MAX WRIGHT & RYAN PRICE

Max Wright (Montreal/Toronto) and Ryan Price (Guelph/Toronto) are two of the most gifted young artists to have emerged on the scene in the last several years. Both have been included in Alma Gallery group shows, and have made a significant impact on local, regional, and national audiences.

The juxtaposition of Price and Wright’s work are what make SCRATCHING THE SURFACE really come alive. Highly expressive, yet almost opposite in style, these two artists visually depict powerful stories about architecture, the environment we live in, and the human experience.

Wright’s work is anchored in experimentation using materials, particularly photography and paint, as a means to explore the boundaries between media. Fascinated by the history that is evoked through marks and traces that scar the surface of objects and structures, Wright manages to turn cold manufactured environments into comfortable familiar spaces.

Price’s work is anchored in exploration using figurative illustration as a means to investigate the eclectic oddities that make us what we are today. Full of wit and dark humour, Price ultimately celebrates his subjects, and the mystery that lies at and beneath the surface of each of our experiences.

Opens Friday, September 18th, 7-10pm

Runs until mid-October

THE GROUP SHOW

Opening Thursday,
August 13th, 2009
5pm – 9pm
Running until mid-September

Featuring: Jonathan Forrest, Art Lucs, Scott Pattinson, Maria Pezzano, Tammy Ratcliff and Pearl van Geest

LORNE WAGMAN:  A 10 YEAR SURVEY

runs until July 17th, 2009

Guelph’s enterprising new Alma Gallery has scored a coup by persuading Lorne Wagman, one of the finest Landscape Painters in Canada, to exhibit a 10-year survey of work in their beautifully restored space.

Lorne chose the Guelph gallery because of its curator Renann Isaacs, daughter of the renowned Av Isaacs (The Isaacs Gallery) who introduced Canadian audiences to Michael Snow, William Kurelek, Joyce Weiland, Gordon Rayner, Graham Coughtry, John Meredith, Greg Curnoe, to name a few.

Wagman, who has exhibited across Canada and internationally, had his start with the Isaacs Gallery in the 80s. “I accepted an invitation from Renann to exhibit my work at the Alma Gallery” Wagman goes on to say “and am honoured to be associated with her as she carries on the Isaacs tradition”.

Highly praised for providing his own personal interpretation of nature, Lorne captures the countryside by finding a balance between realism and abstraction with an impressionist flare. Expressive brush strokes combined with bright, contrasting colours and beautifully expansive skylines (reminiscent of both Van Gogh and the Group of Seven’s Lawren Harris) make Lorne Wagman one of the most sought after Canadian artists of his generation

The Alma Gallery has already exhibited works by such noted Canadians as Tony Urquhart, David Bolduc, David Sorensen, as well as silversmith Lois Etherington Betteridge. “Our mandate is to successfully promote the finest emerging, mid-career, and established artists in the region (of which there are many)” Isaacs said “but art knows no boundaries and we are also dedicated to bringing exhibitions by the finest artists from across Canada (and abroad) to Guelph”.

The Alma Gallery is situated in downtown Guelph and is part of the historic Alma Block (1868). Co-owner Tom Dowd (who is also a designer and builder), recently won the 2009 Architectural Conservancy of Ontario award for the most exemplary restoration or adaptive re-use of a significant heritage structure in Guelph and Wellington County.

still standing – which runs from April 21st until the end of May – includes the work of photographers Dean Palmer, Gordon Laird, Karolina Kuras, Dawn Owen, Colin Carney, Julie Pasila, KC Hornsby, Chris Tiessen, Peter Kelly, Nicholas Rees, Maggie Leighton, Romano Bernabei, Stephen Beatty, Kate Wilhelm, Rob O’Flanagan, Karin Silverstone

The exhibition, which also features the work of Plein Air Painters Scott Abott, Kathleen Schmalz and Laura Coutts, will include archival photographs of historical architecture from Guelph’s Civic Museum

A quilt by Joan F. Hug-Valeriote, and Janet Morton’s Knitted House.

Will be hosting the evening’s events with wine and hors d’oeuvres.

See you there!