2003
WE @ YOU ME: V.JANE GORDON’S ENHANCED STUDIO @ DVSA (Mar 6-16): Jan Balach, Patti Beckett, Lorraine Darke, Jackie Davies, Donna Giles, Dowling Knights, Anca Lamarche, Bryony Ollier, Mikela Ronning-Philip
ONE HUNDRED STRONG: 100 works by 100 Canadian artists (May 9 – June 1/03.) Artists Talk: Strong Talk with Paul Cvetich and Hana Beitl, Sunday May 25, 7 p.m.
“Bryce Kanbara’s invitation to more than 100 artists to fill the gallery’s white walls is brilliant. There’s nothing like a floor-to-ceiling display to show off the vigor of Hamilton’s art community.” Regina Haggo, The Spectator
NEW WHORLED ORDER: NEW WORKS BY DIANE CIZEK (June 13-July 19/03) Artists “Mind Your Manners” Art Talk (June 28, 7pm): Diane Cizek and interviewer David Fujino. “The rigorous ordering of the artist’s intelligence has transformed emotive images of infinite space and radiant light into abstracted evocations of the purest and ideal beauty.” Elaine Hujer, The Spectator
HAVANA: FIVE CANADIAN PHOTOGRAPHERS IN CUBA. Beverly Abramson, Jim Chambers, Jill Glessing, Elaine Ling, Vince Pietropaolo. And featuring Jim Mullin’s painting, Fidel’s New Suit and a concerned visit by Rogerio Santana, Consulate of Cuba. “The show includes an acrylic painting by Hamilton artist Jim Mullin, entitled ’Fidel’s New Suit”. (Figure out the meaning of the SOS box)…A threat to socialism, or a corporate trademark calling for help?” Graham Rockingham, The Spectator
GREEN: Shaped Paintings by PAUL ROPEL-MORSKI and ROBERT CLARK YATES (Nov 1- Dec 14/03) Artists Talk (Dec 14, 7:15 pm).
“Whether it’s creating paintings, prints or sculpture, or writing essays, poetry or stories, Robert Yates has done it all.” Elaine Hujer, The Spectator ” Ropel-Morski’s series of paintings are a robust homage, not to Nature, but to our occasional urbanite encounters with woods and lakes.” Bryce Kanbara
2004
DOWN IN THE VALLEY: A PHOTO/VIDEO RECORD OF THE RED HILL VALLEY (Feb 20-Mar 21/04) featuring Cees van Gemerden’s 8’x8’ backlit photograph in the front window, and hundreds of photographs by artists and activists. Video Evening (Mar 18) “Keepers of the Sacred Flame by the: Red Hill Video Collective, “Only Then” by Peter Karuna, “Red” by Ted Haines. Talk Evening (Mar 10): Scott McNie’s “Magical Red Hill Valley” slide show, and a lecture “Red Hill Valley, Past and Present” by Walter Peace. “I just want to repeat: If we stopped construction of the expressway right now, it would only take 10 to 20 years to bring the valley back to the way it was.” Cees van Gemerden
WE @ YOU ME 2 (Mar 26,27,28): Lynn Connell ,Carolyn Dover, Maureen Eustace, Donna Giles, Jean Francis, Lindsay Holton, Dorene Macaulay, Claudia Meier, Lynn Mills, Laurel Panton. Mentor: VJane Gordon.
HELEN SOVEREIGN / WAYNE ALLAN (April 7-May 9/04) Artists’ Talk, May 6. “Allan’s Buddha boxes, shaman boxes, stone boxes hang on the gallery walls like visual meditation guides.” Laura Hollick, VIEW “Each of Sovereign’s collages brings together a natural object and man-made one to stress their closeness.” Regina Haggo, The Spectator
JAPANNING: JAPANESENESS IN WORK BY JAPANESE CANADIANS ARTISTS (May 22-June 2004) akemi nishidera, david fujino, kazuo nakamura, gloria kagawa, anne kobayashi, walter sunahara, yoshiko sunahara, kimiko koyanagai, gene machida, akira yoshikawa, naoko matsubara, sadashi inuzuka, louise noguchi, sadashi inuzuka, tamiko winter, heather yamada “Japanning is a characteristic black lacquer technique used on wooden and paper objects. Here, the word is used as a metaphor for the layer of Japaneseness which art works by Canadians of Japanese descent are sometimes perceived, sometimes expected , to possess.” Bryce Kanbara
SADASHI INUZUKA: BIG CERAMIC SCULPTURE columns, vases, teapot and boat (July 24-Aug 24) “Hana means flower…But these flowers are huge. We see flowers as small; insects, on the other hand see them as big.” Regina Haggo, The Spectator
LIFE HITS THE CURB: RE-Create Outreach Studio (Sept 7,8,9) Black & white photographs by street-involved youth.
