Visitors to The Old School House Arts Centre are spoiled for choice right now. The Qualicum Beach gallery currently features work from seven Victoria-based artists in two joint shows.
In the Brown Gallery is Eclectic, the spring show for The Imagists. This artist collective formed five years ago in order to support one another, said member and photographer Tony Bounsall. Painter Laurie Ladmore also added that exhibitions with more than one feature creative helps with efficiency and pooling resources on the artists’ side and is “a bit of a draw” for viewers.
While various members and guest artists have filtered through The Imagists over the years, the core of the group remains the same, said Bounsall. These are the same five artists showing at TOSH. Alongside Bounsall and Ladmore, the Brown Gallery features the paintings of David Ladmore and Paul Peregal and the sculptures of David Hunwick. While the work covers a wide range of styles and approaches, the show is presented as a unified whole.
Printmaker Nancy Murphy, who is also in the group, was not able to submit her work into the show.
In the Volunteer and Dorothy Francis Galleries is the month’s second joint show, Fragments and Masks. TOSH executive director Corinne James described the exhibition as “a conversation” between featured photographer Richard Motchman and painter Barry Herring.
This conversation is about how people are represented in art and how fragmenting and/or hiding parts of the body using masks can focus the viewer’s attention on certain aspects of a portrait and thus change their conceptions of a person, said a news release from TOSH.
Both shows will run until April 10.