Sep - Dec 2007 Events
New Photographs by Sandy Fairbairn
December 7, 2007 to January 1, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday, Dec 7th, 8 - 11 pm
Most of the images in this exhibition depict the artists, colleagues, comrades, associates, sustainers, supporters, patrons, hangers-on, CRAM Junkies, and friends of art who fuel the art scene in St. Catharines, making it dynamic and enduring. Stepping away from his usual manner of working and subject matter, for over a year Fairbairn has photographed The Scene and the people who keep it on track. The Scene also includes a few photographs of machines, buildings, change and objects of decay.
CRAM Holiday Sale
December 7th, 8 - 11 pm
December 8th, noon to 5 pm
Give the gift of original art....
Journées à Metz
"Place de la Cathedrale", oil on canvas, 10"w. x 8"h, 2007
John B. Boyle, RCA
November 9 - 27, 2007
Opening Reception, Friday Nov 9th, 8 - 11 pm
Journées à Metz is an exhibition of eight small paintings and one large format portrait. In the Spring of 2007 Boyle and Aya Onishi lived for two months in the apartment of a friend in the ancient city of Metz in the east of France near the German border. On returning to Canada, Boyle re-read his late friend Dennis Tourbin's 1980 limited edition journal Journées à Paris. Having visited Tourbin in his Paris studio at the time, participated with him in exhibitions and performances there and shared many wonderful memories, Boyle was inspired to dedicate this little exhibition to his friend and their shared French experience separated by twenty-seven years.
John B, Boyle was born in London, Ontario. He lived in St. Catharines from 1962 until 1975, where he taught elementary school before becoming a full time visual artist in 1968. His works are represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Musee des Beaux Arts in Montreal, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and most major public and corporate collections in Canada. He has exhibited widely internationally, including the Musee d'Art Moderne, Paris, Musee des Beaux Arts, Liege, Musee des Beaux Arts, Mons, Pavillon des Arts, Parc Vincennes, Paris, Cafe Gallery, London, U.K., Fukugan Gallery, and The Bridge, Osaka. He is the founding president, Niagara Artists' Centre, founding Spokesperson, Canadian Artists' Representation, Ontario, past director, Canadian Centre of the Arts at Owen Sound, and has sat on the Board of Trustees, Art Gallery of Ontario and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, and on the Canada Council Advisory Arts Panel. He is represented by the Loch Gallery, Toronto and Fukugan Gallery, Osaka. Boyle is an elected member of the Royal Canadian Academy and a proud member of the CRAM collective.
baYal
baYal is the noise/musical unit of John Boyle and Aya Onishi. Boyle has played in the legendary noise band the Nihilist Spasm Band since 1965. Ridiculed for decades in Canada as a band of incompetents or a « joke carried too far », the NSB are now generally recognized as the world's first noise band and the founders of a new genre of music celebrated in festivals around the world. Aya Onishi, as the then manager of Osaka's Alchemy records helped organize two Japanese NSB tours in the 1990's and the release of six NSB records. A drummer herself in the all woman band Sekiri, she has sat in frequently with the NSB since 1996. In baYal, Onishi plays drums and kazoo, and Boyle plays kazoo, drums, thumb piano, and ring modulator. BaYal have performed at The Bridge, Osaka; Uplink Factory, Tokyo; Kunstencentrum, Hasselt, Belgium; Sonic Protest, Paris, and at various venues in Canada. They will give a fifteen minute performance at the CRAM opening, November 9, 2007.
*CRAM events catered by The Office restaurant
John Moffat
Lines of Intent
October 12 - 30, 2007
Painting Title : Towards Bewdley
Medium: acrylic on paper
Size: 58.5 x 76.2 cm (23" x 30")
Date: 2007
Before moving to Cavan, Ontario, I had lived in downtown St. Catharines and most of my paintings were of the surrounding cityscape. These works brought together the interests I had in history, urban culture and science. My images juxtaposed the old with the new and placed them under a pulsating sky. I likened that to peeling away the colloidal effect of the atmosphere revealing the ionospheres dance with the earth - present, but invisible to us.
When I moved to an old farmhouse in Cavan township near Peterborough, all the patterns of history and human settlement that had been clear in the city was subtler in the country. It took me a couple of years to interpret what I saw and translate it into my paintings.
A hydro pylon corridor that ran through the back of the farm became the center of my interest for a large number of my works. These large, almost invisible, modern-day totems connect all of us but alienate us from each other. Our easy acceptance of their presence in the landscape is what I have tried to explore in my Cavan paintings. Also being in the countryside allowed me to follow the patterns of plowing and planting the crops so that over the six years on the farm the landscape was constantly changing. I never got tired of painting my "own backyard".
My next move was to Ottawa where I continued my interest of the altered landscape. Perth Ontario is now my home, but the images that interest me now are gleaned from my travels. My "backyard" has gotten larger. I am still interpreting the patterns of landscape moulded by human industry, economy, carelessness and neglect...In my paintings it is a better world.
John Moffat, October 2007
Marinko Jareb
FAME
One Nite Only
Saturday, Sept 29th, 8 pm to midnight
music by dj phonography & the trendsetting cassette tapes
This new collection of artwork by Marinko is comprised of painting, collage, sculpture and carvings. FAME is Marinko's attempt to make work that will last for generations to come by using "permanent" materials like rock and steel as well as the usual, one-of-a-kind works on canvas and paper (to make your apartment or home look unique).
Marinko Jareb is a multidisciplinary artist who splits his time between St.Catharines and Toronto. Marinko's work can be characterized by a collage aesthetic in works on paper and canvas, and audio & video. Marinko's work was featured on a FUSE cover and article about appropriation art. Marinko is very interested in the freedom of expression and democracy inherent in street art. Marinko also values garbage and discarded materials.
In addition to being a member of the CRAM Collective, Marinko is a member and volunteer at NAC, a member of The Vinyl Interventions Trio (www.vinylinterventions.com), and a Founder of Smoke Gallery in Downtown Niagara Falls. Marinko is represented in Canada by CRAM and Europe & Asia by Editions Sahko Linna, Helsinki.
Tobey C. Anderson
September 7 - 25, 2007
The New American Century Project - Chapter 7
DU Babies
DUB01, mixed media: india ink, charcoal, gouache, florescent acrylic, 22 in x 30 in, 2007
In this suite of seven mixed media florescent drawings, Anderson exposes and explores the brutal and grim effects that Depleted Uranium has on the developing foetus through the subsequent physical manifestations in the children born of Iraqis who have been exposed to the radiation of current high tech warfare. Illuminated under black lights, these images radiate the eerie glow that is the hallmark of The New American Century Project installations, an allusion to the radiation as well as the computer screen where the images were appropriated from the Internet.
Not typical of traditional War Art and under the radar in the public mind, this issue brings the reality that Nuclear Warfare is being conducted by any country using Depleted Uranium ordinance. Used to harden the tips of high calibre munitions and smart bombs, Depleted Uranium is pulverized on impact and contaminates the air and area around the impact sites. Canada has these munitions in its arsenal, like the United States and Britain.
Since the first Gulf War thousands of Iraqi citizens, as well as Coalition and UN troops, have been exposed to the radiation left behind following bombardments, strafing, and fire fights, and unknown numbers of infants are being born deformed in war zones and back home when troops return contaminated.
The artist gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Ontario Arts Council - Mid Career Artist Grant Programme
