Submitted. The three new intriguing exhibitions at The Reach Gallery Museum will wow and impress audiences whether of kindergarten or grandparent age.
Pictured at right: : Lorena Krause, Fauna Crowned VII
In Fauna Crowned, Langley artist Lorena Krause combines elements drawn from various artistic lineages including Renaissance portraiture and traditional western and pre-Hispanic decorative arts. This series of imagined female portraits combine oil painting with a technique called repoussé, which involves hammering malleable metal into patterns in low relief. These colorful, whimsical images resonate with feminist and ecological undertones, celebrating the enduring strength of women around the world and the importance of the interconnectedness of all living things. The exhibition runs until August 2.
Home is a heartwarming, multidisciplinary exhibition initiated by local artist Linda Klippenstein in collaboration with Heather Beckett, Janet Weston, Darlene Wurster, Dale Klippenstein, women from the Warm Zone, Canadian Federation of University Women and others in our community. The exhibition will evoke memories of home in some and move others to tears with its: Woven piece that consists of strips of cloth specifically chosen by participants to symbolize home; Unlocking The Light, a chandelier clanging with countless arm bangles and keys; Worth a Thousand Words, photo art of keys connected to locks by Dale Klippenstein, and Couching Your Works – a place of comfort, a couch where you may add your definition of home.
Buy One Get None: Conformity, Consumerism and the Collective Voice is an exhibition by eight emerging Young Contemporaries: Alisha Deddens, Julie Epp, Diana Hiebert, Fiona Howarth, Daniel Hurst, Chantal New, Candice Okada and Kendra Schellenberg, and is curated by David Seymour, Student Representative from University of the Fraser Valley.
“The exhibition considers the complexity of living in a capitalist society founded on excessive material acquisition, extravagant waste and the exploitation of others,” explains Seymour. “It aims to shed light on the enduring and paradoxical struggle created by this behaviour: our reluctance to dissent and the corresponding desire for a collective voice in response to the din of consumer culture. In unmasking the uglier aspects of capitalism, the emerging artists in Buy One, Get None explore how we, as individual agents, can respond critically to capitalism’s pervasiveness.”
At The Reach until April 19th, this exhibition is presented in collaboration with the University of the Fraser Valley and with support of RBC Foundation.
Artists’ Panel: On Saturday, March 14th at 3:00 pm, the Young Contemporaries host a free public panel with the artists featured in Buy One, Get None. They will shed light upon their artistic practice, and along with the participating public, engage in a critical discussion with the exhibition’s thematic elements.
About the Young Contemporaries at The Reach. Established in 2013, the Young Contemporaries are dedicated to the advancement of arts, culture and heritage among enthusiasts aged 18 to 35. This program seeks to provide its young members with the necessary means for artistic exploration, professional development and community involvement. The Young Contemporaries were also the recipients of the Marketing Award at the Fraser Valley Cultural Diversity Awards in March 2015.
Other exceptional exhibitions showing until April 19 at The Reach include: Ancestry and Artistry: Maya Textiles from Guatemala, organized and circulated by the Textile Museum of Canada, integrates the work of contemporary artists Andrea Aragón, Verónica Riedel, and photo-journalist Jean-Marie Simon; Decolonize Me features six contemporary Aboriginal artists whose works challenge, interrogate and reveal Canada’s long history of colonization in daring and innovative ways; and 100 Years of Loss: The Residential School System in Canada, explores Aboriginal children in Canada who were taken from their homes and communities and placed in institutions called residential schools.
The Reach Gallery Museum Abbotsford, 32388 Veterans Way, also hosts a number of engaging and creative public programs that connect to these winter exhibitions, check at: www.thereach.ca