On Display: Artists Under 35

Gallery On Queen’s latest exhibit highlights some of the region’s finest young artists.

Matt Carter

Gallery On Queen opened its latest exhibit over the weekend. Appropriately titled, Artists Under 35, the current show was designed to highlight some of the region’s most inspiring emerging artists.

First conceived as a single project for the coming year’s programming, Gallery Director Nadia Khoury decided the idea should become an annual focus for the gallery. And why wait?

“Our idea was to feature some of the young emerging and mid- career artists under 35 who we represent,” said Khoury. “We have at least ten artists in this category. It was a last minute decision to hold the exhibition this year and repeat it every year and expending it to all of our young artists in future shows. The young emerging artists need to be featured.”

The exhibit focuses on the work of five contemporary artists, each with a distinct approach to concept and technique. From Marie Fox’s vivid and dreamy portraits to Jack Bishops modern urban landscapes and Deanna Musgrave’s trance-inducing mixed medium colour studies, Artists Under 35 covers a lot of ground and offers a glimpse at some of New Brunswick’s most distinguished next-generation creators. Chantal Khoury’s collection of work conveys a mysterious narrative that is both familiar and foreign, mixing comfort and unease with equal measure. And the work of Marcus Kingston captures familiar structures and landmarks with remarkable detail.

“We choose the artists based on merit of skills and technique,” said Khoury. “Their work is very different. The only thing they have in common is that they are all emerging or mid-career artists under 35 working in different medium and styles.”

About the artists:

Jack Bishop is a mid-career artist from Saint John, NB, but currently resides in Nova Scotia.“My paintings are dense representations of car-culture, consumerism, and urban sprawl. They revisit Canadian landscape tradition in terms not of natural but rather of commercial space, where ubiquitous retail outlets dictate use of the land and proclaim its occupation. In this work, I aim to subvert romanticized ideas of untouched Canadian wilderness.” Bishop has a BFA from NSCAD University in Halifax and has numerous work in public collections including the Art Bank of Canada.

Marie Fox is known for her classical style of the early 15th century Flemish paintings and her influences from the gothic and the medieval. “This new work is inspired by the ephemeral beauty of virgin marshlands and freshwater springs, ‘Ver Sacrum II (Return to the Sacred Spring)’ seeks to lift the delicate veil between the realms of earth and spirit. A youthful female form is placed in the eternally regenerating landscape of a peat bog, revered in ancient times as a portal into the ‘Otherworld’. ‘Vera Sacrum– returning to the ‘Sacred Spring’– honours a moment of introspective reflection, and return to the refuge of primal source” Fox studied fine arts at NSCAD University and was selected by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery for its Studio Watch exhibition, 2015.

Chantal Khoury is known for her paintings of fictive characters that encompass basic human emotion and interaction within social dynamics. This exhibition will include a new body of work that slowly moves away from portraiture and into landscape, while still keeping a narrative. “These scenes explore simple moments locked in nostalgia, memories, and ‘other worldly’ spaces. This work involves my usual exploration of social dynamics but within landscapes that are as bodily and visceral as painting the figure itself”. Khoury’s work is in numerous public and private collections including the University of New Brunswick. She received her BFA from Concordia University in Montreal, but is originally from Fredericton. She works on her practice between both cities.

Marcus Kingston has a passion for architecture and classical themes which are evident in his work and have been a common thread throughout his practice. “My recent work focuses on historic properties and their often unnoticed features”. His attention to subtle plays of light and shadow help bring his subjects to life and to create naturalistic representations of local history” . Kingston has a BFA from Mount Allison University. He is originally from Harvey Station but now resides in Fredericton.

Deanna Musgrave is known for her paintings that mixes varying techniques with multiple references. This show will feature three new works: “Emissary, Ships that Pass in the Night II and Kingfisher are ascended messengers that simultaneously appear to be floating overhead, as well as viewed from above as imagined worlds of water. These works speak to the current apocalyptic consciousness, string theory, quantum entanglement and unexplained phenomenon in sky and space”. Musgrave is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, has a BFA from Mount Allison University and a BEd from the University of New Brunswick.