History
Milestones
The Gallery's history began in September 1988 with its opening as The Gallery at Arts Court, led by Mayo Graham, the Gallery's dynamic first Director. In 1992, the City of Ottawa's recently acquired Firestone Art Collection was transferred to the custodianship of the renamed The Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG). The same year, Anne Doran and a group of energetic volunteers established the Gallery's attractive Art Rental and Sales Service. The incorporation of the Gallery as an independent charitable organization took place in 1993, with the election of its first Board of Directors and the appointment of Glen McInnes as Chair in the following year. In the mid-1990's, annual funding from additional government agencies provided a more solid financial foundation for our evolving contemporary public programs. As the Gallery's annual budget increases incrementally, so has the number of staff, programs and services, allowing more people to participate through a variety of activities and events.
Exhibitions
Dozens of compelling exhibitions have taken place over the past fifteen years. The Gallery's first talented Curator of Contemporary art, Jean-Francois Renaud, undertook several ambitious projects such as Juan Geuer: Investigating Chaos (1993) and Evergon's Ramboys: A Bookless Novel and Other Fictions (1995). Examples of exhibitions looking at the history of Ottawa's visual art culture include History of Art and Artists of Ottawa and Surroundings, 1790-1970 (Part I, 1993 ; Part II, 1994; Part III, 1995) and Ottawa: On Display (2000). Important local artists who long deserved to be shown in significant exhibitions in their home town were represented in Blair Sharpe: 15 Years of Work (1989); Leslie Reid: Landscape into Light (1990); Dennis Tourbin: The October Crisis, Continuum (1995); Richard Gorman: Pure Painting (1996); Susan Feindel: figura (1998); Ron Noganosh: It Takes Time (1999); Jerry Grey: Rare Spirits (2000) and Gerald Trottier: Reflections (2002). The Gallery's growing contemporary collection has been presented in two exhibitions entitled Discernment in 1996 and 1999 and most recently in Collections in Context (2002).
Through the influence of curator Sylvie Fortin, the Gallery became nationally known for innovative exhibitions that incorporated new technologies, and included internationally recognized artists as well as local practitioners. Such exhibits include the night has a thousand eyes: Keith Piper and Ramona Ramlochand; Strange Attractors: Observations on Video Art in Ottawa-Hull (1997); Close Encounters (1998); In All the Wrong Places (1999); Catherine Richards: Excitable Tissues (2000); Take Two and Présent composé (2001). Renee Baert, OAG's Curator of Contemporary Art from 2002 to 2004, organized insightful exhibitions such as Nelson Hendricks: Fuzzy Face (2002), Max Dean (2002), Between Line and Form (2003), 3: Eliza Griffiths, Frank Shebageget, and Alexandre Castonguay (2003), and the popular Medical Imprints. Baert also collaborated with curator Aoife Mac Namara on Eric Walker: Here and Gone (2004).
Emily Falvey, OAG's current Curator of Contemproary Art, oversees of the Gallery's exhibitions and publications, as well as new acquisitions. Through her curatorial perspective, organizational skills, background in art history, and passion for writing, Falvey continues to build a thought-provoking program of innovative thematic group exhibitions. Her past work includes Dead Nature/La vie immobile (2005), Kosmos (2006), and Media Povera (2007). Falvey has also organized noteworthy solo exhibitions of artists with strong ties to the Ottawa-Gatineau region, including Eric Walker, Germaine Koh, Deborah Margo, Adrian Göllner, Colwyn Griffith, and Farouk Kaspaules. In 2006, she received the Curatorial Writing Award (Contemporary Essay) from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries.
OAG maintains an active schedule of original and traveling exhibitions, as well as special projects organized by acclaimed curators, including France Gascon, Cheryl Sourkes, Karen Love, Nicole Gingras, Christine Conley, François Dion, Johanna Mizgala, and Ryan Rice. All have greatly contributed to OAG's programming.
Works of art from the Firestone Collection of Canadian Art are displayed in rotating installations so that the public may regularly expect to find new works on display. Thematic exhibitions in the Firestone Gallery have provided an eloquent counterpoint to the contemporary exhibition program, as with the exhibitions Henri Masson: Paintings and Drawing (1997); Community Observations: Contemporaries of Pegi Nicol MacLeod (1999); The Presence of Absence: Works by Ghitta Caiserman-Roth (2001), and Façade: Facing the Canadian Landscape (2003). Full Space: Modern Art from the Firestone Collection of Canadian Art (2004), organized by Emily Falvey, was OAG's first national touring exhibition, and was supported through the Museums Assistance Program of Canadian Heritage. The exhibition Hot Mush and the Cold North (2005) bought national attention to the Gallery; also Curated by Falvey, it cleverly combined paintings by the Group of Seven from the Firestone Collection of Canadian Art and Art Gallery of Ontario with work by four contemporary artists.
In 2005, OAG received funding to appoint Catherine Sinclair as Resident Curator of the Firestone Collection of Canadian Art. Sinclair has made a distinct effort to display works from the Collection that have never been shown before, including many works on paper, often placing them in the context of contemporary art. On the occasion of the City of Ottawa's 150th anniversary, Sinclair organized Private Eye: Choosing Ottawa for a National Collection (2005), an exhibition of Ottawa artists within the Collection. With Mirror Image (2006), Sinclair juxtaposed self-portraits and portraits from both the Firestone Collection of Canadian Art and OAG's permanent Contemporary Collection. Her popular and critically acclaimed exhibition Animalia (2006) explored human-animal relationships in both historical works from the Collection and works by contemporary artists.
Publications/Special Events
Exquisitely designed bilingual publications have been an integral feature of OAG's exhibition program, as have artist and curator talks. Our newsletter, Tract, was first produced in 1994 to keep our members informed and to acquaint visitors with the Gallery's activities. Events such as the spring Art Auction, which combines the talent of the regions' artists with the culinary flair of local restaurants and the support of many Ottawa businesses, creates a one-of-a-kind celebratory occasion while raising much needed funds. Jennifer Dickson's lecture series is another distinctive event warmly anticipated biannually. A new popular initiative is Artist-to-Artist, a series of informal artists' presentations.