Interim Committee for Surface and/or Planar Re-adjustment

Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - 4:00am to Saturday, November 10, 2007 - 5:00am

An exhibition of painting installations that investigate space, place, location and layout. Featuring the work of recent OCAD Drawing & Painting graduates Charles Beamish, Cameron Buy, Stephanie Curtis, Randall Gagne and Karen Kraven.

Venue & Address: 
Student Gallery 285 Dundas Street West, 1st Floor, Toronto, Ontario
Email: 
cswiderski@ocad.ca, ldsmith@ocad.ca
Cost: 
Free

In memory of Brian Kipping, 1953 - 2007

Brian Kipping
Saturday, October 13, 2007 - 4:00am to Saturday, October 27, 2007 - 4:00am

Kipping graduated from OCA and has exhibited with Bau-xi Toronto and Vancouver since 1974. This show includes Brian's final paintings, many of which were inspired by a visit to the Louvre. The collection offers a unique insight into the late artist's method by showing the paintings in varying stages of completion.

Venue & Address: 
Bau-xi Gallery Toronto 340 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

Almost Eighty

Hugh Mackenzie
Saturday, October 13, 2007 - 4:00am to Saturday, October 27, 2007 - 4:00am

Mackenzie switches easily between representational and abstract images, from figure to landscape, and from painting to etching. Mackenzie taught at OCAD for over twenty years, and exhibited extensively across Canada. Almost Eighty showcases his newest work.

Venue & Address: 
Bau-xi Gallery Toronto 340 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

Interim Committee for Surface and/or Planar Re-adjustment

Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 4:00am to Saturday, November 10, 2007 - 5:00am

Traditionally, painting completely obscures its ground, creating an
illusion that the support is not there at all. Framing delineates
between that which is painting and that which is supposedly neutral or
white cube space. The work in this exhibition will emphasize the
site and explore the experience of architectural strata, structure and
composition. Interim Committee for Surface and/or Planar Re-adjustment
is an installation-painting project with an interest in space, place,
location and layout featuring the work of recent graduates Charles
Beamish, Cameron Buy, Stephanie Curtis, Randall Gagne and Karen Kraven.

Venue & Address: 
Student Gallery 285 Dundas Street West, 1st Fl., Toronto, Ontario
Email: 
cswiderski@ocad.ca, ldsmith@ocad.ca
Cost: 
Free

Deadline: Yellow Staircase Project Submission

Friday, September 28, 2007 - 8:00pm

The Yellow Staircase Project is a student initiative with full administrative support. To free the Yellow Staircase of its yellowness'and replace it with colourful paintings and murals'students are being asked to submit proposals.

The medium is paint but all students are welcome and encouraged to submit.

Exhibit your work! Create community! Get exposed! Inspire change!

Submissions are due by Friday, September 28 and after jurying, painting will begin in mid-October.

Drop off submission forms and proposals
Campus Life & Career Services, Student Centre, 51 McCaul Street
 

Email: 
yellowstaircase@ocad.ca

Connections: paintings by Shelley Beach

Thursday, October 11, 2007 - 4:00am to Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 4:00am

The Workshop Gallery in Toronto presents new work by alumna Shelley Beach.

Venue & Address: 
The Workshop Gallery 1018 Coxwell Avenue, Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

RBC Canadian Painting Competition 2007

Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 4:00am to Thursday, September 27, 2007 - 4:00am

The ninth annual RBC Canadian Painting Competition launches its nationally touring exhibition of work by competition finalists and winners at the Ontario College of Art & Design. In July,
three members of the OCAD community were named semi-finalists, their works selected from more than 1400 works submitted by 690 artists from across Canada. Anders Oinonen (Drawing & Painting, 2000) of Toronto and former faculty member Kim Dorland were chosen as semi-finalists representing Central Canada, while alumna Aleksandra Rdest of Pouch Cove, Newfoundland & Labrador (Drawing & Painting, 2002) was selected as an Eastern Canada semi-finalist.

