2020 exhibitions

February 13 to April 19, 2020
Opening: Thursday, February 13, 5:30 to 7:30 pm
Tour with the artist (bilingual): Friday, February 14, 12:30 pm

The title A place/ from memory can refer to two separate things, namely the places produced from memory and the places generated from memories. In the first case, fragments of memory construct the place. In the second case, the place causes memories to resurface. My installation can therefore be read in two different, yet complementary ways. It is a fictional place that nevertheless produces echoes of our actual homes, of our actual ways of life. As its title suggests, the project tightly interweaves place and memory, in such a way that it becomes hard to remember which one serves as the premise for the other. Through the objects and materials it displays, this exhibition awakens memories that belong to us, but that can also belong to others.

- Exhibition booklet excerpt by Kassandra Graham, with the assistance of Dany Massicotte

Biography

Kassandra Graham is an emerging artist originally from Quebec City. Having completed a bachelor’s degree in visual and media arts at Université Laval in 2018, she is now pursuing a master’s degree in visual arts at the same institution. She has participated in several group exhibitions, including ExoMars, a satellite exhibition presented as part of the Manif d’art 9. Graham was awarded the 2018 Prix Louis-Garneau. Her first solo exhibition, titled Expo de banlieue, was presented in February 2019 in the exhibition hall of Université Laval’s Pavillon Alphonse-Desjardins.

This exhibition A place/ from memory (Un espace/ de mémoire) was made possible by a project grant from Quebec’s Première Ovation funding program, to which the artist offers her sincere thanks.

September 24 to November 29, 2020
Opening: Thursday, September 24, 5:30 to 7:30 pm

Artist tours: Sunday, November 29 at 2 pm and 2:45 pm
All visitors must pre-book preferred tour timeslot on Eventbrite.
All welcome. Free admission. Presented in English.

Please check the latest Ottawa Public Health safety guidelines prior to your visit.

Exhibition video

Exhibition booklet [ PDF - 4.4 MB ]

Cirque de-Vice is inspired by medieval notions of the vices: Superbia (pride), Avaritia (avarice), Invidia (envy), Ira (anger), Luxuria (lust), Gula (gluttony) and Acedia (sloth). The artist and the project itself work through the question of how these notions translate in a modern, vice-loving world.

We are enticed into the cirque by glittering expressions of fantasy and indulgence, as embodied by fin-de-siècle and twentieth-century circus culture. The pieces are not merely a display of modern sinfulness; rather, they reveal dissonance, disempowerment and angst in the context of deceptively harmonious elements of pleasure.

- Exhibition booklet excerpt by Bethany Gibson

Please contact publicartprogram@ottawa.ca to order a copy of this exhibition booklet. Free.

Biography

Kim Vose Jones is a Fredericton-based installation artist who spent her childhood wandering the forests of Southern Ontario, building unstable treehouses on other people’s properties. Her many eclectic and wide-ranging life experiences fuel her art practice—from working at a family-planning clinic on the Afghan-Pakistani border, to visiting snow monkeys in Jigokudani Park, Japan. Her art research has taken her from the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, to the Ringling Circus Museum in Sarasota, Florida.

The artist gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the New Brunswick Arts Board.

December 15, 2020 to February 7, 2021

Artists often question and ponder the events and zeitgeist of the moment. Hindsight: 2020 Additions to the City of Ottawa Art Collection presents artworks that address many fraught issues highlighted by the pandemic, including racial and gender inequity, political discord, poverty, migration, environmental crisis, physical vulnerability and psychological breakdown. If the major pandemics and social movements of the past are any indication, we may well experience paradigm shifts on an individual and collective basis, allowing us to break with the past and imagine a more inclusive, equitable, sustainable and creative future.

This annual exhibition, which features recent additions to the City of Ottawa Art Collection, is a moment of cultural and community celebration. In a typical year, dozens of artists would gather with their families and friends, as well as members of the public, to attend a crowded vernissage. Only now can we fully appreciate just how precious these gatherings were.

We hope many people will have the opportunity to view this exhibition in person, but we understand that may not be possible this year. Please watch the short video that will be released in January 2021 to highlight the artworks showcased in this exhibition. Produced by Lesley Marshall, the video features local artists, words by Ottawa Poet Laureate Jamaal Jackson Rogers and music by Merganzer (Mika Posen). 

Artworks from this circulating collection are placed in over 170 public spaces and municipal buildings to be viewed and enjoyed by residents and visitors. The City of Ottawa and its various municipal predecessors have been actively collecting artwork by professional artists for over 30 years. As a result, the City of Ottawa Collection has grown to include more than 3,000 artworks by more than 800 artists. The artists featured in this exhibition are but a small fragment of a much larger visual arts community that comprises an abundance of artistic talent in the region.

Artworks are added to the Collection each year by way of a peer assessment process through purchase, donation and/or commission.

See more recent additions at Karsh-Masson Gallery from December 15, 2020 to January 10, 2021.

Hindsight features a selection of artworks by the following artists:

• Barry Ace
• Alexander Angnaluak
• Fiona Annis
• Gabriela Avila-Yiptong
• Karen Bailey
• Julie Beauchemin
• John Benn
• Judith Berry
• Barbara Carlson
• Chromogenic Curmudgeons
• Kristina Corre
• Joyce Crago
• Pixie Cram
• Lynda Cronin
• Betty Davison
• Brendan de Montigny
• Jennifer Dickson
• Maura Doyle
• Kimberly Edgar
• Rosalie Favell
• Laurena Finéus
• Atticus Gordon
• Colwyn Griffith
• José Guénette
• Claudia Gutierrez
• Lynda Hall
• Erin Hunt
• Sarah Jaworski
• Olivia Johnston
• David Kaarsemaker
• Gillian King
• Donald Kwan and Justy Lisa Dennis
• Sébastien Lafleur
• Claude Latour
• Jim Logan
• Lesia Maruschak
• Henri Masson
• Natasha Mazurka
• Julie Melaschenko
• Caroline Monnet
• Francis Montillaud
• Jennifer Anne Norman
• Anne Orton
• Jose Palacios
• Christos Pantieras
• Sasha Phipps
• Barry Pottle
• Susan Pritchard
• Benjamin Rodger
• Komi Seshie
• Sally Lee Sheeks
• Ranajit Sinha
• Andrew Smith
• Katherine Takpannie
• Amy Thompson
• Guillermo Trejo
• Carol Wainio
• Robert Waters
• Joyce Westrop
• Colin White

2020 Direct Purchase Peer Assessment Committee: Guy Bérubé, Marisa Gallemit, Rachelle Dickenson, Diana Thorneycroft, Howie Tsui

2020 Donation Review Committee: David Barbour, Neven Lochhead, Annie Thibault, Melanie Yugo

Commissions:Tara Blasioi, Joel Boudreau, Hala Boushey, Eric Chan, Brendan de Montigny, Steve Fick, Christopher Griffin, Dipna Horra, Stuart Kinmond, Maryse Maynard, Susan Murray, Barbara Pickthorne, Jocelyn Pirainen