April's Abstract Bonds at the RMG

With the variable weather upon us as Spring slowly returns, an art gallery is the perfect place to spend some time. Galleries are places of possibilities, creativity, and ideas. The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (RMG) in Oshawa is such a place brimming with potential new growth. 

April at the Gallery launches with the return of the RMG Fridays on April 4. The imagination of Durham College (DC) students has curated this evening as part of Oshawa Music Week, and it features music organized by those enrolled in the Music Business Management Program with a community partnership provided by Bistro 67, a restaurant run and supplied by students in DC's culinary program. Music performances are provided by Toronto-based singer/songwriter Siobhan Bodrug, pop singer Erika Knox, self-described South-Asian queer singer/songwriter Priyanka, multi-instrumentalist Stefan Palicki, and folk singer Jack Walker.

While all-ages art activities facilitated by local artist Chelsea Frattura are available during RMG Fridays, there will also be an opportunity to preview the exhibit ‘Good-Bye’ by Tom Dean, which has its opening reception the following day, Saturday, April 5.

Good-bye by Tom Dean, outside his Montreal Studio.

Tom Dean is an artist who said hello to the world with the words Good-Bye on a large piece of canvas hung outside his studio in Montreal back in 1970. This work was his introduction, and since then, he has created work in a wide range of media, including sculpture, installation art, performance, drawing, and printmaking, exploring dream worlds and matters of the soul. He received the Governor General’s Award for Visual and Media Arts and the Toronto Arts Award for Visual Arts in 1996. His work is in collections at the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Musée d’Art Contemporain, and Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The opening reception runs from 1 to 3 p.m., and Tom Dean will be in attendance. 

New exhibits are on view until the fall, including one curated by senior curator Sonya Jones from the gallery’s Permanent Collection. As implied by the title, Artists by Artists, the exhibit features portraits of artists by their peers. The portraits vary in style and media, revealing not only the subject but also the portraitist.

A drawing of Isabel McLaughlin by Prudence Heward. Part of the "Artists by Artists" Exhibit at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery.

The other new exhibit, also curated by Jones from the Permanent Collection, is called Painters Eleven: Abstract Bonds. All eleven, Alexandra Luke, Tom Hodgson, Kazuo Nakamura, Harold Town, Jack Bush, Oscar Cahen, Hortense Gordon, Ray Mead, William Ronald, Jock Macdonald and Walter Yarwood,  in the collective, are featured. The group was founded in 1953 at the cottage of artist Alexandra Luke on Crystal Beach in Thickson Woods. The exhibit is not one in subject or style but in support of each other’s exploration of abstraction in art, and as Jock Macdonald is quoted as saying, “But there is a profound regard for the consequences of our complete freedom.”

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery was built to exhibit works by Painters Eleven. The collection began in 1967 when artist Alexandra Luke, a member of Painters Eleven, donated thirty-seven works from her private collection. Thus, this exhibit is unique to Oshawa and a must-see for any visit to the City.