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4/9/2003

Edward Burtynsky

Centennial Square, Oakville

Landmarks

September 6 - November 9, 2003
Oakville Galleries at Centennial Square

Curated by Marnie Fleming

Oakville Galleries is extremely fortunate to receive a very generous gift of twenty-three colour photographs from Edward Burtynsky. Landmarks features works from this incredible gift, many depicting Oakville's oil refinery and the recycling plants in nearby Hamilton, Ontario.

Burtynsky's exactingly composed colour photographs often address the impact of industry on the natural landscape. Large enough to study from across the room, they are also detailed enough to warrant close-up inspection. In his images of the Oakville oil refinery, miles of pipes twist, turn, and bend in a labyrinth of metal. The closer we get to the images, the more exactly we can observe an infinitesimal amount of detail as we travel deeper and deeper into the space of the photographs. Like all of Burtynksy's work, the oil refinery is monumental and shows his keen feeling for theatrical form and colour, as well as a superb command of the large-format camera's capacity to record details.

While the images in Landmarks are disarmingly poetic explorations of human interactions with our surroundings, by association they are also about the consequences of living within a global economy. Burtynsky does not attempt to use his work to implicate viewers in the traditional battle of ¼man versus nature', but simply suggests that we co-exist with nature. His strength as a photographer is his ability to capture an unorthodox beauty while reminding us how our landscape has changed in the pursuit of progress. Opening: Friday, September 5, at Centennial Square at 7:30 p.m., followed by a reception in Gairloch Gardens at 8:30 p.m.

Artist's talk: Tuesday, September 30, at Centennial Square at 7:30 p.m.

Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens is located at 1306 Lakeshore Road East, 2 km east of downtown Oakville. The gallery is open 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday to Sunday. Oakville Galleries at Centennial Square is located at 120 Navy Street in downtown Oakville. The gallery is open 12:00 to 9:00 p.m., Tuesday to Thursday; 12:00 to 5:00 p.m., Friday; 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturday; and 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., Sunday. Admission to Oakville Galleries is free. For further information please call 905.844.4402 or visit the website.

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Peter MacCallum: Larus Delawarensis
August 30 - November 2, 2003
Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens

Curated by Marnie Fleming

Peter MacCallum is well-known in the Toronto area for his unglamourous, scrupulous observations of industrial and urban architecture. His documentary studies of the concrete industry, completed over the last few years, show the complex structures of cement plants as sculptural forms in the landscape. In MacCallum's photographs, these accidental monuments of industry are quietly overwhelming; they have an undeniable presence and an evocative power.

The subject of Peter MacCallum's exhibition at Oakville Galleries is a series of photographs documenting the Ring-billed Gull, or Larus Delawarensis, a common, familiar, and often ignored bird species. Rather than see the birds as garbage-eating pests, MacCallum prefers to see these largely misunderstood gulls as "athletic, swashbuckling rogues." The artist began the Larus Delawarensis series in his neighbourhood on Augusta Avenue in Toronto, then moved to Nathan Philips Square, and finally moved to the site of a gull colony at the St Marys Cement Plant in Bowmanville, Ontario. This exhibition is a contribution to the social history of the gull which, since the nineteenth century, has been greatly affected by the social history of humans.

These images possess a tender, ludic quality seldom revealed in MacCallum's work ­ yet there is nothing sentimental about this series of photographs. These birds aren't just subjects for MacCallum; they're characters. MacCallum's exhilaration with his close observations and disciplined eye colours these creatures with a mixture of wit and wonder. He allows viewers to look ­ simply look ­ at gulls with amazing intimacy.

Opening: Friday, September 5, in Gairloch Gardens at 8:30 p.m.

A booklet with a text by Russell Smith will be available at Oakville Galleries.

Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens is located at 1306 Lakeshore Road East, 2 km east of downtown Oakville. The gallery is open 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday to Sunday. Oakville Galleries at Centennial Square is located at 120 Navy Street in downtown Oakville. The gallery is open 12:00 to 9:00 p.m., Tuesday to Thursday; 12:00 to 5:00 p.m., Friday; 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturday; and 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., Sunday. Admission to Oakville Galleries is free. For further information please call 905.844.4402 or visit the website.

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