Art galleries in Cape Breton this month seem to be thinking on a similar wavelength with their latest round of exhibitions. Each of the distinct displays, in their own way, align along the themes of natural and cultural landscapes and our relationships with these places. As the leaves start to change into autumn colours, it’s a perfect opportunity to hit the galleries up for some inspiration and aesthetic enjoyment.
The Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design is exhibiting “Romancing our Home” a nod to the warmth and sentimentality concerning ideas of the “home” in Cape Breton. The exhibition is being held to celebrate the concurrent Celtic Colours festival, and tap into the pride associated with being part of a musically and culturally rich place. The display will run until November 16, and is open to the public Monday to Friday 10:00am to 4:00pm, and Saturday 12:00pm to 4:00pm.
Also on display at the CBCCD is “Northern Exposure: Contemporary Inuit Art”, on loan from the CBU Art gallery’s permanent collection. The display represents a diversity of both subject and medium. With stone sculpture, stone cut, painting, lithography, and stencil prints, the artists show a vivid slice of life, folklore, landscape and other dimensions of Inuit culture and expression. For more information about the Sydney-based centre, visit capebretoncraft.com
The CBU Art Gallery will hold an opening on October 12 of In the Blood Cape Breton: A Visual Diary. The photography in this exhibit is the work of Gary Sampson and his assistant Lindsay Vladyka, who travelled to Cape Breton from the New Hampshire Insitute of Art and made a photographic series of the island’s landscapes and the people who inhabit those natural and cultural spaces. The exhibit will coincide with the book launch of In the Blood: Cape Breton Conversations on Culture, a compilation of interviews by Burt Feintuch, a New Hampshire folklorist. The interviews were former steelworkers and mineworkers, musicians, journalists, artisits, First Nations activists, educators, Gaelic revivalists, and others in many different walks of life. The book is co-published by CBU press, and the launch takes place Tuesday, October 12 at 4pm. The photography will be on display until November 26. Visit cbu.ca for more information.
On the other side of the Island, the Inverness County Centre for the Arts is presenting two exhibits. Apricity: the Warmness of the Sun in Winter, featuring paintings by West Lake Ainslie artist Ken Lywood. Some of Lywood’s works can be previewed online at http://kenlywood.blogspot.com. The second exhibition at the ICCA is “Field Works”, displaying the works of ceramist Fenn Martin and painter Nicholas Johnson. The display tells via an imaginary tale the demise of agrarian life in rural Nova Scotia against a surreal backdrop of industrialization. Both exhibits will be one display until October 26. For more information visit invernessarts.ca
