gallery@acts - galerie@fcaa

gallery@acts is a new showcase of contemporary craft from across Atlantic Canada. The gallery features work never seen at ACTS before in a formal gallery setting.





Photo Gallery of 2011 Pieces

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Jason Holley
Read Bio Jason Holley is from Newfoundland. He studied at Memorial University, The College of the North Atlantic and the Craft Council Clay Studio. He came about his work as an artist indirectly. His work in textiles and jewelry preceded his discovery of working with clay coils. His chainmaille ceramic sculptures have been exhibited at The Gallery of the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2009 and that same year his work was part of a juried exhibition at the Cheongju International Craft Biennale in South Korea. Holley's work will be part of an upcoming group exhibition at The Rooms in St. John's, NL (2011). His work can be found in both public and private collections.

"I love creating my work. When I get anxious, restless, agitated, I head to the studio. I find certainty in the pattern, reassurance in my methods. It can be unforgiving. Mistakes in the pattern compound themselves and can be difficult to dig out. The clay must be specifically dry, too wet and it warps, too dry and it crumbles. It requires a discipline and commitment I've not managed anywhere else in life.

The Raku firings are cathartic. It seems appropriate that after all the care I put in to each piece I chose such a violent and destructive method of finishing. Raku is notoriously difficult to control and often leads to disaster, when it works it can be glorious.

The finished work looks so strong, militaristic, and permanent. It's not. The slightest violence will show just how brittle my illusion really is. I'm not out to fool people. I've wasted so much energy hiding my own weaknesses I'm becoming eager to highlight them. For me these sculptures are about weakness, not strength. Things always turn out to be more complex than I imagine"

Laurie Swim
Read Bio Laurie Swim has worked as an artist for some 40 years, developing unique and innovative treatments to fashion her imagery in textiles with fabric and thread. She has written three books, two published internationally, on quilt art. The Joy of Quilting with an Introduction by Alex Colville, 1984, made her an early leader in art quilt field. Laurie's third book, Rags to Riches: The Quilt as Art with an introduction by Mary Pratt, was published in Canada in 2007.

Laurie's works grace many private and public collections, including the Nova Scotia Art Bank, Nova Scotia Designer Craft Council, the City of Toronto Art Collection and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. Her work It's No Fish Ye're Buying is part of Textile Traces, a collection compiled by Lloyd Cotsen, who was recently honored by the Textile Museum in Washington DC for exceptional contributions to the field of textile arts.

Because her primary medium is fabric, Laurie has had a unique opportunity to combine fine art and public advocacy. Laurie began initiating large scale community-made quilts with volunteers in 1995. The first, Pulling Together, the Builders of the Rideau Canal, 1826-32, is now part of the Workers Heritage Museum collection in Hamilton, Ontario. She created Breaking Ground: The Hogg's Hollow Disaster, 1960, in partnership with COSTI Immigrant Services in 2000. The tragedy changed the course of history in Canada. The 7-foot by 20-foot memorial was unveiled in the York Mills Subway station in Toronto, Ontario on March 17, 2010. In her hometown of Lockeport, Nova Scotia, Laurie created Lost at Sea, 1961, memorializing 17 fishermen in 2000. A major project, The Canadian Young Workers Memorial Quilt, containing 100 commemoratives of youths between the ages of 15-24 killed on the job, was completed in 2003. In 2003 she received a Chalmers Arts Fellowship from the Ontario Arts Council to complete her series, From Our Back Yard, started in 1997.

In 2004, Laurie moved back to Nova Scotia and has since worked in series celebrating the area: The Ragged Shore, inspired by the maritime landscape; They were Fishers, an homage to the culture of fishing and Land, Sea and Memory. In 2007, she received a Canada Council grant for research and development of processes to interpret land, sea and memory. In 2009, the Nova Scotia Dept. of Culture, Heritage and Tourism awarded her a Creation Grant to complete Land, Sea and Memory for her first public art solo show at the Mary E Black Gallery.

Del Mano Gallery in Los Angeles, California has represented Laurie since 2007. She is also represented by Zwicker's Art Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Amicus Gallery in Chester, NS.

Helen Stanley
Read Bio Ever since my first experience with clay in high school I was hooked. Feeling the way clay responds to the merest touch made me realize that it was the thing I wanted to work with. So a few years at craft schools (Sheridan College and the NB Craft School) taught me about the technical side and also started me on the course of salt firing my work. I love the way salt fired pottery has an immediacy that everyone reacts to. It has a look which brings you back somehow to that freshly thrown pot on the wheel, or the texture and fingerprints on a newly hand built piece.

In my studio in Seeleys Cove, on my fifth kiln and now approaching 36 years with clay, I've gone beyond that first thrill through some of the "tell me why I do this again" to a deeper understanding of the clay and myself and where the two come together. A few years ago I started making sculptural pieces which has really expanded my knowledge of how clay works and given me a whole new vocabulary with which to handle the material. This has made it easier to branch out into doing things I would never have considered before. The way different methods feed on each other and teach their own lessons, mean the more things you try the rounder and fuller your experience with the medium gets.

I take workshops whenever possible, being a true believer in continuing education and recognizing the amount I can learn from seeing others work. So many shortcuts are there to take advantage of when you watch an expert. One of the nicest things about clay is there is always more to learn and new avenues to explore. This piece depicts a crow strutting around my garden through the lens of my experience and humour.

Cara Kansala and
Pam Dorey
Read Bio Cara Kansala and Pam Dorey have been collaborating on hand carved and painted furniture and sculpture since 2003.

"We both enjoy word play and the absurdity of everyday life. Last year, Cara did a painting entitled Sometimes When Pop Was Out Fishing Nan Would Bake Pies in the Nude. The best part of this piece was that it was based on a true story. We live in outport Newfoundland where funny things happen –and eventually everyone hears about them." Pam Dorey

If it is rich in character, sculpted from wood, or painted in bright colours, chances are Cara Kansala and Pam Dorey have made it for an exhibition, as a commission or for sale in their own Grumpy Goat Gallery in Upper Island Cove. Right now, their favourite furniture projects include chairs that sprout fishermen and sea gulls or headboards shaped like waves festooned with mermaids. Last spring it was a rowdy celebration of Newfoundland's folk music with eccentric musical instruments, doorknockers and floor cloths. Cara and Pam's work is possessed with an irresistible energy. Dancing houses the colour of red long johns, vivid purple skies and yellow bobbing boats…there are no inanimate objects or straight lines in their collages and sculptures.

Signed as "Cara and Pam" the product line of unique, hand carved and painted objects includes functional furniture, sculpture and collages. There is also a series of art cards based on the original one of a kind objects. Depicted scenes suggest Cara and Pam's upbeat version of outport Newfoundland, which is full of merriment, music and good times.  Fun loving cats, dogs, goats, fishermen, nans and assorted friends populate a rollicking land and seascape of vivid colours guaranteed to make you smile.

Photo Gallery of 2011 Gallery Space

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