Chris Reid: I like to believe I am telling the truth

NEW EXHIBITION!

Chris Reid
I like to believe I am telling the truth
February 9 – April 14, 2012

Opening reception at Gallery 1C03: Thursday, February 9, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Artist talk followed by opening reception at Oseredok (184 Alexander Avenue East): Thursday, February 9 at 7:00 p.m.

Gallery 1C03 & Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre are pleased to co-present I like to believe I am telling the truth, a double-sited solo exhibition of new and recent work by Manitoba artist Chris Reid. The exhibition includes large-scale pastel drawings, quirky re-interpretations of Ukrainian Easter eggs and multi-media sculptural installations that incorporate recycled and found objects. Through these diverse media, Reid invents lush visual narratives containing a sundry cast of characters – from folkloric symbols of her Ukrainian heritage and her husband’s African heritage such as Baba Yaga buildings and Anansi the spider to idiosyncratic anthropomorphic cats, dolls, bunnies and bread – that play out their actions in surreal prairie landscapes and unsettling domestic environments.

Reid’s art is beguiling in its playful yet cynical nature and its realization in ultra bright colours, unexpected materials and widely differing scales. The artist’s day job as a housing resource and homelessness coordinator and her roles as a wife and mother greatly inform the psychological tensions evident in her compositions. As Reid notes, her art is “a deceptively inviting metaphor for anxiety, obsessive thought and coping. It is about the desire to belong, to be a part of a community, the frustration and disappointment of having ideals mangled and the not-necessarily-logical need to meet expectations.” Reid deals in ideas with which most of us negotiating the varied demands of contemporary life can identify.

Chris Reid is a visual artist and educator based out of Brandon, Manitoba. Reid completed Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Education degrees from the University of Alberta as well as a Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she specialized in painting and drawing. In addition to her artistic practice, Reid has worked as a contemporary art curator and is employed as a Housing Resource Worker for the Brandon Regional Health Authority. She has been the recipient of grants for her art from the Manitoba Arts Council and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Reid has exhibited across Canada and in the United States for more than 25 years, including recent solo exhibitions at the Yukon Arts Centre, Latitude 53 and the Thames Art Gallery. I like to believe I am telling the truth is Chris Reid’s first solo exhibition in Winnipeg. It will travel to the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba later this year.

Gallery 1C03, Oseredok the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba will produce a publication related to this exhibition featuring a critical essay by contemporary art curator and writer Mary Reid. Expected launch date will coincide with the opening of I like to believe I am telling the truth at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba in December of 2012.

Gallery 1C03 and Oseredok gratefully acknowledge financial assistance from The University of Winnipeg, Manitoba Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts and the Wasyl Topolnicky Memorial Foundation Inc. for this project.

Gallery 1C03 hours: Monday – Friday: 12:00 – 4:00 p.m.; Saturday: 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. Closed Louis Riel Day and Good Friday. Admission is always free and all are welcome!

Image: Chris Reid, Screaming Bread Flees Grain Elevator, 2010, hard pastel on paper, 50” x 60”. Courtesy of the artist.

Gallery 1C03's Partnership with Cinema Politica Celebrated for its Support of Independent Political Film on Campus!

Check it out in this week's issue of The Uniter.

4 more days to apply!

Gallery 1C03 will soon be hiring student gallery attendants. Applications must be submitted prior to Friday, January 20 at 4:30 p.m. For more information, check this post.

Gallery 1C03 Now Hiring!

Happy new year everyone! We here at Gallery 1C03 hope that you had an enjoyable and restful holiday.

Right now Gallery 1C03 is looking to hire 4 - 6 students to work as gallery attendants. The position offers a few hours a week during exhibitions and we work around your class schedule to provide hours that suit you. This is an excellent opportunity for full-time students to gain more exposure to contemporary art, practice their public relations skills and to meet new people, including many artists....all while getting paid!

Please follow this link to the job posting. All applications are due at Human Resources by Friday, January 20 at 4:30 p.m., so don't delay!

Only 1 more week to check out Trending!

If you haven't seen the latest window intervention for The Ephemerals: Trending, located in the Anthropology Museum windows on the 4th floor of Centennial Hall at UofW, you'd better hurry. The exhibit will only be on display for 1 more week. Above are photos from the intervention which includes a display of Cowichan sweaters - can you tell the difference between the real deal and the imitation?

In relation to this project, we are happy to report that anyone with a UofW Library card can now watch Christine Welsh's film The Story of the Coast Salish Knitters for FREE. Just enquire at the Circulation Desk!

TOMORROW: The Story of the Coast Salish Knitters

Check out this article from the Globe and Mail on the Coast Salish Knitters. It's an oldie but it connects to issues of appropriation and consumerism.

Meanwhile, come on out to see the film tomorrow night - Wed, Nov. 9 at 7:00 p.m. - at aceartinc., 2nd floor of 290 McDermot Avenue. See you there!

Together as part of the international documentary screening network Cinema Politica, Gallery 1C03 and the UWSA present the film Crude Sacrifice

WINNIPEG MB, November 2, 2011 –

Together as part of the international documentary screening network Cinema Politica, Gallery 1C03 and the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association (UWSA) present the film:

Crude Sacrifice
Directed by Lawrence Carota
Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall
Tuesday, November 15, at 7:00 p.m.

Directed by award-winning film maker Lawrence Carota, Crude Sacrifice (Canada, 2011) was selected for presentation by The University of Winnipeg Aboriginal Students’ Council.

Crude Sacrifice takes a look at how one northern community, Fort Chipewyan, is affected by the exploitation of Canada's rich Tar Sands development, and how Canada is dealing with their concerns. The health of the land and the people living near the world's largest construction project is discussed by leading scientists and the Aboriginal Peoples. Although this town is located near the earth's second largest fresh water delta, they can no longer drink the water, or eat the fish and other game food which sustained them for thousands of years.

From the film’s website:

Passionate and fiercely independent, [Carota] took his film camera to Alberta through all four seasons of the year to allow the audience to experience the cycles of nature first hand.. to go on the river banks, to stand next to the tailing ponds, to see the Tar Sands under development from the air in order to experience the size and scale of the project. He spent weeks living in the northern community of Fort Chipewyan where he got an intimate look at a warm but hurting community full of people trying to cope with losing their way of life. As a cinematographer, he attempted to capture the honesty and beauty of a people along with a way of life which is being destroyed before their eyes. His intention is to showcase the positive nature and spirit of defiance which has allowed them to survive sustainably on the land for thousands of years.

Please stay for discussion after the film, with guest facilitator to be announced.

For more information about Crude Sacrifice, visit: http://www.cinemapolitica.org/film/crude-sacrifice.

For more information about the Cinema Politica network, please visit www.cinemapolitica.org.

All screenings will be open to all audiences – everyone is welcome. Admission is free, but donations to offset the costs of screening the film are welcome. Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall is located on the third floor of Centennial Hall at The University of Winnipeg.

Gallery 1C03 and the UWSA wish to thank Cinema Politica for making it possible for us to participate in this network. We are grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for generously supporting this initiative. We also wish to acknowledge the Council of Canadians for supporting this presentation of Crude Sacrifice.

Image: Scene from Crude Sacrifice by Lawrence Carota.