FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The MacLaren Art Centre Winter Exhibitions
Featuring an exciting range of exhibitions
Friday, December 3, 2021
Barrie, Ontario: The MacLaren Art Centre presents four exciting exhibitions opening Saturday, December 4, 2021 from 2:00pm – 4:00pm. All are welcome!
The winter cycle of exhibitions includes something for everyone, with two exhibitions from the permanent collection, and two others featuring the work of contemporary artists Rachel MacFarlane and Francisco-Fernando Granados.
Rachel MacFarlane: Broken Images, Where the Sun Beats presents landscapes of our current moment. Planned before the pandemic but executed within it, the exhibition reflects the fracturing of our experience of the natural world in a time of lockdown.
Broken Images, Where the Sun Beats takes its title from TS Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922), written partially in response to the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1920. A few lines after this phrase appears, Eliot invites us to “come in under the shadow of this red rock,” a miasmic scene that brings to mind MacFarlane’s paintings of arid and fragmented deserts. Uninterested in creating empirical recordings of space, MacFarlane’s psychologically charged landscapes capture a central tension of our experience of the natural world, and a caution to experience it more fully once we make our way back to it. Rachel MacFarlane grew up at the edge of the Case Woodlot in Aurora, Ontario and is currently based in New York City.
Anchor Point is a yearlong community based curatorial project featuring work from the permanent collection. This evolving exhibition series will reveal insights into the MacLaren’s permanent collection and bring a broad range of contemporary and community voices into dialogue with historical and contemporary art and traditional collecting practices. Together we will discover the role the collection can play in navigating our way forward amidst the changing dynamics of our community.
Wind Rose is the first exhibition in the Anchor Point series. A wind rose is a tool used to navigate the many directions and intensities of the wind at a particular location on a map. It is not only beautiful, but also useful. It is used to map the way forward within a changing and unpredictable environment. Watch the exhibition evolve as we consider, select, and debate our choices together. Join us to discover the strengths and the weaknesses of the permanent collection as we map our way forward.
Francisco-Fernando Granados
/ˈfɔːwɜːd/: a short introduction at the beginning of a book, usually by a person other than the author (Oxford Learner’s Dictionary)
In dialogue with Anchor Point, foreward is imagined as an extended solo exhibition occupying the in-between spaces of the MacLaren for a full year. Francisco-Fernando Granados will use abstraction as a means to open up conversations on place, history, and the way forward for cultural practices in the region. The project consists of site-specific wall drawings, a series of preparatory studies to be entered into the gallery’s collection/archive, and a free takeaway publication for the residents of Barrie at the end of the project.
Francisco-Fernando Granados is a Toronto-based artist and writer. His practice extends from performance and drawing into a range of media that includes site-specific installation, moving image, text, public and participatory projects.
Henry Moore: Elephant Skull is drawn from the MacLaren’s permanent collection and features thirty-three works as well as five special edition prints that explore the skull and all its complexities. Through delicate and sensitive line work Moore takes the viewer on a journey around and through the elephant’s skull, exploring the enigmatic forms he discovered. Best known as a sculptor of monumental works, Moore’s contributions to the graphic arts are not to be ignored.
For more information contact:
Lisa Daniels
Executive Director
lisa@maclarenart.com
705-720-1044 ext. 260
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Acknowledgements
Today and every day, we acknowledge the land we are on. This land is the traditional territory of the Anishinaabek, which include the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Pottawatomi Nations, collectively known as the Three Fires Confederacy. The local bands consist of the Chippewa Tri-Council, who are made up of Beausoleil First Nation, Georgina Island First Nation and Rama First Nation. We would also like to acknowledge the Wendat Nation (Huron) who occupied these lands prior to the middle of the 17th century. We also recognize the enduring presence of all First Nations, Métis and the Inuit peoples.
About the MacLaren
The MacLaren Art Centre is the major public regional public art gallery serving Barrie, Simcoe County and the surrounding area. Exhibitions highlight artwork by regional artists along with works from its significant permanent collection. Programming is year-round, from exhibitions to special events to workshops, with activities for all ages.
Gallery Public Hours: Thursday – Sunday; 11:00 am – 4:00pm
Admission is Free with a suggested donation of $5
Gallery Location
37 Mulcaster Street
Barrie, Ontario
L4M 3M2
www.maclarenart.com
The MacLaren is wheelchair accessible.
Visit the Gallery website for more details on all the exciting exhibitions, programs, events, and COVID protocols. www.maclarenart.com
