The Show Must Go On

The Show Must Go On
Olga Szkabarnicki
July 4 - July 23
Opening Reception: Friday July 4, 5-7pm

Olga Szkabarnicki:
In early February 2014, I attended the National Ballet of Ukraine’s masterful performance of La Bayadère in Montreal.  At that time, the Revolution of Dignity, or Euromaidan, was playing out in Kyiv’s Independence Square, near the National Opera where these young artists were based.  The uprising was fuelled by well-educated young people who wanted change.  At its peak, 400,000 - 800,000 protesters filled the Square, broadly demanding basic human rights, closer ties to Europe and an end to government corruption and Russian influence.  Almost 100 protesters and 13 police died before disgraced politicians fled and the police withdrew on February 21.

As they smiled and waved during their curtain call, the dancers must have been thinking of their compatriots, family members, friends and teachers taking part in the uprising in Kyiv.  But surely they also were thinking something else:  the show must go on. It is what we do.  It is who we are.

This show is my testament to the resilience of the human spirit through art.  It features monumental figurative paintings arising from meditations on the Euromaidan and current events, including the tragedy of Mariupol, infused with my personal experience with recurrent breast cancer in 2024. Smaller portraits and other expressive figurative pieces, including paintings based on life drawing sessions with the Salt Spring Island Painters Guild, are companions to the more edgy work in the show.

The making and beholding of art can be an act of hope, courage, or resistance.  It is my sincere desire that you will feel the vitality of the pieces and reflect on human resilience expressed through art - both in the act of making, and in the beholding.

The show must go on.

Tell

Tell
Shannon Wardroper
July 25 - August 13
Opening Reception: Friday July 25, 5-7pm

How do methods of communication function in society?

Looking at both content and delivery systems, “Tell”, an exhibition of recent textile sculpture by Shannon Wardroper, explores the history and consequences along with the costs and benefits of our need to connect and communicate in an ever increasingly complex landscape of information and data.

Two Horizons

Two Horizons
Susan Benson & April Mackey
June 13 - July 2
Opening Reception: Friday June 13, 5 - 7pm

“TWO HORIZONS is a tribute to the journeys and life experiences of two individuals from vastly different backgrounds, and fifty years apart yet still deeply connected. Their shared fascination with landscapes stems from their artistic backgrounds, often influenced by similar artists. However, their individual histories diverge, leading to different forms of artistic expressions.

In the 1960s, Susan Benson arrived in Canada, where she found striking similarities between the scenery on the west coast of Canada and the Pembrokeshire coast, which was the inspiration for the work of the English painter Graham Sutherland whose landscapes have had

a strong influence on her early paintings. The intricate interplay of textures and shapes of the Canadian landscape has found its way into her recent work. Susan’s background in theatre is shown in a small series of figurative landscapes based on Shakespeare’s plays.

April Mackey’s contribution follows the painted trails from the lush shoreline of the Canadian West Coast to the dramatically beautiful, weather-worn terrain of Ireland. Through a collection of evocative landscape paintings, her work invites viewers to explore the dramatic land and light across these geographically distinct yet emotionally resonant places. Each image presents a personalized perspective of childhood hideouts and homes away from home, encouraging viewers to perceive familiar places with fresh eyes and distant ones with a sense of belonging.”

Of Wild Gods and Forest Lovers

Matthew Hildebrandt

These are paintings about life. About the spirit and sacredness of all things. These are paintings about us. About our connection to these beautiful wild places and the beautiful wild places inside us. These are paintings about the wilderness within. About love. And letting go.

Of Wild Gods and Forest Lovers is a collection of new artworks exploring the ideas of human connection. Our connection to each other, to nature, and to ourselves. They are a reforestation. A resurrection. A return to some vast and bewildering space inside of ourselves.

All of the paintings in this series were dreamed before painting them. Some I have been dreaming of for years. Others I have dreamed for the first time right before composing them. This process of pre-dreaming my paintings began many years ago. It was the key reason behind my departure from realism and working with models to paint in a stylized, freer, less inhibited fashion. This is how I dreamt it.

I have been a lover of art all my life and have fallen in love with the work of a wide variety of artists. I do not doubt that those moments of infatuation have influenced my work. But in truth, I have never really felt like I had much choice in what I painted. My process as an artist has been a continual letting go into something that I cannot name.  Some unwieldy joy. As though my art (and my joy) is its own beast, with its own breath and being. A wild god that I am simply bearing witness to.

I Do Not Want Your Paintings Just Because You're Dead

I Don’t Want Your Paintings Just Because You’re Dead
William Kozar
May 23 - June 11
Opening Reception: Friday May 23, 5 - 7pm

William Kozar:

I am making a return to the Maverick period in the 20th century when artists, especially in New York, were making art out of any medium they could find: house paint, cardboard, pencil etc. In part it is a reaction to the high cost of art production in our time.

I search for humble materials and prepare paintings from “scratch”. I find cast off canvas and paper and patch it together in order to create my paint surface. I recycle old alkyd, shellac and concrete.The work is abstract but I reference the old masters. I use these narratives to inform the recent paintings. Currently I am painting the Arch Angels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.