Ian McLean: Conditions
Norm Barney: Original Aboriginal Art
Opening: August 17th- September 8th, 2013
Reception: Saturday, August 17th, 2-5 pm
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| Ian McLean's 'Guy Wire' 50"x 50", oil on canvas
McLean’s Conditions explores relationships between social and natural worlds. The environments contain elements of the familiar but are usually imagined places. At all times, these images suggest efforts to contain, control, manipulate, or avoid circumstances of nature as evidenced in highly groomed and domesticated environments. The implied narratives usually reflect a deep-seated desire for comfort or beauty or distraction.
Based in Bright’s Grove, Ontario, McLean studied at the University of Guelph and has exhibited widely at several public and commercial galleries. He is a recent recipient of an Ontario Arts Council Mid-Career Visual Artist Grant and his work is found in collections across Canada and internationally. Ian is represented in Toronto by loop Gallery.
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| Norm Barney's ''Time', 20.5" x 23.5" 2013
Barney’s Original Aboriginal Art explores and subverts the stereotypes of ’Indians’ as shown through tourist kitsch objects. These mixed media artworks reflect the artist’s complicated relationship with his own Native heritage. This poignant, comedic, and political body of work uses bizarre combinations of antique figurines repurposed with modern materials and bright colours to give new meaning to old, but still contemporary, issues of identity.
Barney was born in Saginaw, Michigan. Presently his studio is in Petrolia, Ontario. He has been an active artist for thirty years. Since he has a background of Chippewa heritage, much of his recent work explores this side of his identity.
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