By Alison Larabie
Artists from two Ottawa high schools will get the chance to see some of their work on display at the Ottawa Art Gallery this spring.
Thirteen students from Arts Canterbury and De La Salle were invited last fall to view the gallery’s Firestone collection of Canadian art and take inspiration from those works to create new pieces.
The result is Re-View ’99, a seven-week exhibition of their art and the works that inspired them.
Dorren Martin, curator of the Firestone Galleries and co-ordinator of this year’s event says this year was the first time the gallery got a grant for Re-View. The $5000 grant came from the Ottawa-based Maurice Price Foundation which supports youth and education.
Martin adds the students didn’t know about the grant before they began their work.
“I think that knowing we have the grant (in future) might encourage students to think a little bigger,” she says.
Not only do the students get funding to create a new piece of art, using whatever medium they wish, they also benefit from the experience of showing their work in a gallery.
“We try to involve the students in the whole gallery experience,” Martin says.
Nancy Lemieux, an OAC student at De La Salle, says the suggestion she take inspiration from another work struck her as unusual.
“It was interesting. It’s not something we’re usually encouraged to do in the frame of an art class,” she says.
Alexandre Robertson, also in his final year at De La Salle, took a painting by Claude Picher and translated it into a multimedia installation.
Robertson describes his piece, entitled Machina, as a “protest against illusion.”
Lauren Cameron, a Grade 12 student at Canterbury, also took inspiration from a Picher painting. She says the bright colours drew her to the piece.
“I always get teased for liking bright colours. Blue and orange are my favorite contrast,” she says of her piece, a three-canvas construction depicting a deep blue sky and the outline of a woman’s body in orange and yellow.
Martin hopes one day to change the focus of Re-View and possibly use a theme to see what kinds of results they get.
“It’s a way of removing the walls around an institution,” Martin says.
“If young people can come in and see some of their peers’ work hanging on the walls, it shows them that maybe they’ve got a chance.”
The students all feel strongly about the positive effect that gallery exposure can have on their future as artists.
“I have the suspicion that it (the experience) changes a lot for me,” Robertson says.
“It’s been good for my confidence.”
“It’s a lot of work, but the results are great,” says Cameron.
“It’s good exposure and it looks great in a portfolio.”
The exhibition runs until April 25 and the gallery is located at 2 Daly Ave.