New Exhibitions to Open at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery

January 10, 2022 – The Confederation Centre Art Gallery is in the midst of transformation as it prepares for several new exhibitions in January and February. “The recently installed exhibition Fairy Tails, which explores the wondrous role of animals in storytelling, is the first of five new exhibitions coming this winter,” says Gallery director Kevin Rice. “Stay tuned for more exciting Gallery events coming in February.”

Opening January 15, the exhibition Danika Vandersteen: How to Convey Blue in Black and White brings together a colourful and eclectic array of paintings, found objects, and textile work.

Vandersteen is a multi-disciplinary artist living in Toronto. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and her art practice bounces between painting, songwriting, crafting, and observing. “I am motivated by the capacity of artwork to pinpoint the absurd yet relatable in life, interpreting personal experiences as microcosms of universal experience,” says Vandersteen. “I often question my place as a maker and observer and include caricatures of this in much of my work.”

The exhibition is curated by gallery conservator Jill McRae and artist/curator Andrew Cairns, who were eager to collaborate again after a successful first show at the Gallery in 2019. “Danika’s work is dedicated to play,” says Cairns. “It’s presented beautifully with a smiling wink that reveals the artist’s sense of humour, reminding us that art can be very fun.”

Danika Vandersteen: How to Convey Blue in Black and White will be on display in the Fredric S. and Ogden Martin Concourse Gallery from January 15 – April 10, 2022.

Opening January 29, the exhibition John Hartman: Many Lives Mark This Place features the work of the renowned Canadian painter and printmaker. In 2014, Ontario-based Hartman embarked on a project to capture the intimate relationship between more than thirty leading Canadian authors and the places that inspire them. The result was a series of large-format portrait paintings that celebrate the richness of Canada’s literary fabric and speak to the power of the imagination in experiencing the diverse landscapes of Canada and the stories that they hold. The exhibition is organized and circulated by the Woodstock Art Gallery with the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts.

John Hartman: Many Lives Mark This Place will be featured in the Sobey Gallery from January 29 – May 22, 2022.

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Photo cutlines:
Danika Vandersteen, Room With a View, 2019, watercolour on paper, 45.7 x 60.9 cm
John Hartman, Neil Bissoondath beside the St Lawrence River, 2018, oil on linen, 101.6 x 116.8 cm