CHERYL KENMEY: POTTERY (Sept 17,18,19)
URBAN DISTORTIONS: KATHY RENWALD, JOHN MOKRYCKE, LESIA MOKRYCKE (Sept 24, 25.26) “At times, it was as if we’d stumbled into a dreamily abstracted parallel reality…” Duane Tucker, Borderlines.
MEETCHA AT THE TIV and other urban heartbreaks. Photographs by Nicola Giles Morreale and Peter Karuna. Artists Talk, Wed. Oct. 27.
Book Launch & Reading: Mark Truscott (Nov 4) Said Like Reeds and Things, Coach House Press.
METAPHASE: art by the Torma/Zsako family. Anna Torma, Istvan Zsako, Balint Zsako, David Zsako. “As this family’s nest gets a make-over from the biological support structure into a professional support structure, they introduce a new model for the family unit.” Laura Hollick, VIEW
2005
BOB MASON: COSMIC HURDLES final paintings (Feb 19-Mar 23). Exhibition opening in conjunction with Bob Mason’s wake at Workers Arts & Heritage Centre. “Gazing at his paintings, it is difficult not to think of his soul flying over hurdles to infinity.” Regina Haggo, The Spectator
WE 2005 AT YOU ME (Apr 8-17) V.Jane Gordon’s Independent Studies group. Rashne Baetz, Ulrike Balke, Maureen Eustace, Lynn Mills, Patricia Seeley, Diana Gordon, Fleur-Ange Lamothe, Arlene Laskey, Anne Oakley. (May 14. Slide talk: Tuscany and the Inquiries Course Adventure by V.Jane Gordon, and Botany and Walking Opportunities in the Alpe Apuane around Villa Catureglio by Dean Gugler.) “This tribe has got creative spirit!” Laura Hollick, VIEW
JIM CHAMBERS: JAMES ST. NORTH PHOTOGRAPHS 1976-2005 
(May 6-Jun 19) 60 Photographs of neighbourhood business-owners and people on the street. At the gallery and in store windows from Cannon to Murray Streets. Assisted by the Hamilton Community Foundation’s “Growing Roots…Strengthening Neighbourhoods Program. “Jim Chambers went away for a long time. Now he’s back with a gallery full of pictures of how it used to be.” Paul Wilson, The Spectator
DONNA IBING: TABLE PAINTINGS (Jun 24-Jul 24/05) “Ibing’s wit is as sharp as her paintbrush, whether she’s updating the Last Judgment or Leonardo’s Last Supper, she always has the last word.” Regina Haggo, The Spectator
RE-Create Outreach Art Studio presents its 2nd annual black and white photography project, View over Life (Friday, Sept. 9. 7–8:30 p.m.) The focus of the project was for the youth (street-involved and/or at risk for homelessness) to be reflective on the past, present and the future to come of life, as well as to express and explore oneself through the use of photography.
Ravinder Ruprai, Sheraine Seepaul, Tamara Chatterjee-Chatelain, Tarunika, P.Mansaram (Sept 17-Oct 23) Artists Talk, Sept 27, 7:30 pm. Video nite, Bride and Prejudice, Oct. 20. “Intricate patterning, dazzling colour and layering of media make the show a visual delight, although the iconography may be puzzling to westerners …” Elaine Hujer, The Spectator
DIVESTMENT the art collection of Val Ramsay, Nov. 11-Dec. 11, 2005. An exhibition & sale. An opportunity to examine the tastes and strategies of a remarkable supporter of Hamilton artists. An opportunity to grow your own collection. Val Ramsay slide talk. Nov. 23.
TRAVEL photographs by Terry Asma, Jim Chambers, Jean Crankshaw, Glenn Jones, Dan Pilling, Fred Oliver, and Manfred Urchak. World Series 2005 (Japan), by Andrew Gough. Friday, Dec. 16 to Friday, Dec. 23, and Dec. 27. Jim Chambers power-point talk on the history of travel photography, Dec. 20.