Thursday, December 16, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Appreciation: Mr. Wallace Joyce - Varley Gallery benefactor
The Varley Art Gallery of Markham offers its sincere condolences to Wallace Joyce's family and friends. Mr. Joyce played an essential role in the growth of the Varley Gallery and in believing in the great things that the Frederick Horsman Varley Art Gallery of Markham could do. He trusted the Gallery and allowed us to present his collection and interpret his choices to the public. He supported the Varley Art Gallery’s building expansion to create an exhibition space dedicated to the Permanent Collection. Wallace Joyce was a true philanthropist supporting projects meaningful to him but that also made a significant contribution to the community. He had fond memories of Unionville, and shared them with us with great enthusiasm.
On behalf of our membership and of all members of the staff, I assure you that his legacy to our community will always be celebrated and remembered. Our thoughts are with you in this difficult time.
Yours Sincerely,
Francine Périnet
Director
The Frederick Horsman Varley Art Gallery of Markham
216 Main Street Unionville
Markham, On, L3R 2H1
On behalf of our membership and of all members of the staff, I assure you that his legacy to our community will always be celebrated and remembered. Our thoughts are with you in this difficult time.
Yours Sincerely,
Francine Périnet
Director
The Frederick Horsman Varley Art Gallery of Markham
216 Main Street Unionville
Markham, On, L3R 2H1
Friday, October 8, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
As a Wrap up to Summer 2010, meet the Varley Summer Camp Instructors!
Lindsay!
Lindsay is an Ontario certified teacher specializing in History and English, with a passion for learning and art. She is a world traveller and cannot wait to share her experiences with the new artists of summer camp 2010!
Isabella is a concurrent education student at Queens University who is passionate about both kids and art. She is excited for her second year at Varley!
Stephanie is a graduate from the University of Toronto, St. George, double majoring in English and Art History. In September she will be attending Queens University to receive her teaching degree. She has been at Varley for three years, making her a Varley veteran. She is excited to share her passion for art and teaching with our campers!
Lindsay is an Ontario certified teacher specializing in History and English, with a passion for learning and art. She is a world traveller and cannot wait to share her experiences with the new artists of summer camp 2010!
Melissa is in her third year at York University in the Concurrent Education program. This is her second year at Varley Summer Camp. As a first year instructor here, she is thrilled to be teaching at Varley and is excited to create lots of fabulous art with the campers!
Amanda has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Ontario College of Art and Design. She is excited for her first summer instructing at the Varley Art Gallery and hopes to continue educating children in art both locally and overseas.
Amanda has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Ontario College of Art and Design. She is excited for her first summer instructing at the Varley Art Gallery and hopes to continue educating children in art both locally and overseas.
Isabella is a concurrent education student at Queens University who is passionate about both kids and art. She is excited for her second year at Varley!Isabella!
Rachel attends the University of Waterloo pursuing her Fine Arts and Business Degree. This is her first summer at the Gallery and she is super excited for all the fun weeks ahead!
Stephanie is a graduate from the University of Toronto, St. George, double majoring in English and Art History. In September she will be attending Queens University to receive her teaching degree. She has been at Varley for three years, making her a Varley veteran. She is excited to share her passion for art and teaching with our campers!Stephanie!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
A note from our Summer Camp Directors
A note from Lauren Caldwell and Jamie-Lee Warner:
As the Summer Camp Directors, we have had the pleasure of encouraging the arts and creativity to hundreds of children this summer. Projects have been filled with colours; sculptures have been created using many different media - some of our projects have even been hidden on Main Street Unionville for all the community to enjoy!
We get messier and have tons of fun at every Summer Camp at Varley!
We want to give a special thank you to all our enthuasiastic staff who join camp to make sure becomes the vibrant and educational programme that we strive for at the Varley.
We are very sad to see Summer Camp 2010 come to a close, but look toward Summer 2011 with eager anticipation!
Lauren Caldwell & Jamie-Lee Warner
Varley Summer Camp Directors
As the Summer Camp Directors, we have had the pleasure of encouraging the arts and creativity to hundreds of children this summer. Projects have been filled with colours; sculptures have been created using many different media - some of our projects have even been hidden on Main Street Unionville for all the community to enjoy!
