Every first Thursday of the month, there is the Wellington West Art Walk, a guided walking tour that covers six galleries in the Hintonburg area. All the galleries are staying opened late on that night and some of them schedule their exhibition openings accordingly.
I always wanted to go and now I finally made it! I attended the April-tour; and it was actually a lot of fun and very exploratory. Like one of the attenders said: “It's like a pub crawl, but with galleries!” It's a great chance to see 6 exhibitions (sometimes at their opening nights) in one evening.
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| Fritzi Gallery |
We – a group of 10 people - started at 7 p. m. at the Fritzi Gallery, located in the upper foyer of the Great Canadian Theatre Company. Currently shown is Paula Mitas Zoubek's work which encounters the theatre play The Middle Place by Andrew Kushnir. The play which unfortunately is not shown any more, was created from interviews conducted at a youth shelter.
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| Paula Mitas Zoubek at Fritzi Gallery |
Paula Mitas Zoubek's paintings show landscapes or group portraits with blank spaces of the contour of children; she left them blank to reminds us on lost childhoods... She wants the beholder to fill them out with his or her own childhood memories.
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| The crowd at Patrick John Mills |
The next stop was Patrick John Mills Gallery. It was the opening night of the controversial exhibition Porn is not Art – and it was jammed! You might have seen posters of the show, because Mills has put them up all over the city, saying: “Porn is not Art”, or “Porn is Art”. The show seems to give the answer: of course it is...
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| Patrick John Mills |
Included in the show are a few large-scale paintings by Patrick John Mills with his characteristic dynamic brushstrokes. He says in the exhibit statement: “Since the internet porn has become abundant. Porn effects how we communicate, the dynamics of our relationships, and how we interact as partners. This exhibition will explore the impact porn has had on our lives.”
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| Matthew Jeffrey |
The Orange Art Gallery was next, with an exhibition opening for Urban Magic presenting Megan D'Arcy and Matthew Jeffrey. D'Arcy created large-scale photo collages of hyper- stylized urban landscapes with a shiny resin finish; Jeffrey weaves two digital prints - like a shot of a sidewalk and a diving sea turtle - that leads to astonishing results and a complexity of meanings. Other artists of the gallery were also shown who presented a very broad spectrum of media, styles and artistic approaches.
The big sign on the roof of the gallery shows a portrait by Ottawa based artist Stephen Frew who is strongly influence by Francis Bacon, Egon Schiele and Lucien Freud. His portraits, self-portraits and nudes are currently also on display – inside the gallery, of course.
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| Karen Flanagan McCarthy at Exposure Gallery |
At Exposure Gallery the Ottawa based photographer Karen Flanagan McCarthy gave us a very interesting insight in her work process. The photos in her show Fugitive States were created close to her home in Aylmer and along the Ottawa River; they show ice patches and the frozen river in close-ups that depict tiny cracks and fissures.
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| From the exhibition Fugetive States |
It is stunning how abstract these ice structures occur when the context of the shot is not visible any more. McCarthy finds these amazing forms that are images of a particular state that won't last long; indeed "Fugitive States".
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| Gallery 3 |
Gallery 3 on Wellington presents works by Canadian contemporary artists. It is an offspring of the Byward Market’s Galerie St. Laurent & Hill.
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| On the right: Nina Cherney, on the left: Peter Hoffer |
There was no exhibition opening at that night, but the gallery presents an overview about their artists.
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| Ottawa Alleyways at Cube Gallery |
We ended our tour at the Cube Gallery at the opening of Ottawa Alleyways. It was crowded with people! Eight Ottawa artists explore and depict Ottawa's back alleys – that lead to a broad spectrum of paintings in different styles, some neo-realist, some in a naïve style, some almost abstract.
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| Strachan Johnston at Cube |
Strachan Johnston's acrylic paintings with patterns of strong colours gave an almost abstract impression. The close hanging at Cube's walls is perfect for this show because its corresponds with the subjects – the narrow back alleys between and behind our houses.
All the galleries in the tour are located in short distance from each other; the tour took us around 1.5 hours. For people who prefer to walk into an art gallery in a group and not on their own, it's the ideal tour. But for people with a background and knowledge in arts, I would recommend to visit these galleries on your own because we just had c.10-15 minutes for each gallery. That's not a lot of time when you are really interested. All of these galleries are opened till 9p.m. on 1st Thursdays – so it's ideal to stroll through them after work!
Facts:
Wellington West Art Walk
Free guided tour
every 1st Thursday of the month
starts at 7p.m.
At Fritzi Gallery (Great Canadian Theatre Company)
