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Project Summary
Title: Northern Nature Compilations: Contemporary Canadian Art in Moscow
Project type: Canadian Art Project; art exhibition
Project’s uniqueness: Despite the variety of relationships and contacts between the Nordic countries in various fields, Canadian art is almost unknown in Russia and this area remains undeveloped and unexplored. This is a unique project that, for the first time ever, will present and celebrate the creative genius of Canadian artists to the Russian public on a professional, detailed and complex level. This project will lay the foundation of an active interaction and interchange between the two versatile and vibrant cultures.
Project’s goal: To convey the Canadian versatile artistic spirit on Russian soil, and to construct a visual and emotional nexus between two northern nations
Participants: Canada’s award-winning artists
Blair T. Paul “Stylized Landscapes”
Jan Wheeler“Three Elements: Land, Wind and Water”
Sabine Liva “The Light Project”
Project creator and organizer: Internationally renowned art curator Julia Yakobi (Canadian Art Concepts Corporation)
Project’s exposure: Massive promotion across Russia, Canada and the Commonwealth countries
Project attendance: 6,000-15,000 exhibition visitors
Venue: The Central House of Artist (Moscow, Russia)
Exhibition dates: June 10-June 30, 2013
Additional planned exposure: Participation in Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, 2013
Background
The Canadian Art Project, titled “Northern Nature Compilations: Contemporary Canadian Art in Moscow”, will focus on the presentation of the Contemporary Canadian Art to a Russian audience. It will portray the establishment of the cultural connection between two Northern countries and celebrate their connections, contrasts and beauty.
Currently, the Canadian Art Project, “Northern Nature Compilations: Contemporary Canadian Art in Moscow”, is in the process of inclusion into the plan of the 5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art 2013.
The project’s main goal is to convey the Canadian versatile artistic spirit on Russian soil, and to construct a visual and emotional nexus between two northern nations.
Art is universal and eternal. It is the simplest, shortest and most persuasive way to connect multiform minds, diverse communities, different people and multifarious countries.
Art is without boundaries: it unites, supports, nourishes and opens the new and infinite horizons to a viewer, regardless of his/her origin, descent or derivation; it grants an emotional recreation and a powerful revival, arises a passionate imagination and a fervent desire. This project will be a direct example of this and will celebrate the creative genius of Canadian artists, who explore all sides of art in the most imaginative way.
Because culture has a high-profile status in Russia, there is a rapidly developing market that presents new opportunities for Canadian cultural goods and services. Canada’s cultural relations with Russia are also increasingly vibrant, where Canadian artists are gaining increasing popularity, including Cirque du Soleil, Garou, Diana Krall and Leonard Cohen, all of whom had very successful shows in Russia over the past year.
The artists
The participating artists are well-established professional Canadian painters, who are well-known in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.
Blair T. Paul – “Stylized Landscapes”
Blair T. Paul is an internationally renowned Canadian painter. He is an established artist, an art professor and has over 30 years of professional experience. His art works are in public and private collections worldwide.
In his project, Paul wanted to create the same subject matter and emotional impact with his paintings as he had with his earlier charcoal drawings. Therefore, he decided to work with a very restricted palette, sometimes using only two colours, paired with white. There is no attempt to depict visual reality; these are all synthesized situations, compositions from within. The Project’s paintings are dream-like in appearance, surreal; juxtaposed architectural angles, organic contours and forms to create totally new relationships. The theme of all of these paintings is the ongoing clash between Nature and Man.
Jan Wheeler– “Three Elements: Land, Wind and Water”
Jan Wheeler is an award-winning, Group of Seven Contemporary wilderness Canadian painter. Her Project comprises oil paintings that explore the complex interplay of the three elements along the wild shorelines of Canada’s Great Lakes. “Land” will be featured as the leading element in the first third of the works. “Wind” is the driving force in the interplay of the three elements. “Water” is the basic element of life and the works of the Water element will present the cycle as the artist witnessed it in the Great Lakes region.
The preservation of wilderness areas is a cause of global importance. People need the means to build that connection. The Project can help to build a bridge to these precious places for urban audiences who are limited in their exposure.
Sabine Liva – “The Light Project”
Sabine Liva is a young Canadian painter, and a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto. She has been participating in numerous international art shows since 1995. Her paintings can be found in private and corporate collections across Canada, USA, Far East and Europe.
The Light Project is a cycle of contemporary large scale oil paintings on canvas that are placed across the exhibition space, randomly accompanied by a simple seating and installations of lighting fixtures.
Vignettes of lighting fixtures comprise popular design lamps (a nod to a timeless design), progressive new Canadian and Russian eco-conscious design, as well as generic bulbs acting merely as a source of light.
Meticulously composed arrangements of objects, paired with the painted landscape, create a physical space: a room-like interior that invites a meditative moment for those who are open to let their mind move.
Project organizer and curator
Julia Yakobi is an independent, internationally renowned art professional. For the past 25 years, she has been working with a Canadian and international network of artists, critics, museum curators, galleries, auction houses and educators. One of her recent organizational and curatorial projects was the “Crossing Borders: Canadian Art with an International Flavour” art exhibition in Ottawa, Canada, under the sponsorship of OSISO, Immigration Canada, CNCAC and the City of Ottawa.
Yakobi is a creator and developer of a new Canadian Art Concept – an outlet for artists to showcase the international flavour of the Canadian population today, and celebrate the unique idea of a Canadian essence that can be found in all Canadian art, regardless of the artist’s cultural background.
The venue
According to the project plan, the general exhibition space (approximately 600 sq m) will be divided into three parts and each of the participating artists will have his/her own exhibition space respectively.
Each artist will exhibit 15 paintings together with their own installations. Some of the paintings are large scale art works (Sabine Liva), while others vary in size.
The Central House of Artist (CHA) is the largest exhibition centre in Russia, and one of the largest in Europe. It is a multifunctional complex that is focused on large local and foreign exhibition curatorial projects.
Northern Nature Compilations: Contemporary Canadian Art in Moscow is an art exhibition that will focus on the presentation of contemporary Canadian art to the Russian audience. It will portray the establishment of the cultural connection between two northern countries and celebrate their contrasts and beauty.
Northern Nature Compilations is part of an ongoing series of projects by Canadian Art Concepts Corporation.