We get messier and have tons of fun at every Summer Camp at Varley!
We want to give a special thank you to all our enthuasiastic staff who join camp to make sure becomes the vibrant and educational programme that we strive for at the Varley.
We are very sad to see Summer Camp 2010 come to a close, but look toward Summer 2011 with eager anticipation!
Lauren Caldwell & Jamie-Lee Warner
Varley Summer Camp Directors
Friday, July 30, 2010
"Tom Thomson" poem by George Whipple
Before his paintings fared out of his brush
the accidental grandeur of burnt woods
turned him aside. Behind
the thick dark cedar screen
of Time where all that changes, stilled
and verified by art, unchanging lives,
in birch-white solitudes he made a pledge
to something on some always distant shore
that beckoned his canoe beyond the lampit edge
of crowded cities, towns.
The charcoal hush
of evening, deep Muskoka rivers, lakes
where deer come down to drink the lapping moon
he caught on canvas -- with a sense of things unseen.
He took the meausre of the tallest tree.
In you, beleagured Jackpine, native Harp,
the wind's gnarled language learned to reproduce;
spread-eagled, straining arms against the sky,
your thunder-shaped, deep-throated silent Cry
he captured -- rooted fast in shouts of paint.
When maples kindled south of Mattawa
and burnded boughed heaven's arching dome:
when autumn flamed through shadow-crafted aisles
of branching latticeworkd more brilliantly designed
than Chartres' rhetoric of stony lace -- he saw
how everything breathed truth, and felt at home
for the first time as sight and insight merged
-- Algonquin's solitary soul with his entwined
as he poured out his self-commissioned praise
grandiloquent as warpaint on the world.
The undeflected compass of his dreams
led far beyond Algoma Central's farthest rail
to reach those treasures hidden in plain sight --
silken cobwebs chandeliered with rain,
the sould within a rock, the whirling pool
solidified in whorls of knotted maple grain,
the Spirit's thereness everywhere intact:
each nothing stone the cosmos held in place,
no smallest insect moved except by grace.
-- Some inner map of innocence and awe
had led him deep within himself to find
our land's rich emptiness.
He struck it big.
In motherlodes of feeling still underminded,
a flash of certitude, a radiant strange Force
awakened him while others lay asleep.
Impervious to critics' yelping tomahawks,
nostalgia for the future made more clear
what's never missed until it's found -- most near,
most far -- the earth entrusted to our keep,
the native soil where freedom has its source.
The many scattered fragments of Perhaps
(a dance of dappled mirros on a twig
where spinning leaves collect the wind)
he salvaged -- showing us a world unseen
until intrepid distances explored his eyes
with new perspectives, forms fresh as that lake
compacted to a 10-inch square of beaverboard
where tamarack at tamarack still-gaze
across a resinous black pool ablaze
with sunset's burning flames -- a scene
to call for celebration in whatever room
it glows.
So one enduring masterpiece --
homemade -- familiar friend to all, in hearts
too long aggresively indifferent, wakes
some latent feeling -- half-asleep -- to sing.
Our future was the past too long assigned
to others. Now we have a voice that sees
cantata-clear white hemlock tapestries,
blue shadows on white arioso snow.
Not what he saw but what he knew ws there
he fleshed upon nude canvas -- lavish, spare,
lovingly unveiled in unpremeditated art.
In contemplation all remembrance dies.
The field of vision's narrowed to a cloud
is ointments on a stick. Both humbe/proud
the artist/shaman heals, and witless/wise
unknowing, knows. He sees by going blind
invisible bright objects silent/loud
as crimson on a leaf.
Sometimes we find
the future's passed before the present dawns
-- yet how his yellow/blues melt into green,
an always-present mixing in our eyes
an endless spring.
***
One cloudy day
he took his fishing tackle, lit his pipe,
shoved off from shore and paddled far away
-- into his pictures. Clutching the last straw
of light, hands slipping from the cold
ascending surface of the lake
he disappeared.
