2012 Season Call to for Submissions

Blink Gallery Ottawa

 

BLINK GALLERY

2012 Exhibition Season (June to September)

Blink is currently accepting submissions for another active and engaging season. Exhibitions are one to two weeks in length and feature the work of member and guest artists. Blink is a non-profit, Ottawa-based artist collective that supports professional contemporary artists with an interest in exploration. Emphasis is placed on using the gallery space as a laboratory for creative approaches and interventions.

Artists working in all disciplines are encouraged to apply. Submissions of curated and group exhibitions are strongly encouraged. Artists from outside the Ottawa area are welcome to submit, however note that Blink does not cover transportation, accommodation or other exhibition-related costs.

Blink Gallery currently resides in Header House, a small stone NCC heritage building in Major’s Hill Park. This seasonal exhibition space is located across the street from the National Gallery of Canada.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

March 31, 2012

Submissions must be postmarked on or before the deadline

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

www.blinkgallery.ca/submissions

A Hair Raising Finale to the Blink Season: Erin Robertson & Danny Hussey’s Beard

What’s hiding in your beard?

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BLINK’s 2011 closing reception ends on a hairy note

Ottawa – BLINK Gallery wraps up its 2011 exhibition season this weekend with Danny Hussey’s Luxurious Beard, featuring Erin Robertson’s drawings of none other than Danny Hussey, his ever-evolving beard and the stuff that’s entangled in it. Those who frequent Patrick Gordon Framing or Enriched Bread Artist studios have already witnessed the evolution of Danny’s facial fuzz firsthand. Those who aren’t so privileged can still observe this man’s patient 49-week pursuit at nobly expressing his manhood.

The beard has long been associated with power, wisdom, manliness and magic. Gods, prophets, kings and nobles have historically been depicted as bearded men reflecting high honour. Traces of our experiences are embodied in each follicle and can be tested to determine exposure to heavy metals, vitamin deficiencies and who knows what else. Some believe your hair is an extension of your thoughts…

There was an Old Man with a beard

Who said “it is just as I feared!”

“Two Owls and a Hen 

Four Larks and a Wren 

Have all built their nests in my beard!” 

- Edward Lear

Erin Robertson is an Ottawa-based sculptor and painter who explores figurative and environmental themes through the inventive use of a wide variety of materials. Her work is marked by its whimsical and subversive play on everyday idioms, domesticity, urban landscapes and mythology.

Catch Erin drawing in situ on Thursday, October 13 (6–9 pm), Friday, October 14 (1–6 pm), and Saturday, October 15 (12–5 pm).

The Closing Reception of Danny Hussey’s Luxurious Beard and of BLINK’s 2011 exhibition season takes place on Sunday, October 16 from 2–5 pm. All are welcome and admission is free.

Exhibit dates / Artist working in situ

Thursday, October 13, 6–9 pm

Friday, October 14, 1–6 pm

Saturday, October 15, 12–5 pm

Closing reception: Sunday, October 16, 2011

Time: 2 to 5 pm

Location: BLINK Gallery, Major’s Hill Park

Things Happen: Petra Halkes turns things around

Turning the gallery into a one-room schoolhouse, Petra Halkes turns things around so more Things can happen:

Things Happen  @   Blink

Opening: Thursday, Oct. 6, 7 – 9 pm (Story telling at 8 pm)

RIA Reads Out Loud: Friday, Oct. 7, 12 to 1.30 pm  

Slide Lecture by Petra Halkes: Saturday, Oct. 8, 2 – 3.30 pm

     
Please note that the gallery will be open ONLY for the events listed.

       When I was asked to create this show, it was early spring and I was trying to
organize reading groups on topics in contemporary art. Every-day things and
their relationship to art, would be a great research topic, I thought. And it could,
perhaps, spark some ideas for the Blink exhibition. So, with a RIA (Research in Art)
Reading group, I read texts on the object in art, from Michael Fried’s 1967 “Art
and Objecthood” to the not-yet-published chapters of Joshua Simon’s book on
Neomaterialism, found on www.e-flux.com

       Ideas did spark, but my fascination with the readings gained the upper hand. I
decided to forego creative treatment of the objects altogether, and use the site
and the time at Blink to provoke and discuss some thoughts on the life of objects
and their relationship to art. I filled the gallery with chairs and turned it into a
little one-room schoolhouse for three planned events. The artists’ objects are
arranged on a table in the garage of Blink’s gallery. I have not imposed any
transformative ideas on them. They are simply objects, illustrating the topic of
conversation: Objects in Art

 

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                                                                                                             -Petra Halkes

The Blink Gallery will be open one evening for storytelling, a lunchtime hour for
some reading aloud, and a Saturday afternoon for a lecture on the object in art
(see details below). The events are free and open to the public. Seats are limited.

