Re View Exhibition 6

It has been 10 years since Gallery Lambton closed its doors at the former Bayside Centre and moved down the street to re-open in the historic Thom Building as the Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery. To honour its first decade in this purpose-built facility, the gallery is installing a series of exhibitions over the next year and a half titled Re View. The exhibitions place the gallery’s permanent collection in the spotlight and celebrates the power of art. Each exhibit will feature a range of artworks that will be accompanied by audio tours written and voiced by gallery volunteers.

Step into the captivating finale of our Re View series, a tribute to the incredible talents housed within our permanent collection. Five new artists are explored: Stephen Andrews, Franklin Arbuckle, John Colin Forbes, Ian McLean and Jessie Oonark.

Visitors should prepare to be entranced by the luminescent canvas of contemporary painter and powerhouse Stephen Andrews. The accompanying hypnotic audio tour unravels layers of contradiction within his painting Sarnia. A recent donation of remarkable Lambton County-based artist Ian McLean is accompanied by a tour that investigates the delicate balance of man versus nature.

Historic painting aficionados can embark on an audio tour of John Colin Forbes’s Boy in a Studio, which unveils the secrets of a 19th-century interior and transports you back in time. Lovers of poetic landscapes will find all their senses awakened by the vibrancy of spring captured in Franklin Arbuckle's painting Poplars, Early Spring.

Lastly visitors can delve into the influential work of Jessie Oonark through the serigraph The World of Sun and Moon – the accompanying tour shares the artist’s unconventional start and how her creations grace prominent collections across Canada and continue to influence generations of new artists.

Image: Stephen Andrews, Sarnia, 2009; oil on canvas. From the collection of the Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery. Purchased with matching funds from the Canada Council for the Arts.