Bonnie Baxter: Rewind
August 22 – October 11, 2008

Opening and reception: August 22, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: 7:00 p.m.… Bonnie Baxter

The international tour of Bonnie Baxter: Rewind, a multi-media exhibit,is being offered by Laurentides Museum of Contemporary Art in Canada, with stops between 2006 and 2009 in Newfoundland, Alberta and Quebec, Canada, Fort Myers, Florida and Memphis, Tennessee in the USA, and Istanbul, Turkey. The artist acknowledges the generous support of the Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association (CUPFA).

Bonnie Baxter: Rewind, Installation view, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College
Art Gallery, Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada

In the artist’s words: “I have been an artist for a long time… making things, trying things, looking for a true narrative, a narrative of how life is… I see that life is not complicated, but it is dense, and that it is easy to get caught in this density – a tiny insect in a mass of layers, struggling to find the surface. I would rather see the layers as opportunities, evidence of the simultaneity, synchronicity, serendipity that abounds in life. Each series of work I produce acts as a semi-autobiographical translation of life – finding beauty in the commonplace: seeing that the extraordinary is common. Rewind reflects some 15 years of this practice, combining work from several series. It includes a selection of work from my large-scale digital print series on canvas, Les coquelicots and Baphomet, as well as the video imagery of Surreal and Cityscape. With imagery drawn from my travels, my art practice, and my everyday life, their layers play a counterpoint, sublime, ridiculous, and everything in between. Rewind’s center piece Babel, attempts to find sense and beauty in the diversity rather than a lesson in humility.”

Bonnie Baxter was born in Texarkana, Texas. She has lived in Val-David, Quebec, since 1969. She has taught in the Print Media Program at Concordia University, Montreal since 1984, and she has lectured extensively and given workshops in Canada, Mexico, the USA and Turkey.

Mamie Holst: From the Series Landscape Before Dying
October 24 – December 6, 2008

With her ongoing series of paintings titled “Landscape Before Dying,” Mamie Holst explores the inspiring abstract landscape within her experience of chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome. Since 1989, when she was diagnosed with CFIDS and forced to return home, she has mined her syndrome related sensations for her work’s static, tremor, crosshairs, elegance, distortion, drift, space, targets, voids, isolation, and peace. Mamie noted that:

“I feel like I don't really think anymore. Of course I still think or else I wouldn't function obviously, but it's a much more basic type of thinking. It's like if you try to think big thoughts your brain hits a blank wall. When painting, it just sort of comes out. While looking at a finished painting, I can't really remember how I did it. I know where I put the lines down etc., but most of the decision making is more subconscious.”

Mamie Holst was born in Florida in 1961. She received an AA degree in 1981 from Edison Community College and attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City from 1987 to 1989 where she earned an MFA. A John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship was awarded to Mamie in 2005. Mamie is represented by Feature Inc, New York, NY. Mamie currently lives in Ft. Myers, FL.

Mamie Holst, Landscape Before Dying (High Strangeness)
Acrylic on canvas, 14” x 18”, 2001

Lilian Garcia-Roig: Nature of Being There
January 16 – February 21, 2009

The paintings of Lilian Garcia-Roig are anchored in the tradition of landscape painting. But, that is just a stepping stone to what are her main concerns. While her paintings do have the initial impact of looking like landscape ‘interiors’ it becomes immediately clear her work is less illusionistic than a first glimpse might suggest.

“By creating the illusion of recognizable trees, I draw the viewers comfortably into an assumption that what they perceive will be glimpses of conventional space. Up close, however, the images break down and the lush, gestural paint marks, the squeezed-out patches and the occasional raw canvas help instead, to reinforce the two-dimensional character of abstract painting.” – Lilian Garcia-Roig

Garcia-Roig was born in Havana, Cuba, studied at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and received an MFA in painting from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. In 2006 she received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award in Painting and a State of Florida Artists Enhancement Grant. In 2004 she was the featured artist for the State of Florida during the National Hispanic Heritage Month. She currently teaches painting at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

Lilian Garcia-Roig, St Marks Inlet, oil on canvas, 40”x 30”

Syd Solomon: On Black
March 13 – April 9, 2009

Syd Solomon (1917-2004) was born in Uniontown, PA and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After serving in Europe during WWII, he attended L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In Sarasota he studied at the Ringling School of Art and Design.

Solomon has exhibited globally and his works are held in numerous permanent collections including: The Baltimore Museum of Art, Butler Institute of American Art, The Cincinnati Art Museum, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Norton Gallery of Art, Tampa Museum, Tate Gallery in London, Tel Aviv Museum and the Whitney Museum of Art, to name a few.

Syd Solomon, Shore Sentry
Lithograph on black paper, 22” x 30”, 1977