Published by Leonardo Calcagno
01. Gallery Crawl promo
Location: Ottawa
Link: nac-cna.ca
Info: Experience an afternoon of amazing visual art, performances, hands-on activities, and special surprises!
02. Pretty Lofty and Heavy All At Once
Location: OTTAWA ART GALLERY
Link:nac-cna.ca
Info: From the camera obscura to digital capture, this mid-career survey of works from the early 2000s to 2015 underscores ANDREW WRIGHT’s interest in perception and the technologies of photography. Wright’s artistic practice is at the intersection of traditional and conceptual forms of artmaking, where explorations of form, light, and photographic phenomena come together to reveal an unexpected perspective on nature. Through an approach that is often experimental, even playful at times, Wright’s highly refined works invite us to reconsider the ways we relate to and visualize the world around us.
03. Crowded on a Velvet Cushion
Location: NAC THEATRE
Link:nac-cna.ca
Info: During this hands-on painting workshop, participants can learn the meticulous, somewhat ritualistic painting method of George Thomson. Fastidious step-by-step instructions will be given by an instructor. Deviation from the prescribed technique will be strongly discouraged; however, convivial fraternizing with fellow participants will be mandatory, in the spirit of an artist who placed as much importance on community-building as he did on painterly skill.
04. Sea Sick
Location: THE GLADSTONE
Link: nac-cna.ca
Info: The ocean contains the switch of life. Not the land, not the atmosphere – the ocean. And that switch can be turned off.
In Sea Sick, acclaimed science journalist ALANNA MITCHELL shows us why we should care. Using science and her own delicate wit to recount how she put the pieces of this huge global puzzle together, Alanna delivers a powerful and often humorous solo performance, inspired by her international bestseller and award-winning book of the same name.
Sea Sick will take you to the bottom of the ocean to face the demons of the deeps and deliver you into hope and redemption.
05. Kobo Town and Quique Escamilla
Location: NAC FOURTH STAGE
Link:nac-cna.ca
Info: Founded by Trinidadian-Canadian songwriter DREW GONSALVES, KOBO TOWN is named after the Port-of-Spain neighbourhood where calypso was born amid the boastful, humorous, and militant chants of roaming stick-fighters. Taking the intricate wordplay of classic Caribbean music and running it through a 21st-century filter, Kobo Town blends calypso with a wide mix of other musical influences, including ska, reggae, and dub. Rooted in the deepest traditions of Trinidad, Kobo town points the way to calypso’s future.
One minute QUIQUE ESCAMILLA is singing sweet songs that conjure up a full moon on a summer night, and the next he’s a freedom fighter, using his lovable, quirky musical style to address Indigenous rights, resistance, and sustainability. With the whole world as his influence, Quique fuses traditional Mexican styles like ranchera and huapango with reggae, rock, and 500 years of history, creating his own unique Music of the Americas.
06. North of the 45thnk
Location: GALLERY 101
Link: nac-cna.ca
Info: Discussion about issues facing artists, curators and artist-run centres in Northern Ontario.
07. Jesse Stewart
Location: DIEFENBUNKER: CANADA’S COLD WAR MUSEUM
Link: nac-cna.ca
Info: Built at the height of the Cold War to withstand a five-megaton nuclear assault, the Diefenbunker is a massive underground, four-storey, 100,000-square-foot fortress designed and constructed entirely in secrecy in 1959. Decommissioned in 1994, this extraordinary relic of another time has found new life as a museum, events venue, and even a stop on The Amazing Race Canada.
Now, master percussionist JESSE STEWART brings explosions of a different kind inside the Diefenbunker with BOOM, an extended, site-specific piece for solo bass drum and percussion that explores the unique sonic features of the Diefenbunker blast tunnel. An acclaimed composer, sound artist, instrument builder, and educator, Jesse is dedicated to reimagining the spaces between art and academia, and is the Diefenbunker’s 2015 artist-in-residence.
This intimate performance is limited to an audience of 30, so get your tickets early!
08. Ontario Pick 3
Location: CENTRAL ART GARAGE
Link:nac-cna.ca
Info: Ontario Pick 3 brings together three innovative Ontario artists who are expanding on and developing themes they began in 2014.
09. Ontario in Âjagemô
Location: CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS
Link: nac-cna.ca
Info: Ontario boasts a rich history of visual and media arts – due in large part to its size, diversity, and vibrant urban centres. But is Ontario art distinct? Do Ontario artists have a single, discernible viewpoint? A unique cultural psychology? Judge for yourself at this exhibition in the Canada Council’s Âjagemô exhibition hall*. Ontario in Âjagemô draws on a selection of five decades of works from the Canada Council Art Bank to reveal that the most interesting conversations emerge from viewpoints that are both unique and personal.
Since 1972, the CANADA COUNCIL ART BANK has been collecting works by the best Canadian artists of our times, amassing the world’s largest collection of contemporary Canadian art. Almost 4,000 of these works are by Ontario artists.
*Âjagemô is the Algonquin word for “crossroads.”
10. Jon Sasaki : Two Roads Diverged in a Wood
Location: Ottawa
Link:nac-cna.ca
Info: Three little-known works from the Firestone Collection of Canadian Art by the painter George Thomson (1868–1965) provide the foundation for a new body of work by JON SASAKI. The three paintings have been reinterpreted in ways that pay homage to an artist who was too often discussed only in connection with his more famous younger brother, Tom. Sasaki’s pieces in Two Roads Diverged in a Wood examine George Thomson’s ties to family, his community, and to the astoundingly eventful times in which he lived.
for more info : nac-cna.ca