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Headbones features core Okanagan artists

Vernon gallery celebrates artists from Penticton to Salmon Arm
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David T. Alexander, known for his large abstract landscaped-based canvases with some new works on wood, is one of the CORrE artists at Headbones Gallery. (Submitted Photo)

Headbones Gallery is again mounting an exhibition with an overview of works born and bred in the Okanagan Valley.

Titled CORrE, the new exhibition offers a chance to see a selection of works produced by committed artists, some who have had solo or group shows during the Headbones season. The public is invited to celebrate in the company of the artists at the opening of CORrE with a royal high tea on Sunday, Dec. 2 from 2-5 p.m. at Headbones Gallery, 6700 Old Kamloops Road.

Okanagan is the featured place and from Penticton to Salmon Arm, the artists assembled for this exhibition live and work in the extended valley framework. The artists are: Doug Alcock, David T. Alexander, Glenn Clark, Briar Craig, Jen Dyck, Robert Dmytruk, Diane Feught, Johann Feught, John Hall, Joice Hall, Fern Helfand, Reg Kienast, Ann Kipling, Wanda Lock, Mary McCulloch, Steve Mennie, Amy Modahl, Ronda Neufeld, Herald Nix, Destanne Norris, Julie Oakes, Gary Pearson, Amber Powell, Heidi Thompson, David Wilson and Deborah Wilson.

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“We see the same skies, breathe the same air and feel the same atmospheric temperature fluctuations within a similar range but still with astounding diversity; we have all had the experience of being in one spot under sunshine and yet looking at a vista where the dark clouds pour,” said Julie Oakes, Headbones Gallery owner. “And just like the weather, within the valley is a simultaneous artistic variety.”

CORrE represents several ideals, explained by Oakes:

“Contemporary means with-the-times, in-the-now. It connotes a position in history against the backdrop of what has come before and prefixes what is to come next. The fine arts have often been associated with concepts of the avant-garde – in advance of time. The concept of art marching in time with the present is so endemic to the field that international museums of art that are showing the results of artists working in the present have the word ‘contemporary’ within their names like MOCCA (Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art) and all the rest; MOCA in NYC, MACBA in Barcelona, LACMA in LA, to name just a few. The content is made clear within a small number of characters like a tweet. Capturing the ‘now’ is the essence of Facebook, Instagram and a myriad of social media feeds. Even Google and Wikipedia could be construed as an expression of the contemporary consciousness and the obsession with sharing the immediate. With the need to stay connected having managed to squire such a prominent position within the social register, ‘contemporary’ has gained popular focus.

See also: Oakes work hangs in YLW halls

“Rank-and-File is membership in a club and the visual arts is a ‘club’ where the stylistic variables are tied together by an unavoidable belief in the importance of art. The artists in CORrE are committed adherents to practices of image making for the purpose of furthering visual communication. There is no official roster, the ‘group’ is not so much organized through art as immersed in art. As in any engagement, there is a language that can be acquired to enhance articulation, a visual language that can cross national language barriers and even-out cultural and political differences. Art can also advocate - for identity, social consciousness, morality and philosophy. Or art may disassociate from idea to relate to the pure physicality of the medium as in McLewan’s famous phrase – “the medium is the message.”

“There is a small r word, registered, after the capitalized Rank-and-file of our title which indicates Headbones Gallery’s ongoing commitment to cataloguing each exhibition. The mounting and viewing of an exhibition are temporal. The catalogue documents the works within an iteration of exposure. The exhibition catalogue for CORrE, as all catalogues from Headbones’ exhibitions, will be registered with the National Archives and therefore enter the annals of art history, taking a step further towards extending the ‘life’ and reach of the works.

“Exhibiting the work especially in the context of a yearly show has a long history in the visual arts from famous salon shows of Royal Academies to the historic public and private investments made to establish galleries and museums in which art is made accessible to a greater audience.”

The word ‘core’ meaning centre or that around which a larger entity grows is also pertinent to Headbones Gallery.

“With a mandate to expose contemporary art that has been filtered through an informed perspective our purpose has been to spread what we see as a significant channel for cultural insights through the visual arts,” Oakes concludes.


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