Selections from the Collection in the Time of COVID

November 26, 2020 - May 2, 2021

Guest Curated by Jane LowBeer

winner of the 2019 Curator’s Experience

Hand-coloured block print and collage by Tony Urquhart. Circle in yellow with mottled green interior.

Tony Urquhart, Unknown Landscape, 1965, from the Toronto 20 Portfolio, hand-coloured block print and collage on paper. Collection of the Art Gallery of Peterborough. Purchased with the assistance of the Ministry of Citizenship and Culture through a Wintario Grant, 1983.

Watercolour painting by Lucie Chan of a person with stylized tears coming out of their open eyes

Lucie Chan, Untitled #3, from the Crying Series, 2006, watercolour on paper. Collection of the Art Gallery of Peterborough. Purchased with the assistance of the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation, the AGP Volunteers Committee and the Canada Council for the Arts, 2007.

Oil and wax painting by Brain Kipping. Interior view of an empty office.

Brian Kipping, Gatehouse, 1985, oil and wax on wood. collection of the Art Gallery of Peterborough. Gift of Herbert C. Sigman, 1991

Screenprint by Nobuo Kubota. Person on the left with mouth open and six green leaves arching outward on top of forest background.

Nobuo Kubota, Chant, from the Atonement Series, 1989, screenprint on paper, ed. 21/30. Collection of the Art Gallery of Peterborough. Gift of the artist Nobuo Kubota, 2009

Mixed media on canvas featuring three images of indigenous sisters

Jane Ash Poitras, Three Sisters, 1995, mixed media on canvas

Gallery view of the exhibition Selections from the Collection in the Time of COIVD featuring Jane Ash Poitras' mixed media installed on the AGP ramps

Installation view of Selections from the Collection in the Time of COVID

Gallery view of the exhibition Selections from the Collection in the Time of COIVD featuring Robin Mackenzie's lithographs and Anne Meredith Barry mixed media landscape installed on the AGP ramps

Left: Robin Mackenzie, A Print in Four Parts; Right: Anne Meredith Barry, Coastal Journey #2: Past the Dog Island

Jane Ash Poitras, Anne Meredith Barry, Jack Bush, Lucie Chan,
Louis de Niverville, Jim Dine, Ivan Eyre, Brian Kipping, Nobuo Kubota,
Robin Mackenzie, Michael Maglich, John Marok, Mimmo Paladino,
Michael Poulton, Akira Yoshikawa, and Tony Urquhart

“At last year’s AGP fundraiser I bid on a chance to curate a show from [the AGP] collection. How surprising to realize I had never curated an exhibition beyond my own artwork, even though I have been a printmaker and mixed media maker for 40 years and have had many exhibitions. This is an extraordinary opportunity to see the depth of our local community gallery’s archive. The process was challenging – I had to look at tiny digital images of each artwork with no way to know size, medium or artist. What was fascinating to me was that my personal aesthetic preferences were revealed by dint of this limitation.

Originally I had a title in mind “The Space Between.” As full pandemic lockdown had begun and new definitions of isolation formed. Now we had to keep six metres between ourselves as we stood in lines and walked the streets. This title reflected our daily condition and called to mind my preoccupation in art with negative space, the area around and between an object. This title changed but COVID remained. Instead of looking for a theme I clicked away on images that made my heart beat a little faster.

Now it is up to you, the viewer, to peruse and find your own connections and story. I hope you will find in this exhibition a reflection of the many emotions that are manifest in this unprecedented time of COVID and pieces to make you smile, stay curious and leave you believing a bit more in the magic of art. Maybe even tomorrow or the next day you will feel the urge to pick up a pencil or brush ‘make a mark.'”

Jane LowBeer, a mixed-media artist, recently moved from Toronto to the Peterborough area. Monotypes, and lately drypoints, have been her medium of choice. LowBeer started her artistic career as a printmaker studying with Stanley Hayter at his famous Atelier 17 in Paris.

During her career she has exhibited in New York, Montreal and various places in Europe. Her works are held in public and private collections including The Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Bibliothèque National in Paris.