GGs rock Angell Gallery

My group of AGO Daytime Gallery Guides visited the Angell Gallery on May 25.  Owner Jeff Angell showed the group works from established and up-and-coming artists, several of which recalled AGO works.

Current show "Exhibition Narrative", featuring photographic work as part of the Contact Photography Festival, features work by Oli Sorenson, who pays homage to Michelangelo Pistoletto's Arte Povera mirror paintings with a series of photos of smashed TV monitors.

Tim Roda's portraits of shrouded men holding children references the Victorian mother and child photos displayed last year in the AGO's Light My Fire show.

Another current show, The Plastic Arts by digital "painter" Rafael Ochoa, features a time-lapse video showing how Ochoa painstakingly creates  his works, first "sculpting" a model with Zbrush software, then "painting" it, and finally adding light and shadow with Photoshop to bring it to life. These pieces may have particular resonance for AGO volunteers, in light of the Pistoletto piece in our permanent collection that our new contemporary curators are keen to get on display, as well the the newly restored Jar of Apricots in which  the play of light  is so crucial.

In addition, the dreamy urethane and pigment-based landscapes of Steve Driscoll simultaneously recall the cosmic panoramas of Patterson Ewen and the oil & latex paintings of Stephen Andrews.  

Another parallel to the AGO collection included collaged treescapes by Gavin Lynch, which create a modern counterpoint to Emily Carr's lush forest scenes.

For more info on the shows, see www.angellgallery.com.