In rough unsettled solitudes
of tamarack and maple, lake and stream,
our country's northern soul forever broods:
its solemn, sweet, sad joy, its many moods
remote and reticent he caught as in a dream
still haunting us -- the woods within the woods.
the accidental grandeur of burnt woods
turned him aside. Behind
the thick dark cedar screen
of Time where all that changes, stilled
and verified by art, unchanging lives,
in birch-white solitudes he made a pledge
to something on some always distant shore
that beckoned his canoe beyond the lampit edge
of crowded cities, towns.
The charcoal hush
of evening, deep Muskoka rivers, lakes
where deer come down to drink the lapping moon
he caught on canvas -- with a sense of things unseen.
He took the meausre of the tallest tree.
In you, beleagured Jackpine, native Harp,
the wind's gnarled language learned to reproduce;
spread-eagled, straining arms against the sky,
your thunder-shaped, deep-throated silent Cry
he captured -- rooted fast in shouts of paint.
When maples kindled south of Mattawa
and burnded boughed heaven's arching dome:
when autumn flamed through shadow-crafted aisles
of branching latticeworkd more brilliantly designed
than Chartres' rhetoric of stony lace -- he saw
how everything breathed truth, and felt at home
for the first time as sight and insight merged
-- Algonquin's solitary soul with his entwined
as he poured out his self-commissioned praise
grandiloquent as warpaint on the world.
The undeflected compass of his dreams
led far beyond Algoma Central's farthest rail
to reach those treasures hidden in plain sight --
silken cobwebs chandeliered with rain,
the sould within a rock, the whirling pool
solidified in whorls of knotted maple grain,
the Spirit's thereness everywhere intact:
each nothing stone the cosmos held in place,
no smallest insect moved except by grace.
-- Some inner map of innocence and awe
had led him deep within himself to find
our land's rich emptiness.
He struck it big.
In motherlodes of feeling still underminded,
a flash of certitude, a radiant strange Force
awakened him while others lay asleep.
Impervious to critics' yelping tomahawks,
nostalgia for the future made more clear
what's never missed until it's found -- most near,
most far -- the earth entrusted to our keep,
the native soil where freedom has its source.
The many scattered fragments of Perhaps
(a dance of dappled mirros on a twig
where spinning leaves collect the wind)
he salvaged -- showing us a world unseen
until intrepid distances explored his eyes
with new perspectives, forms fresh as that lake
compacted to a 10-inch square of beaverboard
where tamarack at tamarack still-gaze
across a resinous black pool ablaze
with sunset's burning flames -- a scene
to call for celebration in whatever room
it glows.
So one enduring masterpiece --
homemade -- familiar friend to all, in hearts
too long aggresively indifferent, wakes
some latent feeling -- half-asleep -- to sing.
Our future was the past too long assigned
to others. Now we have a voice that sees
cantata-clear white hemlock tapestries,
blue shadows on white arioso snow.
Not what he saw but what he knew ws there
he fleshed upon nude canvas -- lavish, spare,
lovingly unveiled in unpremeditated art.
In contemplation all remembrance dies.
The field of vision's narrowed to a cloud
is ointments on a stick. Both humbe/proud
the artist/shaman heals, and witless/wise
unknowing, knows. He sees by going blind
invisible bright objects silent/loud
as crimson on a leaf.
Sometimes we find
the future's passed before the present dawns
-- yet how his yellow/blues melt into green,
an always-present mixing in our eyes
an endless spring.
***
One cloudy day
he took his fishing tackle, lit his pipe,
shoved off from shore and paddled far away
-- into his pictures. Clutching the last straw
of light, hands slipping from the cold
ascending surface of the lake
he disappeared.
In rough unsettled solitudes
of tamarack and maple, lake and stream,
our country's northern soul forever broods:
its solemn, sweet, sad joy, its many moods
remote and reticent he caught as in a dream
still haunting us -- the woods within the woods.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Two New Exhibitions Open at the Varley Art Gallery
Release date: May 14, 2010
Two New Exhibitions Open at the Varley Art Gallery
June 3, 2010 - September 6, 2010
Cultural Floe: Modern and Inuit Traditions
Curated by Anna Hudson
A Tribute to Norman Bethune: the mural and political cartoons of Avrom Yanovsky
Curated by Anna Hudson
Varley in Unionville
Selections from the Permanent Collection
Unionville, Ontario - The Varley Art Gallery of Markham opens two new exhibitions on June 3, 2010 along with an exhibition of works by F.H. Varley selected from the galleries permanent collection.
