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

What’s hiding in your beard?

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

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”

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.

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

monkey say monkey do

Ottawa – Local artist Tami Galili Ellis recounts a story about a book: A few months ago I found a little vintage book, ‘The command to look’ which made me smile. At the time I had no idea what I would do with the outdated information it contained (printed in 1937), but with time, it became clear that I would interpret and incorporate what I see and read into some drawings.

The content of this book is both compelling and amusing to me. It says:
“any picture that ‘goes places’ does so by following a definite physiological formula…and shows its concrete application in a series of prints that have won the approbation of publishers and salons”

Inspired by this book, (with it’s conclusion kept in mind) that somehow found its way into my possession, I created a series of mixed media expressive drawings that, as it says in the book, do all the following:

1.    The picture must make you look at it
2.    Having looked – see
3.    Having seen – enjoy”

* the book will be a reference present in the exhibit.

Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Tami Galili Ellis is a Canadian artist based in Ottawa. In 1992, after earning her BFA from the University of Ottawa, she joined the teaching staff of the Ottawa School of Art where she currently instructs a variety of courses all ages. An active member of the arts community, Tami maintains a local studio dubbed ‘The Stables’ and is a member of Blink Collective. She exhibits her work regularly and is the recipient of awards and grants, most recently an emerging artist grant from the Ontario Arts Council (2010).

The Command to Look opens with a reception on Thursday, September 8 from 6 to 9 p.m. The exhibit continues daily until September 11. All are welcome and admission is free.

Vernissage: Thursday, September 8, 2011

Time: 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.

Location: BLINK Gallery, Major’s Hill Park

Exhibit continues:                                               

Friday, September 9, 1–6 pm

Saturday, September 10, 12–5 pm

Sunday, September 11, 12–5 pm

moving day 2

Meaghan Haughian asks: What is home?

Home: a building intended as a dwelling; a place or environment one holds dear because of personal relationships or feelings of comfort and security.

Is home the building where I have slept for the past six years? Is it the drip of my kitchen sink and the laughter from my neighbours’ front porch? Is it my well-loved couch, my dusty plants, the books that fill my shelves?

Moving day is an exploration of home – the structure, the contents, the keeper of one’s self. For four days, mixed media drawings, objects and furniture move into Header House, reconstructing personal spaces and histories in the form of non-linear narratives. In this latest project, I am most captivated by one thought: if I remove my cherished belongings from my home, will I feel homesick?

Meaghan Haughian earned a BFA from Mount Allison University, NB in 2004, where she focused on printmaking and photography. Her work has been exhibited in Ottawa, Halifax, St. John’s, Toronto, Moncton and Sackville, NB. Meaghan has been, and continues to be, involved with artist and community-based collectives such as BLINK, CATwalk – Centretown Art Tour, The New Art Festival, Chinatown Remixed and the Red Salon Artists. She has received grants from the City of Ottawa and the Ontario Arts Council. Her work is included in numerous private collections and the following public collections: the Ottawa Art Gallery, the City of Ottawa and the National Art Centre’s French Theatre.

House-warming party    

moving day

Thursday, September 1st, 6–9 pm

Exhibit continues
Friday, September 2, 1–6pm
Saturday, September 3, 12–5 pm
Sunday, September 4, 12–5 pm

In the post below, see an installation of Blink’s tiny spiders as part of our “threads” show 2 years ago.