music that has kept me company and fuelled my inspiration over the years," explains Horsnell Wade. Her show coincides with the Halifax Jazz Festival, a source of inspiration. Horsnell Wade will be at the gallery on Saturdays; her talk is on Sunday July 10, 2pm.
Craig Gallery, Alderney Landing, 2 Ochterloney Street, Dartmouth, Tue-Fri noon-5:30pm, Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 11am-4pm
To July 24
Irene Avaalaaqiaq, Myth and Reality
Drawings, paintings, sculptures and wall hangings have been the fruit of Inuit artist Irene Avaalaaqiaq's practice for almost three decades. Based in a community not far from the Arctic Circle in Nunavut, her work preserves Inuit culture, and brings it to a broader audience. Curated by Judith Nasby, the selected works "appear at a glance to be bright and cheerful images," says gallery director Robin Metcalfe, "but sometimes the meaning is much darker." Avaalaaqiaq synthesizes Inuit history and tradition with European techniques like printmaking. She draws the horizon line at the upper edge of her pieces, offering a different visual concept than that of European art, explains Metcalfe.
Saint Mary's University Art Gallery, 5864 Gorsebrook Avenue, Tue-Fri 11am-5pm, Sat-Sun noon-5pm
July 5-31
Heidi Müller, Nordland
A collection photographs from Müller's four-year stay in northern Norway extracts "unique beauty" from a "bleak and barren" terrain, says the photographer. "My exhibition presents monochrome prints of the unique, stark beauty of an area in northern Norway," says Müller, who has worked in Germany, the UK and Norway and now lives in Halifax. Absorb what Müller describes as "insight into the mood and feel" of Norway, without setting foot outside of Halifax.
ViewPoint Gallery, 1272 Barrington Street, Wed-Sun noon-5pm
June 10- July 24
Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council, Inspired Local history gets rediscovered and reinterpreted in new ways---23, to be exact---by the members of the NSDCC. The artisans' sources of inspiration ranged from fossils to lighthouses to museum artifacts and the Bluenose ship to create what gallery director Susan Charles describes as "an imaginative cocktail of old and new." Soak in "silk evocative of a coal mine shaft, a ring echoing the hilt of a cutlass, Mi'kmaq quillwork translated into both clay and glass," amongst other things, writes Susan Hanrahan, NSDCC's executive director, in the exhibition catalogue.
Mary E. Black Gallery, 1061 Marginal Road, Tue-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat-Sun 11am-4pm
To August 8
Debra Kuzyk and Ray Mackie, Lucky Rabbit: In an ancient garden
Lucky Rabbit pottery duo Kuzyk (who paints the works) and Mackie (who shapes the clay) showcase their work in a non-commercial space for the first time since they began collaborating a dozen years ago. The Annapolis Royal-based artists worked with Gloria Hickey, a guest curator at the gallery, to create a series of pottery and tiles inspired by the Chinese Song Dynasty and the Nova Scotian countryside. Walk into a ceramic garden: cloud-shaped tiles decorate the walls; ceramic waves simulate water and sizeable pieces depict animals and plants.
Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, 166 Bedford Highway, Tue-Thu 11am-5pm, Sat-Sun 1-5pm
To September 5
Jacques Hurtubise, Retrospective
Revisit the bright, swirling acrylic canvasses of this abstract painter from Quebec, who now lives in Cape Breton. A half-century's worth of a career summarized in more than 60 pieces--- from his geometrical patterns of the 1960s and 70s, in appropriately bright, acidic colours for summer, to his blackout paintings, prints and most recent map-based work, including some that have never been displayed in public.
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 1723 Hollis Street, Mon-Wed, Fri-Sun 10am-5pm, Thu 10am-9pm
To October 31
Revolutionizing Cultural Identity
Questions of cultural identity and its relationship to immigration are at the centre of this photography exhibition. Curator Claude Baillargeon, an art history professor at Oakland University, teamed up with Pier 21 curators to re-cast the exhibition comprised of 46 works---one of which contains almost 100 pieces in itself. Four American and seven Canadian contemporary photographers offer different perspectives on identity. Though "cultural identity is something that immigrants to a new country often question," explains Tanya Bouchard, a chief curator with the gallery it is a topic everyone can relate to."
Pier 21, 1055 Marginal Road, daily 9:30am-5:30pm