The Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG) held a launch party on Jan. 29 to unveil and celebrate its 30th anniversary exhibit, ‘Drawing On Our History.’ The event showcased Canadian contemporary artists and their works.
A team of five guest curators and CUAG staff co-curated the exhibit, inviting eight Canadian artists to create contemporary drawings in conversation with a wide variety of historical and contemporary drawings from the gallery’s collection. Although the event focused on drawings, the CUAG staff also welcomed ceramic pieces.
CUAG’s director, Sandra Dyck, opened the exhibit with an explanation of this year’s theme.
“‘Drawing on our History’ is an exhibition about relationships between artworks, spaces, stories, ideas, geographies, histories and most importantly, people,” she said.
All artists created new art specifically for the show. Some also brought past works to display and gave new meaning to existing pieces.
CUAG curator Heather Anderson invited artist Mélanie Myers to contribute to the exhibit. Anderson said she created a proposal for Myers’ collection to be displayed.
“One of the most fulfilling aspects of the job is getting to work closely with artists and help them to realize their projects,” she said. “With projects, [curators] can support an artist in creating [and] showing a new work, or being able to present an older work that already exists … in a new context.”
The CUAG staff also selected roughly 60 pieces from the gallery’s collection to fill the venue and create a cohesive environment with the invited artists’ works.
“Drawing is something that people can respond to,” Anderson said. “There are so many drawings, different styles, themes, a range of drawings that [are] represented in this exhibition, so we think there’s something for everyone.”
Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona, an artist invited to participate by Dyck, said she used CUAG’s drawing archive to inspire her new pieces.
“The art gallery has a lot of different works from my family members.” she said. “I got to come in and look … at all these historical drawings from the 1950s to 1970s. I took some of the imagery and worked it into some of the new pieces that I’m drawing.”
Kabloona said she uses her pieces as a conversation between her identity and artistic mediums.
“This series of drawings is about how I identify my place in the world and the duality between being bi-racial and being Inuit.”
She added she hopes to start conversations around her work and that others see themselves reflected.
“It’s been interesting seeing people’s reactions to it,” she added. “Since I’ve shared on social media, people either think that it’s a really lovely way of [self-expression] or see a difference in how they see themselves and how I see myself and it’s opening up a dialogue to talk about inclusivity and identity.”
Anna Ferrabee, a Carleton alumna and spectator at the launch party, commended CUAG for their continuous support of intersectionality and inclusivity.
As she has seen CUAG continue to grow, she said the gallery continues to highlight and celebrate marginalized artists and their communities in the Carleton community and beyond.
“I hope and expect that CUAG will continue to be forward-thinking [and] pioneers in what they do, and continue to highlight so many … talented people with such strong messages [of] community.”
CUAG is creating a strategic plan to decide how the gallery will move forward, which will include re-imagining how the company works as a team and with communities. Staff are also planning cyclical grants in partnership with the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.
Considering the gallery’s lack of exhibitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic closures, Anderson said CUAG is excited to open its doors again.
“The past couple of years, it’s been quite a different process,” she said. “We haven’t been able to have events to this degree and we’re sort of just coming back into this state of normal, but re-assessing … how you engage with communities and how you host events and the nature of the kind of exhibitions we do.”
Anderson said the gallery will continue to prepare for the future of CUAG.
“Marking the 30th anniversary is an exciting time, but it’s also a time for looking forward and rethinking what we might do differently,” she said.
The exhibit is on display at the CUAG until May 7.
Featured image by Hannah Daramola.
