This exhibition opens Saturday 13 July 2019 with a reception from 2-4pm; on view through 3 August 2019.
Charline Collette
Daily Offerings
Didn’t your mother used to hook? Rug-hooking is deeply set in the memory of most of New Brunswickers but these days adventurous fibre artists are using rug-hooking as a means of expression while remaining true to their roots.
ArtsNB has commented that “Some artists mix different materials and techniques and others like Charline Collette perpetuate the glorious tradition of figurative work.” With large-scale and sculptural pieces in this body of work, Colette uses an abstract approach, exploring the separation between the hooked surface and the images that are placed on them.
“I highlight domesticity and, by extension, society,” she says. “In the last two years, I have been challenging the perception of what rug-hooking is by changing the scale and materials.” Her themes are explored in different forms, whether by digital projection or paint on hooked panels, sculptural forms or dimensionally hooked pieces.
Francine Martin
Still and Not So Still
Francine Martin is from Edmunston NB and is a relative late-comer to the professional art scene. However, since her retirement from teaching in 2015, she has rapidly become recognized for her creative use of an Old Masters style known as chiaroscuro (kee·aa·ruh·skyur·ow) referring to the use of bold contrast between light and dark. Think classic works by artists like Rembrandt, da Vinci and Caravaggio.
Martin admits to a bit of a double personality due to growing up with a twin sister. She says it “defines my personality and is reflected in my work through the use of light and dark… I use the chiaroscuro technique in my still-life and landscape paintings, limiting my colour palette which is mainly greys with a touch of more vibrant colour. In these nuances I find a reflection of my personality that I seek to express.”
In a very short timespan, her work has been shown up and down the St John River Valley from the Banville-Pérusse Gallery in Edmundston to the Acanthus Gallery in Grand Falls and the Handworks Gallery in Saint John. Last year, she was selected for Making Waves, a fine art and craft show on Ministers Island near St Andrews.
Upcoming exhibitions
10 August-7 September
Dawn Steeves, paintings
Maria Doering, prints
14 September-12 October
A family group show with Anna Torma, David Zsako and Istvan Zsako: textile, sculpture, photography
19 October-16 November
Vicky Lentz, sculpture, painting, installation