Cultural Floe: Modern and Inuit Traditions
The exhibition juxtaposes sculpture and drawing produced at the beginning and end of the ethnically defined field of Inuit modern art. During the 1950's an international market developed for carving produced in the regions now known as Nunavut and Nunavik. Sixty years later, following significant attainments in Aboriginal self-governance, current Inuit art now flows into an expansive international contemporary art practice. In this new context, individual artists are celebrated as witnesses to a new global reality. Inuit traditional knowledge privileges the expression of personal experience over received information. The subjective views of life captured in these sculptures and drawings advance the continuity of an Inuit way of being in the world and offer a template of cultural influence on contemporary culture.
Featuring the works of: Davidialuk Alasua Amittu, Adam Alorut, Abraham Anghik, Shuvinai Ashoona, Maria Connolly, Osuitok Ipeelee, Naulaq Michael, Idris Moss-Davies, William Noah, Sheokjuk Okutaq, Silas Qayaqjuak, Tim Pitsiulak and Oviloo Tunnille.
A Tribute to Norman Bethune: the mural and political cartoons of Avrom Yanovsky
The exhibition features Avrom Yanovsky's mural tribute to Dr. Norman Bethune who remains best known as a hero in the People's Republic of China. He is remembered in Canada as a surgeon and inventor who developed a mobile blood-transfusion service, a political activist and an early proponent of a universal health care system. The mural was painted for the Communist Party of Canada and covered an entire wall at the Norman Bethune-Tim Buck Educational Centre in Toronto. The mural, completed in 1963-65, has never been exhibited since being removed from its original location.
Over sixty political cartoons by Yanovsky published between 1950 and 1972 are included in the exhibition. The ink drawings, with their collaged and corrected compositions, are the original cartoons published in newspapers nationally, most commonly in The Worker and The Canadian Tribune, and internationally through World News Services. All are animated by a cast of easily recognizable characters: the money bag, the banker, the capitalist, and the politician - with his sidekick, the police or military. Yanovsky saved the leading role for the worker: an idealized representation of labour who endured the endless greed and buffoonery of capital and political power.
Varley in Unionville is an exhibition curated from the Varley Art Gallery's permanent collection with much of the work being part of the original bequest from Kathleen McKay.
A friend of Donald and Kathleen McKay, Varley became their boarder and followed them on their move from Toronto to Unionville in the mid-1950's. In Unionville, Varley would produce numerous paintings and sketches of Kathleen McKay, his muse. She also accompanied him on painting trips throughout Ontario and British Columbia.
Two New Exhibitions Open at the Varley Art Gallery
June 3, 2010 - September 6, 2010
Cultural Floe: Modern and Inuit Traditions
Curated by Anna Hudson
A Tribute to Norman Bethune: the mural and political cartoons of Avrom Yanovsky
Curated by Anna Hudson
Varley in Unionville
Selections from the Permanent Collection
Unionville, Ontario - The Varley Art Gallery of Markham opens two new exhibitions on June 3, 2010 along with an exhibition of works by F.H. Varley selected from the galleries permanent collection.
Cultural Floe: Modern and Inuit Traditions
The exhibition juxtaposes sculpture and drawing produced at the beginning and end of the ethnically defined field of Inuit modern art. During the 1950's an international market developed for carving produced in the regions now known as Nunavut and Nunavik. Sixty years later, following significant attainments in Aboriginal self-governance, current Inuit art now flows into an expansive international contemporary art practice. In this new context, individual artists are celebrated as witnesses to a new global reality. Inuit traditional knowledge privileges the expression of personal experience over received information. The subjective views of life captured in these sculptures and drawings advance the continuity of an Inuit way of being in the world and offer a template of cultural influence on contemporary culture.
