The 60th annual Northern Ontario Artist Association juried exhibition opened last night at the Timmins Museum and National Exhibition Centre with Margot Cormier-Splane’s Arm Chair Assess Against Science being awarded the top prize.
Cormier-Splane is a member of the Timmins-based Porcupine Art Club and she received the Freedom 55 Financial Award as the painting judged to be the best of the best 40 entries select to be part of the juried competition.
Cormier-Splane’s painting is a hand pulled serigraph featuring political symbols on the wall and a weasel, a rat, a fox and a snake sitting on an arm chair.
“The animals, in the paintings represent the negative qualities we associate in humans – this guy is a rat, or a weasel, with apologies to the animals, - that we have seen in this very political year,” Cormier-Splane said.
“It is a humorous way to look at what is not a very humorous topic,” she added. “I try to make people think with my art and engage them through humour instead of having them turn away from an issue.”
Cormier-Splane said she captured visually in her painting what many people in Canada felt about the political turmoil in both this country and the United States.
“There were so many butterfly wings in play in the US election that set in motion an outrageous series of events” explained Cormier-Splane. “From the fake news, the leaked emails, the Russian hacking, the FBI director’s re-opening the Clinton investigation.”
Since 1957, the best original works of Northern Ontario artists have been selected for a year long travelling exhibition that travels to communities throughout Northern Ontario.
This year out of about 250 submissions from NOAA member artists, 40 paintings were chosen by a two person jury panel.
Karen Bachman, curator for the Timmins Museum welcomed the opening day audience to the NOAA exhibit and introduced, Councillor Michael Doody, a founding member of the Museum and Exhibition Centre.
“As a founding member of the Timmins Museum and National Exhibition Centre, I found that, through out the years if you want to see how we are progressing, you couldn’t do it any better than coming to the NOAA exhibit every year,” Councillor Doody said.
“Every year you see works from across Northern Ontario,” he added. “We have new names that are exhibited, this year we have two award winners from Timmins and it shows you the great talent we have up here.”
“I congratulate Margot Cormier-Splane and Cathy Cribbs (Painted Forest) for winning their awards, it is a tribute to them and a tribute to the Porcupine Arts Club,” said Doody.
The other winners are:
Nancy Caldwell, Algoma Art Society, Directional
Gigi Dequanne, Sudbury Art Club, Singing for his Supper
Kathy Dolan, Sudbury Art Club, Early One Morning
Brenda Henderson, Temiskaming Palette and Brush Club, Sunny Day at the Races
Debra Lynn Ireland, Walden Association of Fine Arts, Malachite Kingfisher-Africa
Cal Knight, Englehart Area Artists, Sky Writing at Night
Victoria Leroux, Englehart Area Artists, Queen Anne’s Lace
Betty Newhouse, Burk’s Falls Arts and Crafts Club, Perfect Day
Ruth Reid, Sudbury Art Club, Spirit of Superior
Christine Roberts, Elliot Lake Art Club, Mountain Garden
Helen Whitehead, North Bay Art Association, Cosmic Dancer
“We have a great selection of works from Sault Ste. Marie, Manitoulin, Burk’s Falls, North Bay, Timmins and then up to Cochrane, Moonbeam, Temiskaming Shores, Cobalt and Englehart,” said Cathy Cribbs, of the Porcupine Art Club and a member since 1982
The Northern Ontario Art Association is comprised of a group of 15 independent art clubs representing over 400 artists from Timmins, to Sault Ste. Marie to Burk’s Falls and Manitoulin Island.
The organization was founded in 1949 with the mission of encouraging art education in remote northern communities, as well as promoting original art.
NOAA helps member clubs further art instruction by subsidizing workshops by established artists
For more information visit www.noaa.ca
The work displayed at NOAA covert a gamut of topics from the satirical such as Cormier-Splane’s work to portraits, to landscapes and abstract.
Timmins artist Shafik Al-Hamdani’s entry Summertime conveyed the joys of summer through splashes of colourful sunflowers, lilies, and other flowers.
“For me I want to convey the joys of colour and motion in my art,” said Al-Hamdani. “I want to share this joy with the people that look at my paintings.”
Two other artists from Timmins also have there works displayed at the exhibition. Nicky Alexander's Heart of Gold and Karina Miki-Douglas Takayesu, whose entry Autumn Morning Mist was her first time exhibiting at NOAA.
In her remarks about the NOAA Karen Bachman said the success of the museum has led to a need to expand.
“Later this year we will be adding programming space so when we are programming an exhibit there will space to do that, an artists studio and we also will be enlarging our Black Gallery (historical and heritage displays),”Bachman said.
“And if you look at how yucky these walls are (referring to the Red Gallery, art displays) they will get a facelift too,” Bachman said. “The renovations will also include modifications to the lobby and additional storage space.”
“There are a lot of good things in store for us in 2017 and beyond,” Bachman said.
The NOAA exhibit runs until January 31.
