THE LIMITS OF SEEING

PHOTOS OF EXHIBITION
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE

The Lake Country Art Gallery is pleased to present The Limits of Seeing, an exhibition by Vernon-based artists Katie Brennan and Katherine Pickering, from October 12th - November 9th, 2012. The Limits of Seeing offers new paintings that explore how we see, and don’t see, the world.

Katherine Pickering has made a prolonged study of darkness for her abstract paintings, while Katie Brennan has watched light dancing across rivers, lakes and shifting through masses of clouds. The work of both of these artists is rooted in natural elements, from which they mine, morph and transform what they see through abstract painting.

Brennan’s art has evolved, from pure abstract invention to linear drawings based on corporate car logos, to similar work derived from clouds, mountains and water. Her paintings in this exhibition combine fluid passages of ‘pooled’ paint with tracings from projected images of water patterns. The resulting paintings work as both depictions of water and as highly individualized abstractions with the capacity to uplift or transform us, offering new perspectives on moving water. 

Pickering’s paintings are the result of illuminated night rambles in various parts of the planet. Forms barely discerned inside caves or at the edge of a pool of light in a night garden have led to paintings that embrace mystery and ignite imagination. The dark shapes that dominated early works of this kind appeared to be cave mouths, or other empty spaces. In her new work these have evolved into more solid-seeming forms that now are more reminiscent of human heads.

These two separate and diverse bodies of work use the formal elements of abstraction as well as recognition factors we all share in terms of nature to create an exhibition that holds mystery, wonder and beauty in both contrasting and complementary ways.

Katie Brennan received her BFA from Emily Carr University in Vancouver and obtained her MFA at the University of Guelph in Ontario. Katherine Pickering received a BA in anthropology and a BFA in visual arts at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna before completing her MFA at Concordia University in Montreal. Both Brennan and Pickering currently live in Vernon, exhibiting regularly and teaching in the visual arts department at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus. 

This exhibition is curated by guest curator Jim Kalnin. Jim Kalnin is a retired associate professor of UBC Okanagan. He has also worked as a curator for the Kelowna Art Gallery, the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art in Kelowna. He served as the volunteer curator at the Lake Country Art Gallery from 2009 - 2011. The LCAG is thrilled to be working with Kalnin again for this exhibition. 

The Limits of Seeing opens on Friday October 12th from 7 - 9pm. Both artists will be in attendance. Katherine Pickering will give an artist talk on Oct 17th at 7pm. Katie Brennan will give an artist talk on Oct 24th also at 7pm. Brennan and Pickering will be joined on Wed Nov 7th by Lake Country artist David Alexander for “Painters Talking About Paintings” a conversation about painting. All events and openings are free and open to the public.

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