Oct. 7 marked both a beginning and an end for the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG).
With the help of ArtHaus, a condo development company striving to integrate art into daily lives, and artist Max Dean, the OAG simultaneously launched their fall exhibition gallery featuring the works of Melanie Authier, and the construction of their new location at 50 Mackenzie King Bridge.
Along with the opening, the evening was celebrating Dean’s donation of “Waiting for the Tooth Fairy,” 50 works valued at $500,000.
According to Dean, the inspiration behind “Waiting for the Toothfairy” is a “portrait of a relationship that began here.” It began when he was coming down Island Park Drive in a thunderstorm, and there was a tree snapped in half. He said he immediately thought that he needed the piece.
“Unfortunately, the tree was too big . . . came back and found a tree in Kemptville where it had snapped so the tree is really coming home in that sense. So we see that it’s a natural thing for it to come here,” Dean said.
The gallery also happened to be the first place to give Dean a major show and his first catalogue.
The evening began with a walk around the gallery, and artists posing for pictures and conversations among guests.
Two rooms were filled with the works of Authier. These included works such as “Vestiges and Thieveries,” as well as “Scylla and Charybdis.”
As the event continued, there were a number of speeches from a variety of people involved with the creation of the new OAG, including one from Dean.
Dean’s speech focused on the need for community efforts in keeping the arts alive and the roles that we all have to play.
“I think that we’ve failed to kind of move, and to remember the importance of supporting artists . . . particularly on a local level,” he said. “I think one of the things that’s gonna happen with all these communities within Canada, is that the people and general public have to buy artwork. You have to buy work, right, in order to keep us alive.”
Dean said the government could make it easier for people to purchase works.
“People need to buy work, and so if the government can provide an incentive for people to buy work like if they forgave the HST, for example, or gave you income tax reduction if you bought Canadian art,” he said.
Authier offered a different angle. She discussed the importance of artist-run centres, and stated they were a bit of a “Canadian phenomenon” with a large contrast to the situation in the United States.
“Often it’s a very different setup where they want the artist to pay to exhibit, whereas in Canada because of CARFAC fees, the artist gets paid an exhibition fee and that is one way that an artist will gain exposure in a non-commercial scenario,” she said. CARFAC fees are a similar concept as minimum wage, and artists get paid CARFAC fees depending on the work they produce.
Authier added that the art scene is in a positive place with the liberal government.
“I think all the artists and the art community in general is watching with excitement to see how that might directly impact the art community in a positive way,” she said.
