“Contrarieties & Counterpoints,” an exhibition of Ottawa-based painter Melanie Authier, was recently named by Canadian Art Magazine as one of the top “must-see” exhibitions in Canada.
And where did it open? At the Thames Art Gallery in Chatham.
In an article on Authier, Canadian Art declared, “Her works elegantly morph and layer various shapes, lines and textures to create a kind of deep visual space. As such, they bridge abstraction and representation to offer ‘improbable environments’ which reveal new insights and pleasures upon sustained looking.”
In the last of her artist poems before leaving her position as the Cultural Centre’s Writer-in-Residence, Kara Smith wrote, “The artist works her sacred magic inside crystal caves. Wands of flat brushes wave ink of elderberry and linden, angelica and jasmine upon her transparent sheet.” At the opening as part of the Summer Art Crawl, renowned writer, lecturer, and curator Robert Enright (guest curator of the exhibition) exclaimed, “The Thames Art Gallery is consistently punching well above its weight and is seen by Canadian artists as one of the prestigious venues for their work.”
This exhibition has been organized by the Thames Art Gallery in collaboration with the Ottawa Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Guelph, Montreal’s Galerie de I’UQAM, Kenderdine Art Gallery in Saskatoon, Mount Vincent University Art Gallery in Halifax, and the Musée regional de Rimouski in Quebec. At every venue, the lead name will be Thames Art Gallery, Chatham-Kent.
