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Sarnia, ON – Gallery Lambton will be featuring two exhibitions Some Treasures from the Permanent Art Collection and Urban Settings, June 11 to August 20, 2005. Both exhibitions will highlight artworks drawn from Gallery Lambton’s permanent collection. Admission to the gallery is free.
Our cultural heritage and the relevance of Canadian historical art are reflected in the over 900 works of art included in Gallery Lambton’s permanent collection. The social and political landscapes of the country and how Canadians define themselves are constantly evolving. Cultural diversity and how we meet the challenge of broadening our understanding of our heritage is conveyed through the gallery’s permanent collection and exhibitions.
Some Treasures from the Permanent Art Collection will offer a selection of works from the collection illustrating many of Gallery Lambton’s treasures. The exhibition will be a survey of Canadian painting, drawing and sculpture from the late 19th century to the present. The exhibition will follow a natural sequence revealing some of the art developments as they happened, including works by the Group of Seven. For example, the Group of Seven made strong individual statements on the Canadian wilderness which contributed to a nationalist landscape aesthetic after WWII. The Painters 11 later countered the Group of Seven’s images of the Canadian wilderness with their mediations on the deeper meaning of nature. The show will also reveal that some near abstraction occurred in the early 1920s while, at the same time, more realistic pieces were being painted. During the 1950s the rise of abstraction dominated the Canadian art scene, and yet this movement flourished alongside realism.
In the exhibition Urban Settings, selections from the permanent collection will coincide with Art Walk, which will be held in downtown Sarnia June 23 to June 26, 2005. These images will focus on painted images of various towns and cities in Canada. The Happy Cottage, painted in 1926 by Sarnia artist Lowrie Warrener was originally Sarnia’s first bank, known as the Lambton Loan and Investment Company. This Classical Revival style home still stands on Maria Street between Christina and Vidal Streets. Warrener’s painting is a happy, sunny painting executed in radiant colour and stylized forms. It was purchased by the Sarnia Women’s Conservation Art Association, and hung in the children’s room in Sarnia’s Carnegie Library for many years. Warrener studied in Europe and the Ontario College of Art, became friends with the Group of Seven, and was included in some of the Group of Seven’s exhibitions.
For further details, contact Gallery Lambton at (519) 336-8127.
For more information about Lambton County, visit www.lambtononline.ca.
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Contact:
Holly Rutherford,
Gallery Assistant Community Relations
Gallery Lambton
Telephone: (519) 336-8127
Fax: (519) 336-8128
email: holly.rutherford@county-lambton.on.ca
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