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Art exhibitions open this week in Brandon

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Monday, Oct. 1, 2012 at 2:08 PM | Comments: 0

Two exhibitions will open this week at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba with a public reception on Thursday.

Maria Michails’ S*OIL and Ben Davis’ Landed: drawn and framed both explore the ways in which our environment is shaped through land use and agricultural industry. Both artists will be present at the 7:30 p.m. reception, which will include a walk-through talk by Ben Davis, and a performance by local cellist Leanne Zacharias, whose music can also be heard as part of Ben Davis’ video installation.

The following Saturday, Oct. 6, Maria Michails will give an artist talk about her art practice. Both exhibitions will be accompanied by brochures, and will run until Nov. 24, 2012.
Ben Davis is a Brandon-based artist who is a sessional instructor at Brandon University’s Department of Visual and Aboriginal Art. He has also taught extensively throughout Manitoba, including at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, as well as in Russell and Dauphin.
Having recently moved to Manitoba from England through Botswana, Davis was inspired to begin this new body of work based on his experience of driving through the farmland, specifically focusing on a mile-by-mile plot, south of Brandon.

Rooted in the history of the region, his lush drawings, paintings and video installation approach questions of land use through formal elements, conceptually tying the ways in which the works are measured and divided to the ways in which land has been altered through farming.

The video installation drawn was done in collaboration with Brandon-based cellist and Brandon University School of Music cello professor Leanne Zacharias.

Michigan-based installation artist Maria Michails will debut S*OIL, a piece that has been in the works for over three years.

Michails will also complete a residency in which the artist will work collaboratively with local groups in a series of workshops.

Inspired by Michails’ deep concern for the ramifications of unsustainable farming practices, S*OIL is the first in a series of works addressing the industrial impact on the Earth’s ecospheres.

Her use of electronics, stainless steel metal, living plants, and a handcar mechanism proposes S*OIL as a laboratory in which hybridized seeds grow with the help of exhibition visitors, inviting participation in the process of establishing new and sustainable ways of agricultural production.

The Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba is located at 710 Rosser Ave. It can be accessed either from the Town Centre parkade, or from the first floor of the Town Centre Mall through the elevators near the library.

The gallery has new hours: Tuesday to Friday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Thursday evenings until 9 p.m., and now open on Saturdays from 12 p.m. – 5 p.m.

It is closed Sundays and Mondays. Afterhours workshops and tours are available by appointment.

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