Katie Bethune-Leamen, Broadbent Sisters, Daniel Griffin Hunt, Sanaz Mazinani, Sandy Plotnikoff, Mary Pratt, Cole Swanson, Catherine Telford-Keogh, Xiaojing Yan
Curated by: Ruth Jones and Sam Mogelonsky
May 12 – September 9, 2018
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa
Opening Reception: Friday, June 1, 7-10pm. Register for a free bus from Toronto.
Catalogue Launch: Saturday, June 9, 2-4pm. Register for a free bus from Toronto.
What happens when surfaces glitter, gleam, sparkle, and shine? In Glimmers of the Radiant Real, radiance, that quality of projected light we associate so often with the marvelous and the modern, is subverted by the relationship between the quality of a surface and what it covers, reflects, or contains. Surface is the point of contact for the body, it’s skin and texture and touch. The glistening, shining surfaces of works by Katie Bethune-Leamen, the Broadbent Sisters, Daniel Griffin Hunt, Sanaz Mazinani, Sandy Plotnikoff, Mary Pratt, Cole Swanson, Catherine Telford-Keogh, and Xiaojing Yan manipulate the viewer’s perception of dimension through reflections and refractions, thereby un-forming the object and making the familiar strange.
The artists and works featured in the exhibition use a variety of materials to generate these surface effects, from glass to gold, foil, plastic, and pearls. Each material has its own qualities of shine and reflection, and each combination of qualities reacts with a work’s source and subject to yield a different effect: gilded insect wings sketch a house’s morbid geography, material treatments upend expectations of form and colour, and dollar-store detritus, sunk in resin, seems to glow behind glass. For the viewer, the result is a combination of material familiarity and perceptual distortion.
In video, sculpture, photography, and installation, these works invite us to transform as they do, through interactions with surfaces that dazzle, using light to obscure or fracture the images and clarity we expect. They answer a craving for radiance, a desire to be like them, shining and seemingly limitless. They offer the promise of the object made new, but even if they speak in the same material language of the glittering and the precious, the modern, and the transcendent, they speak its opposite, too, a language of obscurity and disappearance, complicating the shining and ideal. They layer the surface substances that gloss the world we know, offering glimmers of a radiant reality where light becomes, not truth illuminated, but something else.
Fore more information, please visit glimmersoftheradiantreal.ca or rmg.on.ca
Special Events Celebrating Glimmers of the Radiant Real at the RMG:
Exhibition Opening during RMG Fridays: Pride
June 1, from 7-10pm
Celebrate Durham Region Pride Week and join us for a night of live music, film, art, and more that celebrate the vibrancy and resilience of queer creatives. Fronted by transgender LatinX songwriter Carolina Brown, I. M. Brown & The Transcendents fills out any room with their spacey experimental post-rock music. We’ll celebrate the opening of Glimmers of the Radiant Real and get creative with ALL the colours of the rainbow in the studio. Free to attend, cash bar.
Coming from Toronto? A free bus will depart from Mercer Union at 5:30pm and return to Mercer Union at 10pm following the event. Seating available by reservation, on a first come, first served basis. Book your spot today!
Catalogue Launch and Artists’ Talk
June 9, from 2-4pm (with ASL interpretation)
Join the artists and curators for a discussion surrounding the works and exhibition themes as we launch the catalogue for Glimmers of the Radiant Real. The full colour catalogue will include essays from curators Ruth Jones and Sam Mogelonsky, as well as guest contributor Vanessa Nicholas.
Coming from Toronto? A free bus will leave from Mercer Union at 1pm and return to Mercer Union at 5pm following the event. Seating available by reservation, on a first come, first served basis. Book your spot today!
Note: Mercer Union is located at 1286 Bloor St W, a short walk from Lansdowne Subway Station.
The Art of Gold: A Workshop with Cole Swanson
June 10, from 12-3pm
Exhibiting artist, Cole Swanson will introduce you to the historical process of gilding using gold leaf. With both traditional materials and fresh techniques, you will make metal gold leaf designs based on insect patterns and motifs. All materials included, no drawing skills required. $45 Members | $55 Non-Members. Register today!
OPG Second Sundays: Shiny not Grimy
June 10, from 1-3pm
An event for family fun! This month the art is going to sparkle. Create dazzling collages using the exhibition Glimmers of the Radiant Real for inspiration. OPG Second Sundays are made possible with the support of Ontario Power Generation.
Exhibition Tour for Glimmers of the Radiant Real:
Art Gallery of Peterborough: October 6, 2018 – January 6, 2019
McIntosh Gallery: January 17 – March 16, 2019
Please visit glimmersoftheradiantreal.ca or follow the exhibition on Instagram @radiantreal for more information about the artists, events and the tour.
We thank our sponsors, partners and donors for their continuing support and help in making the exhibition programming and this catalogue come to life. We are grateful to our sponsors Partners in Art, Burgundy Asset Management, and Ridgewood Capital Asset Management and to our media partner Akimbo Art Promotions, and our generous donors. We also acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery
72 Queen Street, Civic Centre, Oshawa, Ontario
905 576 3000 ex 109 | rmg.on.ca
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Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday 10am – 5pm
Thursday 10am – 9pm
Saturday 10am – 4pm
Sunday 12pm – 4pm