The competition, supported by the Canadian Art Foundation, will announce a national winner and two honourable mentions, selected from the semi-finalists, at the Ontario College of Art & Design.
Tour Dates:
October 3 to 12, 2007:
Galerie d'art Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen, Universit' de Moncton
Pavillon Clement-Cormier
Moncton, New Brunswick

October 17 to 24, 2007:
MacLaren Art Centre
37 Mulcaster Street, Barrie, Ontario
October 31 to November 11, 2007:
Winnipeg Art Gallery
300 Memorial Blvd, Winnipeg, Manitoba
November 24 to December 1, 2007:
Emily Carr Institute Art + Design
1399 Johnston Street, Granville Island, Vancouver, British Columbia

Venue & Address: 
Great Hall 100 McCaul St., Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

STRETCHED PAINTING

Thursday, September 8, 2016 - 11:00pm to Saturday, October 1, 2016 - 10:00pm

STRETCHED PAINTING explores contemporary works that push beyond the flat rectangular format to occupy space and new materials. Featuring Toronto artists that are expanding painting’s conventions, the exhibit brings new works that merge painting into the realm of sculpture and installation. 

Exhibit curated by Emily Harrison.

Opening: Thursday, Sept. 8th 2016
OCADU Student Gallery (52 McCaul)
7-10 pm
---
Wallis Cheung makes paintings at the intersection of sculpture and collage. Her 3-dimensional work questions the limits of pictorial space, intervening physically with the room. Cheung is a member of the Toronto-based collective, VSVSVS, and is nominated for the 2016 RBC Canadian Painting Competition.
http://wallischeung.com/ 

Michelle Foran transforms found objects, such as industrial steel, plastics and piping, into materials with vibrant colour, texture and painterly composition. Her abstract immersive environment, “Half a Grapefruit is a Full Circle,” was recently displayed at Birch Contemporary. 
http://michelleforan.format.com/

Heavily influenced by her surroundings, Emily Harrison’s practice examines everyday materiality, consumer culture and tropes of the artist studio. Her humorous, site-specific installations have been apart of festivals with the Bata Shoe Museum, Strangewaves and Camp Wavelength. 
http://www.emilygraceharrison.com/news

Jennifer Wigmore is a graduate from OCADU’s MFA program and a founding member of Blunt Collective. She describes her painting process as having an “experimental maximalist approach.” Playing with chance and spontaneity, she pushes the limits of materials, creating process-oriented abstractions. http://www.jenniferwigmore.com/index.html

Venue & Address: 
52 McCaul Street Student Gallery Toronto
Website: 
http://www.ocadu.ca/gallery/student-gallery.htm
Email: 
studentgallery@ocadu.ca
Phone: 
416-977-6000 Ex262
Emily Harrison. “Sunny Side Up.”

OCAD U alumni among finalists in national painting competition

Oil painting of a young girl in a white coat
Thursday, July 7, 2016 - 4:00am

Stephanie Hier (BFA, 2014) and Keita Morimoto (BFA, 2012) are among 15 finalists in the prestigious RBC Canadian Painting Competition.

Held in collaboration with Canadian Art Foundation, the 18th edition of the competition drew a total of 568 submissions. It is the cornerstone of the RBC Emerging Artists Project which focuses on supporting early-career artists. The program offers mentorship and exposure to a variety of audiences in addition to financial support.

The winner of the competition will be awarded a cash prize of $25,000. Two honourable mentions will receive $15,000, and the remaining 12 finalists receive $2,500 each. The top three paintings will be acquired by RBC’s corporate art collection.

The winner will be announced on September 20 at the Power Plant in Toronto. To see the complete list of finalists visit canadianart.ca.

 

Paint box memories: Art and inspiration at the Port Hope summer school

Deep in the OCAD University Archives is a paint box that was used by Lois Parker from 1932 to 1935 at the outdoor summer school held in Port Hope, Ontario. The Ontario College of Art (OCA) — as OCAD U was then known —  began hosting the summer school in a converted grist mill on the banks of the Ganarasca River in 1923 (the school actually began in 1913, taking place in various locations before settling in Port Hope). The location provided ideal scenery for landscape drawing and painting, as well as for outdoor figure study.


