GALLERY

Our gallery is OPEN, Tuesday to Saturday 12-5 pm for public viewing.
Our gallery is free admission and showcases the talents of many local and emerging artists throughout the year.

On now:

LIFE SYSTEMS

The Second Year Students of Fanshawe's Fine Art Program

March 15 - 25

LIFE SYSTEMS is an exhibition of Fanshawe Fine Art second year student artwork from two courses: VISUAL RESEARCH and STUDIO 4. Each course has different approaches, materials and content to reveal and practice for the students. In the future, the student-artist is concerned to realize and determine what avenue to take when they are confronted with their own studio practice; not an easy decision - but crucial.

These first time larger-scale projects in drawing and painting make demands on individual students that they have not encountered before. The project begins with the physical scale and this is immediately felt by students through the making of the support (stretched canvas, mounted paper) as it becomes familiar through care and attentiveness in preparation. Scale can offer a range of new considerations both in use of tools and materials. While also for students, the experience and concerns of their individual creativity is highlighted.

Fear and control are always present when stepping into large-scale. The physical now frames a conceptual approach and although there is a concept predetermined, it too is only a beginning that expands with every new mark.

In the drawings, you create a mark to systematically repeat into an accumulative image dependent on this process. In the paintings, the beginning is a genre (life-model painting) and within it you develop an appearance through observation. In the drawing, you maintain a repeating mark throughout to announce the system that establishes the final image. In the life-model painting, you observe, translate, apply, consider and reapply as an illusion appears and is observed. In so doing, one begins to generate and decide an approach, perhaps a style or system, and although maintained it dissolves into a defined illusion. In both projects, observation and discipline while making are key to an artist’s learning process, even with apparently very diverse systems of approach and production.

In this exhibition we see large-scale artwork with significantly different results. Illusion is revealed and excites us as we now engage and observe through a variety of Life Systems.

Students in Exhibition: Dayanna Alarcon Recinos, Charlotte Buenaobra, Mikayla Fisher, Gregory Krupa, Amber Lynch, Nagla Medni, Georgia Ross, Chengxin Qian, John Weir, and Ian Thomson

The Artists invite everyone to attend a reception on Thursday March 16 from 5-7pm.

Past Exhibitions:

Modern Iconography

Sarah Deck

MODERN ICONOGRAPHY is a 10 year retrospective of work created by renowned poster artist Sara Deck. Highlighting cult classic films such as The Bride of Frankenstein, Midsomer, The VVitch, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Spider-Man, Alice in Wonderland, Monsters Inc. Nosferatu, Plan 9 From Outer Space, Suspiria, Crimson Peak, Halloween, True Romance, Atomic Blonde; and supporting musicians such as David Bowie, Jack White, Joan Jett, Metallica, and Raconteurs. Sara’s surrealistic-goth style has captured the attention of many notable people in the design, film, and music industry. This includes the final poster collaboration with iconic monster illustrator Basil Gogos before he passed away in 2017, which will be one of the amazing works displayed in this collection at TAP Centre for Creativity until March 12th 2023.

Sara Deck is a two-time Clio and four-time American Illustration award-winning visual artist residing in Ontario, Canada. She studied Editorial Illustration at Sheridan College and began her career working full-time as a freelance artist focusing on pop culture and surrealist art. In the industry for just over 10 years, Sara has illustrated for high profile clients such as MONDO, Marvel, 20th Century FOX, Universal, Disney, Fangoria, Rue Morgue, Paramount and Jack White to name a few. Her recent poster work was commissioned for and featured in Babylon, a Golden Globe Award winning movie written and directed by Damien Chazelle, that has been nominated for multiple Oscars in 2023.

Opening Reception Friday February 10th, 7-10pm.

Catching Stride

The Students of the Bealart Program

Catching Stride is a collaboration in opposition to the past few years of isolation. Students in the Bealart program at H.B. Beal Secondary School form a community of unique and creative individuals who range from those beginning their artistic journey to those moving on to their post-high school lives next year. Together, these students developed Catching Stride, in which they not only created the artwork, but designed the exhibition as well. Teams cooperated to manage, curate, install, and promote a show that would reflect what Bealart means to them. Through a range of media from ceramics and textiles to film and dance, the students hope Catching Stride reveals their diversity, creativity, and collective strength.

ORIGINAL SISTERS:

Anita Kunz

365 Portraits of Tenacity and Courage

This collection features 365 original illustrated portraits and stories of courageous women who have greatly influenced future generations and changed history. Searching for inspiration during the uncertainty of the pandemic, Anita Kunz (OC DFA) researched hundreds of women from all backgrounds and cultures, and inspired by the ways in which these women shaped our world she committed their stories to paper.