Thursday
October 6
7 -9 PM
8 pm:
Story Time
RSVP
Things Happen, Vernissage and Story time.
Things as burdens or blessings:
At 8pm, it is story time. Several artists will talk about what the objects they brought
in mean to them. Then Petra Halkes will tell the stories of Lucky Hans, a Grimm’s
folktale about a man who down-traded his wealth to become carefree and happy,
and a real-life story gone viral, about Lucky Kyle, who up-traded a red paperclip for
a house in 2006.
Friday
October 7
12.30 pm
RSVP
Ria Reads Out Loud.
Everyone welcome. No pre-reading required. Participants will bring a print-out
of two texts by Joshua Simon: “Neo-Materialism, Part One: The Commodity and the
Exhibition” and “Neo-Materialism, Part Two: The Unreadymade”, which can be
found at e-flux journal # 20 and #23, at www.e-flux.com/journal . We will take turns
to read out loud and discuss parts of this text.2 Simon’s provocative pronouncement
that all objects are commodities will surely spark some debate.
Saturday
October 8
2 – 3.30
pm
RSVP
“Happily Ever After: The long afterlife of
Duchamp’s urinal”.
Slide Lecture by Petra Halkes. Everyone welcome. Halkes will relate
contemporary art practices such as assemblage art, accumulation art, and
hyper realist installations, to the history of the object in art since Duchamp,
as well as to the changed production and trading of objects in a globalized
consumer world. This will be an informal lecture and far from
comprehensive. “Art speak” will be avoided or explained and many images
will be shown. Halkes will quote from texts by Michael Fried, Paul Chan, Sven
Lütticken and Joshua Simon, among others, which were read in the RIA
Object reading group.
2 The Reading Out Loud event was inspired by Toronto’s No Reading After the Internet
http://noreadingaftertheinternet.wordpress.com/about/

In(habitus) desires (your) presence

In(habitus): The art of collecting
From the personal collections of BLINK gallery members

 

The desire to collect, to keep safe our keepsakes, to celebrate and acknowledge those things that attach themselves to us – is something inherent to many artistic practices. Entering a studio space can be like stepping into an art exhibition. Mementos and collections hold a significant place in the process of making art and speak to both the creative process and of organizing one’s space.

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BLINK gallery celebrates this phenomenon with In(habitus): The art of collecting. Curator Diane Bond has pulled from the personal collections of all eight members; Barbara Cuerden, Tami Galili Ellis, Meaghan Haughian, Jean Jewer, Karina Kraenzle, Cynthia O’Brien, Bozica Radjenovic, and Erin Robertson, to provide a glimpse inside the artists’ studios and the collections they house.Please join BLINK members at the vernissage of In(habitus): The art of collecting on Thursday, September 29 from 6 to 9 p.m. The exhibit continues on September 30, October 1, and 2. All are welcome and admission is free. Come and visit during Culture Days!Vernissage: Thursday, September 29, 2011
Time: 6 to 9 pm
Location: BLINK Gallery, Major’s Hill Park

 

Exhibit continues:

Friday, September 30 (1–6pm)
Saturday, October 1 (12–5 pm)
Sunday, October 2 (12–5 pm)

 

Essence of three: Jean Jewer, Francine Lemiuex, Maureen Sandrock

3 Diverse Artists, 3 Different Topics, 3 Unique Styles

Jean Jewer is a painter/printmaker originally from Newfoundland. She received her BFA from the University of Manitoba. Jean is presenting a series of monoprints. “I like the natural occurrences of printmaking where subconsciously images emerge and new ideas flow. This art form unfolds like a script of drawings from my memory… expressing a particular state of mind about the environment I grew up in. I feel that this performance parallels the essence of nature’s processes.”

Francine Lemieux is a sculptor from Montreal. She received her BFA from l’Université du Québec à Montréal. “Porcelain and stoneware as malleable materials offer me a large flexibility during the act of shaping a sculpture. Even if beforehand I make a series of sketches, for me, a sculpture really comes to life when I touch the clay. Often when I begin to work, the essence of a persona doesn’t necessarily come me at firsthand. But while the clay is humid, it is possible to change a sulky lip into a smile or an anxious eye into a serene look! These transformations enable me to pinpoint the idiosyncrasies contained in each of the characters as they reveal themselves to me while I am modeling the clay.”

Maureen Sandrock obtained her science education from the University of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. After 25 years of acute nursing, she graduated from the Ottawa School of Art in 1997. Since graduating she has exhibited at 101, SAW Gallery, OSA, EBA, Santiago Chile, Mexico City, Florida, Carleton University, Winnipeg and Saskatchewan. She received a Canada Council Grant for the purpose of transferring scientific information about DNA, genetic manipulation, and cloning into visual data. THE ESSENCE OF LIFE IS A HEART BEAT.

VERNISSAGE

Thursday, September 22, 6–9 pm

Exhibit continues

Friday, September 23, 1–6pm

Saturday, September 24, 12–5 pm

Sunday, September 25, 12–5 pm

 

 

‘Strange Weather – Deep Sleep’ Dream uncanny dreams with Karina Kraenzle

Karina Kraenzle presents

“Strange Weather – Deep Sleep”

A small collection of images and objects about photography, weather, and the inability to sleep – a work in progress…

VERNISSAGE

Thursday, September 15, 6–9 pm

Exhibit continues

Friday, September 16, 1–6pm

Saturday, September 17, 12–5 pm

Sunday, September 18, 12–5 pm

 

Karina Kraenzle combines various media with original and found photography.  Her subject matter, more often than not, is photography itself – its relationship to time and memory, and its unique ability to construct certain fictions and uncertain truths.  Over the past few years, her work has been exhibited at Ottawa Art Rental and Sales Gallery, Exposure Gallery, The Ottawa School of Art Gallery, Galerie Jean-Claude Bergeron, La Petite Mort Gallery, Cube Gallery, L’Imagier Gallery, SPAO, Festival X, and Contact Festival in Toronto.  She is also a member of the Ottawa Artist Collective Blink.

Threaded: Blink Homage to Louise Bourgeois installation

Threaded:Homage to Louise Bourgeois

Barbara Cuerden, Tami Galili Ellis, Meaghan Haughian, Jean Jewer,
Karina Kraenzle, Cynthia O’Brien, Bozica Radjenovic, Erin Robertson

Eight artists create diptychs that reflect the connecting threads between their works and those of Louise Bourgeois, bearing in mind the words of the artist:

“I do, I undo, I redo.”

Now open at the Shenkman Center for the Arts

Meet the artists at Culture days October 2