G.S. Menzie, OCA students in front of the Grange (September 1922) PH421/38_4_116_021: Water side of the Port Hope Summer School, 1923?, photographer unknown (OCAD U Visual Resources & Special Collections)


Parker’s paint box

The paint box is a fascinating record of Parker’s time at OCA’s summer school. It served as container, palette and easel.

Inside, there are suggestive remnants of Parker’s work, such as globs of coagulated paint and two landscape sketches (not pictured here) supported by grooves in the box’s lid. The exterior is covered in signatures of classmates and instructors, with J.W. Beatty’s signature at the bottom right. J.W. Beatty — celebrated Canadian landscape painter and World War One artist — founded and ran the summer school, and was its greatest single influence. 

Image of an open paint covered wooden box used to store tubes of paint.



Image of a closed paint covered wooden box used to store tubes of paint with various signatures written on the lid.



 

 

A typical day at summer school

Parker did not provide a written account of her time at the Port Hope summer school, but a typical day can be pieced together from student stories, newspaper articles and other material in OCAD U’s Archives.


G.S. Menzie, OCA students in front of the Grange (September 1922) PH424/38_4_116_024: Interior of the studio at the Port Hope Summer School, no date, photographer unknown (OCAD U Visual Resources & Special Collections)


The first thing on each morning’s agenda was usually a critique of the previous day’s work in the studio. Afterwards, Beatty and the students would venture out in search of a new subject, such as the cedar grove, Archer’s farm, the mill pond, the Port Hope waterfront or a horse. On Friday and Saturday evenings, students held parties in the studio or visited the Cobourg dance pavilion to mingle with the locals.

After tranquil days and intoxicating evenings, students would return to their living quarters — women in the loft above the studio and men in a large tent outside. Then, the next morning, the fogginess of the previous evening could be washed away with a brisk swim so that the routine could begin again.


G.S. Menzie, OCA students in front of the Grange (September 1922) PH119/57_004_367_019: Students with instructor J.W. Beatty (farthest to the left) outside of the Port Hope Summer School, 1923, photographer unknown (OCAD U Visual Resources & Special Collections)

 

A unique souvenir of an era long passed

Unfortunately, OCA’s outdoor summer school regularly operated at a loss. Facing a tough economic situation in Toronto and a decrease in attendance, the school closed in 1935. Although the summer school was not financially sustainable, the impact it had on the students who attended is undeniable.

Like a highly personalized yearbook, Parker collected signatures on her paint box in order to remember her time in Port Hope. She preserved the box for over 50 years, before donating it to the OCAD U Archives. This unique souvenir now helps to paint a picture of this romantic time in the university’s history.


G.S. Menzie, OCA students in front of the Grange (September 1922) PH130/57_004_367_030: Students at work with instructor J.W. Beatty at the Port Hope Summer School, 1924, photographer unknown (OCAD U Visual Resources & Special Collections)


 

Sources

Dack, W.L., “Port Hope Revisited: Memories of a Gentler Age.” Alumnus (winter 1982/83): 5–6.
Principal’s Annual Report, 1922/23. OCAD University Archives, OCAD University fonds. RG8 Governance and Administration. Council/Board of Governors Meetings & Minutes.
Special Report re: Summer School, 1924. OCAD University Archives. OCAD University fonds. RG8 Governance and Administration. Council/Board of Governors Meetings & Minutes.
Minutes of a Meeting of the Council of the Ontario College of Art, Held at the College on Friday, February 28th, 1942, at 6:00 p.m. OCAD University Archives. OCAD University fonds. RG8 Governance and Administration. Council/Board of Governors Meetings & Minutes.

 

Scott Hillis, MI, is the visual resources coordinator and acting archivist in Visual Resources & Special Collections at OCAD University’s Dorothy H. Hoover Library.

Author: 
Scott Hillis
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