Canada is a country blessed, as the saying goes, with too much geography and too few people. Yet, despite the vastness of the place, we have never lacked for artists, poets and writers to appreciate it, and celebrate both its spectacular and subtle beauties. Landscape has always been the central subject of Canadian art, since before the Group of Seven’s bush-whacking ambitions propelled it to iconic status. But a landscape is more than just the physical facts of topography and environment that surround us. The idea of landscape inevitably incorporates our own presence in it, and the sense of identity that arises from our history, experiences and associations with a particular place. Eventually, the landscape inhabits us, and its accumulated stories and memories become part of our collective narrative. It is this kind of ongoing relationship that, over time, binds us to the landscape and gives us a sense of place.

Gertrude Stein once complained of her hometown of Oakland, California, that there was no “there” there. What she probably meant is that no place is a place until it has developed its poet – an artist who could invest that landscape with meaning. This exhibition deals with the idea of the genius loci – the spiritual essence of a place – and showcases three Canadian artists with a special gift for revealing it. Their works demonstrate a profound sense of connection to specific places, and have become practically synonymous in the Canadian imagination with those landscapes.

For four decades, David Blackwood’s imagination has flown over the coastal landscape of his native Newfoundland, recording the geography and the isolated communities of Bonavista Bay. The photographer Thaddeus Holownia has travelled widely within Canada, describing rural Newfoundland and New Brunswick in particular with an unerring eye for the architecture of space. The printmaker Daniel Steeves has explored the sombre and dramatic landscapes of southern New Brunswick and the Bay of Fundy, commenting on the vestiges of faith and hope which are ingrained in that landscape. All three artists bring a deep level of commitment, contemplation and sensitivity to their explorations of place, and have a unique ability to suggest within a single image the broader character of the land.

This exhibition takes a retrospective look at some of the most strikingly memorable images these artists have produced, and highlights certain correspondences in their imagery, particularly the way in which each artist has independently arrived at the use of markers, flags, and enclosures to denote the human and spiritual aspects of the landscape. It is also an opportunity to celebrate our long-established relationships with David Blackwood and Daniel Steeves, and to welcome a new artist to the gallery, Thaddeus Holownia.

Ken Forsyth
Abbozzo Gallery

Links

A Sense of Place - David Blackwood
A Sense of Place - Holownia
A Sense of Place - Steeves