Featuring the works of: Davidialuk Alasua Amittu, Adam Alorut, Abraham Anghik, Shuvinai Ashoona, Maria Connolly, Osuitok Ipeelee, Naulaq Michael, Idris Moss-Davies, William Noah, Sheokjuk Okutaq, Silas Qayaqjuak, Tim Pitsiulak and Oviloo Tunnille.
A Tribute to Norman Bethune: the mural and political cartoons of Avrom Yanovsky
The exhibition features Avrom Yanovsky's mural tribute to Dr. Norman Bethune who remains best known as a hero in the People's Republic of China. He is remembered in Canada as a surgeon and inventor who developed a mobile blood-transfusion service, a political activist and an early proponent of a universal health care system. The mural was painted for the Communist Party of Canada and covered an entire wall at the Norman Bethune-Tim Buck Educational Centre in Toronto. The mural, completed in 1963-65, has never been exhibited since being removed from its original location.
Over sixty political cartoons by Yanovsky published between 1950 and 1972 are included in the exhibition. The ink drawings, with their collaged and corrected compositions, are the original cartoons published in newspapers nationally, most commonly in The Worker and The Canadian Tribune, and internationally through World News Services. All are animated by a cast of easily recognizable characters: the money bag, the banker, the capitalist, and the politician - with his sidekick, the police or military. Yanovsky saved the leading role for the worker: an idealized representation of labour who endured the endless greed and buffoonery of capital and political power.
Varley in Unionville is an exhibition curated from the Varley Art Gallery's permanent collection with much of the work being part of the original bequest from Kathleen McKay.
A friend of Donald and Kathleen McKay, Varley became their boarder and followed them on their move from Toronto to Unionville in the mid-1950's. In Unionville, Varley would produce numerous paintings and sketches of Kathleen McKay, his muse. She also accompanied him on painting trips throughout Ontario and British Columbia.
Opening Reception Photo Gallery
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Join the Varley Volunteer Book Club!
If you are a Varley volunteer and you wish to get to know other volunteers, why not become involved with this active group who meets five times a year at the McKay House on the second Tuesdays of January, April, June, September and November. This year the Book Club is privileged to receive a private tour of The Automatiste Revolution exhibit given by our new Director, Francine Périnet. We are also planning a visit to the Textile Museum in September to coincide with the fall exhibit.
Here are the book selections for 2010. This year’s art novel is the story of Frank Lloyd Wright entitled, Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. Other novels are The Help by Kathryn Stockett, The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, The Guernsey Literary Pie by Mary Ann Shaffer, The Last Concubine by Lesley Downer.
Members of this popular and successful book club are committed to serving the Varley and in doing so they enrich their lives with art related events. The camaraderie amongst the members who share a love of art and books is just the icing on the cake.
For more information please contact Francesca Amato-Gauci at the Varley at famato-gauci@markham.ca or Gail Arena at arenag@rogers.com, (905)292-2241
Here are the book selections for 2010. This year’s art novel is the story of Frank Lloyd Wright entitled, Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. Other novels are The Help by Kathryn Stockett, The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, The Guernsey Literary Pie by Mary Ann Shaffer, The Last Concubine by Lesley Downer.
Members of this popular and successful book club are committed to serving the Varley and in doing so they enrich their lives with art related events. The camaraderie amongst the members who share a love of art and books is just the icing on the cake.
For more information please contact Francesca Amato-Gauci at the Varley at famato-gauci@markham.ca or Gail Arena at arenag@rogers.com, (905)292-2241
Canadian Art article on The Automatiste Revolution
Varley Art Gallery's Automatiste Revolution: Montreal 1941 - 1960 ranked the show of the year for 2009!
http://www.canadianart.ca/online/features/2009/12/17/top-ten/
http://www.canadianart.ca/online/features/2009/12/17/top-ten/
The year artists made big splashes in small ponds
Sarah Milroy's article in the Globe and Mail - Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009 5:39PM EST
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/the-year-artists-made-big-splashes-in-small-ponds/article1414440/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/the-year-artists-made-big-splashes-in-small-ponds/article1414440/
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