Commissioned to create the cover art for celebrated magazines such as The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Time Magazine, Anita has been recognized for her influential work with accolades and awards including induction into the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts and appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of her outstanding achievements as an illustrator.

The portraits in this collection bring the accomplishments of these trailblazers, leaders, mentors, and rebels together in a series of paintings that embody Anita’s approachable and engaging style. This is the first time that the entire Original Sisters collection will be on public display, giving us an opportunity to come together to celebrate these individuals and acknowledge their contributions as they pushed against the social and political norms of their time.

AMARCORD

Eric J Drummond - TAP Resident Artist

"We exist to express, whether it be artistically or through other means. Our disciplines are our expression. Artists, however, do not express needlessly but from a desire to seek sources much more profound and transcendent than what the natural world cares to show us. Within all the things we see on a consistent basis, a source or beauty lies within. Humanity has and more specifically, artists, have contemplated this since our earliest existence. As a result, through our predisposition to express we have passed on an ever-growing heritage.... or lineage, to describe beauty and truth.

Beauty does not discriminate. It can be found in tragedy and in triumph. Through complexity or from stillness. It can be discovered or recalled. And it pertains entirely to the individual with capacity enough to express it in their fashion. We recall beauty in our inspirations, and we discover beauty through our methods. Anything that exists today is the result of what has come before. It is all a heritage of our species; we inherit the things that were said once and find those to be echoed again today. Sometimes we forget what we have said before, and therefore it must be stated again. Nothing has ever existed within a void.

This passing down of heritage mirrors that of a memory. The feelings that arise when we recall traumas, or the moments shared of a past loved one. Like a stone cast into still water, the feelings recalled ripple outwards from the soul. We find a divine source within the wistful return to some period in our minds. We recall our most human selves so quickly. “It’s like it was yesterday” is the common phrase. What becomes of it is a passing of culture, elapsing our understanding of time itself.

Behind my eyes is an inexplicable feeling of homesickness. A constant desire to go back. My solace is found in an understanding that memory and culture are not bound to time. Relatable feelings from past experiences surface as I view the works done by those long before. In my work, the dried tears weigh the fur of the teddy bear she holds, the jacket as vibrant as the pride poised in the gaze of her eyes, a brother’s hands crown his expression. From work to work, this lineage leads me on. Memories, heritage, and culture is echoed in the marks chosen to describe a beauty searched for.

Moments we share with each other formulate our nature. We are the sum of all our experiences past, we are all living memories, brought up by cultures cultivated by generations long before, crossing each other's paths. I labor in the standards I’m inspired by; I express the inner truth of the subjects I see, exiling myself of the superficialities of the world today. But while I balance these feelings and techniques, time never bounds me...because Amarcord - I Remember. " - E. Drummond

Pop-up exhibition of some of our favourite panels.

Comic Jam: Pages Pop-up

An exhibition of some of our favorite panels from the ever popular "Comic Jam" sessions. Every month artists gather at TAP to participate in a free monthly comic series where someone starts by drawing the first panel, then slides it across the table to see what the next person adds to the story. At the end of the night there are piles of pages, and at the end of the year there are oodles of pages! This is our opportunity to share these pages with you in a pop-up exhibit that honours the artists that gather at this creative table.

The Shady Artists Show

Annual Exhibition for 2022

The SHADY Artists are back! The Shady Artists share a love of plein air painting. This will be their 7th annual show together.

Sandi McCabe paints vivid scenes from the London area using bold colours and dynamic brush strokes that depict her whimsical nature and daring vision as an artist.

Michele Haley brings a subtle approach to oil painting by effectively combining a variety of brush strokes, intricate textures and subtle hues that produce work that truly captures the artist's emotion.

Janice Howell displays an uncanny ability to invent and exploit colour creating bold designs that add life and vibrancy to everyday scenes while cleverly incorporating architecture into many of her compositions.

20% of the proceeds raised from the sale of art at this show will be donated to My Sisters' Place. My Sisters' Place offers support, a hot meal, and a welcoming safe haven for women in need.

Anne, Anna & Annabel

Anne Hamilton, Anna Wilson and Annabel Biro Resident Artists of TAP

This exhibition features the work of three of TAP's resident artists: Annabel Biro, Anne Hamilton and Anna Wilson. During the last two years these artists worked in the studio spaces above the closed gallery, connecting when they could with each other and with the community.

Their subject matter focuses on the familiar: people, objects, and spaces but their approaches to their subjects are unique to each. Annabel's soft painterly style is reminiscent of the personal photos that inspired her work. Anne's illustrations reveal her experimentation with new materials to play up the translucence in her objects. And Anna's exploration of blank space and imagined place creates new corners and depths to envelope the viewer.