HAMILTON, ON.- The Art Gallery of Hamilton is excited to present five new exhibitions and related programs that explore and encourage discussion on a range of dynamic topics. Highlights include the only Canadian exhibition of over 100 black-and-white and colour photographs by Vivian Maier titled Vivian Maier: Street Photographer ; a thought-provoking address of the longstanding exclusion of women artists from historical and contemporary art; an examination of the deep roots of culture and creativity in Hamilton as expressed though works of eight local artists; photographic story-telling of everyday life on James Street North in the 1980s, and the third installment of The Living Room which inspires visitors to reflect and express their own views through a series of interactive media.
“This season, through a series of exhibitions exploring photography, media, sculpture, installation, and regional history, the AGH highlights the lens through which artists engage the world. A singular, and often eccentric lens, the works bring forth new ideas, making new discoveries about places and people.” - AGH President & CEO Shelley Falconer.
Vivian Maier: Street Photographer On view June 16, 2018 - January 6, 2019
Dubbed the “secret nanny-photographer” by the media, Vivian Maier (1926-2009) always had a Rolleiflex camera around her neck, yet zealously hid the resulting photographs from others. Her work—including more than 2,000 rolls of film, 3,000 prints, and more than 100,000 negatives— remained unknown until her street and travel photography was discovered at a Chicago auction house in 2007, when the contents of one of her storage lockers was sold off to cover delinquent payments.
Her black-and-white photographs—mostly from the 1950s and 1960s—are striking images of the architecture and street life of Chicago and New York. She rarely took more than one frame of each image and concentrated on capturing children, women, and the elderly. The breadth of Maier’s work also reveals a series of striking self-portraits as well as prints from her travels to Egypt, Bangkok, Italy, the American Southwest, and other locations.
Vivian Maier: Street Photographer includes over 100 black-and-white and colour photographs and 8-mm films shot by Maier. The Art Gallery of Hamilton is the first Canadian gallery to present the exhibition.
Born in the Bronx to a French mother and Austrian father, Maier split her time between Europe and the United States, returning to New York City in 1951. In 1956, she settled in Chicago where she worked as a nanny for more than 40 years.
“The story of Vivian Maier is fascinating. I think she’s one of the top street photographers we have ever seen. She has a key place in the history of the medium. Her images contain all the specificity of street photography while also referencing the history of visual culture. This is no accident. I hope that this exhibition helps locate her work in the history of the field. I leave it to others to puzzle over her motivations.” - Anne Morin, Exhibition Curator, Director, diChroma photography
Curated by Anne Morin
Hamilton Now: Subject On view June 22 - November 18, 2018
Hamilton Now: Subject is the first of two exhibitions inspired by the deep roots of culture and creativity in Hamilton and the recent influx of so many more artists to the city. The exhibition features the work of eight local artists and takes up the key aspects of who we are and how we manifest ourselves in an increasingly fractured world.
Building on the popular appeal of the 2014 exhibition Painting Hamilton as a highly dynamic show that featured the breadth of practices of Hamilton emerging and established artists, Hamilton Now: Subject brings together works in a wide variety of media, including video, sculpture, printmaking and mixed media. As the individual artists address their own questions around identity, they reflect on contemporary ways of representing oneself and explore questions of autobiography. Psychological and spiritual perception, generational identity, gender, queer identities and race politics all come together for an absorbing and nuanced expression of the art scene in Hamilton today.
Hamilton Now: Subject exhibiting artists include: Nedda Baba and Amber Müller St. Thomas, Kiera Boult, Lesley Loksi Chan, Masoud Eskandari, John Haney, Becky Katz, Leslie Sasaki, and David Trautrimas.
The second part of this project, Hamilton Now: Object, runs from December 8, 2018 to May 20, 2019. Artists include Christopher Reid Flock, Carmela Laganse, Laura Marotta, Taien Ng-Chan and Donna Akrey, Svava Thordis Juliusson, and others.
Curated by Melissa Bennett
James Street North: Vintage Photographs by Cees and Annerie van Gemerden On view June 16, 2018 - January 6, 2019
Cees and Annerie van Gemerden arrived in Hamilton in the early 1980s and settled in the James Street North area; they still call the neighbourhood home. At the time, they found a deeply engaged art scene and quickly established themselves within its tight-knit artistic community. The city experienced an economic downturn in the years following their arrival (one that has only recently begun to reverse itself), and James Street North is once again the creative heart of the city.
Highlighting the formative series On and Around James Street (1984-85), this exhibition of over twenty photographs by the van Gemerdens offers unique and timely views of familiar places in the neighbourhood—some of which have changed, some of which remain. The images feature residents and merchants along James Street North, a historically diverse cultural neighbourhood, well-known for its grassroots artist-run culture.
Curated by Melissa Bennett and Tobi Bruce
Speaking for Herself On view March 10, 2018 - March 17, 2019
The longstanding exclusion of women artists from art history, exhibitions, collections, the art market and commercial gallery representation is not a debatable issue, it’s a fact. When exhibitions consist of only the work of men—the norm in gallery and museum exhibitions and collections—they are not identified as such because they don’t have to be. We don’t see titles like Men Artists from the Collection. In an effort to bring the work of women artists back into the conversation, Speaking for Herself mines the AGH collection to bring together significant work by significant artists who identify as women.
The exhibition explores our holdings—historical, modern and contemporary—in a range of material practices including painting, photography, sculpture, and installation. The project features the achievements of both known or recognized artists while introducing lesser-knowns into the discussion. These conversations between historical and contemporary artists of diverse cultural backgrounds explore a broad range of themes including the body, identity, materiality, and private versus public selves.
In the spirit and momentum of this empowering historical moment for women around the world, we are very proud to present an exhibition that foregrounds the artistic voices of so many intelligent, perceptive, witty, strong, and creative women.
Curated by Tobi Bruce
The Living Room: STREETWATCH On view June 22 - November 11, 2018
Sharing a theme with Vivian Maier: Street Photographer and James Street North: Vintage Photographs by Cees and Annerie van Gemerden, STREETWATCH is an interactive exploration of street photography through a variety of historic and contemporary mediums. Photo essays include an historic survey of downtown Hamilton circa 1950-1970 from Jack Whorwood, a day-in the life of Supercrawl by George Qua-Enoo, and a sample of the observational works generated by Titi Postma’s ongoing, possibly never-ending chronicle of the city. These images will be presented alongside an evolving, crowdsourced photo wall, interactive slide table, and collections of historic photographic ephemera.
Curated by Tor Lukasik-Foss
