Tuesday, February 1, 2011

pastnow 2.0 @ The Maclaren Art Centre

pastnow1 Pastnow is a double solo exhibition at the Maclaren art centre in Barrie Ontario. The two artists exhibiting are Luke J. Parnell (me) and Meryl McMaster. The show is curated by Lisa Myers and Suzanne Morissette. This show is an evolution of the original Pastnow at the OCAD Graduate gallery in early 2010. We went from one smallish room shared by Meryl and myself to two lavish galleries. The graduate gallery is obviously a student gallery and we were treated well, no complaints, but the Maclaren is a professional art centre and our treatment was exemplary. The Maclaren went above and beyond, I can’t say enough.

pastnow4 Pastnow 2.0 includes all the work in the original pastnow with one new artwork, “Phantom Limbs”. pastnow3 Phantom Limbs had the working title of “52”, it was a merging of two concepts that I wanted to work with. I was interested in working with multiples for some time but couldn’t find the right project and I wanted to create an artwork that told the story of the Haida Repatriation project.

pastnow6 I wrote this post to thank all involved in the Past now exhibition at the Maclaren Art Centre; Meryl McMaster, the talented young photographer who is the other artist in this double solo show; Lisa Myers and Suzanne Morissette the exceptional co-curators; Ben Portis, the enthusiastic and patient head curator at the Maclaren; Niall Donaghy, without whom the show could not have been installed (seriously, this guy is awesome); Carolyn Bell Farrell and others at the Maclaren who were helpful and supportive.

pastnow5

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